Today Corey Pronman released his list of the top 100 NHL prospects that will be featured as part of HP’s 2012/13 Annual.
Player eligibility was restricted using the following limits:
The Calder Trophy uses a 25 games played cutoff to determine prospect eligibility and that's partly what I've chosen to use. However, to make sure prospects who played a good number of NHL games in previous seasons and were sent down in the next season were not disqualified, I am using 25 GP in the 2011-12 season. I also think the Calder trophy's cutoff of six games in any two seasons was too strict, so I've decided to use 50 games. Also for dealing with Russian transfers, I've decided if a player is signed in the KHL past their age-22 season, they become ineligible for the purpose of these rankings as a prospect until they sign in North America. I use 22 as it's the age most prospects drafted out of the CHL have their entry level contracts end. Also per the Calder requirements, an age cutoff of 26 or younger as of September 15th is used, so a player like Roman Cervenka is eligible.
If you are not familiar with Pronman’s work, his rankings are weighted strongly to skaters puck possession skill. Like in previous years, Pronman continues to see little value in goaltenders (at least as prospects)– in fact, no goaltender cracks the top 100 list. Thanks to high attrition rates, the volatility of the position, the talent market and the length of time that accompanies their development, you can begin to understand why Pronman prefers to give credence to defencemen and forwards.
So while you may be dismayed that Robin Lehner did not make the cut, five other Senators prospects did make the cut. Tied with Chicago, Tampa, and Pittsburgh with five prospects in Pronman’s top 100, only Anaheim (6), Minnesota (6), Detroit (6), Florida (6), and the Islanders (7) had more.
Heading Ottawa’s crop was center Mika Zibanejad (err winger per B'Mur), Pronman’s 15th highest rated prospect (21 last year). As the 16th highest rated defenceman on the list, Ottawa 67’s junior product Cody Ceci comes in as the 43rd overall. He’s joined in short order by last season’s Swedish Elite League MVP, Jakob Silfverberg – who comes in at the 51st spot (85 last year). Rounding out Ottawa’s top five are CHL products Mark Stone (70) and Shane Prince (87).
Patrick Wiercioch falls off the list after being at 90 last year and 17 in 2010.
In previous years, Pronman has augmented his list with blurbs on each individual prospect. He did say that he will be providing these in the 2012/13 Annual but he may opt to release them on the Hockey Prospectus site as well; so keep an eye out for that.
Binghamton Senators Training Camp Roster
This afternoon, the Baby Sens revealed their training camp roster and much to the chagrin of theTeam 1200’s Shawn Simpson, the roster will not include Kyle Turris.
Here is the list of the 36 players who will attend the camp that starts on Thursday, September 27th:
Goaltenders: Marc Cheverie, Scott Greenham, Nathan Lawson, Robin Lehner
Defensemen: Andre Benoit, Ben Blood, Mark Borowiecki, Matt Campanale, Fredrik Claesson, Jared Cowen, Jack Downing, Tyler Eckford, Eric Gryba, Jimmy Martin, Chris Wideman, Patrick Wiercioch
Forwards: Pat Cannone, Louie Caporusso, Corey Cowick, Jakub Culek, Stephane Da Costa, David Dziurzynski, Derek Grant, Wacey Hamilton, Mike Hoffman, Hugh Jessiman, Darren Kramer, Daniel New, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Brad Peltz, Andre Petersson, Shane Prince, Cole Schneider, Jakob Silfverberg, Mark Stone, Mika Zibanejad
With perhaps the possible exception of the Brad Peltz, there are no true surprises from that list of invitees. The surprise will come to whomever gets to room with the Snapple heir, when he opens the fridge for the first time and realizes that it is stocked full of Mango Madness and Asian Pear Green Tea!
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