Prospect Info: Final Predators Prospect Rankings, Summer 2021

[Viqsi]

Here's the final list voted on this summer:

1. Yaroslav Askarov (G)
2. Philip Tomasino (RW/C)
3. Alexandre Carrier (RD)
4. Fedor Svechkov (C)
5. David Farrance (LD)
6. Zachary L'Heureux (LW)
7. Egor Afanasyev (C)
8. Tanner Jeannot (LW)
9. Juuso Pärssinen (LW/C)
10. Semyon Chistyakov (LD)
11. Luke Evangelista (RW)
12. Connor Ingram (G)
13. Rem Pitlick (C)
14. Jeremy Davies (LD)
15. Frederic Allard (RD)
16. Jáchym Kondelik (C)
17. Alexander Campbell (LW)
18. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (LW)
19. Tomas Vomacka (G)
20. Marc Del Gaizo (LD)

(See the end of thread #20 for the tiebreaker for that position.)

Honorable Mentions: Grant Mismash (LW), Anton Olsson (LD), Luke Prokop (RD), Spencer Stastney (LD)

Also receiving add votes: Simon Knak (RW), Ryan Ufko (RD), Isak Walther (LW/RW), Adam Wilsby (LD), Vladislav Yeryomenko (RD)

Everyone Else: Devin Cooley (G), Ethan Haider (G), Patrick Harper (C), Jack Matier (RD), Chase McLane (C), Thomas Novak (C), Anthony Richard (C), Luke Reid (RD), Konstantin Volkov (G)


Normally this is the point where I'd put in lists from previous years, except we don't have any of those yet. Maybe next year.

Click to read more...

 

[Viqsi]

And here's my personal final list for this year, with comparisons to the voted-on positions:
https://nwcs.com/~jvc/haqi/2021summerprospectranking-preds.txt

For the Jackets, I have these going all the way back to 2009. I didn't set out to be the board recordkeeper; it just kind of worked out that way. I've had a few "ha ha, I told you so" moments to look back on already (particularly about this one kid everyone gave up on, name of David Savard, and then there was that one goaltender named after Elvis...), and a few... embarassing moments (I don't have a record of 2014 as I skipped that one in protest because of folks not believing in TJ Tynan the year previous; oops).

Maybe Ufko will get to be one of the "I told you so" guys.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Here's the final list voted on this summer:

1. Yaroslav Askarov (G)
2. Philip Tomasino (RW/C)
3. Alexandre Carrier (RD)
4. Fedor Svechkov (C)
5. David Farrance (LD)
6. Zachary L'Heureux (LW)
7. Egor Afanasyev (C)
8. Tanner Jeannot (LW)
9. Juuso Pärssinen (LW/C)
10. Semyon Chistyakov (LD)
11. Luke Evangelista (RW)
12. Connor Ingram (G)
13. Rem Pitlick (C)
14. Jeremy Davies (LD)
15. Frederic Allard (RD)
16. Jáchym Kondelik (C)
17. Alexander Campbell (LW)
18. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (LW)
19. Tomas Vomacka (G)
20. Marc Del Gaizo (LD)

(See the end of thread #20 for the tiebreaker for that position.)

Honorable Mentions: Grant Mismash (LW), Anton Olsson (LD), Luke Prokop (RD), Spencer Stastney (LD)

Also receiving add votes: Simon Knak (RW), Ryan Ufko (RD), Isak Walther (LW/RW), Adam Wilsby (LD), Vladislav Yeryomenko (RD)

Everyone Else: Devin Cooley (G), Ethan Haider (G), Patrick Harper (C), Jack Matier (RD), Chase McLane (C), Thomas Novak (C), Anthony Richard (C), Luke Reid (RD), Konstantin Volkov (G)


Normally this is the point where I'd put in lists from previous years, except we don't have any of those yet. Maybe next year.

Thanks so much for all this work, Viqsi!!!

I think on the "everyone else" list it's kind of fascinating to me that Novak, who was tied with Tomasino as our top producer on Chicago last year, doesn't even make the list!

Harper had such a fantastic rookie year at BU and I think we all at one point thought he'd become something more prominent on our list, but he didn't quite take it to any other level, and definitely looked tiny to me in our camp. He seems to epitomize the case of a small player who just doesn't have the extra "something" to take it to the next level. Some smaller guys do. I haven't seen it from him yet.

A lot of guys I just haven't seen at all and really have no opinion on whatsoever, aside from looking up their stats on the interwebs. Ufko was pretty highly rated in this draft, for all that we got him a little lower than his rankings. I don't know if that means anything, but I'd watch out for him. And Wilsby has some fine numbers in Sweden. A lot of guys who are kind of lurking in the shadows here, I feel.

 

[Viqsi]

I think on the "everyone else" list it's kind of fascinating to me that Novak, who was tied with Tomasino as our top producer on Chicago last year, doesn't even make the list!

He's one of the three guys I had in my top-20 that didn't make the Honorable Mentions. Ufko at least got votes from folks other than me, as did Wilsby (the third guy in my top-20 that didn't make it), but thanks to my tilting at the Ufko windmill to the very end I never got in a Novak vote. Oops.

I never even noticed Harper. Maybe I'll learn to regret that.

 

[Seth Lake]

Ufko had a good appearance at prospect camp, but will have to add muscle to his frame and prove he can play with older men before I rank him too high. Definitely talented, great vision and smarts, sees the game at least a step ahead.

Novak has great hands and much like Cal O’Reilly was, is a great passer. Glad to see him coming into his own, but doesn’t touch the Top 20 for me and will likely age out before I think he does.

Will be interested to see how Statsney does in his senior year at Notre Dame. Looked good in prospect camp and think he has improved his defensive game tremendously from where he was drafted - remember that his draft year was his first season playing on defense. He was a forward up until then!

 

[King Weber]

interestingly enough Pronman is doing a project where he ranks the NHL teams prospect pools and we landed at 16, up from 29 the year before.

Player Eligibility: All skaters who are 22 years old or younger as of Sept. 15, 2021, regardless of how many NHL games they’ve played, are included. Player heights and weights are from NHL Central Scouting measurements.

Tool grades: Tool grades are based on a scale with six separate levels with an eye toward how this attribute would grade in the NHL (Poor, below-average, average, above-average, high-end and elite). “Average” on this scale means the tool projects as NHL average, which is meant as a positive, not a criticism.

Skating, puck skills, hockey sense and compete for every projected NHL player is graded. Shot grades are only included if a shot is notably good or poor.

Tier Definitions: Tiers are meant to show roughly where in an average NHL lineup a player projects to slot in.

Here's his list:

Projected top of lineup player or top tier starting goaltender

1. Yaroslav Askarov

Projected bubble top and middle of lineup player

2. Eeli Tolvanen

Projected middle of lineup player

3. Philip Tomasino
4. Cody Glass
5. David Farrance
6. Fedor Svechkov
7. Zachary L'Heureux

Projected to play NHL games

8. Anton Olsson
9. Luke Evangelista
10. Ryan Ufko

Has a chance to play

Semyon Chistyakov
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine
Adam Wilsby
Juuso Pärssinen
Egor Afanasyev
Luke Prokop
Marc del Gaizo
Spencer Stastney
Jack Matier
Simon Knak
Alex Campbell
Grant Mismash
Ethan Haider

 

[Legionnaire11]

If he had flipped Tolvanen and Tomasino it would look a lot more accurate. Also bump Parssinen, Afanasyev and Chistyakov into the next level.

Otherwise It's actually a better list than most when it comes to the Predators.

 

[Viqsi]

interestingly enough Pronman is doing a project where he ranks the NHL teams prospect pools and we landed at 16, up from 29 the year before.




Here's his list:

Projected top of lineup player or top tier starting goaltender

1. Yaroslav Askarov

Projected bubble top and middle of lineup player

2. Eeli Tolvanen

Projected middle of lineup player

3. Philip Tomasino
4. Cody Glass
5. David Farrance
6. Fedor Svechkov
7. Zachary L'Heureux

Projected to play NHL games

8. Anton Olsson
9. Luke Evangelista
10. Ryan Ufko

Has a chance to play

Semyon Chistyakov
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine
Adam Wilsby
Juuso Pärssinen
Egor Afanasyev
Luke Prokop
Marc del Gaizo
Spencer Stastney
Jack Matier
Simon Knak
Alex Campbell
Grant Mismash
Ethan Haider

Beat me to posting this one; I was mostly going to gloat about the inclusion of Ufko in his top-10.

Obviously, also, he's using very different qualifications for what constitutes a "prospect". (I think he's just using a straight age-22 cutoff, but I'm not sure.)

 

[herzausstein]

interestingly enough Pronman is doing a project where he ranks the NHL teams prospect pools and we landed at 16, up from 29 the year before.




Here's his list:

Projected top of lineup player or top tier starting goaltender

1. Yaroslav Askarov

Projected bubble top and middle of lineup player

2. Eeli Tolvanen

Projected middle of lineup player

3. Philip Tomasino
4. Cody Glass
5. David Farrance
6. Fedor Svechkov
7. Zachary L'Heureux

Projected to play NHL games

8. Anton Olsson
9. Luke Evangelista
10. Ryan Ufko

Has a chance to play

Semyon Chistyakov
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine
Adam Wilsby
Juuso Pärssinen
Egor Afanasyev
Luke Prokop
Marc del Gaizo
Spencer Stastney
Jack Matier
Simon Knak
Alex Campbell
Grant Mismash
Ethan Haider

That ranking could take a dive after this season if Tolvanen, Tomasino, Glass, and/or Farrance graduate to full time NHL. Also depends on how many 1st round picks we have next draft

Edit: Looks like he's just going based off age. Not sure what the cutoff is. He still has Andrei Svechnikov as part of Carolina's pipeline even though he's played 3 full NHL seasons.

 

[King Weber]

That ranking could take a dive after this season if Tolvanen, Tomasino, Glass, and/or Farrance graduate to full time NHL. Also depends on how many 1st round picks we have next draft

Edit: Looks like he's just going based off age. Not sure what the cutoff is. He still has Andrei Svechnikov as part of Carolina's pipeline even though he's played 3 full NHL seasons.

"Player Eligibility: All skaters who are 22 years old or younger as of Sept. 15, 2021, regardless of how many NHL games they’ve played, are included."

 

[neelynugs]

Here's the final list voted on this summer:

1. Yaroslav Askarov (G)
2. Philip Tomasino (RW/C)
3. Alexandre Carrier (RD)
4. Fedor Svechkov (C)
5. David Farrance (LD)
6. Zachary L'Heureux (LW)
7. Egor Afanasyev (C)
8. Tanner Jeannot (LW)
9. Juuso Pärssinen (LW/C)
10. Semyon Chistyakov (LD)
11. Luke Evangelista (RW)
12. Connor Ingram (G)
13. Rem Pitlick (C)
14. Jeremy Davies (LD)
15. Frederic Allard (RD)
16. Jáchym Kondelik (C)
17. Alexander Campbell (LW)
18. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (LW)
19. Tomas Vomacka (G)
20. Marc Del Gaizo (LD)

(See the end of thread #20 for the tiebreaker for that position.)

Honorable Mentions: Grant Mismash (LW), Anton Olsson (LD), Luke Prokop (RD), Spencer Stastney (LD)

Also receiving add votes: Simon Knak (RW), Ryan Ufko (RD), Isak Walther (LW/RW), Adam Wilsby (LD), Vladislav Yeryomenko (RD)

Everyone Else: Devin Cooley (G), Ethan Haider (G), Patrick Harper (C), Jack Matier (RD), Chase McLane (C), Thomas Novak (C), Anthony Richard (C), Luke Reid (RD), Konstantin Volkov (G)


Normally this is the point where I'd put in lists from previous years, except we don't have any of those yet. Maybe next year.

thoughts at midseason? risers/fallers?

jeannot is some player. the fact that nobody (aside from you guys) knew anything about him until middle of last year is wild.

 

[Scoresberg]

thoughts at midseason? risers/fallers?

jeannot is some player. the fact that nobody (aside from you guys) knew anything about him until middle of last year is wild.

Well, this was a fun memory refreshment.

Risers in my mind include Jeannot (obviously), Evangelista and Novak.

Fallers include at least Askarov (yeah, I'll go there) and Farrance (to some degree).

 

[nine_inch_fang]

The Jeannot thread was an interesting read.

 

[Raistlin]

how was Tomasino playing lately? or why isn't he being played at all? was he not getting good deployment or falling behind play?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

how was Tomasino playing lately? or why isn't he being played at all? was he not getting good deployment or falling behind play?

I didn't think there was anything wrong with his play. Maybe it seems more like Luff is just a more obvious fit for a 4th line with the other grinders? Tomasino still I thought looked very good especially when he'd get bumped up to some 2nd unit PP shifts.

Anyway, there's never any problem with taking him out 1 game in a busy schedule for some perspective. But I just don't want to see Tomasino in the pressbox more regularly. Luff does kind of fit on that line though. It's an interesting argument when you have McCarron/Luff vs. Novak/Tomasino... a pair of grindery guys who are on the fringe between AHL and NHL, and couple younger guys with a lot more upside... but in some types of games maybe that first pair still ends up being more effective? Since things are going quite nicely for us right now overall, I suspect we won't dwell on it too much.

 

[Armourboy]

I think alot of it right now is we have been playing some more physical style teams so Hynes is going with a bigger line up. On top of that he's essentially trying to figure what to do with that 4th line. Does he want a more traditional 4th or does he want something a bit different where those guys are more fill ins on the PP and a bit more skilled?

They mentioned Hynes wanting to reset Tomasino's game, which means there is something Hynes feels like he should be doing that he isn't.

 

[OldFan]

I think alot of it right now is we have been playing some more physical style teams so Hynes is going with a bigger line up. On top of that he's essentially trying to figure what to do with that 4th line. Does he want a more traditional 4th or does he want something a bit different where those guys are more fill ins on the PP and a bit more skilled?

They mentioned Hynes wanting to reset Tomasino's game, which means there is something Hynes feels like he should be doing that he isn't.

Tomasino right now is an underweight, skilled kid learning about life in the big leagues. He’s been fortunate the Preds have been able to carry him on the ice while he learns. But, no doubt, the skills are there; just needs to learn to use them and gain some muscle weight.

 

[neelynugs]

Well, this was a fun memory refreshment.

Risers in my mind include Jeannot (obviously), Evangelista and Novak.

Fallers include at least Askarov (yeah, I'll go there) and Farrance (to some degree).

how do you see l'heureux fitting into the top 5 here? loved him in the draft, haven't seen much of him this year though.

 

[Scoresberg]

how do you see l'heureux fitting into the top 5 here? loved him in the draft, haven't seen much of him this year though.

He's up there for sure. He's produced pretty well in the Q, but he has had his problems with suspensions, and with the league shutting down completely. After a strong camp, he was left out of Team Canada, most likely due to disciplinary reasons, which is never a good sign.

I see him as a bit longer term project than some of who are ahead of him, and in terms of offensive potential in the NHL-level, I'm not completely sold on that. But he could turn out to be a Yanni Gourde type of player, which would be fantastic for us.

I think my the top-five right now would be Askarov, Tomasino, Svechkov, Afanasyev and L'Heureux. Jeannot, Carrier and Novak obviously excluded from the consideration.

HM's go to Evangelista who has been lights out in the O this year and Pärssinen who looks poised to make the leap to NA next year, and has been dominant against men this year. Excepting more from Farrance.

 

[triggrman]

Evangelista has to be top 5. Tomasino really should be excluded

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Yes, if we're looking at a list for next year, we can certainly say Carrier and Jeannot are graduated - they perhaps already were last year, really in the sense they were lineup regulars and protected in the Expansion Draft, but just down to some games played twist they still qualified for the list? They should both have probably been in our Top 3 in hindsight. But Tomasino and Novak and Pitlick have also all graduated now as full-time NHL players. And we could almost consider Ingram graduated as he seems to be back on track after last year's disruptions, didn't look out of place in his cameo here, and seems entirely destined to be our backup goalie next season?

So for a top-5 that leaves:
1/2 - Askarov/Svechkov
3/4/5/6/7 - Parssinen/L'Heureux/Evangelista/Afanaseyev/Farrance

... the exact ordering may be a matter of taste. Certainly right after training camp we probably would have bumped Afanaseyev higher. Both him and Farrance haven't really had as much success in Milwaukee as we were hoping/expecting though. L'Heureux and Evangelista are piling up points in junior. But it's junior. L'Heureux will be back in junior again next year too so just on that basis I'd tend to push him a little lower in the list. Parssinen might be the guy I vault up to #3, he has had 2 big seasons in a men's league already.


EDIT: Actually do we almost have to demote Cody Glass onto the Prospects list now? Then he goes into that #3-8 group also!

 

[Scoresberg]

Regarding Farrance:

 

[triggrman]

I don’t know that Evangelista isn’t actually number one