Calgarypuck.com Calgary Flame Prospect Ratings

July 16th, 2001

Calgarypuck.com asked it's readership to put to lay their cards on the table, and put together an individual list of the top prospects for the Calgary Flames.

Each respondent listed the top three goaltenders, top five forwards and top five defencemen in the Calgary Flames system.

Each player was also rated in terms of potential on a scale from one to five according to the following key.

Results:

Each member of the panel submitted a list of 13 players, but a total of 21 different players appeared on at least one list.

Last season the Flames top prospect was Oleg Saprykin with a rating of 4.4 (somewhere between a solid player, and a star). Brent Krahn finished second with a rating of 3.7, and Toni Lydman finished third with a rating of 3.6. (take a look at last year's ratings - Future 2000)

The rating rang true as Saprykin and Lydman both made the team last season; Brent Krahn is back as the number one rated goaltender in the system again this off-season.

Other notable changes from last season come by the way of player transactions. General manager Craig Button traded last season' third and sixth rated forwards in Daniel Tkaczuk and Sergei Varlamov. He also moved the 4th, 5th and 6th rated defencemen in Paul Manning, Darrel Scoville and Chris St. Croix. 

The result is a completely different list this season.

Explanation

Before delving into this year's lists, first an explanation of changes to the tables.

This year the lists are combined to more readily show the team's top overall prospects. The organizational ranking is the first column on the left.

More information has been added this season including the players height, weight, position, how he was acquired and the team he played with last season.

The final four columns represent analysis of the ratings themselves. The first number is the average rating given to each player by all respondents. The next two columns represent the minimum and maximum rating for each player to give an idea of the range of grades. The final column shows the percentage of lists each player showed up on. 

At the bottom of two of the tables the grid turns from black to red. The red grid players represent players with less than 30% attendance on the lists. So a player may have a high rating average, but if he made less than 30% of the respondents lists he is moved down to the bottom.

Future 2001

The number one rated prospect in the system this off-season is defencemen Jordan Leopold. Leopold was acquired in a deal with the Mighty Ducks that saw hulking Andrei Nazarov moved along with a second round pick. Nazarov has since been moved again to the Boston Bruins.

Leopold's rating came in at 4.1, slightly ahead of the number one rated forward, 2001 draftee Chuck Kobasew from Boston College.

Brent Krahn had his rating move up from 3.7 to 3.8, but he fell from second position to third place in 2001.

The list contains seven players taken from the 2000 Entry Draft in Calgary. Four players made the list from the 2001 draft class. There are also two players from each of the 1998 and 1999 drafts.

The results can be seen by following this link - Flames Future 2001