Hockey Prospects: Profiles, Rankings, Analysis l Last Word On Hockey

Welcome to the 2021 Top Shelf Hockey Prospects series. As we go through the Summer of 2021 LWOS will be featuring a team-by-team look at the top prospects in the NHL. We will be following the order of the first round of the NHL draft (as if there were no traded draft picks) and you can find all the articles here. Since we had an extensive NHL Draft preview, I will not be reviewing the players who were drafted in the 2021 draft, as there have been no games since then, and my reports on them will not have changed.

What we will be doing is linking you to those articles, as well as taking a look at prospects that were acquired before this year’s draft; their progress, and their chances of making the 2021-22 roster of the NHL team in question. We will also bring you one sleeper pick – a player who was either drafted in the 4th-round or later, or was an undrafted free agent signing who we pick as our dark horse to make the NHL. For those wondering, the cut-off for what is or isn’t a prospect is typically about 50 NHL games played (including playoff games) for a skater, 30 games played for a goaltender or have reached the age of 25. These are not hard or fast rules though, and I may make some exceptions depending on the circumstances.