Most people on this forum seem to peg him as a #6-7. If he's our third ranked prospect, our cupboards really are bare.
1. Our cupboards really don't have a lot of high quality prospects... this is to be expected when we trade away many of our first round picks.
2. Not everyone is going to agree on rankings, and that's ok.
3. People on the forum don't have the benefit of watching the Marlies as much as Barden does.
Heck... I'd like them all to succeed. Mostly, it's fun to see what those people who do watch our prospects a lot have to say about them.
D players are somewhat unpredictable really. Their trajectories aren't linear, and sometimes earlier round guys amount to nothing, and later round guys end up good NHL players. Most end up disappointing, but if just a few end up being useful, great.
You also have to look at people's criteria for rankings. He ranks them based on...
- Highest ceiling at the NHL level, under 23 years old
- Past season of play on their perspective team
- Closest to seeing an NHL game with the Maple Leafs
The last qualifier, is probably quite different than most of us here. We've got a couple of D prospects, many would rank as higher upside than Niemela... but they aren't closer to seeing a NHL game... so they are ranked lower in his list.
ohlprospects.blogspot.com
