Insider
Craig Custance, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Scouts dissect Pronman's top 50

First, let’s acknowledge that what our Insider prospect writer Corey Pronman tries to do every year in ranking his top 50 prospects after getting a good look at them during the World Junior Championships isn’t an easy task.

It’s hard enough to evaluate players in that tournament, some of them 17 years old playing against kids a couple of years older. Then to take that information and project the NHL future of those prospects against others who are currently developing in the AHL -- that’s challenging.

That's especially true when standout performances, like those turned in by Sam Reinhart, Anthony Duclair and Max Domi, are so fresh on the mind.

“It’s like when the president makes a speech, he says a few things you like and his ratings take a bounce up,” said one Western Conference lead amateur scout on how a tournament like the WJC can influence opinion.

His first impression of Pronman’s Top 50 was that it was heavily influenced by the recently concluded WJC.

“It’s colored by the world junior,” said the scout. “The problem is you had that one group that was playing in Toronto is much maligned and as disappointed as Team USA was, that was still the same team that slapped around Sweden in an exhibition game.”

The hard part is putting the list together. The easy part, which I gladly accepted, is trying to find the flaws.

Let’s start right at the top.

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