WHICH NHL TEAM HAS THE BEST FORWARD PROSPECTS?

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WHICH NHL TEAM HAS THE BEST FORWARD PROSPECTS?

Written by Corey Krakower
on July 21, 2011

In the NHL’s salary cap era, there is one thing that almost every successful team has in common; and that is having at least a few quality young players that are still on entry-level contracts playing in the NHL. Drafting and cultivating prospects has never been as important as it has been over the last 6 seasons. That trend is not slowing down, and fans will continue to see teams promoting their top prospects (especially forwards) at an incredibly fast rate. The reason “especially forwards” was mentioned is because traditionally defensemen and goaltenders need more time to develop, as the adjustment to the pro game is more difficult.

Here is a chart ranking the 30 NHL teams based on the quality of their forward prospects.

RANKING OF NHL TEAMS’ FORWARD PROSPECTS

RANK	TEAM

1	FLORIDA PANTHERS

	1 – Jonathan Huberdeau
	2 – Quinton Howden
	3 – Nick Bjugstad
	4 – Drew Shore
	5 – Garrett Wilson

	ANALYSIS: Best group by far. Plenty of depth, speed and scoring.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Dadonov,Matthias

2	EDMONTON OILERS

	1 – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
	2 – Curtis Hamilton
	3 – Anton Lander
	4 – Ryan Martindale
	5 – Tyler Pitlick

	ANALYSIS: Tons of skill. Would be #1 if not for recent grads.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Hall, Eberle, Omark, Paajarvi

3	NEW YORK ISLANDERS

	1 – Ryan Strome
	2 – Nino Niederreiter
	3 – Brock Nelson
	4 – Casey Cizikas
	5 – Anders Lee

	ANALYSIS: Strome & Nino could be in the NHL this year.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Tavares, Grabner, Martin

4	NEW YORK RANGERS

	1 – Chris Kreider
	2 – Christian Thomas
	3 – Carl Hagelin
	4 – JT Miller
	5 – Ryan Bourque

	ANALYSIS: Kreider and Thomas are projected to be top 6 Fs soon.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Anisimov, Stepan, Zuccarello

5	ANAHEIM DUCKS

	1 – Kyle Palmieri
	2 – Emerson Etem
	3 – Peter Holland
	4 – Devante Smith-Pelly
	5 – Rikard Rackell

	ANALYSIS: Top 3 are NHL ready, and Smith-Pelly is not far off.
	RECENT GRADUATES: McMillan, Beleskey, Sexton, Bonino

6	ST. LOUIS BLUES

	1 – Vladimir Tarasenko
	2 – Jaden Schwartz
	3 – Phil McRae
	4 – Evgeny Grachev
	5 – Stefan Della Rovere

	ANALYSIS: Tarasenko & Schwartz will be in the NHL in 2012-13.
	RECENT GRADUATES: N/A

7	CAROLINA HURRICANES

	1 – Zach Boychuk
	2 – Zac Dalpe
	3 – Drayson Bowman
	4 – Chris Terry
	5 – Justin Shugg

	ANALYSIS: No 1st liners yet, but all 5 can play 2nd/3rd line.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Skinner

8	CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

	1 – Mark McNeil
	2 – Jeremy Morin
	3 – Kyle Beach
	4 – Brandon Pirri
	5 – Kevin Hayes

	ANALYSIS: Very raw, but tons of potential. Watch out for Morin!
	RECENT GRADUATES: Bickell, Kruger, B. Smith

9	MINNESOTA WILD

	1 – Mikael Granlund
	2 – Charlie Coyle
	3 – Zack Phillips
	4 – Jason Zucker
	5 – Johan Larsson

	ANALYSIS: Recent additions of Coyle/Phillips puts them in top 10.
	RECENT GRADUATES: N/A

10	VANCOUVER CANUCKS

	1 – Cody Hodgson
	2 – Jordan Schroeder
	3 – Anton Rodin
	4 – Bill Sweatt
	5 – Nicklas Jensen

	ANALYSIS: Hodgson/Schroeder have been dissapointing thus far.
	RECENT GRADUATES: N/A

11	BUFFALO SABRES

	1 – Zack Kassian
	2 – Joel Armia
	3 – Luke Adam
	4 – Marcus Foligno
	5 – Corey Tropp

	ANALYSIS: Not highest skill level, but a quality group nonetheless.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Ennis, Gerbe

12	TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

	1 – Brett Connolly
	2 – Carter Ashton
	3 – Richard Panik
	4 – James Wright
	5 – Alex Killorn

	ANALYSIS: Ashton will be in the NHL soon, Connolly is 1 yr away.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Tyrell, B. Jones

13	LOS ANGELES KINGS

	1 – Tyler Toffoli
	2 – Andrei Loktionov
	3 – Brandon Kozun
	4 – Linden Vey
	5 – Jordan Weal

	ANALYSIS: Many wild cards. Toffoli may make the Kings this year.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Clifford, Parse, Lewis

14	COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

	1 – Ryan Johansen
	2 – Tomas Kubalik
	3 – Cam Atkinson
	4 – Maksim Mayorov
	5 – Boone Jenner

	ANALYSIS: Generous ranking due to Johansen. Not a deep group.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Calvert

15	BOSTON BRUINS

	1 – Jordan Caron
	2 – Ryan Spooner
	3 – Jamie Arniel
	4 – Zach Hamill
	5 – Jared Knight

	ANALYSIS: Very underrated group. NHL champs are set for a while.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Seguin, Marchand

16	OTTAWA SENATORS

	1 – Mika Zibanejad
	2 – Jakob Silfverberg
	3 – Stefan Noesen
	4 – Matt Puempel
	5 – Stephane Da Costa

	ANALYSIS: Acquired 4 of 5 in the last few months. Early to judge.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Regin, Butler, Condra, Greening, Z.Smith

17	DETROIT RED WINGS

	1 – Tomas Tatar
	2 – Gustav Nyquist
	3 – Riley Sheahan
	4 – Teemu Pulkkinen
	5 – Calle Jarnkrok

	ANALYSIS: No big names, but effective players in Detroit’s system.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Abdelkader, Mursak

18	COLORADO AVALANCHE

	1 – Gabriel Landeskog
	2 – Joey Hishon
	3 – Ryan Stoa
	4 – Mark Olver
	5 – Justin Mercier

	ANALYSIS: Amazing top 2 in Landeskog/Hishon, but that’s it.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Duchene, O’Reilly, Galiardi, Yip

19	WASHINGTON CAPITALS

	1 – Evgeny Kuznetsov
	2 – Cody Eakin
	3 – Stanislav Galiev
	4 – Caleb Herbert
	5 – Francois Bouchard

	ANALYSIS: Same as Avs – top 2 are great, but no depth.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Johansson

20	TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

	1 – Joe Colborne
	2 – Greg McKegg
	3 – Matt Frattin
	4 – Tyler Biggs
	5 – Brad Ross

	ANALYSIS: Great size, and surprisingly good group of scorers.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Kadri, Bozak

21	CALGARY FLAMES

	1 – Greg Nemisz
	2 – Sven Baertschi
	3 – Ryan Howse
	4 – Max Reinhart
	5 – Mitch Wahl

	ANALYSIS: Slowly rebuilding their forward prospect pool.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Backlund

22	MONTREAL CANADIENS

	1 – Louis Leblanc
	2 – Aaron Palushaj
	3 – Michael Bournival
	4 – Danny Kristo
	5 – Brendan Gallagher

	ANALYSIS: Bad year for Leblanc. Rest are projected as 3rd liners.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Pacioretty, Eller, Desharnais, White

23	WINNIPEG JETS

	1 – Mark Scheifele
	2 – Jason Gregoire
	3 – Carl Klingberg
	4 – Spencer Machacek
	5 – Eric O’Dell

	ANALYSIS: Very little top-end skill in this group past Scheifele.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Kane, Burmistrov, Cormier

24	NASHVILLE PREDATORS

	1 – Taylor Beck
	2 – Austin Watson
	3 – Zach Budish
	4 – Gabriel Bourque
	5 – Michael Latta

	ANALYSIS: Low rank due to many recent grads over the past 2 yrs.
	RECENT GRADUATES:Wilson, O’Reilly, Spaling, Geoffrion, Halischuk

25	PHOENIX COYOTES

	1 – Brett MacLean
	2 – Chris Brown
	3 – Andy Miele
	4 – Viktor Tikohonov
	5 – Ethan Werek

	ANALYSIS: Constant drafting of D results in a weak forward group.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Turris, Boedker

26	PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

	1 – Sean Couturier
	2 – Matt Read
	3 – Brendan Ranford
	4 – Eric Wellwood
	5 – Ben Holmstrom

	ANALYSIS: This is what you get when you always trade 1st rd pks.
	RECENT GRADUATES: van Riemsdyk, Nodl

27	PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

	1 – Eric Tangradi
	2 – Beau Bennett
	3 – Tom Kuhnhackl
	4 – Ken Agostino
	5 – Ben Hanowski

	ANALYSIS: Being a top team year after year has its consequences.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Jeffrey, Letestu

28	DALLAS STARS

	1 – Scott Glennie
	2 – Reilly Smith
	3 – Alex Chiasson
	4 – Tomas Vincour
	5 – Colton Sceviour

	ANALYSIS: Besides Glennie, Dallas has little to look forward to.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Benn, Wandell

29	NEW JERSEY DEVILS

	1 – Adam Henrique
	2 – Alexander Vasyunov
	3 – Mike Hoeffel
	4 – David Wohlberg
	5 – Blake Coleman

	ANALYSIS: Another low rank due to flurry of recent grads.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Josefson, Tedenby, Palmieri, Zharkov

30	SAN JOSE SHARKS

	1 – Tommy Wingels
	2 – Marek Viedensky
	3 – Matt Nieto
	4 – Freddie Hamilton
	5 – John McCarthy

	ANALYSIS: Burns trade killed an already poor group of prospects.
	RECENT GRADUATES: Couture, Ferriero

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Written by Corey Krakower
I am the Director of NHL Content & Habs writer for ProSportsBlogging.com; I have spent 8 seasons behind the bench as a minor hockey coach; and I am the future GM of the Montreal Canadiens (according to my mom). I spend my days managing the Harrow Sports brand in my hometown of Montreal and I moonlight as a Hockey Advisor for Pi Athlete Management. Most importantly, I'll throw anyone under the bus for a laugh.