Penguins Mid-Season Top 15 Prospects & Maple Leafs Need to Be Patient with Matthew Knies' Development

We're getting into crunch time for a lot of teams, meaning that some prospects are going to be called up, demoted, or traded. Are there any that you need to pay attention to?

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Welcome to the THW NHL Prospects & Draft Substack newsletter, with all the latest from our great team of writers.

In today’s edition, we have a look at the strange yet familiar situation unfolding in the AJHL and BCHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings’ top prospects at the All-Star break, which prospects the Montreal Canadiens should target, and much more!

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Now on to the good stuff…

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Penguins’ Mid-Season Top 15 Prospect Rankings

February 4, 2024 by Jordan Orth

With the 2023-24 regular season of the NHL reaching its mid-way point and the All-Star Game commencing this weekend, the Pittsburgh Penguins had Sidney Crosby represent the team once again. But who could represent the organization in the future? While the Penguins have one of the league’s most bare farm systems, they have a few prospects that could make a difference for them down the road. How do these prospects rank in the organization’s system?

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Canadiens Should Target Prospects Not Picks at Trade Deadline

January 29, 2024 by Blain Potvin

The Montreal Canadiens are going to be sellers, of that there is little doubt. As of Jan. 28, the club sits nine points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild card position and would need to leapfrog over five other teams to get there. Realistically, general manager (GM) Kent Hughes will be busy taking calls. 

This doesn’t mean Hughes should go all in for futures, he could speed up the rebuild process by targeting prospects or young NHL-ready players in return for his top trade assets. In a seller’s market, Hughes can trade one of his veterans and get a first-round pick in 2024, but a buyer’s pick would fall in at 24^th overall or later, that is why targeting a young NHL-ready prospect would have more value to Montreal. 

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Red Wings Top 25 Prospects: 2023-24 Midseason Update

January 30, 2024 by Devin Little

The Detroit Red Wings have spent the first half of the 2023-24 season flirting with playoff contention. Because of this, a lot of focus has been placed on the performance of the players on the NHL roster. This, of course, means that less attention has been placed on the Red Wings’ many prospects playing all over the world – which is curious considering the team is still in the building phase of their competitive cycle.

Some prospects are easier to track than others. The best prospects pop up throughout social media as they make highlight plays and play in big roles for their teams. Others, for one reason or another, fade into the background and really only pop up in large-scale prospect articles like this one. But as we all know, when it comes to prospect pools, quality and quantity are both important, and the players that fall into each category shift as each year passes. That’s why we re-rank the Red Wings’ top-25 prospects every six months or so.

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Ducks’ Olen Zellweger Shows Promise Amid Reassignment to AHL

February 2, 2024 by Chase Clemens

The Anaheim Ducks reassigned rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger to the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Thursday. The 20-year-old had one assist and a plus-2 rating in his four games with Anaheim. Zellweger was the fifth Ducks defenseman to earn a point in their NHL debut, which was in Anaheim’s 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 23. Although it’s been a small NHL sample size, Zellweger showed why he is one of Anaheim’s top prospects in his first stint in the NHL.

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Maples Leafs Need to Be Patient with Matthew Knies’ Development

February 2, 2024 by Nick Haydon

Let’s play a game. Guess who Toronto Maples Leafs captain John Tavares is talking about. “You see his ability to make a play, soft hands, poised with the puck. Obviously, we think very highly of him here.”

Is it potential 70-goal scorer Auston Matthews? Maybe recently signed William Nylander? Or perhaps three-time All-Star Mitch Marner? Here is an additional hint from Tavares’ quote: “He’s got tremendous potential.”

The answer is Matthew Knies, and Tavares echoed his confidence and praise for the rookie in the Maple Leafs’ most recent episode of Blueprint. The show provided a behind-the-scenes look at Knies’ journey with the team so far and provided insights that Maple Leafs fans should find both reassuring and encouraging. Namely, at only 21 years old, there is plenty of time for Knies to achieve that potential, and it looks like he is doing all he needs to get there.

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More Draft & Prospects stuff from THW:

Hockey History - Top 10 Hobey Baker Winners of All Time
Prospect Rankings - The NHL’s Top 100 Prospects - Midseason Rankings
Draft Coverage - Baracchini’s Top 64 January Rankings
2024 NHL Mock Draft - Horn’s Early Top-16 Mock Draft

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