People ripping Habs players? Damn who would've thought. Yeah those idiots! Hope they're enjoying their crow now that Mete and Juulsen are taking the NHL by storm! Crazy how everyone will agree the Habs have a top 3 prospect pool but then freak out when you rank their prospects high lmfao...
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If you go by defenders only:
This is how I ranked them. I don't believe Nikishin is in some kind of other stratosphere, it's quite close and there's no one that blows him out of the water. With him though, I don't expect a top D, while I think every single one of those except Dickinson has #1 potential. Of course they won't all attain that.
The Dickinson- Nikishin group is actually insanely close, I wouldn't bat an eye if anyone took one above the other. I'm trying to extrapole their career values with this list, thinking about Nikishin already being 22 and wasting maybe 1 or two years of his prime outside of the NHL, I have a hard time labelling him super high. Maybe it's the forwards he should be ranked ahead of because I have trouble seeing a D here that he clearly blows out the water. I appreciate that he's dominating the 2nd best league in the world and I appreciate that he was a better player than Michkov last year, in a more important position, but like I've been saying, I'm not ranking players on their production, I'm ranking them on where I think their career lines up.
What do we expect of Nikishin ? 2nd pair ? For sure. Top pair ? Reasonable. #1D? I can see it but it requires some imagination. Norris winner ? Thats a no from me. I think everyone above him atleast checks those boxes to a higher degree. I don't see Luneau, Levshunov, Reinbacher, Mateychuk or Dickinson as norris winners but I see them as having that much more potential to be a top pair rather than a 2nd pair.
Now the tough part is juggling all that, and it's an age old debate for certainty vs upside.