The Big Reveal: Our Staff’s Individual Prospect Rankings
10 years ago
One of my biggest pet peeves in sports is the fact that the voting for awards isn’t made public after the fact. I don’t know about you, but I’d take it much more seriously if I knew who was voting for what. If you’re going to have the right to vote, you should disclose it, own up to it, and face the music (which sounds an awful lot like the inevitable wrath of fans that don’t agree with you). So, for the sake of transparency, we’re releasing our individual rankings for all to see.
I know, I know, it’s long overdue. After all, our series concluded nearly two weeks ago. The plan was to actually hold off on disclosing them until Corey Pronman released his Top 10 for the Canucks. But we couldn’t wait any longer. Without further ado, they’re being presented to you on the other side of the jump.
The 5 rankers involved (Thomas Drance, Cam Charron, Jeff Angus, Patrick Johnston, and myself) were essentially asked to put together their individual Top 20. Then, we combined all of the results into an aggregate score. In the case of a tie between two prospects, we put the player with the single highest ranking ahead (ex. Gaunce and Corrado technically both had the same aggregate score, but Cam’s #1 ranking of Gaunce put him ahead of Corrado, whose highest individual rank was #2, on our overall list). By that logic, shouldn’t Peter Andersson should have finished ahead of Sauve and Cassels, though? I guess so. But 3 of our 5 rankers didn’t even rank Andersson, which he was penalized for.
| Prospect | Dimitri | Thomas | Cam | Jeff | Patrick | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan Gaunce | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2.8 |
| Frank Corrado | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2.8 |
| Bo Horvat | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| Nicklas Jensen | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3.4 |
| Hunter Shinkaruk | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4.2 |
| Eddie Lack | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Jordan Subban | 8 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 9.2 |
| Joseph LaBate | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 14 | 9.6 |
| Henrik Tommernes | 10 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 17 | 10.4 |
| Kellan Lain | 7 | NR | 10 | 10 | 8 | 11.2 |
| Joacim Eriksson | 15 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 11.2 |
| Alexandre Grenier | 11 | 9 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 12.8 |
| Alexandre Mallet | 13 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| Darren Archibald | 14 | 12 | 18 | NR | 11 | 15.2 |
| Patrick McNally | 12 | 20 | 15 | 13 | NR | 16.2 |
| Joe Cannata | 17 | NR | 19 | 16 | 9 | 16.4 |
| Yann Sauve | 16 | 18 | 11 | 20 | NR | 17.2 |
| Cole Cassels | 19 | 15 | NR | 19 | 12 | 17.2 |
| Peter Andersson | NR | 16 | NR | NR | 7 | 17.2 |
| Alex Friesen | 18 | NR | 13 | 18 | 19 | 17.8 |
Also Receiving Votes:
| Prospect | Dimitri | Thomas | Cam | Jeff | Patrick | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anton Cederholm | 20 | 14 | NR | 17 | NR | 18.6 |
| Evan McEneny | NR | NR | 20 | 15 | 20 | 19.4 |
| Adam Polasek | NR | 17 | 17 | NR | NR | 19.4 |
| Ben Hutton | NR | 13 | NR | NR | NR | 19.4 |
| Ludwig Blomstrand | NR | NR | NR | NR | 18 | 20.4 |
I’m sure there’s certain rankings that each of us would like to have back, and amend, but I can only speak for myself. I’d like to make the following changes to my personal list:
- I’m already on the record as saying that were I to redo my list, I’d have Blomstrand somewhere in the range of a Yann Sauve (16th). In fact, now that I think about it, I would probably just swap the two.
- I’d also probably move Kellan Lain down a few spots. I don’t remember having him as high as I apparently did, but I guess I was drinking the kool aid at the time.
- I don’t put too much stock into something like the Young Stars Classic, and I often see people far too quick to jump to conclusions based off of its small samples. But one guy whose play did change my mind was Cole Cassels, a player I was initially skeptical of. However, after having watched him in Penticton, I’d feel inclined to bump him up a few spots. I was really impressed by his overall game. As Drance mentioned in his profile of him, he could be in line for a much bigger role in Oshawa, and certainly could find himself shooting up our rankings come next summer.
- The biggest riser is Joacim Eriksson, who I’d probably move up into my Top 10. At the time I simply didn’t know very much about him, and obviously took a far too cautious approach in ranking him. He deserves to be neck and neck with Eddie Lack as far as I’m concerned (with a slight edge to Lack based on his performance in the AHL).
- Bo Horvat very well could be a better prospect than Brendan Gaunce. I’m not bullish (no pun intended) on Gaunce by any means, and will openly conceed that I could certainly wind up looking foolish for having him ranked over Horvat in the near future. But I’m not necessarily sold on Horvat, either, and I think there’s a ton of recency bias with him. After all, he is the shiny new toy in Vancouver. Obviously the fact that Corey Pronman didn’t even have Gaunce in his Top 110 didn’t help matters, but I’ve got to stick by my decision. For now.
This should go without saying, but, I still feel the need to implore you to keep the comments section civil, please. Disagreeing with the rankings of any of our writers is totally fine. In fact, you should, since they were mostly subjective rankings. We always encourage thoughtful discussion and back-and-forth banter. But personal attacks and childish name-calling will not be tolerated, so don’t even bother.
With all that said, I’m looking forward to seeing what unfolds below, since I’m sure that it’ll get heated. Have at it!
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