2017-18 Pertinent Philadelphia Flyers News

[FlyHigh]

Flyers Twitterverse has been melting down because Pronman had us at No.12 in his latest prospect rankings. The methodology is kind of interesting, a couple points to consider.

1) Pronman seems to put a huge premium on "elite" NHL prospects and how much they boost a pool. For example, Detroit moved from 24 to 7 largely based on drafting Zadina (who Pronman sees as elite). I think Chicago got a similar bump because of Boqvist. According to Pronman, Flyers/NYR have the deepest systems in the league (ranked 11 and 12), but are lacking that top-end talent. Seems justifiable to me as guys like Frost/Farabee/Myers probably all fall into the category of "very good" NHL prospects rather than "top 10 in the world" prospects.

That being said, it seems a little odd to me to have Detroit go up 17 spots based on one player. I've never seen Zadina play, but just because you're viewed as an elite talent in your draft year doesn't mean you're going to be a gamebreaking player. The top-7 in the 2014 draft were Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl, Dal Colle, Virtanen, and Fleury. Not exactly a murderer's row.

It seems like you have 1-2 sure thing prospects per year and then everybody else is basically a "we hope he's really good but we don't know for sure" type player, not sure if owning a top-10 draft pick in and of itself justifies massive reshuffles in rankings.

2) I do have a lot of sympathy for the "goalies are voodoo" argument and I think Pronman basically discounts Hart, but it does seem a little shortsighted to me. Goalies are notoriously tough, but at the same time, you're talking about a position that has 10x the impact on a game of any skater. I'm not sure what the solution is, but my understanding is that Hart is the best/2nd best prospect in the world at the most important position in the game, seems like that would necessitate a bit more consideration.

In the end, it's just rankings and seeing the fanbase freak out about it has been worth it.

[Rogers Pancreas]

In the end, it's a lazy list that isn't worth the bandwidth.

[CantSeeColors]

Not sure how one guy can accurately rate that many players anyway. It was an interesting read, but ultimately "meh" in terms of caring where we fall compared to other teams. Definitely agree that a guy like Zadina shouldn't swing a team that much on his own - if you're not at like the Matthews level, you're not worth more than all the rest of Harts, Frosts, Farabees, Myerses, etc. combined.

Also thought it was pretty crazy to just remove Sanheim from the ranks when he clearly didn't establish himself (edit: in the coach's eyes) last year. While I think he should have and is a shoo in this year, I'd still consider him a prospect.

[jester]

Not sure how one guy can accurately rate that many players anyway. It was an interesting read, but ultimately "meh" in terms of caring where we fall compared to other teams. Definitely agree that a guy like Zadina shouldn't swing a team that much on his own - if you're not at like the Matthews level, you're not worth more than all the rest of Harts, Frosts, Farabees, Myerses, etc. combined.

Also thought it was pretty crazy to just remove Sanheim from the ranks when he clearly didn't establish himself (edit: in the coach's eyes) last year. While I think he should have and is a shoo in this year, I'd still consider him a prospect.

It's all subjective, of course. One should, however, have an objective definition of a "prospect."