Hockey’s Future Ranks The Top 20 Wild Prospects
Hockey’s Future is doing their annual summer prospect rankings and last week they posted the top 20 Minnesota Wild prospects, starting with Mathew Dumba, who ranks #1 for the second year in a row.
It’s exciting to see the list and realize that there is still some interesting talent in the pipeline that hasn’t even reached Iowa yet with 2014 first round draft pick Alex Tuch ranking #2 overall, his former teammate Louis Belpedio coming in at #19, as well as Tuch’s future teammate at Boston College Adam Gilmour ranking #16. That excitement is something that Hockey’s Future echoes with reservation saying, “All in all, the Wild’s group may lack elite talent but there are solid pieces at every position.”
They also point out that things didn’t look as bright going into last season with the forward stockade looking a little thin after you remove Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Justin Fontaine, Nino Niederreiter, and Erik Haula. They note that “general manager Chuck Fletcher and his staff have been creative and bold in adding players via several different channels”
There, of course, are a few surprises in the list, with Brett Bulmer falling completely off the list. (Oh, Brett.) Jason Zucker falls from #2 last year to #6 after failing to carve out a consistent role for himself again last season. (Oh, Jason.) Erik Haula is still being considered a prospect here and Darcy Kuemper fell five spots down the list.
One of the bigger surprises for me is Christian Folin‘s ranking. He comes in at #14. While I’d probably have Dumba ahead of him, I was surprised to see Gustav Olofsson ahead of him. This list is not ranking for this season but long-term and that may be why this surprises, since for so much of the summer we’re talking about Folin ahead of Olofsson, since Folin appears ready for NHL time this season.
Another surprise is that Kaapo Kähkönen is one spot ahead of Johan Gustafsson. (Oh, Johan.) Though that is likely the case because Gustafsson, who was ranked #8 last year and falls to #11 this year, had a poor North American debut last season behind a poor Iowa Wild team. He’s still got the most immediate potential outside of Kuemper for goalies on this list. Harvard goaltender Stephen Michalek does not appear on the list.
Here’s the full top 20:
1. Mathew Dumba
2. Alex Tuch
3. Gustav Olofsson
4. Erik Haula
5. Jordan Schroeder
6. Jason Zucker
7. Michael Keränen
8. Darcy Kuemper
9. Mario Lucia
10. Kaapo Kähkönen
11. Johan Gustafsson
12. Zack Phillips
13. Zack Mitchell
14. Christian Folin
15. Tyler Graovac
16. Adam Gilmour
17. Raphael Bussieres
18. John Draeger
19. Louis Belpedio
20. Dylan Labbé
Notable Prospects Not Listed: Carson Soucy, Nolan De Jong, Tanner Faith, Brett Bulmer, Guillaume Gélinas, Stephen Michalek, Reid Duke, Nick Seeler, Brady Brassart, Christoph Bertschy, Avery Peterson, Pavel Jenys.
Hockey’s Future has not yet released their team rankings, but in the 2013-14 spring ranking the Wild’s prospect system ranked 25th overall, getting credit for having solid defenseman at all levels, but having very little happening at forward after the top tier of players and Gustafsson’s poor North American debut left the team looking a little thin in net after Kuemper.
What are you surprised about and how do you re-rank this prospect list?