The Athletic Hockey Show - Who has the NHL’s best prospect pool?

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

On today’s episode, the guys deep dive into Scott’s 2026 NHL prospect pool rankings, an annual list that includes evaluations of roughly 500 prospects and sorts the league’s farm systems from No. 32 to No. 1, and discuss why there were only two teams in the conversation at the top of the list, the rest of the top 10, and some of the biggest risers and fallers this season.Hosts: Max Bultman and Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris FlanneryWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Bolton here alongside Scott Wheeler for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. A leaner, albeit perhaps not necessarily meaner, Scott episode of the Prospect Series. Just you and me today. No Corey, no Chris. Maybe a little bit less heated debate going on here, just the two of us. But we're going to run through your NHL Prospect Pool rankings, which is a great series you do every year. around this time a year. I think it was a little delayed this year, thanks to your little one.

But coming out at, I think, a time when a lot of fans really want this. Like, there's a lot of franchises out there who are already turning their minds, the page mentally to the future. And this is a great asset for all those fan bases. If you're a fan of a team that's not in the playoffs, this is a great way for you to get yourself kind of onto the next page and mourn this season with some optimism. Yeah. This process, I really, enjoyed it this year. I typically run this project in January and February. That's the typical cadence. It normally runs the Monday. If the Sunday is the world, the Saturday or Sunday is the world junior final, the gold medal game, then typically Monday or Tuesday we start rolling out this

project. And one of the things that we wanted to try, part of it was I took all of February off, so it delayed it. But the other part of it was the Olympics this year. But I wanted to try this sort of post-deadline cadence because I found the tricky part about the January-February release for this project is that in the end of February, early March, as the trade deadline hits, oftentimes several of the kids exchange hands, right? So this way, this is the final picture of the pool immediately after the deadline. Nothing is going to change. And I've really enjoyed that part of it because it feels a little firmer in terms of the pool rankings. You don't have, like this year we saw Jonathan Castagnan, a few of those guys, sort of Abram Weeb, a few guys dealt, not sort of

cornerstone prospects, if you will. David Eurecheck was probably the biggest name, but those just wouldn't, those moves just wouldn't typically be captured with our normal January, February cadence. So I don't know whether we'll go back to that next year, or whether we'll keep with this sort of post-deadline release schedule, but I did, I did like the way that it sort of rolled out this year, if you will. Well, I will say as a beatwriter, and I'm sure there's an element of this for our listeners who are fans, too. It is nice at the deadline when you see a prospect move and you can go immediately consult, like, okay, where was this guy in that previous team system? What's the absolute most up-to-date, you know, read on him too? So I did like that, but I think this is nice

for the fans in a different way, especially the fans of the teams at the very top of this list. Now, it's interesting for San Jose because they're a team that could still very well make the playoffs. And they're going to be, you know, grinding that right to the very end. But the whole way it was kind of, the countdown was, you know, you do a countdown from 32 to one. And the big anticipation was really who's going to be number one. Is it going to be the San Jose Sharks? Is it going to be the Chicago Blackhawks? Yes. And that felt to me like the only real decision in this countdown. There were kind of clusters and I could move the teams around. I see people always making a case. I like this team better than the, this team's pool, better than the pool that came out yesterday. So there's a lot of

And oftentimes my answer, when you're in the sort of mushy middle, certainly at the top end and at the bottom end, it's pretty crystallized. Like people complain about their pools. And I got comments from rival fans saying, how could so-and-so pool at 18 in the countdown be this high? Because some of the pools even at 18, 19, 16, 17 look pretty slim. And then I often point them in the direction of what the Florida Panthers and the Dallas stars pools look like.

And then they go back in time and open up the number 32. number 31 list and it becomes pretty clear that there is however poor you think your pool is, there's always a bottom below that, right? So that part of it is always sort of dynamic. Like, I, I, I, I, I, we talked a little bit off air, but pools three through nine in this year's countdown, like, you could, you could move them around. I felt much, the Montreal Canadians were number nine and, and there were teams that I had slotted ahead of them that I kind of pulled my hair over. but there were only two teams in the conversation for number one. And there was sort of a clear top two in this year's countdown.

And that was, as you hinted at, the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks. And the interesting conversation I had internally about those two pools is that they look very different as well. The sharks have arguably, if you're comparing the two pools, arguably the top player, the sharks landed at number two. They have arguably the top player at each position. So at Forward, it's Michael Misa. On defense, it's Sam Dickinson. And in net, it's Joshua Ravensbergen, right? And so if you're strictly looking at the top three or four prospects in each of those pools,

you've also got as a fourth prospect, Igor Chernyshov, who's had a phenomenal, phenomenal first season in the HL. And really, if you go back to last year in Saginaw, he started off the year with a shoulder surgery that he had in August, missed some time, and then came back and was really in junior hockey. last year. Chernishov was one of the very best players, not just in the OHL, but in the CHL. And you could kind of see what was going to come this year. There was a little bit of foreshadowing of, okay, maybe this kid is ready to make an impact in the AHL, which he then did. And maybe

this kid is ready even to potentially play some top six minutes and play alongside a Will Smith or a Macklin-Sellbrini or a Victor Ecklin, which he has done in spurts this year successfully as well, right? So if you're just looking at those top four, I think there's a very compelling case for the San Jose Sharks. Their number five prospect for me was Eric Polkamp, who has a real chance today as the podcast releases, has a real chance to win the Hobie Baker and is one of the Hattrick finalists for the Hobie Baker. You've got players like Quintin Mustie and Philip Bistet who are going to play in the league. Bistet is really knocking on the door. Luca Cagnoni has already played NHL games, though he's got to figure out whether he's sort of a third pairing offensive type or just a quadruplea sort of ultra offensive defenseman. at the AHL level. But you start to compare those players, that sort of Polkamp Kagnone, to the players who are 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, even 10 on the Blackhawks list. And that's where the division started to happen. At the top, I didn't think that Anton Frundel and Roman Kanserov and Sam Renzel, who were my top three Blackhawks prospects. I didn't think that they were that

far off the Ravensburg and Mesa Dickinson trio. But then you get further down the list and you've got Nicolardis who's scoring goals in the NHL and has had 30 plus, it's going to finish the year with 30 plus professional goals between the AHL and NHL in his rookie season this year. Obviously scored 70 first player since John Tavares to score 70 a year ago in the OHL. You've got Oliver Moore. You've got Kevin Kurchinski. You've Merrick Vaneker. You've got Sasha Boisvare, who's now getting introduced to fans. There's just a real depth there of guys who are going to be solid NHL contributors for you. and I just felt like some of the sharks guys had a little sort of further down the list,

had some question marks about them that maybe the Black Cox kids didn't have. And then even further down the Black Cox list, like they have Kansarov, who led the KHL in scoring, not just in his age cohort, led the KHL in scoring this year with 36 goals. They have both of the OHL goal scoring champions this year in Merrick Vaneker and Jack Pridham, who's going to play at BU next year. Like there's just such this mass of players. I think AJ Spellacy, and we've both watched AJ a lot, I think AJ Spellacy is going to be a fourth-line player in the NHL, and he's way down their list. So there's that piece of it, Drew Commesso is already playing NHL games as a goalie.

Like, there's just so much in the Blackhawks pool. Mason West is a wild card. I do wonder whether there's that sort of true high-end guy. I've been very impressed by Anton Frundel. I think Kansarov has a chance to be a true top six winger in the league. But are they what Misa or Dickinson could represent? No. So that was the conversation I had with those two teams at the top.

And we should say it was ultimately Chicago that got your number one spot, right? Yes. Mainly on the strength of that depth. It's interesting, though, to like see the timing come out here because you've got these lists more or less prepared a couple weeks ago. But in that time, Anton Frundel debuts. And not only does he debut, he debuts really loudly. And you've had Mesa play about 40 games in the NHL this season. So you have a little bit of a reference point.

You're not going to base anything on eight games like in any league. But it's got to be interesting for you as like you're building to this release and you're like, oh, this friendel and you had Chicago ranked one. So maybe that maybe that puts it all at ease. But when you talk about comparing friendel and Mesa and who's the best and certainly, you know, those two teams had to think about that at the draft last year. Friendell, his start in the NHL has been as good as Chicago could have ever dreamed of, I think. Yeah, six points in eight games as a teenage rookie who has put directly into.

to play, and he's been playing like 18, 18 to half minutes a night and playing well. I know early on he gave up a lot. That seems to have settled down. I think he's like plus two over his last three games, but he was productive right away. He seems to have found some immediate chemistry with Connor Bedard and Ryan Green on that line. And that factored in, frankly. And it's going to factor in next week when my top 100 drafted prospects ranking comes out as well. I'm just in the process of finishing up that list and sort of where Frondell fit in that relative to the Mises and the Martones and the guys that you would expect to be at the top was sort of another debate that I had with myself. But Frondell has looked good. And the big question I had with Frundel was kind of the boots. Like he can stomp around out there a little bit. And I wondered in those short races in the offensive zone or the defensive zone, was Anton going to be able to keep up? Was he going to be able to get to lose pucks? He can get going. We know he can get going and build ahead of steam, but those sort of from a standstill, those quick jumps around the offensive zone, I did wonder about that. And he hasn't looked slow to me in terms of getting out to the wall, protecting pucks, winning battles. He seems to be right in there. And the pace hasn't seemed to be an issue, which is huge for him, because we know he can shoot it. We know he's going to be a threat on the power play with the one timer. We know he has the size. Now they have to figure out, I think, is he a center or is he a winger? And it's the same thing they've had to figure out with Frank.

Nazar and Connor Bedard, obviously, to a lesser degree as well. So they've got a lot of those guys, like could be a center, could be a winger, even Oliver Moore and some of the other sort of depth guys. You're asking the same question, Sasha Boeh-Va-Vare. So that's, I think, the next thing for them is figuring out that mix. And then you insert a Kansarov and a Lardis, these sort of scoring wingers, and suddenly you've got a pretty interesting mix of players. Definitely. And to me, I think the Chicago, I agree, Chicago San Jose is kind of the tier line there. But we talk about the pools.

Really, a pool ranking is going to be swayed by the very top prospects here. And that's why like I zero in on Frontell with Chicago and certainly like the Mises and the Dickensons with San Jose. I think when you talk about that interchangeable second tier, Calgary comes out at the very top, mainly because they have Zane Perak and Cole Reshany, which are two of the better prospects in that whole tier from three to nine. Yes. And Matt May Gridden has been excellent this year. Like Matt Vey Gridden was a needle mover for them. They were just outside my top 10 pools a year ago.

And they added Cullen Potter and Cole Reschney two first round picks in last year's draft. But the true sort of difference makers in terms of elevating them, they already had Zane Perak. They already had Brustavich. And Brustavich has had a really nice year in the NHL as well. and I know Flames fans are high on him in some of his recent performances. I think he's played 20 minutes a night a few times recently, that kind of a thing. But it's Gridden and Wittenbach in particular that sort of helped to elevate them into that top 10 mix.

Gridden has, I think it's 11 points in his last 15 NHL games. He's playing on their first line. He's on PP1. He's showing a ton of poise with the puck. I know they've thrown around some lofty names in terms of like Kutrov and this like highly skilled, highly poised winger on their broadcast. And I don't think that's the kind of player we're talking about with Gridden. But Gridden looks like he's going to be a top six winger in the league.

And that is huge. And then Wittenbach obviously leagueed college hockey in scoring this year. And we'll see whether T.J. Hughes, who needs three points here to catch him, can catch them. But we'll likely finish the year out as a freshman as the leading score in the country. So that helped. Bruce Devich having a nice year help. Gridon having a nice year helped.

And that's even with Zane maybe not having the year that we expected Zane to have. Obviously, Cole Reschney's in the Frozen Four. He's playing big minutes, 20 minutes a night as a freshman forward. The goals haven't maybe been there. I think Cole only scored six goals in college hockey this year, but was a point per game player, one of the leading scorers on North Dakota. And he's first, like, he's playing three, four minutes on the penalty kill every night. And he's first over the boards on the power play.

And he's out for defensive zone draws. So I'm a big believer in Reshney. I thought he elevated at the world juniors was one of their better depth players at the world juniors. He's going to be a go-to guy for them next year. So there's suddenly something there. And then they trade for Abram Weeb. They trade for Jonathan Castagna, two of the top players in college hockey this year. Castagna's already turned pro.

Weeb will after the Frozen 4 this week and is expected to turn pro could even play potentially NHL games here in the final week of the regular season. So there's suddenly a there's something there. Henry Mews got off to a great start at Michigan before he was sideline for the year, unfortunately. Like there are just some pieces there now in Calgary. I know they have two more first round picks this year, and one of them will be in all likelihood a second, third, fourth overall pick. So now suddenly, if you can get that star forward prospect to slot alongside Zane Perrek,

now suddenly you have something to sort of build from in Calgary and they desperately need that. When we talk about the interchangeableness of this, like you're absolutely spot on here. And I think people will see that when they look at the pool rings. I don't want to go blow by blow through all these teams. I think there's a lot of them that will not surprise people. Obviously, the Utah mammoth after getting Caleb Denway and been picking high a decent amount in the last several years, they're in there. The Nashville Predators, the Detroit Red Wings, the Seattle Crack, and the Philadelphia Flyers, who we're going to come back to. The Montreal Canadiens are the last team in that kind of tier, right, at number nine.

And it's a very good system. When I look at it, I can absolutely see an argument for top five. Again, that's where the interchangeability comes into play. The guy I want to key in on for the Canadians, though, is Alexander Jarovsky, because he is ahead on your, like, you don't just rank the pools. You go blow by blow. You rank the players. You write up a good blurb on him.

This guy's ahead of David Reinbocker who went very high for Montreal. He's ahead of some other highly rated prospects. Exactly. Tell me a little bit more about Jarovsky. And I know Montreal fans are pretty aware of him. They followed him closely. but for our NHL listeners outside of Montreal, what did Montreal find in Alexander Zorovsky?

Yeah, I mean, we talked about Kansarov off the top just in terms of those standout KHL players. Igor Surin is another one with the Nashville Predators who had an excellent year. But Zorozzi, with UFA, had a historic year and a historic year for a U-19 skater relative to Matt Bay Michikov, Ivan Demadov, Nikita Kutrov, Kareil Kaprizov,

you go down the list, the all-time great U-19 teenage seasons in the KHL and Jorovsky paced with them. There is a caveat to that, like if you remember from just two years ago, Ivan Demadov, despite the fact that he's now a 60-point player in the NHL a year year out from that, Ivan Demadov was only playing like 13 minutes a night in the KHL last year. That's not what happened with Jerovsky and Ufa. Zirovsky was playing on the first time, playing 17, 18, 19 minutes a night.

So there's a, and you go back to Mietch, Kov's year at that age, same thing, kind of 13 minutes, not 18, 19 minutes. So he definitely benefited from playing high in Ufa's lineup, but also led that team in scoring and was just consistently, consistently noticeable with the puck and has shot up, like entering his draft year, he was listed at 5 foot 11. He's now listed at 6 foot 2. So suddenly you've got this highly, highly skilled player and Jarowski with the puck on his stick is dynamic offensively. So you've got this highly, highly skilled player, and you've got him in a six-foot-two frame, and you've got the statistical track record after a huge, huge year in the KHL, an all-time year in the KHL for his age.

And suddenly it's like, oh, boy, 33rd overall, or 34th overall, the second pick after Hoshi Wang, Simon Wang, went to San Jose. Suddenly you're like, oh, boy, this kid looks like a top 10, top 15 talent in last year's draft class. Like, if I were to redraft 20, 25 today, once you get through the show. Jafers and the true top dogs, Zirovsky's in that next mix, and that will be reflected in my upcoming

drafted prospects ranking as well. He's a really lean kid, part of that gross spurt. Like, I think he's got a little bit of that Elias Pedersen, Kent Johnson, sort of scrawny look to him, if you will. But, oh, man, like, you're taught, I think you're looking at a top, a future top six PP winger here.

And to get that in the second round and to know that just a year after getting it in the second round, and to have that be the way that other teams are talking about this player and that he's he's sort of viewed not just by the Montreal Canadians and by Habs fans, you'd expect them to be excited about him. But you talk to just about anybody about the risers from last year's draft. And obviously Wittenbach comes up and some of those names come up. But Jarowski is one of the very first names you hear and with emphasis in talking to people.

So something to be excited. Like that's found money, right? like that's finding Matthew Nyes. That's like that's finding a key piece in a, in a range where you're not supposed to find them. And they've already obviously done that with Lane Hudson. And then you've got Michael Hage and you've got your goalie of the future and Jacob Fowler. And another one of the risers from last year's draft is Bryce Pickford, who I've got a feature coming out on soon at the Athletic, who's another Habs prospect and obviously doing historic things from a goal scoring perspective this year in the WHL.

So just some nice storylines. They don't have that sort of mass that in Nashville Predators or Chicago Blackhawks have in terms of like their prospects that are at eight and nine you're hoping are playing games for you rather than our surefire NHLers. But those top four names with Reinebacker, Zerovsky, Fowler, and Hage, and the year that Hage had at Michigan, those top four names can probably go blow to blow with most teams as pools. You mentioned that, you know, the sharks picked one spot in front of the Canadians when they got Jorovsky. It's kind of funny because the sharks found a similar impact player, a little different profile between these two. But when they found Igor Chernoshov in a similar neighborhood of the draft there. And, you know, again, different profile.

But we saw Chernoshov's impact this year. And when you can find a piece like that at that neighborhood of the draft, I think people take for granted sometimes, whether it's because the NFL you find like high impact guys in the second round or whatever, it's much harder than you think to actually find a real contributor, much less like a top six piece at the turn of the, the first and second round there. And so when you find a player like that, if Jarovsky really does become that,

if Chernoshov continues as he looks like he is going to becoming that, it's a game changer for teams. No question. And same goes in Chicago in terms of Kansarov and Lardis and what they might represent, right? Like it's, you have to hit at the top. And I should have probably noted off the top that there was some feedback to me in terms of Artie Lev Shunov not being included with the Blackhawks pool while Sam Dickinson was. They're from the same draft class, obviously.

Artie has played exclusively in the NHL this year. So has Sam. Artie's a little bit older. So there's a little bit of that that happens in terms of just picking who I think has sort of quote unquote graduated. But further down, like you have to hit on, and Chicago might not have hit on Korkinski, but you kind of have to hit on the Bedards and the Lev Shunovs and the Frank Nazars and the Will Smiths and the Joshua Ravensbergins, like those premium assets that you

dedicate a huge amount of time and resources for. But if you can find that Cancerov, if you can find that Cherny Shav, if you can find that Jarovsky, that elevates your ceiling in maybe an unexpected way, in a way that you don't sort of calculate for. Yeah. And to your point about like the eligibility, it's a moving target. And I know with the Red Wings, they frustrated you a little bit because it was Pelica had been in the NHL the whole year, standing back to standing Pelica. And then he gets sent down. And then he's back in the NHL by the time Detroit's list actually comes out. I'm sure that there's all kinds of little things like that that are, you know, people, people, uh, are right to point out some of the things, but it is a moving

target as you're putting this together. And the way I thought about it specifically with Dickinson versus Lev Shunov, because of the impact that that would have on the top of the rankings is that Dickinson, they didn't have a choice. Like I included him because we don't know if he was a HL eligible. We don't know whether they would have sent him to the HL. And frankly, I think he probably would have played games. I think Sam would have played games in the HL this year had he been eligible. With Artie, we do know that the HL was an option for him and they still didn't send him there. Albeit, they did send him there during the Olympic break to

sort of practice and reset. He never actually played a game in the HL this year, Artie. So that was kind of where I landed on it, if you will, in my defense. And Chicago was one anyway. So they just would have been super one if they had Lefshinoff. It's fine. Yeah. So that's the bulk of kind of the top 10 of Scott's rankings. I think that's a big part of this list, as always. Those are the players, the teams that you're going to want to be following if you're a reader, if you're a listener. But I also think one of the most interesting kind of narrative elements of this whole exercise, Scott, is who's moving up and who's moving down. So let's start with kind of the biggest

fallers on this list. One of them is the Minnesota Wild. And the Minnesota Wilde are a faller for the best possible reason that you can be a faller. You traded a bunch of prospects away and you got Quinn Hughes in return. So yeah, you lose Z. Booium. Yeah, you lose. Liam Ogren and Danila Urov graduates. Is there anything for the wild to be concerned about here? Or is this just like, yep, that's what you do when you're a good team? You talked about the teams that typically are 30th or 32nd. Those are good teams.

I think the concern is just how much of a slat, like just how deep they cut the grass, if you will, and the division that they play in. Like they have put all of their chips on the table. And you better believe now that with Quinn Hughes and Karel Kapprazov and with out a prototypical first line center that you can win in that division against Dallas and Colorado because if you don't, you have not not abandoned, but pretty close to abandon the future sort of foundation of your organization, which they had built. They were number two in this project just a year ago. And Walsden, that's another graduate, right? Like, that's not a huge graduate.

Yeah, Walsstead and your other graduates. And Zeev was going to be a graduate, whether he, um, like, whether they traded him or not, so that the trade doesn't really impact Zeev. He has he's Eve played exclusively in the NHL this year. He was quite likely going to be viewed as a graduate, and I didn't list him on Vancouver's. But no, like, it's, there's not a lot left there. And obviously, Ogrin goes out, you go down the list, it's suddenly pretty bare bones. And I like Charlie Stramel and Adam Bonach. And there's a couple of sort of interesting prospects there, but they've had a really tough time

develop, we've talked about it on the pod with Chris, who's obviously tapped in in Iowa. They've had a really tough time developing some of their young defensemen. They used a lot of depics on young defensemen over the last five, six years, and they've had a tough time in Iowa developing them. Iowa has just been kind of a place where those deep prospects go to sit and not take that next step. We saw David Spachek. David Spachuk played some NHL games for them this year, and he's a very good H.L. Defenceman, but there's just, there's not, like, if Stramel's your best prospect, The best case outcome for Charlie Stramel is that he's a really good 3C, right? Like, that's always been the projection.

So that piece that they may be missing now, that that top six center that maybe gets them over the hump against a Colorado or a Dallas, that piece isn't coming internally. And if you now need to trade to acquire that piece, you don't have the bullets in the chamber to do that. So I think there's going to be some reliance on free agency. and there's got to be hope now that it can be by committee with, and Marco Rossi also goes out the door, not a prospect, but Rossi goes out the door too. So now you're counting on Yorov and Erick and some of these guys to be really important players down the middle for you.

And I'm not sure that down the middle they have what it takes. So it was a risky calculation for them, and I'll be fascinated to see whether it pays off in terms of not getting into the playoffs every year. I think we expect them to do that moving forward with their core. it's can they go three or four rounds deep into the playoffs now. I still think that you will see them try to trade for a higher level center, whether it's one of or probably not both of.

You probably have to pick one of Eurover Stremel and then you're looking for other pieces. Your check also goes out the door for bottom of rank too, right? Yep, that's true. Not that year check, we know what your check is now, but it's another prospect that was subtracted from their list from a year ago. If you were, let's say, the New York Rangers and your trade in Vincent Trocheck, What would your interest level be in a Urov or a Stramel in that kind of trade? I mean, there's a huge age gap, if nothing else.

Yeah, and that's also, frankly, what the Rangers need. Like, the Rangers have all these wings, and they've had all of these wings, and you can go back to Capocaco, and now you've got Gabe Perot and they've just traded for Liam Greentree, another wing. Like, the Rangers do sort of need that young center to infuse into their group. So I would wonder about Yorov or Stramel. I'm a bigger believer in. you're of than I am with Stremel.

I think in Yorov you have a potential for a second line center. In Stramel, I don't think he gets there. I just don't think he has the pace or the skill level to quite get there. But there's probably also a scenario where Stramel as a 3C is more valuable to you than you're of as a 2C in terms of where they fit into a roster and their ideal role on a team. So, no, those players, yeah, that's your, but even, like, is Trocheck is a 30 plus-year-old center who's a very good player. Does that get you over the hump relative to Nathan McKinnon and Wyatt Johnston? And like it's it's a it's a tough hill to climb down

the middle. Now if Caprazov and Hughes are winning games for you and Walsdet becomes your starting goal even that everything you're fine still but it's that man that division is tough. Like it feels to me like the Atlantic felt for a few years there with with Boston and Florida and Tampa and Toronto, right? Where it's just like, oh, it's going to be a war now. Yeah. So the Wilder 23 on this list. The teams behind them, I don't think anyone's really surprised by the lightning,

the Golden Knights, the Avs, the Leafs, that one's a problem for Toronto. That is a problem. The senators at 26, it's not ideal, although they have a good enough, young enough team that maybe you can weather it. The interesting one on the other side of the ledger, like they're actually above the wild on this list, but I think there's still a faller from where you've had them relative to the past is the Columbus Blue Jackets. And there's some of the same kind of elements of graduates, right?

Denton Matechuk, like you want a guy like Denton Matechuk to graduate because it means he's impacting your NHL team. And he has impacted their NHL team. Graduated last year was a really good player. But it's not entirely the same. Like, yeah, but you got Quinn Hughes as the Minnesota Wilde is. It's a little maybe more concerning for the Columbus Blue Jackets to be now in the back half of this list at 17.

Yeah. And frankly, not a lot has changed. Like even if you subtract, obviously, Fantilli and KJ were before that, but if you, let's say you subtract Denton, Mateoch, and you add Jackson Smith. I think that from a prospect standpoint, they were take, yeah, they were taken in about the same spot in the draft. They were both taken around 12th, 13th overall. Like, they're comparable prospects for me at the same age.

Denton a little bit smaller, but more accomplished in terms of just pedigree at the junior level in Canada. And they both played in the WHL, but Denton was more accomplished. accomplished it in earlier age. Jackson was always about the raw tools and this elite skating ability. But you look at their pool, not a lot has changed. Like, it's still Luca Del Bell Blues and all these guys that have been there. And the thing that hurt them, and they drafted Peter Andreana of one of the top goalie prospects with a second first round pick that. He was actually taken before Ravensburg and in last year's draft. But the thing that

has really hurt them is that year over year, the one change in their pool is that I have continued to downgrade my projection and the likelihood of him meeting that projection on Caden Lindstrom. And Lindstrom just had another tough year. And he was, we've talked about it on the pot as well, but he was owed more and he had some good nights for the Spartans. And they were a very deep team. And he's coming off of basically a year and a half off of hockey. And he's still dealing with the back a little bit and learning how to manage it. And he's doing all sorts of off-ice stuff to get himself ready to play games. And he's still a big, big strong kid with the quick twitch hands and he's physical and he's mean and he's going to

score and things are going to come and happen for kad but man that's a tough pick at fourth overall and you watch ivan demadov and what he's doing in montreal this year and you go down the list from demadov and it's it's it's a very very difficult pill for that organization to swallow i think or it's and if they haven't realized that that's what it's going to be then they will eventually Um, so that, that worries me. Like, is Caden going to play in the NHL still? Yeah, probably. Is Caden going to be a dominant force, top line power forward in the NHL or even a second line version of that? Are they going to have Fantilli, Winstrom down the middle like we thought they might have no. Like, that's just not, that's not a reasonable projection at this stage of, of Lindstrom's career. So that part of it just hurt them, hurt their standing overall. And I, I, I, I, I, I don't know what's next for Caden. Ironically enough, he should probably kind of follow his Michigan state teammates path.

Stramel. Yeah, Stramel, right? Stramel transferred after his freshman year and had it really a tough two couple of years. And then he reunites with Knighty. And Knighty's a coach who obviously coached Stramel at the NTDP, and he knew how to get the most out of him. But he also just stuck with it. And he stuck with it.

And then suddenly he was playing on a line with Daniel Russell and Porter Martone, and they were one of the best lines in college hockey. and he had a 50-point season. That's what Caden needs to do. It's so hard for a fourth overall pick to not take that entry-level contract and jump to the NHL, even when things aren't going well. But I think I truly believe it's in Caden's best interest

to spend three or four years in college. He's going back for next year as a sophomore. But even if he has a better year next year, I'd still be reluctant if I'm the Columbus Blue Jackets to say to Caden, okay, now is the time to turn pro. Like, just let him play at Michigan State for three or four years, get better, hopefully have the kind, eventually have the kind of year that Stramel had this year. And then you're not operating from a place of catch up all the time with his

development. All right. So those are the fallers. Let's go to the risers here. Some of these are obvious. We already talked about the Calgary Flames. They're up to number three. Obviously a riser. We talked about all the reasons why. I think it's also pretty clear why the New York Islanders are a riser. And you don't even have Matthew Schaefer in this group. But you make the Noah Dobbson trade. You end up with Kishin and Victor Eklund. That's going to do. a whole lot for your system, right? You trade for Calam Richie. That's Callum Richie right earlier in that year. So that's a big part of this. The Pittsburgh Penguins, I think, maybe a little bit of similar logic. We were all, I think, going into the draft last year,

pretty down on the penguin system. All of a sudden, it's a number 16 system for you. I still don't know that there's a star in there. I mean, Ben Kendall is not a part of this. He was a big breakthrough. He's not a part of this ranking. He's in the NHL. But when you start to add up Horcough, Brunichy, Zonin, McGority, there's a lot of like, middle of the lineup types here now. Yes. And they've always that that sort of group, that pairing of West Clark and Kyle Dubus have always been a sort of quantity over quality.

Everybody's focused on quality, but they have focused on moving back and acquiring bullets and making a lot of picks. And that is what they've done in Pittsburgh. And so not only do they now have five or six guys that you think might play and Sergey Murashov, who's one of the top, and this is a bit of a spoil. for my goalie ranking, but Murashav, who's one of the top 10 goalie prospects in the sport, but you've also just got depths. Like, they've got guys into the teens, and many of them won't play, and many of them

might not even be impactful AHAers, but they've got guys with, like, who do one or two things really well, or they've got little guys with skill, and they've got some big guys, and they've taken some swings on some players at various points in the draft that I respected. And then on top of that, Horcoff just had a really good year. I capered off a little bit. I didn't like him at the World Juniors, and I thought he tapered off a little bit in the second half of the year, but still scored 20 plus goals.

He's technically a sophomore, but what should have been his freshman year, and it is his first full year, obviously, entered college for second semester last year. Just some nice stories. Brunachie, like, great story. Another one of those second round picks that you talked about. Like, you find a Harrison Brunichie in the second round

who you know is going to be a top six defenseman for you. And maybe he's only a four or five, but four fives get paid $5 million in the NHL now. Yeah, they usually go like the 20th pick. Yes. So that side of it, they're in a good spot from a depth standpoint. Even without Kindle,

even had Kindle been included, they still feel like they're, and I love Ben Kindle. Like he's an incredibly smart player and that has gotten him into the NHL this year. But even with Kindle, they're missing, like, to get to Porter Martone with Philadelphia. We talked about Misa off the top. Like, they are still

missing that piece for whatever comes after the Crosby, Latang, Carlson, Malkin era, right? So that piece is still missing and you do have to draft at the top to typically get that piece as they know well as an organization. And because of how well they're playing in the NHL right now, they're not really well positioned to draft highly anymore. So I'll be interested to see how they acquire that pick. And maybe it's as simple as once, like, they're going to have this young group and then once Crosby and Malkin are gone, they're going to take a huge step back again. They're going to be right back to picking at the top of the draft again. But no, they've done a good job with the picks that they've had. And we were all sort of a little surprised by how high Kindle went, right?

Like, he was that first, he was really the first pick of last year's draft that didn't go according to script. Like, you had, Roger McQueen was taken right in front of him. And you had these guys who kind of went exactly where we all expected them to go. And then Kindle was a departure from that and has performed really in line with where he was selected in hindsight. Just to zero it on Miroshov really quick, because he's been one of the most interesting prospects for me to kind of follow from afar this year. I mean, this is a guy who has better AHL numbers this year at a younger age than Sebastian

Kosa, who is the number one prospect for you for the Red Wings, who are the number four system here. Nershov is the number six prospect for the penguins who are the number 16. system here. So it's an interesting one to kind of square. There are differences here. Having the best AHL season does not make you the better prospect. The Grand Rapids team in front of COSA is really strong. So that is maybe another point to actually in Murshov's favor. But there's size elements here that factor into your projection, all that stuff. But I wanted to dive a little deeper on him because to me, I would put him on that level right there with COSA based on what he's done in the American

League. Yeah. And it's tempting to do that. And I took a little flack from from Penguins fans when my list came out of just saying like, we love Zonan and we love Torkoff and we love Magrorty and we love Brunichy, but he should be sort of in a tier with those guys. I kind of had those guys in a tier and then Murshov was right at the front of the next tier. And there's probably a case that that's based off how he's continued to play since that list came out a few weeks ago. There's probably a pretty compelling case for that, frankly. But I've just never, like I've always felt about Mershov, like this is a tandem goalie.

Like this is a goalie who's going to play 40, 45 games. But I've never quite got there to where I am on Fowler and even not just COSA, but I think potentially Augustine, it'll be fascinating to see how they handle the two of them. And I know Posava and others have played well. Pretty much everybody who's played in Grand Rapids. A good team. A good team. A good team.

But I, those guys just feel like they have a lot. little bit more upside to me. The flip side of it is I wonder whether some of the Russian goalies have been, from a quote unquote perception or pedigree standpoint, I wonder whether some of the Russian goalies have been hurt in recent years by not playing at the U20 level. Like Sergey Ivanov is another one in the KHL. He's a bluejackets prospect. He's now Ivanov's 511 so that there's a bit of a different calculus there. But Ivanov's another one, Igor Zevragan, another one. These are, these are among the very best goalie prospects in the league right now. And we'll all be high in my drafted goalie prospects ranking next week.

But they haven't played it. We haven't seen them play internationally. I haven't seen them play live even, although I saw Ivanov live way, way, way back. But it's just been harder to sort of truly know. And on top of that, KCHL and MHL stats, and we're going to see it with Andreeanov, who was the first round pick of the Blue Jackets as well. HL and MHL stats always, almost always look good if you're a decent prospect. Like all those goalies put up 920s, 930s over there.

And it's not the case over here where goalies put up, like COSA has a 918 year, but he also had a 9-09, I think he had a 909 year in the WHL. So a lot of it is sort of balancing that as well. And then COSA is obviously 6-5 and explosives. So you're always sort of, I think that carries maybe him a little bit too far in our evaluations. Maybe I'm a little too high on COSA and Augustine, and they should have been fifth or sixth on Detroit's list like, like Marashev was on Pittsburgh's. But that's the calculus you're making with goalies. And on top of it, I just find goalies harder to evaluate.

They are so hard. And certainly to your point, like when you're not getting them at these big international events and you can see everybody on the same stage against the same competition, it's a variable. But you look around the NHL right now, I'm betting on Russian goalies. The Russian goalies, it's been true for a while now. Every year or two, a new one comes in and they're one of the better ones in the league. At what, three of the top five right now are Russians in the NHL between Shisterk and Vasilevsky and Sorokin? So maybe. And look at Ugarov's numbers a year ago at BU.

He goes from Omaha, a team that couldn't win a game where he has an 890 save percentage. And if you're looking at his safe percentage, you think this kid's not a top end goalie prospect. and then he goes to BU and leads them to the Frozen Four, right? So another Russian, like just yet another Russian. Yeah. Ascarov, yeah, they're everywhere. All right, another team that's on the climber list, you teased it already, is the Philadelphia Flyers. For you, they are up to on this year's list number eight.

And Porter Martone is a big driving reason why. And everyone who has watched the Philadelphia Flyers over the last week since he debuted as getting a very clear window into why that is. Yes. Porter, another guy who has my top 100 drafted prospects ranking has kind of had to be live in the last couple

of weeks even as I finalized it because of what Frontell and what Porter have looked like in the NHL. I actually think Porter has looked more impressive than Anton in the NHL. I've been, I watched back two of his games on Instat and man, oh man, like he was excellent

like borderline their best player from Puck Drop of his NHL debut through his first two games. So, yeah, just very, very impressive, obviously has the 50 plus points as a freshman at college this year as well, playing on that line with Russell and Stramel and has that sort of skill around the net, goes to the net, will drop the gloves, his physical, likes to run his mouth a little bit, like he's just kind of got that flyer feel to him. I think fans there are just going to fall in love with him. I know everybody has kind of been clamoring them for them to

find a center to play with the Michikovs and the Ziegresses and the wingers that they have and the connect knees and Tippett and the wingers that they have there. And they didn't go that route. When there were centers on the board, including James Higgins, they didn't go that route with the Martone pick, but you have to like that pick regardless. And they have gotten a little too eager, I think, with some of their other picks, including last year. They didn't just add Porter Martone last year. They had six picks. And I believe it's six picks in the first. two rounds, four seconds and two first. They take Jack Nesbit, a center with the other pick.

They took Jett Lucchenco, 12th overall, kind of the same range as they took Nesbit. I thought both of those kids were taken too high and probably top out as scrapping each other to be a 3C for you. Maybe one of them becomes an OK2C if all goes well. But that, like with so many organizations around the league, that first line center is now what they feel like they're missing, right? Like they've got, who knows what year a check will be, but they've got Oliver Bunk coming on the blue line.

Denver Barkey's had a nice year for them. Like there are some pieces there on top of the Kinecte's and the Zegris is and Zegris having a really positive year in Cam York and Jamie Driesdale and Travis Sandheim. And there are pieces there. And they've got Zavregg and the goalie that I mentioned coming. But the, yeah, it feels like the center is missing there. Like that's, like, am I wrong in that?

No, they've tried. I mean, Luchenko and Nesbitt, we're never going to be number one centers. But I think there was at least a chance for both of them to be number two. I think particularly Luchenko, Nesbitt's definitely like a versatile middle six profile, right? Like, he can play center for you, but I also think he's got a very good case as just like a hard winger who you can play on the second line with skill guys. You can play on the third line to create a mean third line. Luchenko was the one you kind of needed with the pace and the playmaking. That was the one who had the real rest.

to be a two. And, you know, we'll see. It could happen. He's still pretty young, but it hasn't trended toward two so far. And he's, he's not even a two C on his OHL team at the moment. So that's,

yeah, it's tough. Like he just, he, that the production has never come to match everything you like about jet, which is the work ethic, excellent skater thinks the game well. He just hasn't scored enough.

And it's kind of what feels a little bit like very different profiles as players, but a little bit like Nate Danielson as well. And, in in Detroit where like you you love the player but what ultimately is there offensively I think is the question. And it's a similar predicament for Detroit is like, well, if you're right at the fringes of the playoffs right now, Philly could get into the playoffs this year or they could just miss and be picking like 14 or 15. Is Oliver Suvanto going to move the needle on that?

He's kind of in that same bucket as those guys, you know? So they will have to find that at some point, whether it's through a trade up, whether it's through a trade. Hey, they own the Toronto pick in 2027, I believe. Is that right? They do. That could be an interesting one, although I'm sure Toronto's going to do everything they can to not have that be in the neighborhood that they're picking this year. But they're going to have to find a way to that top center. But there's a lot of good pieces in Philly.

And there's a lot of sneaky good players, I think, already in Philly. And especially Martone joining that, it gets more interesting. The last team I want to talk about in this riser group is the Boston Bruins. They're number 19. They're not super high on the list. But for a long time, they were at the very tail of this list. They were in there with the Florida's, with the Vegas's. James Hagan's is the biggest reason why, but who else should Bruins fans kind of know?

And maybe those outside of Boston know is on the way for the Bruins. Yeah. And another team, as fate would have it with two first round picks this year, and one of them belongs to who? The Toronto Maple Leafs. Well, it might belong to the Toronto Maple Leafs to be originated with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Leaves would have to do some work over these last few games to keep that pick. Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you're the Bruins, maybe you want to be drafting high, and the benefit in all of this is that you're going to be drafting a little bit later maybe than you were expecting to. You're going to be backdrafting in the 20s somewhere with your own pick, but you might be drafting 6th or 7th or 8th overall with the Leafs pick. And you add that to James Higgins. And the question you asked of sort of what else is there. Well, suddenly a year after not scoring a goal as a freshman, Dean La Tourneau scored 25 as a sophomore and was second on the Boston College Eagles and scoring behind James Hagen's on a team that if you look at

pull up their elite prospects page, it's just littered with Boston Bruins logos. It's almost like a whatever's below the ECHL. That's what the Eagles seem to represent to the Bruins these days. But what to or no, what tourneau has been outstanding and took a huge step this year. And really was, I know Wittenbach and some of these guys get talked about in terms of the stories of the year this year. But Dean was, and had Boston College been a better team? Dean was one of the stories of college hockey this season for me and just made plays constantly,

was around the net, was cranking his one-timer on the power play. And people sort of looked at him in his draft year and wanted him to be harder, wanted him to work harder. They thought he was just incredibly soft for a big man. And others looked at him, and I'm sure the Bruins looked at him and thought, okay, like, is this kid so skilled offensively that he's maybe kind of a Tage Thompson? And they accelerated, you'll remember, they accelerated his, his, uh, freshman year last year. He wasn't actually supposed to play in college last year. It was only because

Will Smith turned pro that they were able to open up that spot for him. So this to me honestly kind of felt a little bit more like his freshman year. He just barely played there last year and they were a top team in the country and Jacob Fowler was still there. And they were pushing and pushing and pushing. Gabe Perrault was still there. And this year they kind of turned it over to some different guys there. And Dean was just so impressive offensively for a six foot kid and he's athletic and he can skate. And then they've acquired others. Like Will Zellers looks like he might be kind of a...

World Junior breakout star, Will Zeris. And at the Frozen Four this week with North Dakota and was just under a point per game there this year. I think he scored 18 goals as well for them, which might have led them in goal. He was like third or fourth on that team in points, but might have led them in goals. And just kind of like a greasy guy. Like Zellers is just always around the net. He kind of has that sort of Bobby Brink.

kind of feel to him just around the crease and the guts of the ice. So, yeah, like, suddenly there's something here. Cooper Simpson, I was speaking with the Youngstown guys when I was putting together the Bruins pool, and I sent a text to the Youngstown guys and said, like, am I crazy to be excited about Cooper Simpson and what he looks like? And they said, absolutely not. Like, Cooper scored almost 80 points in the USHL this year, which is extremely hard to do. Like, that's 100 points in the CHL.

and did it making like high-end plays. He was a high school kid who could absolutely rip the puck. And those kids who just have that sort of early NHL shot always get, especially out of high school, always sort of become just naturally a mid-round pick. And now he's blowing it past USHL goalies and you start to wonder, like, okay, this kid's 6-3 and he's got hands and he can absolutely fire it. Like there might be something there.

So there's just, there's more there. And they still got Matt Plotra and Fabian Liesel and guys that have been in that system forever and kind of bouncing between the NHL and the AHL. Obviously, Poitra's played a lot of NHL games. I think you might be getting close to 100 NHL games. But they just, it's Higgins and Littornaud and Zellers and Simpson and some of those guys that kind of make that pool interesting now.

And you add two first round picks this year to it. And suddenly the Bruins have maybe an opportunity to kind of add guys to Pastranaq and to MacAvoy without having to. to move on necessarily from Pastrach and McAvoy. Yeah. Well, certainly for the Bruins, it's been, things have gone about as well this year as I think they possibly could have. And, you know, there's even some more irons in the fire. I know you're a big Cooper Simpson, kind of not necessarily big believer, but you think there's

kind of a shot that that one becomes a really winning dart throw. Things like that are going well for the Bruins right now at the amateur level, at the pro level. Fluto had a really good article the other day about all the trades that they've made. It's pretty remarkable when a team is able to kind of. to do this. I mean, every team thinks that they're going to do this, that they're going to come out of an era of strong competitiveness and kind of retool on the fly. I'm not saying that the Bruins are like all the way there yet, but they seem to have some of the ingredients to do it, including that Leafs pick that could become a big piece of pulling that off. I did not have Morgan Geeky becoming a 40 goal

score on my bingo card a few years ago, right? Like he just looked like a skilled big man who could shoot it, but was slow and didn't have the feet, a little bit like his brother, who's still kind of figuring it out in Tampa system, but I probably would have told you at the same age that I thought Connor Geeky was a better prospect than Morgan Geeky, and they have just turned Morgan into like a legit first-line player. I mean, Morgan Geeky is the guy that's going to inspire. Like, if you're the New York Rangers and you just traded it for Liam Greentree, you're showing Liam Green Tree Morgan Grie Geeky clips every single day, just hoping that

that's the outcome there, right? So he's going to inspire a lot of people to take that shot on the heavy-footed, skilled shooter, right? So, but things going well for Boston and being a riser on Scott Wheeler's prospect rankings, certainly a part of that. I think that's going to do it for us here, unless I'm missing anything. Any other pools you wanted to touch on before we wrap this one? No, that was a pretty, a pretty thorough dive through the pool rankings this year.

And now we get to look forward to finishing up at the Frozen 4. And then we're into the MEMCup and U18 Worlds and the combine and it'll be draft time. And I just cannot wait for that sort of May, June grind that we're about to go through on the pod. Yeah. All right. Well, then that is going to do it for us on this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect series. Thanks, Scott for doing this. Make sure you guys all go through. If we didn't talk about your team today, I apologize, but I promise you, Scott covered it way more thoroughly than we could have possibly done it here in his series online. You can read all of those at the athletic. We'll talk to you soon.