Wheeler’s Top 100 prospects

[SirPaste]

Care to share Benson and Danielson's rankings specifically? (I actually have an Athletic account, but when it switched over to NYT it logged me out on the phone, and I can't remember my FB password to get logged back in lol)

I don't even have a problem with Benson. I just know Scott's gotta shit on Danielson because he has no concept of how to evaluate a player that plays a 200 ft. game and isn't all offense.

It's the same reason I was able to successfully predict he'd love ASP in his Detroit rankings. He's a broken record.

Benson was 20, Danielson was 49. ASP was 37 as well

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Benson was 20, Danielson was 49. ASP was 37 as well

He'll never learn.

Was Edvinsson even included or is he somehow graduated while Benson made the list?

 

[macbowes]

I like all the people hating on Scott for doing his job and making lists, as though he's somehow a bad person for being a sports writer. He's literally doing what many people here do. Is there a paywall? Yes, because he works for a large company. Does he claim to know more than NHL scouts? No. Does he get things wrong? Yes, but so do NHL scouts, so who cares? This is literally an entertainment piece, meant to engage fans from a variety of teams, and give people an opinion on the best upcoming prospects.

"He's a stat watcher." Duh. He also watches clips, games, and highlights, but yeah, obviously stats are going to be the primary tool used to sort hundreds of players. It's literally the best way to compare players. Stats correlate to success more than literally any other metric.

Trying to call out Wheeler is just yelling at clouds. He does a good job of compiling small blurbs about the many prospects, and groups them into rough tiers. I wouldn't get bogged down in the specifics, or you're wasting your time.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

I like all the people hating on Scott for doing his job and making lists, as though he's somehow a bad person for being a sports writer. He's literally doing what many people here do. Is there a paywall? Yes, because he works for a large company. Does he claim to know more than NHL scouts? No. Does he get things wrong? Yes, but so do NHL scouts, so who cares? This is literally an entertainment piece, meant to engage fans from a variety of teams, and give people an opinion on the best upcoming prospects.

"He's a stat watcher." Duh. He also watches clips, games, and highlights, but yeah, obviously stats are going to be the primary tool used to sort hundreds of players. It's literally the best way to compare players. Stats correlate to success more than literally any other metric.

Trying to call out Wheeler is just yelling at clouds. He does a good job of compiling small blurbs about the many prospects, and groups them into rough tiers. I wouldn't get bogged down in the specifics, or you're wasting your time.

Scott isn't a bad person for being a sports writer.

Scott is a bad sports writer...

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Including Benson and Guenther on there is so, so dumb

 

[macbowes]

Scott isn't a bad person for being a sports writer.

Scott is a bad sports writer...

Do you have some examples of some good writers? I'm curious what their top 100 prospect list looks like.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Do you have some examples of some good writers? I'm curious what their top 100 prospect list looks like.

This may be controversial because a lot of people don't like him but I'd take Pronman over Wheeler. That's more of an indictment of how much Wheeler sucks, though. At least with Pronman it isn't as easy and predictable to determine his schtick and he actually evaluates (Or tries to evaluate) player qualities. Wheeler is 100% "Who's the better offensive player?"

Button is out there big time but can at least admit when he's wrong. Scott can't even do that.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Do you have some examples of some good writers? I'm curious what their top 100 prospect list looks like.

Whoever ranks the Redwings prospects the highest, clearly.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Whoever ranks the Redwings prospects the highest, clearly.

When you're too ignorant to read on where I clearly said it's not a Benson thing and then went on to criticize his internal rankings of Red Wings prospects against each other.

Lmao. Nice one dude. He's a stat watcher. That's not a Detroit specific thing. Try again.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

When you're too ignorant to read on where I clearly said it's not a Benson thing and then went on to criticize his internal rankings of Red Wings prospects against each other.

Lmao. Nice one dude. He's a stat watcher. That's not a Detroit specific thing. Try again.

I've read all of your posts in this thread. They do provide good comedy, I'll give you that.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

I've read all of your posts in this thread. They do provide good comedy, I'll give you that.

Ahh. So it's just your reading comprehension that sucks. Good to know.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Wheeler 2021 Rankings:

2. Caufield
4. Zegras
5. Perfetti
7. Clarke

11. Seider
13. Boldy
21. McTavish
27. Sanderson

Definitely not a guy that has a problem evaluating the game away from offensive stats.

 

[DJJones]

Honestly who the hell can rank that many prospects without using stats as a starting point?

Can tinker after but that's always going to matter.

They have detailed write ups on all the top guys as well

 

[TheDoldrums]

Wheeler 2021 Rankings:

2. Caufield
4. Zegras
5. Perfetti
7. Clarke

11. Seider
13. Boldy
21. McTavish
27. Sanderson

Definitely not a guy that has a problem evaluating the game away from offensive stats.

While I agree that Seider over Boldy and Sanderson looks bad in hindsight, this is the definition of cherry picking.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Why is Benson even included? If he’s there, Bedard should be too. But also, how can you stick him behind guys drafted in the 20s this past draft with a straight face?

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Nice to see Gabe Perreault get ranked fairly at #13.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Care to share Benson and Danielson's rankings specifically? (I actually have an Athletic account, but when it switched over to NYT it logged me out on the phone, and I can't remember my FB password to get logged back in lol)

I don't even have a problem with Benson. I just know Scott's gotta shit on Danielson because he has no concept of how to evaluate a player that plays a 200 ft. game and isn't all offense.

It's the same reason I was able to successfully predict he'd love ASP in his Detroit rankings. He's a broken record.

The implication here that Benson is an offense-only player is pretty hilarious.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Honestly who the hell can rank that many prospects without using stats as a starting point?

Can tinker after but that's always going to matter.

They have detailed write ups on all the top guys as well

I guess the point is you have to factor in play style & two way ability in there. There are plenty of guys who have the potential to stat pad in the regular season since regular season hockey is a no defense shinny fest, while that playing style doesn't translate as well to football style playoff hockey where defense is actually played and guys care every shift. You have to be elite of the elite (Patrick Kane tier) to play a one-way skill based offensive style.

There are guys that don't profile that well statistically, but are still extremely solid NHL prospects. Like I might not be the biggest Theo Lindstein fan, but came to appreciate his game much more at the World Junior and he offers a baseline floor that is quite projectable to the NHL level. He doesn't score a ton, but he's grown it enough to make me think he can be a strong top 4 two way D in the league.

 

[Senator Stanley]

Honestly who the hell can rank that many prospects without using stats as a starting point?

Can tinker after but that's always going to matter.

They have detailed write ups on all the top guys as well

He's basically just using his draft rankings and combining classes. If he liked a guy in his draft year, he'll rank them really high on this list.

He has Cole Eiserman ranked 16th among all drafted prospects despite the guy being picked 20th OA in the most recent draft.

 

[DJJones]

I guess the point is you have to factor in play style & two way ability in there. There are plenty of guys who have the potential to stat pad in the regular season since regular season hockey is a no defense shinny fest, while that playing style doesn't translate as well to football style playoff hockey where defense is actually played and guys care every shift. You have to be elite of the elite (Patrick Kane tier) to play a one-way skill based offensive style.

There are guys that don't profile that well statistically, but are still extremely solid NHL prospects. Like I might not be the biggest Theo Lindstein fan, but came to appreciate his game much more at the World Junior and he offers a baseline floor that is quite projectable to the NHL level. He doesn't score a ton, but he's grown it enough to make me think he can be a strong top 4 two way D in the league.

I mean for what you describe, #94 seems like a perfectly reasonable placement. If anything it's a bit high. I'd hope there are more LD than 13 that project to be top pairing guys.

 

[Fantomas]

I think the dumbest thing about having tiers on such lists is that if you go back and look at any old top prospects list, you'll realize that a lot of guys are interchangeable, especially after the first few spots. Furthermore, some guys will be lower simply because they're younger and not as proven yet, so inevitably they will climb. So putting prospects, who have such a malleable quality to them, into tiers this way just seems needlessly rigid.

 

[MardyBum]

Wheeler 2021 Rankings:

2. Caufield
4. Zegras
5. Perfetti
7. Clarke

11. Seider
13. Boldy
21. McTavish
27. Sanderson

Definitely not a guy that has a problem evaluating the game away from offensive stats.

Strange you'd include Perfetti there. Looks like someone has a problem evaluating players outside of size .

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

But I was promised by Edmonton fans that Savoie was universally regarded as a top prospect?

 

[FlyguyOX]

Not sure why Mintyukov wasn't on there when he only played 3 games more than Nemec.

But yeah, I won't hate on Wheeler, but I definitely prefer Pronman and his projections. Wheeler has always given more weight to numbers and not necessarily projectability.

 

[Kshahdoo]

Surprised that Michkov is not in the same tier with Celebrini.

No surprise at all, it's the way NA "experts" see hockey...