The clue to the PDL's purpose and priority is in its name: Premier Development League. To support the player development goal at its core, PDL periodically puts out lists of those it regards as its top prospects based on performances during league play.
The league's pre-season watch-list included two New York Red Bulls U-23 players: Duke midfielder Brian White and Virginia Tech 'keeper Benjamin Lundgaard.
Both those players appear on PDL's first in-season list of top prospects for 2017. The list is 50 players - which is a lot, but there are 72 teams in PDL, so the total pool is something in the region of 1,500.