Wednesday, July 19, 2017

My Flyers Top 25 Under 25 Ballot

Two weeks ago, I tweeted that Development Camp is my favorite part of the hockey season. That might have just been an exaggeration due to the mid-July sports lull, but the ability to watch the future of the organization is always interesting and rewarding. Rookie camp in September (and then actual training camp after that) are also must-views for any Flyers fan. 

A related semi-annual must-view for Flyers fans is Broad Street Hockey's Top 25 Under 25 feature. At every offseason and midseason, the site's writers and readers rank the Flyers young talent and prospect pool. It's been an especially interesting ride over the past three years, where the organization has improved from a dready prospect pool to arguably the best in the entire NHL. They have high-end prospects and deep pools of lottery tickets across all three positions.

Here is how I ranked my T25U25 in February, about halfway through last season:
  1. Sean Couturier
  2. Ivan Provorov
  3. Travis Konecny
  4. Shayne Gostisbehere
  5. Travis Sanheim
  6. Nick Cousins
  7. Oskar Lindblom
  8. Sam Morin
  9. Phil Myers
  10. Scott Laughton
  11. Taylor Leier
  12. Jordan Weal
  13. Anthony Stolarz
  14. Robert Hagg
  15. German Rubtsov
  16. Nicolas Aube-Kubel
  17. Davis Kase
  18. Mikhail Vorobyov
  19. Pascal Laberge
  20. Wade Allison
  21. Radel Fazleev
  22. Carter Hart
  23. Alex Lyon
  24. Felix Sandstrom
  25. Tyrell Goulbourne
Cousins was traded, Weal is no longer under 25, and there were nine draftees added to the mix last month. This list will likely get shaken up quite a bit. 

Without further adieu, here's my preseason list for 2017-18.

1. Sean Couturier
2. Ivan Provorov
3. Shayne Gostisbehere
4. Travis Konecny

We all know (and love) these four, and it's never a bad thing to have a young core like this featuring a stud defensive center, a stud defenseman, an electric offensive defenseman, and an electric playmaking winger. 

5. Scott Laughton

Laughton, in the final BSH rankings, is probably going to have the widest range of any of the players who have NHL games under their belt. He was protected in the expansion draft, demonstrating the organization's opinion of him, but he's never really had a breakout at the NHL level. Personally, I think the flexibility to move between center and wing combined with his all-around type of skillset means it's going to happen at some point. 

6. Travis Sanheim
7. Sam Morin
8. Phil Myers
9. Robert Hagg

You can mix these four up any way you'd like. For me, the order at this point in time is not indicative of how likely I think they are to make the team this season. I expect Sanheim to return to the Phantoms and play top-pair minutes (plus a ton of power play minutes). I expect Myers to join him on the Phantoms and take an intermediate step between juniors and the NHL. I expect Morin and Hagg to make the Flyers, and (of course) I expect Flyers Twitter to melt down every time either one of them makes a mistake. 

10. Oskar Lindblom
11. Nolan Patrick

If both of these two contribute in any significant way this season, the Flyers will be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. If one of them does, they'll be a playoff team. If neither Lindblom nor Patrick is able to make the team or they perform at a lower level than we expect of them, then it might be another long season in Philadelphia. 

12. Mike Vecchione

I'll like Charlie O'Connor take this one, via his Development Camp Observations
Considering the fact that Mike Vecchione is six years older than the youngest players at this development camp, it’s fair to say that he should appear head-and-shoulders above his peers. But a player still has to go out there and legitimately look that good, which Vecchione did with ease this weekend. He was one of the best skaters at the camp, and also had one of the better shots. As for physicality, despite not being an especially big player, his functional strength was obvious. This is a polished hockey player who knows the tricks of the trade, from disguising his intentions pre-shot, to getting off decent chances even with a defenseman hanging all over him. I’m not sure what his ceiling truly is, but it was clear that Vecchione was too good for this camp.
13. Taylor Leier
14. Mikhail Vorobyov
15. Radel Fazleev
16. German Rubtsov
17. Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Of these five who project to probably be Phantoms (sans Rubtsov, who is too young), Leier's probably the most likely to see NHL minutes this season. But I was very impressed by the Russians at development camp, and I would not have any problem with plugging any of these five into a Flyers lineup this season. That's impressive, considering we're now at 17 players under the age of 25 who could be considered NHL-ready. 

18. Mark Friedman

I'll defer to Charlie again:
This was Mark Friedman’s fourth development camp, and the fourth time that saw him treat every drill as if it would decide the fate of his career. The 21-year old blueliner was a menace, showcasing expert pokechecking to disrupt forwards and surprising strength to separate them from the puck.Every year, Friedman dominates in these drills. It’s tough to know if it’s just because he takes them more seriously than anyone else at camp, or if he’s simply that good. My guess is that he approaches these camps with a major chip on his shoulder, trying to ward off the “he’s too small!” tag and to make a name for himself in an organization that has at least six defensemen under the age of 25 above him on the depth chart. All I know is that his compete level always stands out, and yet again, he looked the part of a blue chip prospect in the on-ice portion of development camp. I’m excited that now I will finally be able to watch him play meaningful hockey this year with the Phantoms and determine how much of his dominance in drills translates to games.
He's finished at Bowling Green now, and it will be interesting to see how he compares to Sanheim, Myers, TJ Brennan, and the rest of the Phantoms defensemen. 

19. Wade Allison
20. Pascal Laberge
21. Isaac Ratcliffe
 
These three will almost certainly not see NHL time until next year (at the very earliest) or the following (more likely, for Laberge in particular). However, you know what they've done at the college/junior level and we can project ranges for them to turn into NHL players. I rank them in this order because I think Allison's shooting ability is more valuable to the team than Laberge's balanced skill set (without any single dominant trait) and Ratcliffe's obvious need for improvement. 

22. Anthony Stolarz
23. Alex Lyon

I would have liked to see more faith in Stolarz from the front office this summer, for three reasons. First, committing 25-30 NHL games to him would have been a good way to ease him into a full-time workload. Second, I think I'm going to really hate the Elliot-Neuvirth tandem. And third, by keeping Stolarz in the AHL, it's also taking away from Alex Lyon's workload. For an organization that always seems ultra concerned with prospect development, paying a 32 year old and The Worst Goalie In The NHL Last Season to stand in the way of a 23-year-old kid just seems like bad asset management. 

24. Carter Hart
25. Felix Sandstrom

Many people are saying that Sandstrom has overtaken Hart as a prospect. But I've had Hart ranked higher since the beginning of time, and I'm certainly not going to flip-flop them now. They're at least two years away from contributing to the NHL club, so we can cross that bridge when we get to it. 

26. David Kase

He's hurt by the fact that he didn't attend development camp, and by the fact that he plays in Europe, and by the fact that he's Czech so his international teams always kind of stink. But I think he's going to be a fine player, similar to the 13-17 group, who will probably be an NHL-AHL tweener. 

27. Kirill Ustimenko

He's the Rinaldo pick. He's probably ranked too low at 27, I should have put him in the top ten. 

28. Morgan Frost

Brayden Schenn is going to score 80 points on his way to a Stanley Cup run this season, and Morgan Frost is going to turn into a bust. #ShouldOfKept