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Future Watch 2018
THN’s Future Watch 2018 has all the staples of our popular annual prospect-blowout edition: our Top 100 list, Top 10s and team grades for every franchise, Sneak Peeks at the 2018, ’19 and ’20 drafts and much more. Also in the issue: features on Mittlestadt, Pettersson, Strome and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
MAKE ROOM FOR FOUR MORE
THEIR NAMES ARE TAGE Thompson, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Klim Kostin, and the Blues are calling them the ‘Big Four.’ If that sounds too self-assured, it’s because teams around the NHL are blowing up GM Doug Armstrong’s phone asking about the availability of the young forwards. The Blues say they’re not budging on them yet, and with Thompson already in St. Louis, we could see all four next year. “We’re hard on ourselves when we miss,” said Blues director of amateur scouting Bill Armstrong. “When we hit, we kind of turn them over and move onto the next. The area (scouts) have done a tremendous job putting players on the board.” 1 ROBERT THOMAS C, 18, 6-1, 194 Hamilton (OHL) 42–22–39–61–35 2017 draft, 20th overall OVERALL 8 After just a half-season, Thomas has ascended…
Inspiring Effort
COUNTLESS TIMES OVER THE next four years, Meghan Duggan will be at a public event, probably an arena somewhere in the Boston area, and she’ll pose for a picture with a young girl she’s never met before. Duggan will allow the youngster to touch her gold medal, to feel the weight of it around her neck. If the girl asks nicely, Duggan will probably let her wear her sweater, the one with the ‘C’ on the front and No. 10 on the back. And just maybe, that little girl will be inspired enough to become an Olympic hockey player herself. That’s exactly what happened almost 20 years ago when a 12-year-old Meghan Duggan met Gretchen Ulion, a member of the groundbreaking U.S. team that won the first-ever gold medal in women’s…
TOP 100 PROSPECTS
BEFORE WE GET OUR Future Watch panel of NHL scouts together – virtual, you understand – they’re physically getting together for all-important, super-secret team meetings. It happens at the conclusion of the World Junior Championship. NHL scouts assemble with their teams and talk about the progression of their affiliated prospects through the first half of the season and players on tap for the coming drafts, then earmark late-blooming free agents. We’re not privy to those conversations, but by reaching out through our various networks, we do get a sense of the cream of the crop. Each NHL team has somewhere between 35 to 50 affiliated players not in the NHL. They’re scattered through the minors, major junior, U.S. college and Europe. With the assistance of scouts, we identify the 10 in each…
WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN
IT’S HIGHLY UNUSUAL THAT a player with more than two full seasons of NHL experience goes back into the prospect hopper, but that’s the situation Valeri Nichushkin finds himself in. The big right winger from Chelyabinsk, Russia, was drafted 10th overall by Dallas in 2013 and stepped right into the Stars lineup as an 18-year-old, scoring 14 goals and 34 points in 79 games. Nichushkin missed most of 2014-15 with injuries and then struggled as a third-year 20-year-old NHLer. He’s played for CSKA Moscow in the KHL the past two seasons and is still well regarded by the Stars and our panel of NHL scouts. His Future Watch ranking came in at No. 32 last season and No. 46 this time around. Other players who went from NHLer to prospect over…
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