After several young players either moved on from the organization or aged out of our under-25 sample, we were left with fewer than 40 players to rank last year.
They weren’t insignificant losses either: Brendan Gallagher and Daniel Carr had become 25 during the year, while Mikhail Sergachev, Nathan Beaulieu, and Sven Andrighetto were all traded. It added up to half of 2016’s top 10 players under the age of 25 no longer on the list to be ranked.
After years of seeing the number of prospects and young NHL talents steadily decline, this year the pool rises to one the highest levels the project has ever seen.