Leafs rise to #8 in HF Organizational Rankings for Prospects

[cw]

Hockey's Future Organization Rankings, Fall 2011 1-10

I don't think prospect rankings are that precise but the Leafs falling in the top third strikes me as about right.

Reimer and Gardiner will very likely 'graduate' from consideration by HF next season, so the Leafs may be hard pressed to stay up in those rankings when that happens.

The key comment I've seen and one many would acknowledge is that (maybe beyond Reimer/Gardiner), their pipeline is light in true/safe blue chippers - guys that have a good shot to be elite.

Regardless, the ranking is a credit to Burke.

[Zee]

Hockey's Future Organization Rankings, Fall 2011 1-10

I don't think prospect rankings are that precise but the Leafs falling in the top third strikes me as about right.

Reimer and Gardiner will very likely 'graduate' from consideration by HF next season, so the Leafs may be hard pressed to stay up in those rankings when that happens.

The key comment I've seen and one many would acknowledge is that (maybe beyond Reimer/Gardiner), their pipeline is light in true/safe blue chippers - guys that have a good shot to be elite.

Regardless, the ranking is a credit to Burke.

I have no idea how accurate their assessments are, but it warms my heart to see the Habs at #24.  Hopefully that means future seasons of pain and misery for Habs fans.

[A Weekend at Bernier's]

Hockey's Future Organization Rankings, Fall 2011 1-10

I don't think prospect rankings are that precise but the Leafs falling in the top third strikes me as about right.

Reimer and Gardiner will very likely 'graduate' from consideration by HF next season, so the Leafs may be hard pressed to stay up in those rankings when that happens.

The key comment I've seen and one many would acknowledge is that (maybe beyond Reimer/Gardiner), their pipeline is light in true/safe blue chippers - guys that have a good shot to be elite.

Regardless, the ranking is a credit to Burke.

Agreed.  Really, when one considers what he's been able to accomplish in, really, three years, it's quite impressive (at least from an organizational perspective).

[Bullfrog]

It's nice to see for sure. Lack of prospects on the team had been my greatest misgivings about the team, not the on ice performance.

[Significantly Insignificant]

I was going through these old posts.  Interesting that 5 years ago the Leafs were at 8th.  So it seems that either the Leafs have failed to capitalize on fairly high rankings, or the rankings really have little to no viability when it comes to projecting future success.

[No.92]

I was going through these old posts.  Interesting that 5 years ago the Leafs were at 8th.  So it seems that either the Leafs have failed to capitalize on fairly high rankings, or the rankings really have little to no viability when it comes to projecting future success.

Well I think we need to "drop" to 1st for it to make a difference I guess. 

[Bill_Berg]

I'm sure it's mostly that the the middle group of teams, and by that I mean outside the top 5 and bottom 5, give or take, are all tough (near impossible?) to judge. 8th, 20th, whatever.

[McGarnagle]

Heh, nice find. I'm not an Ottawa hater in the least, but the writeup for the #2 is pretty much the ultimate in getting too worked up about prospect rankings. 

I think there's not a name mentioned that's still with the team.

[bustaheims]

I was going through these old posts.  Interesting that 5 years ago the Leafs were at 8th.  So it seems that either the Leafs have failed to capitalize on fairly high rankings, or the rankings really have little to no viability when it comes to projecting future success.

Well, part of it is that the rankings don't mean much if the players don't develop, but, also, being 8th out of 30 isn't really super impressive. It really means your prospect base is above average, but not spectacular. I mean, if you look at the guys they identify as the team's top 5 prospects, 4 of them have turned into solid NHL players, but, that's where the team's prospect depth essentially died. They earned an 8th place ranked based mostly on those 4 guys, and they have mostly turned out as expected.