Ranking the top-five prospect pools in the NHL
The NHL is loaded with young stars such as Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond of the Detroit Red Wings and Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild.
Growing a prospect pool is essential for every team, and it all starts with the scouting staff, who will identify talent that could be an impact player in the National Hockey League at some point. Whether that's building through the draft, signing college free agents, or acquiring young talent from other teams around the league.
Today, we're going to take a look at the top-five prospect pools in the National Hockey League and list a handful of players that you should have your eyes on.
There isn't a set guideline as to what a prospect actually is, so we'll go based off of Corey Pronman of The Athletic and his criteria. (Criteria source)
A player is considered a prospect if he has played less than 25 games in one campaign (regular season and playoffs combined), less than 50 games total in their career, and is 25 years old by Sept 15.
Honourable Mention - Montreal Canadiens.
Prospects to watch: Kaiden Guhle, Jan Mysak, Jordan Harris, Sean Farrell, Cayden Primeau.
5) New Jersey Devils.
Prospects to watch: Alexander Holtz, Luke Hughes, Nolan Foote, Arseni Gritsyuk, Shakir Mukhamadullin.
4) Buffalo Sabres.
Prospects to watch: Owen Power, Jack Quinn, J.J. Peterka, Isak Rosen, Devon Levi.
3) Ottawa Senators.
Prospects to watch: Jake Sanderson, Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Roby Jarventie.
2) Detroit Red Wings.
Prospects to watch: Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren, Theodor Niederbach, William Wallinder, Sebastian Cossa, Elmer Soderblom.
1) Los Angeles Kings.
Prospects to watch: Brandt Clarke, Brock Faber, Alex Turcotte, Samuel Fagemo, Helge Grans, Akil Thomas.
Everyone's opinion differs, but these are the top-five prospect pools in the National Hockey League in my opinion. Let us know in the poll below who you think has the best prospect pool!
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 3 | 355 ANSWERS Ranking the top-five prospect pools in the NHL Who has the best prospect pool in the NHL? | ||
| Los Angeles | 77 | 21.7 % |
| Detroit | 136 | 38.3 % |
| Ottawa | 69 | 19.4 % |
| Buffalo | 73 | 20.6 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||