On the heels of revealing his annual organizational prospect rankings, ESPN Insider Corey Pronman continued his ‘Two Weeks of Corey’ by releasing (note: paywall) his top 100 prospects list and a supplementary list (note: behind a paywall) of the top ten goaltending prospects yesterday.
Considering the Senators were situated in the lower third (23rd overall) of Pronman’s organizational rankings, it should not come as much of a surprise to see only one Senators prospect, Colin White, appear in the top 100.
White’s 2014-15 season was marred by a wrist injury and a bout with mononucleosis which helped let him slide to Ottawa’s 21st overall selection, it’s safe to assume that these health issues probably hindered his 75th overall placement within Pronman’s rankings too.
Even though that placement may be disappointing for some fans (because hey, who doesn’t want some third party endorsement that the Senators’ prospects are well-regarded in the industry), what Pronman had to say about White actually sounds pretty awesome.
“All Colin White did during his two years with the USNTDP was produce in league and international play, all while lining up in tough defensive situations. His hockey sense is very high, he’s skilled and works hard in one-on-one battles. White plays a quiet style of hockey, but he’s smooth with the puck and seems to make the game look easy at times. He lacks the dynamic speed to turn a defenseman but he skates at a fine level.”
These days, it seems like every Stanley Cup contender has an excellent two-way center anchoring one of their top two lines. If White’s offensive skills continue to develop and he becomes a productive NHLer who can log those tough minutes, the hope is that he’ll be a significant piece of the puzzle here.
Conspicuously absent from the rankings however was goaltending prospect Matt O’Connor. Signed as a collegiate free agent out of Boston University, not only was O’Connor left out of the top ten goaltenders, he also failed to earn an honourable mention as a goaltending prospect who was on the cusp of making the list. If you’re assuming this is some kind of oversight, In Goal Magazine just released their list of the top 50 goaltending prospects and O’Connor was the 22nd highest rated guy.
Over the past few years, the Senators have gone from three prospects on the list in 2013 (Ceci, Lehner and Stone) to two in 2014 (Lazar and Stone) to one this year. Only the New York Rangers had as few prospects on the list as the Senators.
Part of the reason for this decline is the graduation of these players to the parent roster.
Some may not care about that however because the exclusion of other Senators prospects like a Thomas Chabot or even a Nick Paul will assuredly rankle some fans, but as I pointed out on Twitter, Senators assistant general manager Pierre Dorion admitted in a post-draft interview on TSN 1200 that the Senators passed up on more skilled players with each of their two first round picks to select players who will help them have success.
“Did we pass up on maybe more skill? For sure we did, but for us, it’s not about drafting the most skilled player. It’s about drafting the player who’s going to help us win the most.”
Of course, none of this is to say that the Senators don’t emphasize skill or preclude any of Ottawa’s current prospects from emerging and playing their way onto a future iteration of Pronman’s list, but the strength of Ottawa’s system lies in its depth at each position and not the high-end skill of its prospects.
The following passage touched upon this issue on Tuesday:
“The problem therein, is that while the system does have depth at every position, it lacks projectable impact players. Although it’s entirely possible for a prospect to exceed projections and develop into a front line player, it seems unlikely.
What this does is put a ton of pressure on the guys who are already part of the parent roster to improve exponentially.”
As a team that has consistently been a playoff bubble team for the past number of years, it’s going to need the development of its young players to push this team from that status into a legitimate contender. If their development stalls, it may necessitate management having to move some of this young depth for more talented alternatives.
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