Let’s Get Hyped About New Blackhawks’ Prospect Rankings

There are a couple of prospect rankings that have arrived this week tha🌼t should give Blackhawks fans a huge smile.

On Thursday morning, Corey Pronman at The Athletic released the top of his organizational rankings. The Chicago Blackhawks come in at in the NHL. He lined up 17 prospects in the Blackhawks’ organization who he feels are likely to be NHL contributors at some point, and his rankings are fascinating with some tweaks between how he views the players in the organization and how others — analysts and, of course, Blackhawks fans — view Chicago’s talent pool.

Here are Pronman’s 1-17:

1. Connor Bedard, C
2. Kevin Korchinski, D
3. Lukas Reichel, LW
4. Oliver Moore, C
5. Frank Nazar, C
6. Wyatt Kaiser, D
7. Ilya Safonov, C
8. Colton Dach, C
9. Nolan Allan, D
10. Gavin Hayes, RW
11. Ryan Greene, C
12. Ethan Del Mastro, D
13. Sam Rinzel, D
14. Isaak Phillips, D
15. Martin Misiak, RW
16. Adam Gajan, G
17. Roman Kantserov, RW

If you’re like me, you read through this list and you’re like “Hey, where’s _______ ?” Pronman’s “honorable mention” group he labels “Has a chance to play.” The Blackhawks prospects he names in that area are goaltender Drew Commesso (who he’s never been extremely high on), forwards Nick Lardis, Paul Ludwinski, Milton Oscarson, Alex Pharand, Ryder Rolston and Samuel Savoie and defensemen Taige Harding and Alex Vlasic.

Elite Prospects

The good folks at EP Rinkside concluded their list of the top 100 affiliated skater prospects on Wednesday with the release of . Blackhawks fans should be incredibly happy with how well represented the future is on their list. We’ve been tracking this for the past couple days, and Chicago has shown up in each release.

Here’s a review of where future Hawks showed up in the first 75:

Honorable Mention: Nick Lardis, Sam Rinzel
99. Wyatt Kaiser
68. Ethan Del Mastro
31. Kevin Korchinski

Korchinski is going to be the crown jewel of the future blue line in Chicago, but he isn’t alone. Earlier this week I wrote about how high I am on Del Mastro’s game when that portion of their rankings were released. Adding Rinzel and Kaiser to their top 100 list is great for both. Nolan Allan will start his professional career in Rockford this season and I like a lot of what I’ve seen from his development in the past year as well.

There are a few names clearly missing from the list so far, but where did EP’s evaluators have them? Oliver Moore and Frank Nazar appear back-to-back at Nos. 17 and 16, respectively. Here’s what they had to say about Moore:

Oliver Moore is the prospect sphere’s best skater. He wins every race, even when he starts several metres behind his opponent. Powerful crossovers and cutbacks provide immediate separation from opponents. His defensive game makes him as close to a sure-fire NHLer as there is. But his offensive upside was a point of debate all season. He has the same high-end♔ playmaking flashes as his linemates, but he suffers from tunnel vision and poor play selection at times. With tweaking, he could become a top-six, point-producing forward with defensive value. If not, a t꧑hird-line defensive role seems certain.

And here’s what they said about Nazar:

An injury erased almost the entire season for Frank Nazar, and when he returned, he wasn’t himself. His t🌠iming was off; his play selection faltered. Even still, the only prospects who pull off the plays that Nazar can land inside this list’s top-five. The explosiveness, handling, inside play, and creativity remain top-notch. He still has top-line upside, but a gigantic year with Michigan will be required. Good news: It’s tough to think of a better environment than Michigan in the entire prospect sphere these days.

Connor Bedard topped the list at No. 1. He’ll do that frequently this year — until he graduates from “prospect” rankings because he’s an NHL regular immediately.

So, for those scoring at home, that gives the Blackhawks four (4) of the top 31 affiliated prospects and six of the top 100 overall in the eyes of these folks. Read those comments about Moore and Nazar one more time. When I read things like “the prospect sphere’s best skater” and “the only prospects who pull off the plays that Nazar can land inside this list’s top-five,” I get hyped. The future is coming, folks. It’s going to be skilled. It’s going to be fast. And, when they all arrive, it’s going to be fun.

A couple names I was somewhat surprised to not see on this list are Ryan Greene and Gavin Hayes. Love that Lardis was mentioned, but considering Greene’s freshman success at Boston University and Hayes scoring 40+ last year,