Utah Hockey Club Prospect Rankings

December 2024

Explanation on the rankings. I've looked to remove the "Corey Pronman Recency Bias" from these rankings and made a ranking based off a combination of how well the prospect is doing right now, their ceiling/floor, as well as what league they are currently playing in. 

FORWARDS

What appears to be Utah's weakest area for prospects, really is not an area of concern.... for now. With the likes of Beniers, Knies, Caulfield, and Marchenko all 24 years of age or younger, this list would be a lot stronger with them on it. Given that these players are already full time with their respective clubs, there is less fun in ranking players we already know can perform at that level.

Rashevsky is a huge question mark for forwards. This is now his 3rd full year playing in the KHL and it is also the last year of his contract. It is known that he doesn’t have any interest in playing in the AHL, which is the reason he signed his last extension. This upcoming offseason will quite possibly determine if he makes the jump over to North America, or if he will be a lifelong KHL player. 



DEFENCE

The strongest area of Utah's prospect pool. Luneau and Mancini were both given opportunities this year to stick in the NHL, but both ended up falling short. Brodin, Parayko, Graves, and Seeler are all UFA's in the next 5 years, Utah has looked to make a smooth transition from their established veterans to their upcoming defensive core.

Henry Mews has a great opportunity to climb this list, who is having an excellent start to his D+1 season. If this play continues, Mews will certainly finish higher on this list by the end of the year. 




GOALIES

With how unpredictable goaltenders can be, Utah's philosophy is you can never have too many. Utah went out and signed Poulter and Suchanek in Free Agency this year to help continue to grow the goalie pipeline. With Oettinger holding the crease for the foreseeable future, Utah is looking to find their long term back up, and even possibly strike gold with another starter. 

It was a pleasant surprised to see Khazheyev move over to the AHL this year, where Utah can closely follow his development now, and in future years.