This was the first time Arctic Ice Hockey has gone through this series as a whole, as the year prior we only did a top 10. Because it was the first time, we really went to great depths to show the players history to set the foundation for future years' series where we concentrate on how players are developing and such.
It was a lot of fun researching the Winnipeg Jets prospects and hopefully everyone feels like they know a lot more about our future Jet hopefuls.
Final AIH Author Vote Tabulation and Trends
Name | Garret | Tim | Ben | Ryan | Trev | Derek | Graham | Daniel | TJ | avg |
Evander Kane | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 |
Zach Bogosian | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2.00 |
Alexander Burmistrov | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.56 |
Jacob Trouba | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3.78 |
Mark Scheifele | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4.67 |
Josh Morrissey | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6.89 |
Adam Lowry | 9 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7.56 |
Paul Postma | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8.00 |
Nicolas Petan | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 8.44 |
Eric O`Dell | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 9.44 |
Eric Tangradi | 12 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 12.89 |
Connor Helleybuyck | 11 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 13.67 |
Jimmy Lodge | 13 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 14.11 |
Scott Kosmachuk | 14 | 16 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 19 | 14 | 14.56 |
Ivan Telegin | 15 | 20 | 21 | 14 | 21 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 15 | 17.22 |
Julian Melchiori | 18 | 15 | 18 | 16 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 17.56 |
J.C. Lipon | 21 | 17 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 19 | 21 | 15 | 26 | 17.56 |
Michael Hutchinson | 19 | 13 | 17 | 29 | 17 | 15 | 25 | 20 | 20 | 19.44 |
Eric Comrie | 20 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 25 | 17 | 20.00 |
Juho Olkinuora | 16 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 18 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 25 | 20.11 |
Ryan Olsen | 17 | 22 | 22 | 13 | 22 | 23 | 18 | 26 | 19 | 20.22 |
Brenden Kichton | 23 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 24 | 21 | 23 | 10 | 21 | 21.11 |
James Wright | 26 | 14 | 15 | 21 | 14 | 14 | 26 | 30 | 30 | 21.11 |
Eddie Pasquale | 25 | 27 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 11 | 28 | 9 | 21.67 |
Jan Kostalek | 22 | 24 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 28 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 24.33 |
Andrew Copp | 24 | 23 | 27 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 25.00 |
Jason Kasdorf | 29 | 26 | 25 | 28 | 25 | 24 | 29 | 16 | 29 | 25.67 |
Patrice Cormier | 27 | 28 | 28 | 25 | 28 | 26 | 27 | 21 | 24 | 26.00 |
Jordan Samuels-Thomas | 28 | 30 | 29 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 28.56 |
Lukas Sutter | 30 | 29 | 30 | 27 | 30 | 27 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 28.89 |
Player Trends
* James Wright was the least consensus pick, while the most consensus picks in the 10-25 range were both Lodge and Melchiori
* The level of consensus in each group of five decreases from the last, with the exception of the final five which were closer to consensus than 15-20 or 20-25 group
* Moving from a top 10 to top 25 this year ruins the chance to look at risers and fallers accurately, but we'll take a good look next year
Potential sleepers:
The Jets prospects have some dark horse prospects in their ranks.
Brenden Kichton is playing well in the AHL currently, picking up some serious points while playing on the first pair in his first pro-season.
Jan Kostalek has a lot of pedigree, he has already played against professionals men in Czech leagues, was highly thought of prior to the draft, and is starting to see more responsibilities for his QMJHL team.
Andrew Copp performed well in the 2nd half of his freshman NCAA season, but many feared it may have been just a hot streak; however, thus far he has been leading his team in points with 2 goals and 4 assists in 6 games.
Jordan Samuels-Thomas is largely unknown to many due to being a Atlanta Thrashers draft pick and missing the 2011-12 NCAA season. He was the lead goal scorer for Quinnipiac and polished 3 goals and 1 assist in the 4 games in the NCAA Frozen Four, where they ultimately lost in the finals to Yale.
Goaltenders can be quite volatile in an 82 game schedule of the very system driven NHL. Goalies are even more volatile in lower leagues, likely as both variance and shot quality play a larger role. This is why we could potentially see huge risers from any of the goalies, with the exception of Hellebuyck who is already very high in the list.
Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus selected Marcus Karlstrom as the Jets big sleeper prospect. Karlstrom is currently leading the Swedish U20 junior league in defensemen points. We could very well see him playing pro in the SHL for AIK either part way through this year or start of next season. He is also a strong candidate for next year's Team Sweden at the WJC.
Let's look at some of the author trends to learn something about these losers
* Benjamin and myself (Garret) were the most similar to the final results, while Daniel was the furtherst
* I was never more than 4 places off with each player (Lipon, Olkinuora, and Olsen being furthest) and picked consensus nine times (that's what I get for dropping Burmi due to KHL factor)
* Tim's largest difference was with Wright (9 spots) and lead AIH authors with 12 picks at consensus
* Ben also had Wright as his largest difference (8 spots) and had 10 picks at consensus
* Ryan's biggest difference was Hutchinson (11 spots) and had only 6 picks at the same as consensus (while muttering something about what did Chevy do)
* Trevor also had Wright (9 spots) far from the average and had 8 picks at consensus
* Derek obviously stole notes from Trevor and placed the same rating for Wright although had 6 spots at consensus
* Graham was very close to the average scoring with the exception of Pasquale being 13 picks off, and he had 10 picks at consensus
* Daniel liked going against the grain, being the only one to select Scheifele at #3, having 2 picks more than 10 places away from average (Kichton 12 and Kasdorf 11), and an AIH low of 4 picks at consensus
* TJ was similar to Graham in being pretty close but rated Pasquale much higher than most (15 spots) and he had 9 picks the same as consensus
Fan Vote:
1 | Evander Kane | 60% |
2 | Zach Bogosian | 83% |
3 | Jacob Trouba | 34% |
4 | Mark Scheifele | 75% |
5 | Alexander Burmistrv | 46% |
6 | Joshua Morrissey | 55% |
7 | Adam Lowry | 38% |
8 | Nicolas Petan | 58% |
9 | Connor Hellebuyck | 18% |
10 | Eric O`Dell | 21% |
11 | Paul Postma | 32% |
12 | Scott Kosmachuk | 30% |
13 | Ivan Telegin | 31% |
14 | JC Lipon | 36% |
15 | Jimmy Lodge | ? |
16 | Eric Tangradi | 36% |
17 | Brenden Kichton | 44% |
18 | Julian Melchiori | 40% |
19 | Eric Comrie | 56% |
20 | Juho Olkinuora | 46% |
21 | Eddie Pasquale | 36% |
22 | James Wright | 27% |
23 | Andrew Copp | 26% |
24 | Jan Kostalek | 54% |
25 | Patrice Cormier | 25% |
Thoughts
* #3 was very neck-neck-and-neck between Trouba, Scheifele and Burmistrov, with the later two only differing by a single vote and all three within 6%
* Lodge won spot #15 but I had left the poll running too long by accident and the tides turned, so I have no recollection of what the margin was
* Hutchinson and Olsen fell out of the top 25 fan vote, to be replaced by Cormier and Copp
* Kichton and Tangradi were the largest movers of those that were in both Top 25 lists
Feel free to comment below on:
* Your dark horse / sleeper pick for biggest riser for next year
* Who impressed you the most this last season in their rise
* Your top 25 list
* Changes you would like to see for next year's series