The Oilers having Xavier Bourgault and Dylan Holloway is very scary. Add in Matvey Petrov who they just signed (used with the pick they would have sent the Leafs if we traded Hyman 😂)

One guy who I have been surprised with this year in our system is Ryan Tverberg

Didnt expect much of him but this year he has caught my attention

9 NCAA games played 7 goals 6 assists.

Now its still super early but thats pretty impressive.

I think we can also expand this thread into undrafted prospects ( most likely will be used to talk about draft eligibles ) if we want to. So far I've only scouted some leftover players from last year and Wright, Savoie, Lambert. Wright looks absolutely phenomenal, Savoie's a great player too but he falls under the "small, not physical kid" stigma that could cost him some draft spots. I have to agree that Lambert is kind of falling with him struggling in Finland

Joakim Kemell could be a candidate to rise up in the 2022 draft as original projections had him mid round to bottom 1st.

17 years old and has 12 goals and 6 assists in 16 games in Liiga. Still early but not bad for a 17 year old playing against adults.

No doubt, Ryan and Joe Miller IMO will have the biggest jumps in the farm system next year.
It says a lot about Ryan for departed Head Scout John Lilley to have the Leafs trade back into the 7th round to pick him.
Great skater, nice shot, plays with an edge to his game. His vision and hockey IQ is above-average, he’s able to read plays well and find teammates for high-quality chances. Has the ability to make the game look easy.

An interesting prospect to me is Lukas Cormier from Vegas. Obviously I probably favourite him over others since I know him and played with him on our village’s ODR, but I genuinely think he will be a massive steal.

He was supposed to go in the 1st round, but fell because of his size. He’s been over a PPG in his two years after the draft, he’s so smooth when it comes to skating and has an incredible offensive vision. He’ll get his chance to showcase his skills at the World Juniors (no Carson Lambos won’t make it over him, he was literally the first cut last year and Cormier was the last). Really makes me think of a Shea Theodore/Sam Girard type of player.

Edit: Also he’s very smooth with his passing abilities and is a great power play QB.

IMO Matthew Poitras could be a potential first-round selection in the 2022 NHL draft.

Nice feed, wicked release!Jacob Maillet finds top 2022 #NHLDraft prospect Matthew Poitras (@poitras_matt) who puts @Storm_City up two with his fourth of the season 🎥 pic.twitter.com/tJDzJ87QlV

— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) October 31, 2021

@BruinsFan35

Feel like you should be on this thread (if not already), could share some good insights.

Haven’t scouted him yet but apart for NHL CS having him as an A, i don’t think he’s projected to go too high

There is always that one player who jumps into the 1st round and we are like, who? IMO Poitras will be that guy.

He could, out of the outlets whose rankings I have, BruinsFan35 had him at 196 in his preliminary rankings, NHL CS has him as an A level prospect and FC Hockey had him at 48 in their preliminary rankings so we'll see

From the isles , I could see Robin Salo being a steal(2017, 46 OVR) . He was one of the best defenseman in the SHL last season, now one of the better defenseman in the AHL. I see him as a high end #3D, PP1 upside.

For another team I see Logan Stankoven as a steal. IMO he will be a top line F. He reminds me of Marchessault

Best Bruins prospect flying under the radar right now is Brett Harrison, who the Bruins selected the third round of this past draft. Not a flashy player, but a solid and well-rounded offensive game that has him producing very well in the OHL this season. My favorite aspect of his offensive toolkit is his nose for the net: he's a menace in front of the goalie and often scores in and around the crease. He's a high work-rate kid who never takes a shift off and plays consistently. Be on the look out for him to be the future 3C for the Bruins, and he may work his way into a 2C job. He reminds me in many ways of Jimmy Hayes as a prospect (rest in peace), who was fairly highly touted but just couldn't stick it in the NHL. I've made posts about Bruins Prospects fairly recently, so check those out for similar reports on other Boston prospects.

yeah, I liked Harrison, I think I had him as a mid 2nd, seemed to be a solid prospect, didn't necessarily have the most potential but looked like he'd be a serviceable player with lots of tools

Stankoven reminds me a lot about DeBrincat.

Connor McClennon

Call me crazy, but I don't think there's any player from the upcoming draft class I'd be in a hurry to rush to the NHL, even Wright.

I'm a firm believer in NHLe being a strong indicator, not necessarily an end-all-be-all metric, of an undrafted prospect's potential. Using NHLe, Wright doesn't appear to be anything profoundly special, at least not yet. Shane Wright projects to an NHLe of 34.484 points per 82GP.

Looking at the NHe for previous first-overall forwards in their first season and their actual production, we see:
Lafreniere - 48.591 points per 82GP (30.750pts / 82GP actual)
Hughes - 32.374 points per 82GP (28.230pts / 82GP actual)
Hischer - 36.077 points per 82GP (52pts / 82GP actual)
Matthews - 53.596 points per 82GP (69pts / 82GP actual)
McDavid - 64.084 points per 82GP (87.467pts / 82GP actual)

and should expect Wright to fall between with the likes of Hughes and Hischier more than in the camp with McDavid and Matthews. Many people believed Hughes wasn't ready, should Wright be expected to be ready?

Considering the unspectacular debuts for many players recently selected within the top-3 of their draft class and the most-likely teams Wright would end up on (ARI, MON, CHI, OTT, and SEA total to 66.9% or about two-thirds), I think any team looking to call Shane's name first overall at this upcoming draft - possibly with Chicago and Ottawa being the exceptions - I wouldn't rush Wright in the NHL beyond his 9 games to start the season. Between the quality of teammates he would be forced to play alongside and likely getting hammered by quality of opposition, giving Wright the extra year to develop alongside his peers or in Europe makes a lot more sense to me.

The NHL and AHL really need to work out some other system for the CHL age agreement. The transfer system is broken and disparages the top of every draft class.

Wright to Montreal would be great and he'd be surrounded by Anderson, Drouin, Hoffman, Gallagher, Caufield, Toffoli, Armia so he'd play with capable wingers, I think Wright is NHL ready but we'll see, Worl Juniors and World championship ( if he's invited ) would give us a better picture of Wright's ability to play in the NHL

Wright's biggest disadvantage in Montreal (besides the external pressures from the fans/media) would be his needing to be the #2C behind Suzuki as I don't think Dvorak is long for the position. It doesn't help that three of the wingers you listed aren't bonafide top-six wingers. Armia and Anderson would be great wingers if Wright were to be penned in on the third line.

It's a better situation than what he'd have to work with in Arizona or Seattle, but it's not a substantial improvement.

EDIT: I also wouldn't guarantee that Wright makes the U20 team either. Really depends on how many of the currently-in-the-NHL eligible prospects are allowed to play in the tournament.

Toffoli - Suzuki - Gallagher
Drouin - Dvorak - Anderson
Hoffman - Wright - Caufield
Lehkonen - Evans - Armia

hoooooooo

I only read the first part and I’m going to have to 100% agree with this.

I think someone like Wright should play one year in the AHL and then play in the NHL the year after. Just a personal example, this year I’m playing Midget A hockey instead of High School. I’m entering Midget from Bantam so it’s a jump, just like Juniors to the Pro’s. I’m my teams leading scorer and I’m somewhat dominating my league as a first year, and I play a lot of minutes since we’re basically just two lines, I play number 1 PP unit and on the PK, last game I played about 35-40 minutes. If you compare that to some of those who made the High School team my age, they’re getting maybe 4 minutes of ice-time per game, they’re the ones getting dominated and some of them are getting crushed by older veterans. Next year chances are I’ll play High School, will play good enough minutes, and will be able to hang in there with the older guys, but the most important part is that I’ll get a better chance to develop than most of those my age and I’ll maybe surpass some of them because of said reason.

Anderson has been one of our best wingers this year and Wright would be our 3c, Dvorak has been a solid 2c so far

Cant agree more. I was saying Eklund isn’t NHL ready before his games and even with 9 well performed games I stuck true to that opinion. I’m glad he went to back. Gets to develop and add some size.

Imo almost all prospects should see AHL time. The AHL gives you just pure development and skills work. They have a lighter work load and mainly a weekend orientation schedule for games. You get multiple practices/ skills development a week with an emphasis on working with each player compared to the NHL where practice puts an emphasis on the team.

You can actually workout, add size/ strength and develop your skills and areas of need WHILE also playing pro games which is all impossible in the NHL during an 82 game spread.

There are 2 players in 2023 who I think can challenge that assumption. Bedard and Michkov who in my eyes are the next big thing and wont require any seasoning to make it to their respective teams. I think these two are gonna be huge (potential generational talent). Some people have them as the second coming of Crosby and Ovie which may be a stretch but it could very well happen. After all Michkov broke Ovie's record and Bedard got exceptional status at 14 years old. I think these 2 will basically be true #1 and #2 picks just like Matthews and Laine were back in 2016.

Michkov might be under a KHL contract though which could restrict his ability to come over

Edit: I do also agree that most prospects should be able to develop in the AHL or elsewhere before reaching the NHL but there are of course exceptions to that