Quoting: GiggywithGibby
I mean, New Jersey has some two absolutely lethal defensemen under 22 in Nemec and Hughes, but the talent level falls off steeply after those two. They spent an extended time at the bottom of the standings and ended up with 3 first overall selections and a 2nd overall (Hughes, Hughes, Hischer, Nemec)
Colombus isn't as robust at U22 D, Jiricek and Mateychuk are at the top of the depth chart.
Quoting: Blacktown
I'm not doubting NJs D here but Zellweger is insanely underrated and could be just as valuable as Nemec in a couple years. Hughes obviously is the best D prospect in the league but after him and Nemec it's Casey because Walsh is 23 and Muk and Okhotiuk were traded to SJ.
Going by Wheeler's Top 50 Prospect Rankings in the Athletic, posted Feb 13th, the following defensemen between the three teams and their overall rankings:
--first tier (1 and 2 on the list)--
2. Luke Hughes, NJD
--second tier (3 through 9 on the list)--
3. David Jiricek, CBJ
4. Simon Nemec, NJD
--third tier (10-24 on the list)--
13. Pavel Mintyukov, ANA
14. Denton Mateychuk, CBJ
18. Olen Zellweger, ANA
Plus honorable mentions not in the top 50 prospects in no particular order: NJD (Seamus Casey), CBJ (Corson Ceulemans and Stanislav Svozil), ANA (Jackson LaCombe, Tristan Luneau, Henry Thrun)
NJ's system has by far the best top two of these three teams plus an honorable mention who will certainly be in the pre-draft update to this top 50 list, so I'd say it's top heavy but still the best by virtue of the quality of that heavy top. Columbus has two in the top 15 and two honorable mentions plus they have Boqvist already in the NHL at age 22; the most balanced of these three with one very high end, one middle, and two others. Anaheim has two in the top 20 but none in the top 10 plus three honorable mentions; they don't have any top-tier but more depth. (I should also mention Detroit here who, in addition to Moritz Seider who's only 22 and is probably the best of any non-Hughes player mentioned here, have from Wheeler's list: 5. Edvinsson and an honorable mention in William Wallinder.)