DobberProspects Fantasy Mailbag - July Edition

[Avalanche_Ambush]

Adam Gaudette ripped up college hockey last season. Seems like a hidden gem. What are your thoughts of him? Will he one day become a useful offensive contributor in fantasy circles and how long until he gets there?

[Crazy Joe Davola]

Terrific Q's as always, team! I'm working hard on them.

[plug]

Montour

[ridinryan44]

Montour

Who is Brandon?

[Magicstew]

Thoughts on Will Butcher - Col, make team this year, upside PP1?

[Crazy Joe Davola]

Thoughts on Will Butcher - Col, make team this year, upside PP1?

I'd say it's more likely that he signs elsewhere as of August 15th then signs with colorado and sees real minutes.

Wherever he goes, he'll likely need AHL time to develop. Top PP upside, sure but that's some deployment which I wouldn't bank on in the near future.

[Crazy Joe Davola]

Here it is! Thanks for the great Qs and if you didn't get yours answered, feel free to toss it out again next month!

http://bit.ly/2eOSQ2H

[Avalanche_Ambush]

Great job Joe!

[forsbergfan]

anyone care to give their take on my question:

Please answer the Texier question!

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Leafs prospect depth chart, considering the abundance of young players already on their big club. They're 12-13th best prospect would be top 5 on most teams. Who are the guys we should be after? At forward, they've got Kapanen, Johnsson, Korshkov, Grundstrom, Brooks, Rychel (least likely to make it IMO), Bracco and a few other quality prospects. And on D they've got Dermott, Liljegren, Rosen, Borgman, Greenway, Rasanen and Nielsen.
I think on most other teams, just about all these guys would be in consideration to be top-9 forwards or 2nd pairing (at least) defencemen in their primes. But there's only gonna be so much room for these guys on the Leafs' stacked lineup. Who are the guys that will probably make it?
BTW Especially interested in hearing your thoughts on Brooks and Borgman.

[Fighting_Emu]

I just got 6 shiny new prospects from a trade and two waiver adds to help solidify a very shallow farm on my shiny new team. Only real prospects/young guys I had worth getting excited about were excited about weree Kaprizov, Tuch, Korpisaalo, and Wideman whom Im not that excited about). Got some good advice from the forums I think but not sure hwat I bought-lol!!!

For Killorn and a 2nd in 2019 I got:

C Yakov Trenin, C John Hayden, D Haydn Fleury and a 2nd this year.

I used my first waiver priority on Darren Raddysh whom I heard about on dobberprospectsradio (man what a great podcast!!!).

Lastly I grabbed Yanni Gourde based on a ramblings not too long ago.

I know nothing and less about these guys- hahaha! Would love some insight on what I got. The price was very reasonable (basically had to demote Killorns salary anyways)- so even small degrees of upside are good news :P

Yup me too!!! I inherited/crafted a hodgepodge farm team based around Tuch, Gourde, Trenin, Hayden, H Fleury, D Raddysh, C Miller, Z MacIntyre, D Wells and Jon Gillies. Would love, love, love- some insight!!!!

[Axeman33]

anyone care to give their take on my question:

I dont know if anyone can honestly give you an answer to your question at this time. It's simply too early in the summer and looking at the contracts on the books today, I think their roster is pretty well set. That being said:

I don't think ANY of their D prospects you've listed are on the opening night roster, not unless one of them find a way to beat out Connor Carrick or Marchenko. It's possible but unlikely.

The only forward prospect you listed I see on their opening night roster will be Kapanen but in a bottom six role.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Leafs prospect depth chart, considering the abundance of young players already on their big club. They're 12-13th best prospect would be top 5 on most teams. Who are the guys we should be after? At forward, they've got Kapanen, Johnsson, Korshkov, Grundstrom, Brooks, Rychel (least likely to make it IMO), Bracco and a few other quality prospects. And on D they've got Dermott, Liljegren, Rosen, Borgman, Greenway, Rasanen and Nielsen.
I think on most other teams, just about all these guys would be in consideration to be top-9 forwards or 2nd pairing (at least) defencemen in their primes. But there's only gonna be so much room for these guys on the Leafs' stacked lineup. Who are the guys that will probably make it?
BTW Especially interested in hearing your thoughts on Brooks and Borgman.

Since you asked others to reply to this as well, I'll give it a shot. Grundstrom will make the NHL sooner than most realize but I don't see huge offensive upside. He's a hard-working winger who will provide a good amount of hits, though. Korshkov is also close to being NHL ready but who knows when he'll cross the pond. Similar story as with Grundstrom - no huge offensive upside. Either one could play as complementary top-6 winger if they have good chemistry with the more offensively talented players but they could also have a good bottom-6 career. 40-55 points for each in their prime is my best guess right now.

Dermott is probably the most likely to become an NHL player but doesn't have huge offensive upside. Maybe one more full season in the AHL before he's ready to split the season between the two leagues. Around 30 points perhaps in his prime? Liljegren is going to get his chances but I'm not so sure about him. I'm not a fan of him. Rosen and Borgman were good assets to acquire because they got them for free but I wouldn't go crazy about them for fantasy hockey purposes.

All in all, pretty much all Toronto prospects become overhyped and overvalued, so I don't usually like to trade for them. I don't mind drafting them and then flipping them afterwards. For example, I doubt Rasanen ever becomes an NHL player but some people are going crazy over him. If he ever becomes a #6D, I'd be more than happy with that.

[forsbergfan]

I dont know if anyone can honestly give you an answer to your question at this time. It's simply too early in the summer and looking at the contracts on the books today, I think their roster is pretty well set. That being said:

I don't think ANY of their D prospects you've listed are on the opening night roster, not unless one of them find a way to beat out Connor Carrick or Marchenko. It's possible but unlikely.

The only forward prospect you listed I see on their opening night roster will be Kapanen but in a bottom six role.

My question was about their long-term potential, not for this year. This year, I agree with you, Kapanen is the only one who should crack the roster (with a possibility that Rosen joins him at some point, and maybe even Dermott as well). But long term, these are top notch prospects. Who are the ones to pick up now when no one else is paying enough attention to them?

I'll ask more specifically:
How good a chance does Adam Brooks have of becoming a 2nd line center? It's a very real possibility considering the Leafs' depth chart. They've got Matthews as their top center, and Kadri as their Kesler-like shutdown center. Unless they turn Nylander into a center (which there is a very good chance of happening), there is room for another top center long term. Brooks is their top center prospect, and his game is all about offense, so it would suite a top-6 role.
Which of their top notch wingers break through over the next few years and separate themselves from the pack? They've already got Nylander and Marner as cornerstones, Hyman and Brown as complimentary/depth wingers who seem to have earned their spot, plus Kapanen should be coming up this year. What about Bracco, Korshkov, Johnsson?
Their current D has some young good but not necessarily great pieces. Rielly (could be great, but might never happen), Zaitsev (signed long term), Gardiner, plus top prospects Liljegren (who might be the best of the bunch) and Dermott. They've also some other highly touted prospects in Borgman (SHL Rookie of the year, and the list of previous dmen who won that award is pretty impressive) and Nielsen (loads of offense the past two seasons, but questions whether it'll translate well in the NHL). And very good depth dmen in Rosen, Greenway, Rasanen? What will their D look like in 5-6 years?

Obviously this is all very far down the line, but if you plan ahead, that's how you get the top prospects before anyone's heard of them!