Corey Pronman of HockeyProspectus.com has been releasing his top-10 prospect rankings for NHL teams over the last little while. In his most recent piece he ranked the New Jersey Devils top-10 prospects and provided reasoning for his rankings, which
can be read here.
Below are his rankings as well as some quick notes on the Devils prospect pool.
"New Jersey Devils Top 10 Prospects
1. Jon Merrill, Defense
2. Eric Gelinas, Defense
3. Alexander Urbom, Defense
4. Damon Severson, Defense
5. Stefan Matteau, Left Wing
6. Artur Gavrus, Left Wing
7. Reece Scarlett, Defense
8. David Wohlberg, Center
9. Scott Wedgewood, Goaltender
10. Brandon Burlon, Defense
Organizational Ranking: 27th
System Overview: The Devils have a pretty defense-heavy system, with their top four prospects all being —plus the fact they just graduated Adam Larsson. They did just draft Stefan Matteau, but in general, there is a lack of talented scoring punch up front for New Jersey and their amount of truly quality prospects isn't that high, either."
Now for a few thoughts from myself:
- First of all, I would have Wedgewood a little higher in the rankings. Wedgewood has shown over the last few years that he has the talent, work ethic and consistency needed to become an NHL goaltender down the road. I know Pronman doesn't value goaltenders very highly, but I think he deserves to be at least a couple spots higher.
- I would not have Wohlberg in my top-10. With all due respect to him, he looks like he'll be a third liner forward at best with becoming a 4th line player the more likely scenario. The Devils have a lot of bottom-six prospects and are not exactly loaded with forward prospects with upside, so for that reason I value them even higher.
I would drop Wohlberg out of my top-10 and put Reid Boucher in there. Boucher is a bit of a project and looks like a hit or miss prospect, but his upside is much higher than Wohlberg's. If he continues to develop properly and reaches his full potential, Boucher could be a 25-30 goal scorer.
- I would swap Matteau and Severson. I love Severson's upside, but he is pretty raw and will likely need three or four years before he sniffs the NHL. Matteau's offensive skills need honing, but he has been very efficient in the QMJHL so far this season.
Even if Matteau can never become more than a secondary scoring option, his 200-foot game, physicality and likelihood of becoming at least a serviceable NHL player makes me put him above Severson; at least for now.
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