November 21, 2018 by Brian Fogarty
Now that the 2018-2019 season has played through roughly the first 20 games of the season, it is time to take an initial look at how this year's rookies are faring, and who are the early Calder Trophy candidates standing out amongst their talented peers. The current group includes some richly talented players, including--remarkably--the top four draft selections of the 2018 NHL draft and the Hockey Prophets top overall forward prospect heading into the season.
Note that the players are shown with their preseason Hockey Prophets Top Prospect rank in parentheses.
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Read more: Calder Trophy Frontrunners, November 2018
June 29, 2018 by Brian Fogarty
The NHL draft, a strange art form that combines a bit of science, a bit of experiential knowledge and a lot of pure luck, allows teams to resupply their prospect pools each summer. While it takes years for the results of the draft to truly clarify and all of the luck to play out, below is a compilation of each team's picks, and a short review of how NHL teams did over the draft weekend according to what the Hockey Prophets have seen in the tea leaves. (Note that each player is listed with position, height, weight, A/P Score, Hockey Prophets draft ranking and weighted publication ranking).
Anaheim Ducks
Round 1, Pick 23: Isac Lundestrom (Pos: C, Height: 6'0, Weight: 183, A/P: -0.56, HP rank: 22nd; Pub Rank: 21st)
Round 2, Pick 54: Ben-Olivier Groulx (Pos: C, Height: 6'1, Weight: 192, A/P: -0.18, HP rank: 40th; Pub Rank: 42nd)
Round 3, Pick 79 (from NJD): Blake McLaughlin (Pos: C, Height: 6'0, Weight: 157, A/P: -0.46, HP rank: 50th; Pub Rank: 56th)
Round 3, Pick 85: Lukas Dostal (Pos: G, Height: 6'1, Weight: 166, A/P: N/A, HP rank: 90th; Pub Rank: 80th)
Round 4, Pick 116: Jackson Perbix (Pos: RW, Height: 6'1, Weight: 175, A/P: -0.06, HP rank: 182nd; Pub Rank: 154th)
Round 5, Pick 147: Roman Durny (Pos: G, Height: 6'1, Weight: 209, A/P: N/A, HP rank: 269th; Pub Rank: 300th)
Round 6, Pick 178: Hunter Drew (Pos: D, Height: 6'2, Weight: 187, A/P: 0.02, HP rank: NR; Pub Rank: NR)
The Ducks added three centers in the opening three rounds. None of the three put up spectacular numbers in their draft years, but all showed solid hockey intelligence, decent skating and a willingness to play with energy in all three zones. Although the upside might be limited, all three have the potential for NHL play and could give Anaheim depth down the middle.
Read more: 2018 Draft: How Did The Teams Do?
April 7, 2018 by Brian Fogarty
There have been a lot of tremendous rookie players in the NHL this season, many of whom deserve consideration and discussion as some of the top first-year players in the league, but Mathew Barzal put up a season that set him apart from the rest of the class. Had Brock Boeser not been fallen by a completely random bench-gate event that ended his season, he may have been able to give Barzal a run to the end. However, as the season winds down in its last days of the regular season, Barzal is the clearcut Calder Trophy winner.
Mathew Barzal
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To start the discussion on just how good Barzal has been this season, it seems appropriate to look at where he stands in a key offensive category--points scored per 60 minutes of ice time. For all NHL players with at least 60 games played this season, the top ten were (ranked by P60, with P60 and even-strength P60 scores shown):
1) Evgeni Malkin (4.00, 3.10)
2) Nathan MacKinnon (3.96, 3.26)
3) Brad Marchand (3.94, 3.62)
4) Taylor Hall (3.88, 2.72)
5) Nikita Kucherov (3.80, 2.93)
6) Connor McDavid (3.59, 3.47)
7) Claude Giroux (3.56, 2.89)
8) Steven Stamkos (3.53, 2.74)
9) Phil Kessel (3.49, 2.36)
10) Mathew Barzal (3.46, 2.89)
Read more: Barzal Is The Only Choice For Calder in 2018
