Nice play by Adam Raška. He makes Hampus Lindholm look silly and then finds Viel in front. #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/YClFc2j3ja

— Czech Prospects (@CZprospects) October 1, 2021

Raska is a ferocious player who is playing constantly looking for a big play - usually a hit or adding physicality. Sometimes just being the guy giving the most effort. But Raska has shown commitment to growth to his areas of weakness (being an offensive threat, in terms of production and shots/ passing) and clearly makes strides month by month. Can't wait to see Raska - who's been my favourite prospect to mention when discussing top Sharks prospects (as he clearly isnt a "top prospect" in the usual terms).

Raska makes his NHL debut tonight. And that goes to show that you should never quit - as a prospect rated with a minimal chance at ever making the NHL with a ceiling of only being a 4th liner. Raska makes his NHL from the 2020 draft much sooner than anyone anticipated when selected 201st overall (7th round). Only 21 players from the 2020 Draft Class have played in the NHL, Raska is set to be the 22nd. All the way from the back end at 201st

He's gonna come onto buffalo after a year in Rochester and him and UPL will battle for starter as we are starting to reach playoff status

Kids gonna be sick - I woulda liked to see more in the Reinhart return; but clearly Florida (like Buffalo) had expectations for Levi that made it difficult to get much more and now you can see why.

Getting a good goalie is something buffalo knows has value as well... Miller, Hasak....

Yeah it's kinda funny, most teams struggle because they can never find a good goalie (for example, Calgary has been in the murky middle for most of the last decade because until we signed Markstrom, we had not had a good goalie since Kipper left) but Buffalo has pretty much always had a good goalie, with the exception of this year and the Eichel tank year. They basically jumped straight from Hasek to Miller (with a brief hiatus of being extraordinarily average with Biron), and then had Lehner, then Ullmark. They've just never been able to put a half decent team in front of the goalie lol

I remember when isles were top 5 with Michael Dal colle leading the way

31. New York Islanders: https://t.co/ttk2tNArwn

— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) January 11, 2022

I would say don’t worry but Trotz is you’re coach and we all know his special move for young players... bench em

I thought they’d be a couple spots higher (Penguins and Lightning have next to nothing and at least Raty is a good prospect), but I forgot that Salo, Bellows, and Koivula no longer count for Wheeler’s rankings, and obviously Dobson and Wahlstrom have graduated. It doesn’t help that Holmstrom’s development has gone sideways and Wilde is an idiot.

I feel like it’s fair to put them at 31 although I do think he’s too low on Raty. Says he isn’t smart enough to drive a line when that’s what he’s excelled at the past two years in liiga even when he wasnt producing.

Isles ruined Holmstroms development by bringing him to the AHL at 18 YO. He’s actually been good this season, but his ceiling is a 3rd liner who plays in all situations. It was really dumb to select him over Tomasino/Mcmichael

Yeah I agree on Holmstrom. I’m usually a proponent of leaving Europeans that aren’t top 5 picks in Europe for a year, or if they get brought over sending them to the CHL, and then a year in the AHL if they’re ready (2 years in Europe/junior then 1-2 in the AHL for slower development), it just seems to work out better than rushing them to the AHL. Like Lassi Thomson played a year and a half in Finland, and then when it was clear his development was going sour over there he was brought to the AHL, but as a then 20yo. The AHL is probably the second best league in the world (at worst third) and guys need to really have the physical tools already in order to actually succeed there.

I think given Wheeler’s restrictions, it’s probably accurate. When I was trying to predict his rankings, I thought Alnefelt+Duke+that RD I always forget+I think they had a 2nd last year beats out Raty+Iskhakov+Bolduc+Holmstrom for me (forgot Dufour), but only barely because I’m a big fan of Alnefelt and Duke. No Raddysh or Katchouk though. TBL and NYI are super close imo. Pittsburgh has Poulin+POJ+Blomqvist+Clang+Legare but I could not name another prospect from them if I tried lol, decent enough group to probably make them the best of these three, but no depth whatsoever beyond that. If Bellows, Koivula, and Salo still counted I think NYI would be #29 at worst, maybe even a little higher. Not sure who else is mediocre these days, maybe the Bruins are down there with just Lysell+Studnicka+Lauko+Vaakainen+Beecher, or the Caps with just Lapierre+Alexeyev+Iorio+Leason (Protas has probably graduated), but that’s stronger than PIT and TBL imo.

Yeah that’s the way to do it, there aren’t too many 18 YO who can thrive in the AHL. Holmstrom just looked out of place in his D+1 and then the isles had him put on weight, but he put on too much weight in a short amount of time which has affected his skating. His development has been a mess for the most part, but he looks more confident this season and he’s playing with better forwards which helps.


TBL, PIT, and NYI all have terrible prospect pools, like I think 31 is fair but you can make an argument for all 3 being 31. The Bruins drafting Lysell definitely puts them ahead of all of NYI/TB/PIT. I think he’s a good bet to be a 1st line winger. I still can’t believe he fell as far as he did.

It’s always fun to go back and see what prospects Wheeler/Pronman were completely wrong about especially because I think both can be extremely arrogant at times lol.

Yeah that’s the way to do it, there aren’t too many 18 YO who can thrive in the AHL. Holmstrom just looked out of place in his D+1 and then the isles had him put on weight, but he put on too much weight in a short amount of time which has affected his skating. His development has been a mess for the most part, but he looks more confident this season and he’s playing with better forwards which helps.


TBL, PIT, and NYI all have terrible prospect pools, like I think 31 is fair but you can make an argument for all 3 being 31. The Bruins drafting Lysell definitely puts them ahead of all of NYI/TB/PIT. I think he’s a good bet to be a 1st line winger. I still can’t believe he fell as far as he did.

It’s always fun to go back and see what prospects Wheeler/Pronman were completely wrong about especially because I think both can be extremely arrogant at times lol.

Yeah, it probably comes from them being relied on to know so much about so many prospects, and being the main source of that information for so many people. Like I think in general that the Athletic's coverage of hockey is the main source for a lot of people, and if you want rankings/descriptions in one place, Wheeler/Pronman are the best place for that (the hockey writers do some stuff but I think the Athletic is generally better. Dobber I don't know if they summarize it all in one place, they just have individual bios and a list separate. Elite prospects probably has a bunch of stuff behind their paywall, but if I'm paying for one thing, it's the Athletic). Plus every writer at the Athletic goes to them for their thoughts on current prospects, especially the ones outside NA, as well as around draft time for guys that could be taken around where their team's pick is. I guess that could go to anyone's head lol

Also, I just realized, Vancouver is probably gonna be 30th lol. They have Klimovich, DiPietro, Rathbone, and Jurmo, and almost nobody else relevant. Crazy how shallow their prospect pool is for a non-playoff team this year with very little success in previous years (they dealt their last two firsts for Miller and OEL, and Podkolzin/Hoglander/Hughes are full time players).

That’s fair, I just feel like they both take shots at certain teams/prospects and then get defensive when they are called out. Especially Wheeler.

Vancouver’s prospect pool is pretty bad, they could really use a forward like Dylan Guenther.

What are your thoughts on kody clark

NYR are the best at this:
Richter - Lundqvist - Shesterkin (this spans 30+ years of quality goaltending)
ANA
Jean-Sebastien Giguere - Ilya Bryzgalov - some crab - Frederik Andersen - Gibson - Dostal? (has some star qualities)
VAN
Roberto Luongo - Cory Schneider - Jacob Markstrom - Thatcher Demko

NHL CS has released their midterm rankings and there are a couple of weird rankings https://www.nhl.com/news/shane-wright-tops-css-north-american-midterm-2022-nhl-draft-ranking/c-329677176 ( It's the article with the link to the NA S/G list and the EU S/G list )

Jakub Galvas had an OUTSTANDING NHL debut tonight for the Hawks tonight. Was second (23:40) on the Hawks in ice time (behind Murphy, 23:45), led the team in 5v5 xGF% (76.53%) and 5v5 xGF (0.90). Also had far and away the highest 5v5 relative xGF% (+55.01).



Very nice debut

Is it just me, or is central scouting usually terrible at rankings lol. Like just off of a brief glance, and admittedly I've only really scouted the first round, but Howard, Nazar, Ostlund, Chesley, Casey, and Nemec are way too low imo. Mintyukov, Gauthier, LDBB, Sapovaliv, Ingram, and Snuggerud are far too high.

Howard, Nazar, Ostlund, Chesley, Casey and Nemec are a bit low yes, Mintyukov, Gauthier, Snuggerud are too high yes, LDBB, Sapovaliv, Ingram I haven't done

I can't remember exactly, but aren't you at like 60 prospects evaluated now? I think that should tell you all you need to know about whether or not those guys are too high tbh. Also, there's an Elias Pettersson that is draft eligible lol

My list has 55 players ranked and many who I have limited info on yes, LDBB/Ingram are players who I didn't have enough to rank but they'd have to be pretty good to be that high yes I suppose.

McGroarty as well. I saw both Top 10's on Twitter and I was really confused with some placements.

Yeah, i chuckled a bit while reading it, NHL CS is always a bit weird, they had McTavish at 2 for NA skater last year i think, no one else had him that high

At the time, I considered it far too high. But looking at it now, I kinda understand it. I do think that at least Beniers should've been higher and an argument can be made for Clarke, Guenther and Johnson, but McTavish has exceeded my expectations and I do see why they ranked him that high. A bit too high, but it's not as "bad" of a placement as I thought it was back then.