Jets move up 7 spots to 16th in Wheeler's Prospect Pool Rankings this year:
Wheeler’s 2021 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 16 Winnipeg Jets
Here's a comparison of our last prospect poll vs. Wheeler's rankings.
Rank | HFJets | Wheeler |
1 | Perfetti | Perfetti |
2 | Heinola | Heinola |
3 | Samberg | Samberg |
4 | Harkins | Gustafsson |
5 | Vesalainen | Berdin |
6 | Gustafsson | Vesalainen |
7 | Chisholm | Chisholm |
8 | Berdin | Johannesson |
9 | Niku | Gawanke |
10 | Gawanke | Torgersson |
11 | Nikkanen | Stanley |
12 | Torgersson | Nikkanen |
13 | Kovacevic | Smith |
14 | Holm | Holm |
15 | Stanley | Lundmark |
16 | Smith | N/A |
17 | Johannesson | N/A |
18 | Lundmark | N/A |
19 | Blaisdell | N/A |
20 | Luotu | N/A |
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
Many are close. The biggest disagreement is on Johannesson (us: 17, Wheeler: 8) - 18 year old, 5'9" defenseman from Sweden who hasn't played this year. He didn't consider Harkins and Niku prospects I reckon.
Sorry for quoting this post but it's a good synopsis of how improved the Jets are in terms of prospects in 3 years, and the failures the Jets have had in development, with only 4 players in that prospect list having graduated in the past 3 seasons: Perfetti, Samberg, Gustasson and Stanley.
If I were rating this year's prospect pool it would be
1. Lambert (AHL, 2022 Rd. 1)
2. Mc Groarty (NCAA, 2022 Rd 1)
3. Barlow (OHL, 2023 Rd 1)
4. Heinola (NHL/AHL,2020 Rd 1)
5. Salomonsson (AHL, 2022 Rd 2)
6. Chibrikov (AHL, 2021 Rd 2)
7. Frej (Swe. Jr, 2024 Rd 2)
8. Lucius (AHL, 2021 Rd 1)
9. Milic (AHL, 2023 Rd 5)
10. Lundmark (AHL, 2020 Rd 2)
11. Ford (AHL, Undrafted)
12. Julien (OHL/AHL, 2023 Rd 5)
13. He (OHL, 2024 Rd 4)
Then some order of the AHL prospects and recent picks.
I think as a whole the Jets have better prospects to work with than they did 3 years ago. And our HF voters have shown a bias for offensive defensemen in their voting.