Ranking Prospects 2019-2020

[Nik]

The aim of the list seems to be to weigh up the team's young talent and their organizational strengths going forward. I feel like we're all able to do the math of which guys are in the NHL and which guys aren't without hand holding.

[Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate]

I know these rankings shouldn't be taken too seriously but I'll just say again that it's almost perversely stupid to include young full time NHLers on a "prospects" list. This list should start after Kapanen.

I mean, it's not a prospects list.

We seem to have this conversation about this fun summer exercise every year and I don't get it. It's a top 25 under 25. Which players under 25 are most valuable to this franchise. It shouldn't be hard to look at a "young full time NHLer" like Trevor Moore and say Rasmus Sandin has more value to the franchise than him. Just apply that principal to every player.

The title of the thread is ... Prospects.

[CarltonTheBear]

The title of the thread is ... Prospects.

So you'd really have no complaints about the process of the list, which is titled "Top 25 under 25" if I just moved it to it's own thread? That's really your only problem here?

It's in a prospects thread because the majority of the list deals with prospects.

[Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate]

Words have meaning.  On a message board, it's kind of important.

[CarltonTheBear]

Words have meaning.  On a message board, it's kind of important.

Fine. I'll just recap then that you directly criticized Pension Plan Puppets, a blog that has nothing to do with TMLFans, and called their specific ranking system of players in the Leafs organization "almost perversely stupid" all because of where TMLFans, a forum that has nothing to do with PPP, choose to discuss said rankings.

[Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate]

Words have meaning.  On a message board, it's kind of important.

Fine. I'll just recap then that you directly criticized Pension Plan Puppets, a blog that has nothing to do with TMLFans, and called their specific ranking system of players in the Leafs organization "almost perversely stupid" all because of where TMLFans, a forum that has nothing to do with PPP, choose to discuss said rankings.

Take it easy, CTB, nothing was meant personally.

[herman]

Lol

[Bender]

Words have meaning.  On a message board, it's kind of important.

Fine. I'll just recap then that you directly criticized Pension Plan Puppets, a blog that has nothing to do with TMLFans, and called their specific ranking system of players in the Leafs organization "almost perversely stupid" all because of where TMLFans, a forum that has nothing to do with PPP, choose to discuss said rankings.

Take it easy, CTB, nothing was meant personally.

 

[herman]

Less facetiously, I will add that the thread still serves as a place to discuss prospects (usually outside of the NHL and AHL rosters) regardless of the PPP summer exercise that serves as the throughline.

I still name the thread like this to deliberately incite that annual “bUt HoW can TheY bE a PrOsPEct?” response, so here’s my self-congratulatory pat on the back.

[herman]

I guess another point of discussion is also about the term prospect in general. It’s rare but not impossible to see a young player break into the league pretty early on and sort of fizzle out in years 3-4 after the league catches on to their schtick (or luck reverses). Case in point Patrik Laine. There’s still development to be had there. There’s still uncertainty in his projection.

[herman]

7. Andreas Johnsson

Remember when Johnsson was spelled Johnson because neither he nor his father ever wanted to embarrass anyone by correcting them? That remarkably started in Sweden with his father’s equipment manager with Frolunda and carried over until a couple years ago with the Marlies.

[herman]

6. Rasmus Sandin

In the absence of first-hand knowledge, people will tend towards looking up points. Sandin is good and smart and basically a steal at 29, but still needs refinement time.

[CarltonTheBear]

6. Rasmus Sandin

In the absence of first-hand knowledge, people will tend towards looking up points. Sandin is good and smart and basically a steal at 29, but still needs refinement time.

There was a twitter poll the other day (made by a Leafs fan with a large Leafs fan audience) that asked if people would still pick Sandin over Veleno if there was a re-draft. 88% of respondents said they'd stick with Sandin. That's still something I wonder about. Veleno was arguably the best player in the Q this past season. Let's hope this one doesn't turn into another Dermott/Aho situation.

[herman]

Was there much gnashing of teeth over picking Dermott instead of Aho? Aho didn't really blow up Liiga until after he was drafted.

The only thing I remember of Aho back then was that he was a Spider-Man meme with a Swedish defenseman.

Edit: I'm re-reading the 2015 draft thread. It's fun!

Edit 2: Literally zero remark from our crowd about Sebastian Aho (I guess we were still scratching our heads about Dermott).

[CarltonTheBear]

Was there much gnashing of teeth over picking Dermott instead of Aho? Aho didn't really blow up Liiga until after he was drafted.

The only thing I remember of Aho back then was that he was a Spider-Man meme with a Swedish defenseman.

None at all if I remember correctly. It just stung when Babcock or something said a couple years ago that they strongly considered taking Aho in that spot.