NHL Insider ranks every teams prospect pipeline ahead of next season
The Athletic has come out with the rankings of this year's NHL prospect pools, all 32 teams included. Corey Pronman of The Athletic ranked the Buffalo Sabres prospect pool as #1, here's why:
The Buffalo Sabres, after ditching Jack Eichel for Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch are in a rebuild, the last few draft years for Buffalo have been excellent.
This year they picked up Matthew Savoie, Jiri Kulich, and Noah Ostlund, along with past prospects who have been playing in the NHL such as Peyton Krebs, Dylan Cozens, Owen Power, J.J Peterka, and Jack Quinn they have an excellent forward core built for the future, along with Rasmus Dahlin to compliment Owen Power. Notables include Devon Levi.
Someone who I feel is missing from this list is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Next up is the Detroit Red Wings, who since Steve Yzerman took over, look so much better since he took over.
Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider are two rookies who donned the winged wheel and changed the team for the better, instantly. Up-and-coming prospects included are Sebastian Cossa, Simon Edvinsson, Elmer Söderblom, and Joe Veleno. Notables are Jared McIsaac, Jonatan Berggren, and William Wallinder.
Pronman ranks the Los Angeles Kings organization at number 10th, which as one of the deeper prospect pools in the NHL, may be a stretch.
Quinton Byfield made the jump in 2021-2022 to the NHL, after spending the last 2 years primarily in the AHL.
Next up is Arthur Kaliyev who become a power-play specialist recently, but hasn't fully developed his NHL toolkit yet. Brandt Clarke, Ramus Kupari, and Alex Turcotte are on their way sooner or later to getting ice-time in the NHL. Notable Kings prospects include Jordan Spence and Akil Thomas.
The New Jersey Devils have been in a rebuild for a while, as Lindy Ruff has taken the reigns as a coach. New Jersey, also drafts well as they've acquired Jack Hughes, Simon Nemec, Dawson Mercer, and Alexander Holtz. Despite losing Ty Smith, their defensive prospects look good, with Shakir Mukhamadullin in the pipeline and Nico Daws as a possible call-up in the future. Notables include Arseni Gritsyuk and Nolan Foote.
The Anaheim Ducks are also in a rebuild with a couple of good drafts under their belt. Trevor Zegras had a big year in 2021-2022 and looks to capitalize upon Anaheim's 1st line. Anaheim's next biggest acquisitions were Center Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, Nathan Gaucher, Lukas Dostal and Jamie Drysdale who had much hype in his rookie year.
We're getting Sens'd as you can't forget Brady Tkachuk as Ottawa's top prospect. Since then, they've added Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, Shane Pinto, Ridley Greig and Egor Sokolov. Notables included Tyler Boucher and Mads S�gaard.
Pronman ranked them 5th which is in line with what I'd expect, as a team who will become a threat in the next few years.
The Carolina Hurricanes have had trouble making it past the 2nd round the last few years, but their drafting has been value picks left and right.
If you don't know Andrei Svechnikov for the Michigan goal, you've missed out on the storm surges post-game and I'm assuming you also missed David Ayres.
Seth Jarvis has made strides in the lineup and came in handy during the post-season. Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jack Drury round out the top list. Notables include Dominic Bokk, Ryan Suzuki, and Aleksi Heimosalmi.
The Montreal Canadiens had a great first pick in 2022, landing Juraj Slafkovsky.
Cole Caulfield, Kirby Dach, and Kaiden Guhle are all worthy mentions of players who are already in the lineup or will have the chance to in the future. Caulfield recently showed his potential in the 2021 SCF and under Martin St. Louis' coaching. Notables include Justin Barron, Lane Hutson, and Riley Kidney.
Pronman has criminally underrated the Minnesota Wild's pool at 8 on the list. Matthew Boldy, Connor Dewar, and Marco Rossi have taken huge steps to make it onto the team, or have the possibility to, as Boldy experienced the majority of his season called up from Iowa.
Jesper Wallstedt, Calen Addison, Carson Lambos, and Servác Petrovsk� are just some of the notables.
Next up are the New York Rangers, with prospects like K'Andre Miller making noise in the NHL last season, with some amazing goals, and Alexis Lafrenière who took strides in his play last season as well. Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, Brennan Othmann and Braden Schneider are notables.
Kakko and Kravtsov still need time to develop until they reach their full potential, which begs the question is the front office the right one to develop Kakko who still hasn't shown his potential yet? The kid line was unceremoniously broken up by Gerard Gallant last season.
