THN.com Blog: Pietrangelo is poster boy for Future Watch 2010

Blues prospect Alex Pietrangelo has a goal and two assists in 17 career NHL games.(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Brian Costello
2010-02-14 09:30:00

The scouts have spoken, the ballots are in, the spreadsheet has calculated. Alex Pietrangelo is the No. 1 prospect in Future Watch 2010.

The future St. Louis Blues defenseman edged out an impressive field of players drafted by NHL teams who are playing at development levels such as major junior, college, minor pro and Europe.

Twenty-three NHL scouts or directors of player personnel participated in The Hockey News annual ranking of prospects. As always, we ask the scouts to rank NHL-affiliated prospects one to 50 and we have a weighted point system that determines the overall result. Pietrangelo was first on four ballots, while seven other scouts had him in the top four. Ten other prospects received first-place votes.

The fourth overall pick by the Blues in the 2008 NHL draft – behind young luminaries Steve Stamkos, Drew Doughty and Zach Bogosian – Pietrangelo is enjoying another exceptional Ontario League season with the Barrie Colts, after getting traded from the Niagara Ice Dogs. The 6-foot-3, 204-pound defenseman has managed eight NHL games with the Blues last season and nine more this season, but he was at his best on the Canadian blueline at the World Junior Championship in Saskatchewan, where he was selected top defenseman.

We start working on Future Watch immediately after the WJC, getting feedback from each NHL team on their top 10 prospects, then cross-referencing them with input from the 23-member panel of scouts. We consider all prospects who have played fewer than 50 NHL games, although we rule out some players who have proven themselves as NHLers, but have not yet reached that plateau (example, Anaheim’s Dan Sexton). We also re-consider players who have gone beyond the 50 games, but find themselves back in development leagues (example, Kyle Turris).

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The results are always a surprise. Some have impressive moves upwards, others slide from the previous year. The new names are always interesting. Pietrangelo made the jump from No. 5 last year to top spot.

Last year’s No. 1 prospect, Nikita Filatov of the Columbus Blue Jackets system, dropped, but still finds himself in the top 10. Same can be said for No. 2 prospect Cody Hodgson, who missed the first three-plus months of the season with injury.

Future Watch 2010 will be on newsstands March 8, but will be in the hands of subscribers earlier than that. We can’t give you too many results now, but here are the names of other prospects in the top 10, alphabetically:

Washington defenseman John Carlson, Edmonton center Jordan Eberle, Filatov, Hodgson, Phoenix defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Florida goalie Jacob Markstrom, Anaheim defenseman Luca Sbisa, Los Angeles center Brayden Schenn and Nashville center Colin Wilson.

Brian Costello is The Hockey News’s senior special editions editor and a regular contributor to THN.com. You can find his blog each weekend.

For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

COMMENTS (4)

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samildanach Posted
(2010-02-18 16:17:31)

You don't call up junior prospects. Eberle isn't and wasn't in a position to "be called up next week" after the WJC. It doesn't work like that. And Pieterangelo started in the NHL and went down before 10 games to stop his contract from losing a year. Inform yourself mr. Zarf.

detredwings Posted
(2010-02-17 10:59:07)

zarf 99, Pietrangelo made the Blues team 2 years in row and was sent down due to his contract status of having a rookie contract that kicks in for a full season after playing 10 games. I agree Eberle will become a good NHLer. I think the scouts see Poetrangelo as a potential Norris winner.

zarf_99 Posted
(2010-02-16 12:43:16)

So let’s get this straight – the Blues call up this kid twice, he plays a handful of games, gets sent back down to junior, gets traded from one junior team to another and has a pretty darn good WJC. That sounds like a solid NHL prospect, but does that really sound like the No. 1 drafted NHL prospect outside the NHL? No, I didn’t think so either. You can call me a disgruntled Oiler fan (who’s had a lot to be disgruntled about this year) but what else did Eberle have to do earn the No. 1 spot? In fairness to THN, it wasn’t their decision. It’s the result of a vote among a bunch of scouts and directors of player personnel, so I guess that means THN is off the hook. But, c’mon, guys. Eberle was the MVP and the top forward at the WJC and is now its leading goal-scorer, all-time. Ask any casual hockey fan who Jordan Eberle is and they’ll say he’s the guy who scored two of the biggest clutch goals at the WJC two years in a row. Otherwise, he’s in a Nike commercial and he’s also about four points off the scoring lead in the WHL, despite playing 15 fewer games than the leader. Don’t get me wrong – I think Pietrangelo is going to be a good player for a long time. But would the Oilers trade Eberle for Pietrangelo right now? No friggin’ way. Pietrangelo’s claim to the No. 1 spot seems to be predicated on the fact that he’d been called up twice and sent down. This isn’t the first time THN has used the “he’s-had-a-cuppa-NHL-coffee” defence on a top prospect, but I think it’s officially getting ridiculous. When Eberle scored the two big goals in the final game of the WJC in January, I can remember two things coming to mind after the thrill of the tie and the agony of the overtime defeat cleared. One - the Oilers have gotta call this guy up next week. And, two - if this doesn’t make him the No. 1 prospect in The Hockey News Future Watch issue, nothing will. Well, I guess it turns out that nothing will.

daoust1 Posted
(2010-02-14 16:56:22)

One would also be wise to keep their eye on young d-men such as kulikov, franson, erik karlsson, sbisa, and maybe john carlson of world junior fame. We fans need not worry about a shortage of great young players ready to make thier mark on the NHL.