The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Pipeline Rankings: Bottom 8

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Max and Corey break down the bottom 8 teams in Corey’s 2024 NHL Pipeline Rankings including the Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, and New York Islanders, and discuss the best U23 prospects for each franchise in the group, expectations, projections, and more.Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Boltman here with Corey Prondman for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. This week, we're going to dive deep into Corey's pipeline rankings, which are out on the athletic. And we're going to start today, Corey, with the bottom quadrant of the league. And that starts with the dubious distinction of your lowest ranked prospect system with Tampa Bay Lightning. I think the lightning will take this, though, Corey, considering what the costs of their farm system has bought them in the past five years. Right. In terms of the farm system, it's worth noting that the pipeline rankings, as we call it,

is under 23 players in the entire organization, and that does comprise NHL players. Right. So this goes with will span between the 2020 to the 2024 drafts, so 2020 draftees like Alexei LaFranier, Tim Stutzla, Quentin Byfield, they still qualify and are part of this ranking process. Going to Tampa, though, they are led by Connor Geeky, who actually, I thought, had a little bit of a resurgence. This year after I thought his draft plus one year in the WHL did not go as great as you might have hoped. I thought he was very good this year.

In the Western League, he was definitely a tough forward at that level. He was one of Canada's better forwards. I thought at the World Juniors, he's a big centerman. He has very good skill. I thought he was competing much more consistently this season than past years, although his skating is still a problem. And I thought he really helped his value. So it's interesting that I thought when Utah traded him, but then they go and draft Colbo Dwen in the first round of center.

And I think there's a lot of NHL scouts who wonder whether Tisha Gimla can be a center as well in the NHL. So that helps him provide some depth. But he is clearly Tampa's best prospect, a guy who I think is going to have a long NHL career as potentially a middle sixth center in the league. But after that, I don't see a whole lot else here for Tampa. Some guys, I think maybe be a bottom six forward or deaf defenseman. they've traded a lot of picks and it drops off real quick. What is interesting really quick just on geeky is that they make the trade involving

surrogate with him. And I know there's cap reasons to all of this too. But they are kind of blocked. He is blocked for the foreseeable future here of holding like a significant center role. I guess unless they maybe would have moved Nick Paul to the wing. But do you feel that geeky is on a short term trajectory to the NHL here? I mean, I think he has to play the NHL, whether it's on the wing or in the middle. I mean, Tampa's had to make some really hard decisions for capitalated reasons in recent years,

and the depth of that team has been, quite frankly, shot. They have core players there still, minus Stamco's left, but they need good young players to step up there. So I expect they will find somewhere to play them in a lineup. All right. At number 31, another team that will certainly be content to be the 31st ranked, the U23 system, considering the success they've had at the NHL level lately. That's the Colorado Avalanche. And the big prospect here, Corey, is Callum Ritchie.

Callum Ritchie definitely shot up for me this year as a prospect. I liked him going into his draft year, but I kind of had him rated as a late first, which is around where Colorado got him in that draft after he had a very inconsistent draft year. He came in rated as a top prospect. People were excited about the size, the skating, the skill. Production, though, really wasn't there at all in Oswald in his draft year. you fast forward a year after he comes back from injury,

he just tears it up in the second half, playing alongside the third overall pickback at Seneca, had a great playoff. And I'm not saying this is the most competitive player you're going to see years. This is a great two-way center in the NHL. But I thought that aspect of his game was a lot more consistent this year, and to go with that really significant talent level that Richie has,

I think you're looking at this guy and saying, okay, he has a path to being a top six board in the NHL. And given how few picks Colorado has had, and even some of their high picks I say in Oscar Olisten, who hasn't really developed. Well, I think Colorado fans have reason to be excited about Richie right now. At number 30, it's Boston. And this one, there was a little bit of surprise for me. Number one, U-23 player, not Matthew Poitra, who I think really made a name for himself, certainly with Bruins fans last year. Dean Leterno at number one.

Prochre actually checks in still in the top three for you, but Dean Laterno at number one. Yeah, we'll get to Poitra in a second because I know some Boston fans will have some comments about that in the articles. But I really like Dean Letterno. I think just that the toolkits looks like an NHL player with the size, the skating, the skill. I mean, he's a guy who talked about a law on his podcast, turns of the level he played out last year, playing at the prep school level. His projection is a little uncertain? Is that offense going to translate to higher levels? Is he really going to score in the NHL?

But I think he's got a good chance to. You watch him, you can definitely see there's legitimate talent there, even if there's some risk on it hitting. But if he does hit, I think you're going to get a heck of a hockey player, a guy who could have a long and successful pro career. Poitra is a very difficult assessment for me because he looked so good in that first month or two in the NHL and through his training camp. He was on their power play. He was scoring. He was winning battles? And you're like, how was this 510, 511 guy who lacks foot speed having this much success as a teenager in the NACC?

It was quite remarkable and it looked like they were going to hit on this player. Then he goes to the world juniors wasn't really good there at all. And then even before he got injured and his season ended, I thought his time is game in the NHL was slipping a little bit. But it seems like he slayed to play in their middle six again to begin the next season. So you would think I should rate him as a middle six forward. Given that's what he's been in the NHL of late, I do have some long-term projection questions on the feet and on the frame.

I think he's just going to need to score so much and just be so consistent with the puck and win so many battles. And I think he could be that, but there's a part of me that is hesitant to project that. There's actually a player, I'm sure people will have comments about this, but I really like Dan's Loch Melis in the Bruins system. He didn't have a huge year in college as a freshman when I've seen him. with the Latvian national teams, whether at the junior level or the senior level, he checked a lot of boxes with his speed, his compete, his skill, his hockey sense.

I actually think he's got a more clear path for me to becoming a full-time bottom six forward in the NHL. That is a good place for a reminder that we are the only podcast that will give you updates on the Latvian national team. Moving on to number 29, Corey. That's the Edmonton Oilers. The big name, though, I think people are going to want to hear about

in the system is the newest name, and that's Matt Savoy. A little bit of an out-of-the-now-where trade. to see Savoy traded from Buffalo to Edmonton that maybe wouldn't have been where I'd have guessed him, but how do you see Savoy fitting in here and what can Oilers fans expect? Was it that out of nowhere, though?

Because I feel like when we were talking about Buffalo for at least the last year or so. Him getting traded was not out of nowhere, but to Edmonton, that would not have been one of my predictions. Right, because I feel like if you're talking about with Buffalo, especially after they drafted Benson last year and then they drafted Hellenius this year, we had talked about a lot of like, okay,

they can't play all these five, ten forwards together. Somebody's got to go. and it felt like Savoy was the odd name out. Obviously, he's a great skater. He's really skilled. Compete's hard. But he is a guy who was playing his fifth year of junior hockey. So, you know, high-end production was something you expected of a guy who had that kind of talent.

But he is 5'9. I wouldn't call his playmaking really elite for a guy that size. So I think you talk to people in the league, in my opinion, as well. And I think the projection from his more is like a middle six wing, which, which of that frame makes you understand why Buffalo was willing to part with that and why the return was Ryan McLeod, who I like, and it's a good player. He's a fantastic skater, but the offense is obviously limited. But I think Savoy and Holloway are probably the two best long-term pieces in the organization

in terms of scoring potential. I think Sam O'Reilly could score in the NHL, the most recent first-round pick, but I think more likely he's going to be this hard-working two-way. bottom six forward is my current projection for it. Let's go now to the number 28 team, the Vancouver Canucks. And this is where we start to get into a little more of the, you know, multiple top half of the first round type player territory. And in Vancouver, that starts with Tom Lander and Jonathan Lekker at Maki.

Yeah, Tom Willander, very good prospect. I do, you know, think like when I watched him in college this year, the skating always stood out, very, very, reliable two-way defenseman. He competes well enough. He can move pucks. What I have talked to scouts about him this year when they watched him in college and at the World Juniors 2. Everybody likes the player, likes the way he plays. Given that he is kind of an average-sized defenseman, who is maybe not dynamic offensively, I think people wonder, like, does he have the high side that say his

countryman, Axel Sandin Pelica does? Even though I think Willander has a clear path to playing minutes in the NHL just because of the skating. I think there is a little bit of a question of, okay, is he going to be this shutdown defense in the NHL? Is he going to be a power play guy in the NHL? I think there is lack of a clear exactly what is he, but obviously he has a lot of very desirable traits, and I think he is going to have a long NHL career. Jonathan Lekker-O-Macky was very positive news for the Vancouver Canucks this season because

his draft plus one year did not really go well. And then this past year in the SHL, he was fantastic. He was one of, if not arguably the best young player in the SHL this past season, being a big part of Aubreyborough's offense. His skill is fantastic. His shot is fantastic. I thought his compete was much more consistent than what I've seen in the past, even though I do think he can be a little bit of a perimeter shooter still at times.

And I wonder how that style game is going to translate into the National Hockey League. But for now, I thought he is trending in a positive direction. All right. At number 27, we have the Vegas Golden Knights, and they are headlined by Trevor Connolly. Right. Obviously, a little bit of a controversial pick at the time, but Trevor Connolly is extremely talented. He is a guy who has just tremendous skating ability, tremendous skill. When he's on, he's dialed in, he's competing hard, he can be a real force in games.

And I think he's got a really good chance to be a middle six-four, maybe even the top six-four, at the next level. I actually kind of thought what was interesting with the very big. Vegas is there was two goalies that they had in their system that I actually quite like the launch. Pavel Moisevic, who was picked right after Connolly in the last draft. And then Cameron Whitehead had a really nice year in college this year. He's a decent-sized goalie.

He's quite athletic. And I think both of those guys have at least a chance to become regular goalies in the National Hockey League. Pittsburgh's at number 26. And they're another team that has multiple kind of higher first round picks with them. Owen Pickering was the top name on this list. Pickering's first half was, quite

frankly, very not good. and it led to him not even being, never mind a cut from Kansas World Junior Team. He wasn't even invited to the December camp. That's how poor he played in the first half. Then I thought a second half he was much better after Swift Card out of Connor Geeky. I thought he kind of found his step a little bit

and he was making more plays. And I thought it was just overall look like the player I've seen in previous years, which is a six-four defenseman who can skate, who can move pucks reliably. And I thought that player looks like an NHL defenseman. All right. And then we'll wrap this one, this episode,

with our top team of the bottom quadrant. That's the New York Islanders. Interesting one here because they have a handful of players that you kind of have and that has a chance to hear a couple guys that are projected prospects. But really a lot of this seems like it's going to hinge on the gamble they took in the 2024 draft taking Cole Eisenman. And you're going to kind of see that as we get through the rest of these rankings that and some fans may or may not like this,

but a lot of these pipeline ratings hinge on a couple of players. And how I personally have a couple of these players projected as NHL players. And so you can argue whether I know what I'm talking about or whether I have the guys rated improperly. But I do think Cole Eisenman projected as a top six winger. I don't think he projects as this impactful top six winger that we talked about maybe 12 months ago. But I think he couldn't be a second line wing in the NHL. I think he can help a power play in the NHL. We've talked about his faults, but his strengths are really.

good. He's got a tutus skill. He's got a high-end shot. He's a good skater. I think he's a very strong pro prospect, even if the frustrations can amount. This is still a guy who scored something a little over 70 goals this past season. All right. That's going to do it for us today. Make sure you join us again tomorrow as the countdown continues with teams number 24 through 17. Talk to you then.