List of NHL top 60 prospects released
By Cory Buck
The NHL released an updated list of its top 60 prospects via the league’s website and a familiar name stands atop the rankings, albeit not for much longer. A ‘prospect’ is defined as someone entering the season still eligible to win the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year. So for now, Jonathan Drouin of the Tampa Bay Lightning could win that award, but don’t expect to see him win many more prospect lists beyond this season as he’ll be a full-time NHL player this year, set to graduate as a prospect.
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Beyond Drouin at #1 stands Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson, who earned his first playoff win this spring. Gibson will hope to stack a number of other wins on top of that in the upcoming season.
One interesting tidbit is that the top overall pick from the 2014 NHL draft, Aaron Ekblad, actually ranks lower (6) than does the second pick from that draft, Sam Reinhart (4). The full top ten can be seen below, while the rest of the 60, with full explanations can be seen at the link above.
Top Ten
1. Jonathan Drouin, Tampa Bay
2. John Gibson, Anaheim
3. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington
4. Sam Reinhart, Buffalo
5. Teuvo Teravainen, Chicago
6. Aaron Ekblad, Florida
7. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay
8. Sam Bennett, Calgary
9. Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton
10. Anthony Mantha, Detroit
Expect the top three players to play enough in the NHL for this to be the last year on this list. You can also add Teravainen in Chicago and Ekblad, who are all expected to make the leap to the pros this year.