[Midseason] HF Voted Top 10 NHL Prospects

[Love]

The #2 drafted prospect in the world is almost a .85 PPG player in the NCAA. Talk about setting the bar high!

Yeah it's nuts. Super disappointing season for Mittelstadt so far yet he's 2nd. He really has no justification for being ahead of anyone else in the OP's top 5.

 

[dasaybz]

Yeah it's nuts. Super disappointing season for Mittelstadt so far yet he's 2nd. He really has no justification for being ahead of anyone else in the OP's top 5.

Eh?

Does not compute

 

[1972]

Casey Mittelstadt disappointing season? Might as well just strap a “I’m clueless” poster to your forehead.

 

[member 147413]

Really underwhelming group if I’m being comepletely honest.

 

[Lackhalak]

Other than the World Juniors, Mittelstadts numbers arent great this year.

 

[Love]

Casey Mittelstadt disappointing season? Might as well just strap a “I’m clueless” poster to your forehead.

You can resort to personal attacks if you want but if we’re comparing Mittelstadt’s draft +1 NCAA numbers with other recent 1st rounders who went to the NCAA, it doesn’t look good.

 

[1972]

You can resort to personal attacks if you want but if we’re comparing Mittelstadt’s draft +1 NCAA numbers with other recent 1st rounders who went to the NCAA, it doesn’t look good.

Oh I see, I guess Kyle Connors 71 point season in which 3 players on his team were over 1.47PPG or Brock Boesers 68 point seasons are the bench marks now...even though he dropped to only a PPG when Caggula, Schmalz and Stetcher graduated.

 

[Love]

Oh I see, I guess Kyle Connors 71 point season in which 3 players on his team were over 1.47PPG or Brock Boesers 68 point seasons are the bench marks now...

Luke Kunin, Colin White, Clayton Keller, Tage Thompson, Ryan Poehling, Tyson Jost, Trent Frederic, etc.

But yes also Brock Boeser and Kyle Connor were MUCH more impressive than Mittelstadt.

 

[WhatWhat]

Not to knock Mittelstadt but i 100% dont get how he is number 2 here. From The players on this I would probably put him 10 and bump the rest up 1.

He's a good prospect and has a high ceiling but there are several prospects having much better years that him. Also we have seen that it's possible for a D+1 player in the NCAA to produce much higher than a PPG than what he has so while his offensive production is good it's not nearly on the level of past players who have dominated college

 

[1972]

Not to knock Mittelstadt but i 100% dont get how he is number 2 here. From The players on this I would probably put him 10 and bump the rest up 1.

He's a good prospect and has a high ceiling but there are several prospects having much better years that him. Also we have seen that it's possible for a D+1 player in the NCAA to produce much higher than a PPG than what he has so while his offensive production is good it's not nearly on the level of past players who have dominated college

Those players played on much better teams with multiple teammates who were above PPG. But pointz

 

[Isaac Nootin]

Those players played on much better teams with multiple teammates who were above PPG. But pointz

Of course "pointz", as you say. What else do we talk about, his potent defensive game? Clayton Keller produced last year on a team without PPG players, let alone multiple as you claimed.

The #2 rated prospect outside the NHL shouldn't be relying on others to produce.

 

[Love]

Those players played on much better teams with multiple teammates who were above PPG. But pointz

You sure about that? Check Keller, Kunin, Thompson, Jost.

 

[WhatWhat]

Those players played on much better teams with multiple teammates who were above PPG. But pointz

I mean if there was a slight drop in point you could ignore it but he isnt even a PPG player right now. Also there is more to it than points. Mittlestadt wasnt see as this defensive beast. So unfortunately for him points are a large part of what people will go off.

If you look at the 3 players after him, all 3 got invited to their teams Olympics. Heiskanen and Tolvanen are having better years in their respective leagues and Makar is in a similar spot putting up non-mindblowing numbers but then looking real good at the WJC. To me all 3 there are above Mittlestadt with Makar being the only one you could argue about. After that you have Strome who has yet to find his feet in the NHL but is killing the AHL right now. Kaprizov is leading his KHL team to success, Borgstrom is 4th in NCAA scoring, Andersson has put up better relative numbers while also being known for defence and Necas is again in that group of not mind blowing numbers but looked real good in the WJC.


All the players there have a reasonable argument to be above Mittlestadt. Thats not saying all them should be so maybe Casey falls around 7th to 8th instead of 10th but there are without a doubt a handful behind him in this ranking that are having better years. That is a testament to their years and not a knock on Mittlestadts

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Why are you bringing up numbers from the 14/15 season?

Especially when he went on to have 2 better years playing C in the OHL and is currently killing it as a C in the AHL.

You misunderstood my point,you focused on the last part, (the wrong part)
but probably didn't read the first part. Its okay,i let it fly.

I was only speculating with the fact that he has been somewhat horrible in NHL games so far in his career.
Dominating in the AHL as a center mean's absolutely jack His current game is just not good enough
for the NHL,at least as a center,because that's the position he has played.

What comes to the OHL part,that was just there to give insight that he can play really well wing position too
If he continues to struggle in the NHL (as it seems so that he might) Coyotes coaches should at least try
to put him to wing and see how that works out,that would be the smart thing to do.

Not all are cut to play center position in the NHL,no matter how good they are.

 

[ManUtdTobbe]

Mittelstadt, Makar definitely too high for me, Andersson probably too... Chytil should be on here...

 

[DaveG]

Would appreciate it if someone could give me the lowdown on Martin Necas. His stats don't blow me away given his ranking but I don't know much about the guy.

WJC is just part of it for him. He was excellent at the Traverse City tournament, stood out during not just the Canes prospect camp but pre-season training camp to the point that he earned an extended look on the roster for the first few games before being loaned back to his team in the Czech league. And small sample size but his stats compared to the rest of his team are fairly good considering all the time missed. He's behind only Erat in forward PPG for his team IIRC.

 

[cgf]

Heiskanen should probably be above Mittelstadt, but both have potential to be fantastic players so idc. Like you said some could be interchanged. Would also swap Tolvanen and Makar probably

I wouldn't be shocked if any of those top 5 ended up the best player from this draft. And I say that with full recognition of how impressive Hischier's rookie year has been. Pettersson, Mittelstadt, Makar, Miro & Tolvanen all have truly exceptional talent & potential, the first three just have a lot more polish to get through before they are ready to effectively use those gifts at the NHL level than the latter two...thus why I think that Mittelstadt and Makar should both go back for their sophomore years and battle it out for the Hobey Baker now that they've started to get settled in at the NCAA level and figure it out.

Tolvanen's game is the least risky of that quintet because it's pretty polished already and he's already thriving at the highest level outside of the NHL, so there's fewer questions about how he'll transition. After Tolvanen, I think Heiskanen's game is the "safest" of this 5-some. He's still learning to drive the action all the time, but his defensive play is very polished and he's doing it at a high level...though not as high a level as Tolvanen.

Pettersson to me is closer to Mittlestadt/Makar in terms of timeline than he is to Tolvanen/Heiskanen; that said a lot of that is just filling out taht spindly frame so that he's built enough to avoid going the way of RNH when he makes the jump to the NHL & NHL physicality...as his actually game is much more polished than Cale or Casey's, and again he's doing it in one of the best mens leagues outside of the NHL & KHL.

My HM would go to Necas; though Kaprizov wouldn't be a bad pick either. I was a huge fan of Necas' in the draft, and he showed at the WJC the skill & creativity that sold me on him. He's not wrecking it this season the way Tolvanen is, but I don't think that's a result of Tolvanen just being more talented than Necas and down the line I think Necas could be even better...even if he'll never have Tolvanen's release

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Meh. Never liked the WJC as a measuring stick.

letsgrowcactus's summary was a good one. I will say this though, it's the first Canes prospect I've seen in a long time where I've been "Wow, this kid has IT" from the moment I saw him. That includes seeing Skinner, Aho, and Hanifin (granted, Aho developed a lot the year after his draft). The biggest thing to me with Necas is he has tremendous speed, but he is very skilled and is able to make plays at a high rate of speed, which is perfect for today's NHL. He seems to be more of a distributor than a shooter and he looked taller than the 6'1" he was reported to be at draft, but needs to get stronger to play in the NHL. Of course, translating a game to the NHL is often a crapshoot so who knows for sure.

I can't tell you if #8 is fair or not as I don't know enough about the other guys, but we Canes fans are pretty excited about this kid.

 

[Critical13]

My list:

1. Elias Pettersson VAN
2. Kirill Kaprizov MIN
3. Casey Mittelstadt BUF
4. Miro Heiskanen DAL
5. Philip Chytil NYR
6. Cale Makar COL
7. Martin Necas CAR
8. Dylan Strome ARI
9. Kiefer Bellows NYI
10. Ilya Samsanov WAS

 

[Isaac Nootin]

My list:

1. Elias Pettersson VAN
2. Kirill Kaprizov MIN
3. Casey Mittelstadt BUF
4. Miro Heiskanen DAL
5. Philip Chytil NYR
6. Cale Makar COL
7. Martin Necas CAR
8. Dylan Strome ARI
9. Kiefer Bellows NYI
10. Ilya Samsanov WAS

What in the world is Kieffer Bellows doing on that list? He's not even the top prospect on his current team (Glass). Likely not even #2 either (Jokiharju).

 

[Critical13]

What in the world is Kieffer Bellows doing on that list? He's not even the top prospect on his current team (Glass). Likely not even #2 either (Jokiharju).

I just like him a lot. Most times I miss (Tlusty, Crouse), but once in a while I hit (Gaudreau, Kuznetsov).

 

[elitepete]

Oh I see, I guess Kyle Connors 71 point season in which 3 players on his team were over 1.47PPG or Brock Boesers 68 point seasons are the bench marks now...even though he dropped to only a PPG when Caggula, Schmalz and Stetcher graduated.

Boeser dropping to ppg has more to do with his wrist get injured.

 

[elitepete]

Imo the top 2 are Pettersson and Heiskanen, and there is a gap between them and the others.

 

[haveandare]

I dislike using wjc to judge a prospect when his larger sample season numbers don't correlate well

Agreed. As much as I'm excited about Lias, Chytil is easily the superior prospect so far. The only thing I can think of that suggests the opposite is WJC performances.

 

[cgf]

Delete this one as well please