From My Mom's Basement: Hockey's Future

Hockey's Future is often thrust upon me as "the place to go" for prospect updates and information. In past writing lives, to contradict HF was to invite criticism and mocking, even if that analysis turned out to be correct, while HF once again fell on its proverbial face.

Make the jump, and let's put this to rest, shall we?

What's your problem with Hockey's Future, man?

I digress. Their ranking sucks. Let's move on to the their current posts about the Wild, shall we? First, they rank the Wild 26th as an organization:

Now wait a minute, that was a post by the HF Staff. Maybe they don't have the ins and outs of the Wild down. Their Wild writer would know better.

Fine. Let's look at their Wild writer, shall we? Today, the Wild are the featured team for the Fall Prospect Review.

First, the intro is killer. Some prime examples:

So, there is no depth at the goaltending position, but it is an area that represents the area of least concern. Check. But wait... what the hell does Mikael Granlund have to do with wings? Does he like to eat them as an appetizer? My information says Granlund is a center, played (and plays) center, and was drafted as... a center.

Moving on, we find a position by position break down of the Wild prospects. We start with Left Wing.

Gillies is the top Left Wing in the organization? Really? And you are still mentioning Petrr Kalus as a viable option? He is a career AHLer at best, and will likely never see any amount of extended time in the NHL. He shouldn't be on the list at all. Back to Gillies. He is a third line checker at top end. He is another in a line of poor draft picks by HWSRN, and with all due respect, is never going to be much of anything.

Not until the third paragraph does the author mention Erik Haula or Jason Zucker. Both players are contributing to their respective powerhouse college programs in their freshman years. That counts for more than it used to, and should start to mean more to HF if they mean to remain relevant. Either one of these players are much better prospect than Gillies.

At center we have this:

Now we have Granlund in with the centers, but we are told he was moved from wing to center this season. Really unsure where that is coming from. Also, who is this "some" suggest that he is struggling? How about a source, or a link, or a name? "Some suggest" is generally a cop out for the author wanting to criticize but not wanting to be on the hook if they are wrong. "Some suggest" this is a really crappy way to make an argument.

Broda and Wellman can be counted on to score. In an organization that lacks scorers, one would think that alone would rank them higher than Colton Gillies, but hey, "some suggest" scoring is overrated.

At Right Wing we get:

Ah yes "some felt" Bulmer was a reach. Again... who? Please, stop with the "some" as your sources.

With defenders, the complete lack of ability to take a stand is embarrassing. For a website that bills itself as the go-to place for prospect information, shouldn't they be willing to step up and call it as it is?

The line about Medvec is just irritating. Medvec is a joke. He has done nothing in his college career, is a giant pylon, and is afraid to use the one gift he was given, his size. How he can be listed as a "contributor" boggles the mind.

Goaltending. Ah yes, the Wild's lack of depth at goaltending will haunt them for years, right? Let's take a look at what the Wild writer for Hockey's Future had to say about the goaltending:

I include the entire section here to make it clear that one name is glaringly missing from it. Oh, dear HF Wild writer... have you by chance missed the top prospect at the position in the entire organization? If you don't know who I am talking about, you may want to do some research, because you'll be hearing his name quite a bit in the next couple years.

The fact that Dennis Endras is not even mentioned should sum up quite nicely why I do not trust Hockey's Future when it comes to Wild prospect information. It makes a nice list of names, in case you need a quick reference, but you should probably put your own thought into the players behind the names, because HF isn't.

But hey... "Some suggest" Hockey's Future is the only place to go.