Wheeler’s Top 100 prospects

[stl76]

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.

Lindstein is going to be a good one, he is being severely slept on by most. How anyone could watch the WJC then rank him significantly lower than Willander or ASP is beyond me. But then again people voted ASP top defender defender at the WJC and top SHL defenseman when he wasn't even the best dman on either team.

 

[thrillhous]

Where would you rank someone you think had the potential to be a 60 points player with great supporting qualities as of this year? Have you ever figured maybe I'm just very high on Roy and not actually an homer? If I wanted to be a homer I would've included Hage and Beck.

You are exceptionally high on Roy in large part because you are a homer. And that’s ok, everyone does it, it’s natural. It’s the persecution complex you’ve taken on that is ridiculous, you should just own it or at minimum acknowledge that it’s possible that your Habs glasses are refracting a certain way.

In the meantime here you were wasting your time responding to Mr. Flames homer. You are cut from the same cloth like it or not, except he’s not willing to stick his neck out like you did with a list that would either cause him pain by not having enough Flames prospects or (if he stays true to his homer mentality) would contain a laughable number of them.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

He has also posted his goalie rankings

1. Wallstedt
2. Askarov

3. Fowler
4. Knight
5. Levi
6. Wolf
7. Cossa
8. Augustine

Only two guys from 2024 where Nabokov at #11 and George at #17

(Hard to argue with top couple of guys, but some random names in back half)

Not even having Clara as an HM, seems ridiculous. Recent second round pick, huge and athletic. Coming off a fantastic season in Alsvenskan where he was named the top junior aged player, helping his team get promoted to SHL and recording the lowest ever GAA in qualification games.

Clara should be in the conversation for the back end of the top 10, not even having him top 25 seems just silly.

 

[Satan]

Not even having Clara as an HM, seems ridiculous. Recent second round pick, huge and athletic. Coming off a fantastic season in Alsvenskan where he was named the top junior aged player, helping his team get promoted to SHL and recording the lowest ever GAA in qualification games.

Clara should be in the conversation for the back end of the top 10, not even having him top 25 seems just silly.

Surely this isnt a biased opinion

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Surely this isnt a biased opinion

One of us provided sound reasoning with their opinion. If you think I'm biased, explain to me why Clara deserves no mention among these top 25

 

[Double Dion]

He has also posted his goalie rankings

1. Wallstedt
2. Askarov

3. Fowler
4. Knight
5. Levi
6. Wolf
7. Cossa
8. Augustine

Only two guys from 2024 where Nabokov at #11 and George at #17

(Hard to argue with top couple of guys, but some random names in back half)

Wolf is pretty clearly the best goalie prospect on the planet. Askarov and Wallstedt are pretty significantly behind him.

 

[Double Dion]

One of us provided sound reasoning with their opinion. If you think I'm biased, explain to me why Clara deserves no mention among these top 25

Clara was pretty clearly better than Wallstedt was at the same age this season. It's pretty ridiculous how overrated Wallstedt and Askarov are.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

You are exceptionally high on Roy in large part because you are a homer. And that’s ok, everyone does it, it’s natural. It’s the persecution complex you’ve taken on that is ridiculous, you should just own it or at minimum acknowledge that it’s possible that your Habs glasses are refracting a certain way.

In the meantime here you were wasting your time responding to Mr. Flames homer. You are cut from the same cloth like it or not, except he’s not willing to stick his neck out like you did with a list that would either cause him pain by not having enough Flames prospects or (if he stays true to his homer mentality) would contain a laughable number of them.

Immediately recalling that year he had Poehling/Mete/Juulsen in his Top 40.

"I am not a homer!"

 

[emptyNedder]

Wolf is pretty clearly the best goalie prospect on the planet. Askarov and Wallstedt are pretty significantly behind him.

Clara was pretty clearly better than Wallstedt was at the same age this season. It's pretty ridiculous how overrated Wallstedt and Askarov are.

I don't know who the single best goalie prospect is, but the 2023 class looks like it could produce 5-7 starting NHL goalies. That would be an outstanding draft for goalies.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Yep. Edvinssons surgery this year kinda threw a wrench into things but Nill and the guys in Dallas had him number one on their entire draft board according to Nill himself. Now all hes done is be really good and hes falling in these rankings because he isnt the shiny new toy

He put Eiserman around 10 spots above Edvinsson.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

People complaining about Wheeler have to take into account he is doing an impossible job. By his account, he is away from his family 3-4 months a year and I have no reason not to believe him. Although, if your task is to scout the entire planet, you will still have limited viewings on players during that span.

So basically, Wheeler is 100x more knowledgeable that people on this site in the sense that he watches a hell lot more minor hockey than we do.

But the standard people set is basically to be very accurate in these lists. Pro acouts would
Probably also struggle tonwrite those lists. And their job is to scout a specific area. Not the entire planet.

So my point is, even though his list will be inaccurate due to the impossible task he tries to accomplish, I still has respect for what he does as a member of the « hockey community » (i.e try to establish a barometer or projection for fans)

You can watch something more than someone and still not understand it. And you can still do something professionally and be bad at it. Case in point; Scott Wheeler.

He is a bad evaluator of talent and has notable biases for smaller high scoring guys that just don’t make it outside of junior.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

He has also posted his goalie rankings

1. Wallstedt
2. Askarov

3. Fowler
4. Knight
5. Levi
6. Wolf
7. Cossa
8. Augustine

Only two guys from 2024 where Nabokov at #11 and George at #17

(Hard to argue with top couple of guys, but some random names in back half)

Cossa outdueled Askarov in the playoffs, and had a better season than Wallstedt.

Augustine was THE reason MSU was competitive last season. Won a U18 WJC gold, U20 WJC gold, and was probably the best goalie on team USA at the WC. As a 19 year old.

But hey, let’s list them at 7 and 8.

 

[Haatley]

You are exceptionally high on Roy in large part because you are a homer. And that’s ok, everyone does it, it’s natural. It’s the persecution complex you’ve taken on that is ridiculous, you should just own it or at minimum acknowledge that it’s possible that your Habs glasses are refracting a certain way.

In the meantime here you were wasting your time responding to Mr. Flames homer. You are cut from the same cloth like it or not, except he’s not willing to stick his neck out like you did with a list that would either cause him pain by not having enough Flames prospects or (if he stays true to his homer mentality) would contain a laughable number of them.

Right. Saying that multiple prospects, including one Flame, should be well above Roy is me complaining about "not enough Flames."

I spoke of Stankoven, particularly being lower than Roy as a weird take. But do you, bro.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

You can watch something more than someone and still not understand it. And you can still do something professionally and be bad at it. Case in point; Scott Wheeler.

He is a bad evaluator of talent and has notable biases for smaller high scoring guys that just don’t make it outside of junior.

Case and point: On that 2021 list I bashed, he ranked Nils Lundkvist just above Thomas Harley...

... We should ask Dallas fans how that one is panning out lmao.

 

[newfy]

Cossa outdueled Askarov in the playoffs, and had a better season than Wallstedt.

Augustine was THE reason MSU was competitive last season. Won a U18 WJC gold, U20 WJC gold, and was probably the best goalie on team USA at the WC. As a 19 year old.

But hey, let’s list them at 7 and 8.

He had a better season than Askarov too, dont sell him short lol

 

[PostFriend]

Clara was pretty clearly better than Wallstedt was at the same age this season. It's pretty ridiculous how overrated Wallstedt and Askarov are.

You don't know much about Jesper's history, do you?. Don't get me wrong. Clara is one heck of an interesting young goalie prospect. Hi's really good and looks nice!
But that "Jesper is pretty ridiculous overrated" says more about your goalie knowledge than Jesper's overestimation.

He's the youngest player ever to play in the J20 superelite (J20 national), ahead of Victor Hedman who was youngest before.
Jesper is the youngest goalscorer in the J20 history over all, at 14 years old. It will be hard to hit.
Winner of SV% in the J20 superelite Top10 2018, 92,1% and 92,2% in playoff, at 15 years. (Clara did 90,3% and 88,3% in playoff, at 18 years old!!!)
WJC 2022 best SV% and GAA, Allstar team and best goalie.
Jesper has participated in all youth/juniors national teams, several times. Mostly as a minor.
The youngest goalie to play in the SHL. Youngest goalkeeper ever in the SHL to make a shutout, just turned 18.
Best GAA in SHL 21/22, as a junior 18-19 years old! Never ever happened before.
AHL all-star goalie back to back.
Youngest goalie in Wild history to make a shutout. (I know it was against the Blackhawks. In the same season, Fleury had 96.6% and Gustavsson 95.2% against that Chicago team!)
Please, be more specific in your statement so we understand what you mean by "pretty ridiculous overrated"!

Now to your claim. "Pretty clearly better than Wallstedt was at the same age..." Jesper at D1; SVS 91.8% and 1.98 GAA in the SHL (SWE first league). Clara D1; 91.3%, 2.23 GAA in HA (SWE second league).

Also Askarov has impressive statistics in the KHL and shows no signs of being overrated. He'll be a NHL starter in a few years in right organisation.

Not much of truth or relevance in your post, or? It's okay to hate on players, or people in general, but please do it nicely and with correct facts.

 

[ViD]

Top 100 by junior league

USHL 22
WHL 18
OHL 15
QMJHL 6
Jr A 3

Sweden 15
Russia 10
Finland 4
Czech 3
Germany 1
Slovakia 1
Switzerland 1
Norway 1

Top-100 by Nationality

Canada 43
USA 21
Sweden 11
Russia 10
Finland 4
Czech 3
Norway 2
Austria 2
Slovakia 2
Germany 1
Belarus 1

Only 4 Finns? Seems like they are truly going through a decline

 

[Double Dion]

You don't know much about Jesper's history, do you?. Don't get me wrong. Clara is one heck of an interesting young goalie prospect. Hi's really good and looks nice!
But that "Jesper is pretty ridiculous overrated" says more about your goalie knowledge than Jesper's overestimation.

He's the youngest player ever to play in the J20 superelite (J20 national), ahead of Victor Hedman who was youngest before.
Jesper is the youngest goalscorer in the J20 history over all, at 14 years old. It will be hard to hit.
Winner of SV% in the J20 superelite Top10 2018, 92,1% and 92,2% in playoff, at 15 years. (Clara did 90,3% and 88,3% in playoff, at 18 years old!!!)
WJC 2022 best SV% and GAA, Allstar team and best goalie.
Jesper has participated in all youth/juniors national teams, several times. Mostly as a minor.
The youngest goalie to play in the SHL. Youngest goalkeeper ever in the SHL to make a shutout, just turned 18.
Best GAA in SHL 21/22, as a junior 18-19 years old! Never ever happened before.
AHL all-star goalie back to back.
Youngest goalie in Wild history to make a shutout. (I know it was against the Blackhawks. In the same season, Fleury had 96.6% and Gustavsson 95.2% against that Chicago team!)
Please, be more specific in your statement so we understand what you mean by "pretty ridiculous overrated"!

Now to your claim. "Pretty clearly better than Wallstedt was at the same age..." Jesper at D1; SVS 91.8% and 1.98 GAA in the SHL (SWE first league). Clara D1; 91.3%, 2.23 GAA in HA (SWE second league).

Also Askarov has impressive statistics in the KHL and shows no signs of being overrated. He'll be a NHL starter in a few years in right organisation.

Not much of truth or relevance in your post, or? It's okay to hate on players, or people in general, but please do it nicely and with correct facts.

Your post is full of wrong things. At the same age as Clara he had inferior stats in the same league. Let's compare Wallstedt and Askarov with Wolf in the same league shall we? We're talking 20 points difference in save percentage with Wallstedt. That's more than the difference between Shesterkin and James Reimer. Neither guy should be #1 or #2. Maybe around the #5 mark.

One thing I know with goalies is draft position is irrelevant. Hasek 10th round, Lundqvist 9th round, Rinne 9th round, Nabokov 8th round, Thomas 8th round, Khabibulin 7th, Miller 6th, Saros 4th, Kipper 4th, Shesterkin 4th.

What they are at 18 is almost never what they are at 26.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Only 4 Finns? Seems like they are truly going through a decline

Just a dip. They produced such incredible results in a 4-5 year period that everyone just expected them to be on Sweden's level every year, but they're just not there. Finnish junior and Liiga aren't as good as people think either.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Cossa outdueled Askarov in the playoffs, and had a better season than Wallstedt.

Augustine was THE reason MSU was competitive last season. Won a U18 WJC gold, U20 WJC gold, and was probably the best goalie on team USA at the WC. As a 19 year old.

But hey, let’s list them at 7 and 8.

I mean, Wheeler has not once been high on a single Red Wings prospect. I don’t hate the guy, but at this point it’s getting weird that as a rule he’s rated every single one of
Raymond/Seider/Edvinsson/ASP/Danielson/MBN/Kasper/Cossa/Augustine/etc. below their position in the draft and generally behind every single comparable player. You’d think by just pure chance he would be enamored with one of them, but so far it’s not happened.

To give a clear example:

Pre-draft, Wheeler had MBN right after Helenius/Iginla/Yakemchuk, and right ahead of Senneke. The ONLY player out of those that saw a ranking change to this list was MBN.

22. Helenius
23. Iginla
24. Yakemchuk
25. Sennecke

39. MBN

What happened at the draft that caused MBN to fall out of that group, which otherwise stays ranked exactly like before?

 

[newfy]

I mean, Wheeler has not once been high on a single Red Wings prospect. I don’t hate the guy, but at this point it’s getting weird that as a rule he’s rated every single one of
Raymond/Seider/Edvinsson/ASP/Danielson/MBN/Kasper/Cossa/Augustine/etc. below their position in the draft and generally behind every single comparable player. You’d think by just pure chance he would be enamored with one of them, but so far it’s not happened.

To give a clear example:

Pre-draft, Wheeler had MBN right after Helenius/Iginla/Yakemchuk, and right ahead of Senneke. The ONLY player out of those that saw a ranking change to this list was MBN.

22. Helenius
23. Iginla
24. Yakemchuk
25. Sennecke

39. MBN

What happened at the draft that caused MBN to fall out of that group, which otherwise stays ranked exactly like before?

It has seemed like Wheeler is down on red wing prospects for some reason, but thats pretty bad and I didnt notice it. Obviously Sennecke went really high so hes going to rise, but to have an almost 20 player gap like that all of a sudden seems really weird

 

[viceroy]

No Reinbacher or Hutson in the top 20?!?!?! Outrageous!

Nice. What an opportunity to take a potshot at the Habs! Grow up kid.

No one said the Habs don't have good prospects. You had 4 Habs in the top 18. See where Joshua Roy is ranked?

I know it's useless to argue with you since you're not really hockey fan as so much as just a Habs hater but here goes... Roy was a very highly rated hockey prospect when he first got to the Q and was said to have all the tools and would be drafted high in the 1st. That's when the guy started crapping the bed. Did he let things get to his head? Who knows? What we know is he basically cratered for the next 2 years. People questioned his determination and work habits. Final result? he ended up drafted as a 5th rounder by the Habs.

Then he did something fallers rarely do he decided to take responsibility of his career. He got traded to Sherbrooke and once he got healthy, he hit the gym and exploded on the ice. So think of him more as a guy that if he had his head screwed on right as a 16-17 yr old would've been a late 1st and will hopefully turn out to a 20 goal 55-60 pt RW. Yeah 18th is too high but don't sleep on the kid.

 

[Haatley]

Nice. What an opportunity to take a potshot at the Habs! Grow up kid.



I know it's useless to argue with you since you're not really hockey fan as so much as just a Habs hater but here goes... Roy was a very highly rated hockey prospect when he first got to the Q and was said to have all the tools and would be drafted high in the 1st. That's when the guy started crapping the bed. Did he let things get to his head? Who knows? What we know is he basically cratered for the next 2 years. People questioned his determination and work habits. Final result? he ended up drafted as a 5th rounder by the Habs.

Then he did something fallers rarely do he decided to take responsibility of his career. He got traded to Sherbrooke and once he got healthy, he hit the gym and exploded on the ice. So think of him more as a guy that if he had his head screwed on right as a 16-17 yr old would've been a late 1st and will hopefully turn out to a 20 goal 55-60 pt RW. Yeah 18th is too high but don't sleep on the kid.

Dude, I am not a habs hater. I hate the Leafs. I hate the Oilers. I don't care about the Habs.

Joshua Roy is not a top 20 prospect. Is that saying he's garbage? No. He's probably in the 60s.

 

[OKR]

Just a dip. They produced such incredible results in a 4-5 year period that everyone just expected them to be on Sweden's level every year, but they're just not there. Finnish junior and Liiga aren't as good as people think either.

Don’t think there are many people who even think Liiga is good nowadays, the downfall of the league has been discussed for years, and the downfall only got faster after Jokerit left for KHL, and that was a decade ago. In the 90’s it was in consideration for the best league outside of NHL, now it’s arguable if it’s even in the top 4 in the Europe.

Finland is a small and expensive country, and hockey isn’t nearly as popular as it used to be. The fact we even produce NHL talent at the rate we do is honestly nothing short of impressive, especially considering how every other league has moved closer to NHL style of play but Liiga hockey is pretty much the opposite.

 

[HisNoodliness]

I mean, Wheeler has not once been high on a single Red Wings prospect. I don’t hate the guy, but at this point it’s getting weird that as a rule he’s rated every single one of
Raymond/Seider/Edvinsson/ASP/Danielson/MBN/Kasper/Cossa/Augustine/etc. below their position in the draft and generally behind every single comparable player. You’d think by just pure chance he would be enamored with one of them, but so far it’s not happened.

To give a clear example:

Pre-draft, Wheeler had MBN right after Helenius/Iginla/Yakemchuk, and right ahead of Senneke. The ONLY player out of those that saw a ranking change to this list was MBN.

22. Helenius
23. Iginla
24. Yakemchuk
25. Sennecke

39. MBN

What happened at the draft that caused MBN to fall out of that group, which otherwise stays ranked exactly like before?

The only reasonable explanations would be that he might dislike our development staff and thus view a Red Wings prospect as less likely to succeed, or he could know that we slow burn our prospects so he's more likely to get a quick confirmation of his ranking with other prospects than Wings prospects. For example, if MBN makes it two seasons later than Sennecke, even if MBN is better from then on, Wheeler has already had two seasons of patting himself on the back in redrafts and moved on to redrafting 2025 and 2026 by the time he would have to eat crow. He also oddly dropped Hage, drafted by Montreal, and I could see similar arguments for them.