I counted, at this time last year, that there were 254 rookies to appear in at least one NHL game in the 2017 season, but only 28 of them were pool worthy players: 15 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goalies. In the 2018 season, there were 240 players, qualified as rookies, to appear in at least one NHL game and 27 of them were considered to be pool worthy: 15 forwards, eight defensemen and four goalies."To be considered a rookie, a player must not have played in more than 25 NHL games in any preceding seasons, nor in six or more NHL games in each of any two preceding seasons. Any player at least 26 years of age (by September 15th of that season) is not considered a rookie."
With that being said, one of our pool worthy goalies from last season, Vegas' Malcolm Subban still qualifies as a rookie for this season, as he has only appeared in a total of 24 NHL games in three seasons and is still only 24 years old.Okay, moving on... the rookie mini-game hasn't landed on the wheel in the last couple of seasons, so there hasn't been a great motive to take the risk on some rookies or load up on rookies at the Waiver Draft. Nevertheless, I have comprised my list of the freshmen that I have given projection numbers to and I think it is an adequate representation of my excitement level for these kids.
It is pretty difficult to gauge what these kids are really going to do from an overall season perspective, the best thing that you can do heading into the draft, is figure out where you would be most comfortable picking some of these guys.
Last year's swing and miss was Mathew Barzal, who had a hard time trying to crack the roster in the 2017 season, so it was really hard to suggest that he would blast off onto the scene and be worthy of a 1st round pick by the end of the year. It does go to show you that some of thse kids only need just a little bit more time at the lower levels to physically evolve enough to compete with the big boys and some patience is required.
This year's list will evolve with the move towards rookie camp, training camp and preseason games, as they will show the cream rising to the top, ever so slowly, and don't forget about the unforeseen circumstances. The injury bug can be a cruel animal, as it takes down rookies and veterans alike, but with that comes opportunity and that needs to be considered and your numbers adjusted for.
So, without any further ado, here is this year's list of rookies...
| Player | Pos | 18/19 Proj | Team |
| Casey Mittelstadt | F | 60 | BUF |
| Ryan Donato | F | 55 | BOS |
| Elias Pettersson | F | 55 | VAN |
| Eeli Tolvanen | F | 50 | NAS |
| Anthony Cirelli | F | 45 | TAM |
| Andrei Svechnikov | F | 45 | CAR |
| Rasmus Dahlin | D | 40 | BUF |
| Victor Ejdsell | F | 40 | CHI |
| Martin Necas | F | 40 | CAR |
| Filip Zadina | F | 40 | DET |
| Lias Andersson | F | 35 | NYR |
| Jordan Greenway | F | 35 | MIN |
| Daniel Sprong | F | 35 | PIT |
| Evgeny Svechnikov | F | 35 | DET |
| Troy Terry | F | 35 | ANA |
| Miro Heiskanen | D | 30 | DAL |
| Linus Ullmark | G | 30 | BUF |
| Gabriel Vilardi | F | 30 | LOS |
| Kailer Yamamoto | F | 30 | EDM |
| Henrik Borgstrom | F | 25 | FLA |
| Daniel Brickley | D | 25 | LOS |
| Logan Brown | F | 25 | OTT |
| Rourke Chartier | F | 25 | SAN |
| Spencer Foo | F | 25 | CAL |
| Dylan Gambrell | F | 25 | SAN |
| Adam Gaudette | F | 25 | VAN |
| Barrett Hayton | F | 25 | ARI |
| Oskar Lindblom | F | 25 | PHI |
| Michael McLeod | F | 25 | NJD |
| Michael Rasmussen | F | 25 | DET |
| Sam Steel | F | 25 | ANA |
| Malcolm Subban | G | 25 | VGK |
| Colin White | F | 25 | OTT |
| Julien Gauthier | F | 20 | CAR |
| Henri Jokiharju | D | 20 | CHI |
| Noah Juulsen | D | 20 | MTL |
| Vladislav Kamenev | F | 20 | COL |
| Luke Kunin | F | 20 | MIN |
| Tucker Poolman | D | 20 | WPG |
| John Quenneville | F | 20 | NJD |
| Sebastian Aho (D) | D | 15 | NYI |
| Ethan Bear | D | 15 | EDM |
| Gabriel Carlsson | D | 15 | CBJ |
| Pierre Engvall | F | 15 | TOR |
| Jon Gillies | G | 15 | CAL |
| Carl Grundstrom | F | 15 | TOR |
| Calle Rosen | D | 15 | TOR |
| Ilya Samsonov | G | 15 | WAS |
| Filip Chlapik | F | 10 | OTT |
| Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson | F | 10 | BOS |
| Alexandre Fortin | F | 10 | CHI |
| Blake Hillman | F | 10 | CHI |
| Andreas Johnsson | F | 10 | TOR |
| Janne Kuokkanen | F | 10 | CAR |
| Trevor Moore | F | 10 | TOR |
| Alexander Nylander | F | 10 | BUF |
| Christian Wolanin | D | 10 | OTT |
| Rasmus Andersson | D | 5 | CAL |
| Zach Aston-Reese | F | 5 | PIT |
| Sammy Blais | F | 5 | STL |
| Colby Cave | F | 5 | BOS |
| Carl Dahlstrom | D | 5 | CHI |
| Michael Downing | D | 5 | FLA |
| Andreas Englund | D | 5 | OTT |
| Warren Foegele | F | 5 | CAR |
| Alex Formenton | F | 5 | OTT |
| Shane Gersich | F | 5 | WAS |
| A.J. Greer | F | 5 | COL |
| Henrik Haapala | F | 5 | FLA |
| Adin Hill | G | 5 | ARI |
| Ross Johnston | F | 5 | NYI |
| Dean Kukan | D | 5 | CBJ |
| Brendan Lemieux | F | 5 | WPG |
| Roland McKeown | D | 5 | CAR |
| Dakota Mermis | D | 5 | ARI |
| Trevor Murphy | D | 5 | ARI |
| Danny O'Regan | F | 5 | BUF |
| Nick Paul | F | 5 | OTT |
| Kevin Rooney | F | 5 | NJD |
| Blake Speers | F | 5 | NJD |
| Mike Vecchione | F | 5 | PHI |
| Nathan Walker | F | 5 | WAS |
| Valentin Zykov | F | 5 | CAR |
| Daniel Sprong | F | 35 | PIT |
| Adam Tambellini | F | 0 | OTT |
| Sergey Tolchinsky | F | 0 | ZFA |
| Lucas Wallmark | F | 0 | CAR |
| Colin White | F | 25 | OTT |
| Valentin Zykov | F | 5 | CAR |
No comments:
Post a Comment