Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Future Watch 2017
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
FROM PAIN TO GAIN
JIMMY SCHULDT FOR A KID who took awhile to get going, St. Cloud State’s Jimmy Schuldt is certainly making an impression now. The two-way defenseman is only a sophomore, but he’s drumming up a lot of interest amongst NHL teams. “He’s the kind of guy you appreciate over time,” said one scout. “He doesn’t jump out of the cake, but if you need to keep the puck out of your net or get it out of the zone cleanly, he’s your guy.” The Minnesota native is already 21, so if an NHL team wants him, it’ll have to go the free agent route. Schuldt took the long road to college, playing two full seasons with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers after his high school career with the Minnetonka Skippers. While Schuldt was good…
FORWARD THINKING
B+ 9 RANK A FOCUS ON defense in recent drafts has the Ducks set to reap the rewards, as Shea Theodore and Brandon Montour are ready for their roster, while Jacob Larsson is stashed away in the pipeline. The blueline fixation had made the well run dry for high-end forwards. Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase are up with the Ducks, and their AHL affiliate is full of hard-working grinders with limited skill. But that is changing, as the Ducks addressed their system needs last summer by taking forwards Max Jones and Sam Steel with their first two picks. There is potential for them to join Rickard Rakell as the next wave of forwards to become point producers. 1 SHEA THEODORE D, 21, 6-2, 195 San Diego (AHL) 15–2–9–11–8 2013 draft, 26th overall Theodore is on the threshold…
TOP 50 PROSPECTS
WE TYPICALLY GET 50 to 60 percent turnover in our annual top 50 list of prospects. It’s no different this year, as 22 of the 50 faces you see on this spread were also here for Future Watch 2016. The majority of those missing from FW16 graduated to the NHL (16 prospects), including the Nos. 2 through 6 prospects – William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Ivan Provorov, Mikko Rantanen and Zach Werenski. If history holds, one-third of this top 50 will be in the big league and two-thirds within two years. That’s a pretty accurate job of assessing the game’s best young talent. Credit goes to this year’s panel of scouts (we invite one from each NHL team). They determine your top 50 prospects for Future Watch 2017. Our ranked list goes…
SCORE ONE FOR THE LITTLE GUY
LAST YEAR, I WATCHED several webcast games featuring Avon Old Farms, the Connecticut prep school that produced NHLers Jonathan Quick, Cam Atkinson and Nick Bonino. The Winged Beavers (amazing nickname) had a couple draft-eligible prospects, most notably Jamie Armstrong. Or so I thought. Every time I watched, the power forward was overshadowed by a 5-foot-7, 150-pound waterbug named Patrick Harper. Some scouts thought he was too small to draft, but the Nashville Predators had no beef and grabbed the skilled center in the fifth round. Armstrong, whose skating was a concern, went undrafted. This season, Harper is a freshman with Boston University, where he is one of the Terriers’ top scorers and a world junior gold medallist with Team USA. The only freshman to fare better than Harper in Boston this…
Made possible with the support of
