No intention to dump on posters - virtually every article in the last 5 years or so ranking NHL prospect pools or assessing the Caps future by guys that were paid to know had the Caps ranked in the bottom 10. That’s what I was aiming at.
Again and again you see this (dare I say it) hive mind among hockey writers where they all reach the same conclusion about a player, a team, an organization, a team’s prospect pool - and reinforce each other, and nobody ever has to be accountable for the gang mentality being wrong. It’s a happy accident in the case of the Caps prospects, and here’s hoping it’s the same re. PLD.
Fair enough, I'll take your word that your intention wasn't to dunk on posters.
But I don't think the "hockey hive mind" was wrong about the Caps prospects. A low rating isn't the same as saying that "none of these guys will be NHL players." The low rating is simply because of a lack of top end talent in the caps prospect pool. Churning out depth role players isn't a distinguishing factor. No offense to guys like Protas, but every team in the league has their own version of Protas. Not literally in terms of the exact player, but in terms of overall quality. Everyone has a 23ish year old who's breaking into the NHL and looks like a solid role player. New Jersey just traded their D version of Protas (Kevin Bahl) to Calgary. Continuing to look around the division you got guys like Simon Holmstrom (NYI), Cam York and Yegor Zamula (PHI), Jack Drury and Kotkaniemi (CAR), plus Braden Schneider and Will Cuylle (NYR). And that's not even starting on the guys with higher upside like Necas, Jarvis, Svechnikov (all 24 or younger for CAR), Farabee, Tippett, Drysdale, and Frost (all 25 or younger for PHI), PO Joseph (PIT), Noah Dobson (NYI), and the ridiculous collections of young guys for the Rangers (Laf, Kakko, Chytil, Miller) and Devils (Hughes x2, Hischier, Nemec). These guys aren't prospects anymore, but they were during the time period in which the Capitals' system was rated poorly. These teams not only had their own version of a Protas, but most of them had their own version of a McMichael (23 year old establishing themselves in a top 6/top4 role), often better, and often multiple of them. Just looking through our division, it's easy to see why Washington and Pittsburgh's prospect pools were ranked at the bottom of our division. It's simply a lack of blue chip options.
Now the Capitals prospect pool is beginning to rise, and we finally have a blue chip again with Leonard, plus another two guys with arguments to try and crack the Top 50 with Lapierre and Cristall. But, simply put, there's still a bunch of other teams that have more top end talent in their pipeline than the Capitals. The turnover of prospects into NHL players this year had a lot more to do with getting a coach who would actually trust youth and opening up roster spots for them than it did with a strong prospect pool. And it's going to take both more of that, and more infusions of young talent to raise the Capitals prospect rankings. The AHL playoff scoring race isn't a real barometer of future NHL success, both because of the role of veterans/career AHL guys on the Bears' success, but also simply because Hershey has played more games than any other AHL playoff team. Is Lapierre's success really more impressive than, say, Mavrik's Bourque's 11 points in 7 games for the Texas Stars? Or David Jiricek's 11 points in 14 games as a D man for Cleveland? Both of those guys' big playoff runs are part of why they will continue to be ranked ahead of Lapierre in most scout's minds.
Let's not pretend Sandin is just getting his feet wet, he's got 227 NHL games under his belt already and has played 6 professional seasons. He's already shown his cards. I don't hate the player, just disappointed we gave away a 1st round pick in a deep draft for a third pairing puck mover. He's not big enough to play physical, he's not fast enough to be a game breaker and his offensive skill lacks enough talent to run a dangerous PP. He's unfortunately a bottom 4 tweener. Can get by on the second pairing but leaves you wanting more there. Fits in nice on a third pairing with a physical defense first partner. He is what he is.
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