RHL Prospect Pool Rankings, 1

And now we finally get to my article where I get to talk about how great St Louis’ prospect pool is. As a reminder, here are Scott’s criteria for this list:

They are under 23 years old.

They are not a full-time NHL player. There is no pre-determined games played cutoff for this, but rather depends on Wheeler’s judgement whether the player will stick.

They are either signed to an NHL contract or an NHL team holds their draft rights.

Based on those rankings, here is a look at the top prospect pools in the RHL. Note also that these rankings are based only on the 50 skaters ranked, and do not include goaltender prospects.

Wheeler’s Article: https://theathletic.com/4163836/2023/02/13/top-nhl-prospects-2023-logan-cooley/

1: St Louis Blues

14. Denton Mateychuk, LHD, 18, 2022, RHL 11th, NHL 12th

23. William Eklund, C/LW, 20, 2021, RHL 2nd, NHL 7th

25. Frank Nazar, C, 18, 2022, RHL 9th, NHL 13th

34. Brennan Othmann, 2021, RHL 32nd, NHL 16th

42. Matthew Knies, LW, 20, RHL 63rd, NHL 57th

45. Philip Broberg, LHD, 21, 2019, NHL 8th

47. Jonathan Lekkerimaki, RW, 18, 2022, RHL 8th, NHL 15th

With no prospects ranked in the top 13 in Wheeler’s list, obviously it is quantity over quality that lands St Louis in this top spot, and their fans would have to hope they would land here, having languished at the bottom of the standings since GM rsyzygy took over the dumpster fire of a franchise.

Though perhaps they may prefer to have some of those players graduate, the Blues have three players from each of the last two drafts appear on this list. They picked Lakkerimaki, Nazar, and Mateychuk 8th, 9th, and 11th overall, respectively, this past year after the controversial Mo Seider trade (which also brought in Broberg).

Mateychuk is a point per game defenseman in the WHL as captain of the Moose Jaw Warriors, and Wheeler projects him to have clear top-four upside while still being on the younger end of the draft class, so there’s still room for him to grow.

Nazar is tough to project as he has missed most of his Freshman year with a stacked Michigan team, and so hasn’t had the chance to show growth that many others on the list have had. As of this article, he has 3 points in 6 games as Michigan prepares for the Big 10 tournament.

Lekkerimaki struggled this season while he played, and had his year cut short by a foot injury. He still shows all of the tools that led the Blues to draft him, but struggled both with Djurgarden in limited opportunities and in the World Juniors as one of Sweden’s youngest players. As with Nazar, Blues fans will have to hope he can take a step next year fully healthy.

The trio of 2021 picks were spread out much more, with Eklund picked 2nd overall and Othmann and Knies going first in the second and third rounds, respectively.

The decision to select Eklund 2nd overall over Matty Beniers, this year’s likely Calder winner, and names like Dylan Guenther, Luke Hughes, and Brandt Clarke that all appeared higher than Eklund on this list has to be questioned at this point. But Eklund has had a number of medical problems including a tough bout of COVID and an appendectomy since being drafted, and bounced between nine games with the Sharks, then most of a season with Djurgarden, and now back to North America in the AHL, where he has 17 goals and 41 points in 52 games as of this writing this year. Wheeler still projects him with a floor as a second liner, with the skills to possibly be a top line offensive threat.

After being traded from the Flint Firebirds to the Peterborough Petes this season, Othmann saw his shooting percentage dip, but is still scoring better than a point per game with the Petes. He looks to be on a solid trajectory to being the physical presence with a lethal shot that the Blues saw when they drafted him.

Matthew Knies is the next Wayne Gretzky, and that’s probably underselling him if we’re being honest.

Still only 21 but feeling like he’s been around the organization forever, Philip Broberg finally took the step to playing more in the NHL than the AHL this year, though he has put up a disappointing 7 points in 35 games on a team where he has to end up on the ice at the same time as Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisaitl a few times a game, even if only by accident. Becoming a full time NHL defenseman when you don’t have the offensive tools on the level of a Cale Makar is never a one year process though, and it’s good to see Broberg improving his defensive game as he adjusts to the speed at the NHL level.

And there we have it, the last of this series of articles as some teams gear up for the playoffs and others stare at lottery projections all day. Certainly adding any of Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Matvei Michkov, or Leo Carlsson this summer is going to change some teams' futures and their rankings on this list seismically.