THN Devils top 10

Good news, Ahonen and Suglobov were ranked 51st and 55th respectively, just missing the top 50 THN published on their site. They seem to denote the top 75 prospects this year.................anyways, onto the Devils kids':

1. Zach Parise
2. Ari Ahonen
3. Alexander Suglobov
4. Tuomas Pihlman (68th overall prospect)
5. Adrian Foster
6. Petr Vrana
7. Teemu Laine
8. Victor Uchevatov
9. Krisjanis Redlihs
10. Cam Janssen

What a horrible list, Janssen and Redlihs have no right being there.

What a horrible list, Janssen and Redlihs have no right being there.

Keep in mind the teams themselves provide the top 10 list, not THN. I've heard from a couple scouts that some teams will leave certain unsigned prospects off the list, in order to devalue them in contract talks. This year in particular, the Kings are having trouble signing defenseman Aaron Rome to a deal, and he was surprisingly not on their top 10.

I am pretty sure this list is made up by THN.

I am pretty sure this list is made up by THN.

They just compile the list, here's a direct quote from this year's issue, and I'm pretty sure they've had this same (or at least a similar statement) in years past:

"It's the head scouts and directors of player personnel and assistant GMs who make the decisions regarding the 300 top prospect names and order you see on this and the next 17 pages.

The Hockey News sets the guidelines and faciliatetes the results. In preparing the ranking, we consult with each team's top talent evaluator. We ask them to provide a rough sketch of the top 10 prospects in their system, regardless of age, nationality, or contract status. That ranking based on long term upside rather than expected call to NHL duty.

Each NHL executive is then sent a master list of the 30 top-10 lists and asked to formulate a top-50 ranking. This year, 15 of the executives provided top 50 assistance.

Order adjustments were made to some team's top 10 lists to reconcile them with the top 50 results."

So basically a head scout (possibly Conte) made the top 10 list. Whoever it was might have had Suglobov rated higher than Ahonen, but the final list had Ahonen higher than Suglobov, THN then would have made the adjustment on the top 10. But the individual team's top 10 lists are generated by the teams themselves, and not by THN.

I don't think Lou would actually give up his top 10 propsects. You can't tell me Janssen is a better prospect then Voros.

Cam Janssen being on the list is quite hysterical.

He's a great enforcer at the OHL level, but I don't think he has anything near the skating ability or even much offensive ability needed to even be an NHL enforcer, let alone a top 10 prospect (hell even a top 25 prospect) for a team like the Devils.

I don't think Lou would actually give up his top 10 propsects. You can't tell me Janssen is a better prospect then Voros.

If you read again, Lou wouldn't be the guy that THN would have contacted.

Although, I think there is usually a little bit of politics in the bottom portion of the top 10. As in, a team may leave an unsigned prospect out of the top 10 in order to devalue his stock in contract talks. Or a team may include a guy in the top 10 in order to give a minor boost to his potential trade value to a team who hadn't made a point to scout a certain player.

Well the person in the organization....lol