Zibanejad, Silfverberg, Lehner Among Hockeys Future Top 50 Prospects

The website Hockeysfuture.com published their bi-annual rankings of the top 50 prospects in the NHL, and there were a trio of Senators among them.  The Tre Kroners of Swedes – Mika Zibanejad, Jakob Silfverberg and Robin Lehner were all among the top 50, and two of them have made significant jumps since the pre-season rankings in September, while on dropped a couple of spots.

Mar 6, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Ottawa Senators center Mika Zibanejad (93) celebrates his goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Zibanejad fell three spots from 5th to 8th.  Alex Galchenyuk, Yevgeni Kuznetsov and Justin Schultz climbed a various number of spots to knock Zibanejad down a little bit, but he stayed in the top 10.

Silfverberg jumped 10 spots from 40th to 30th, based on his strong play so far this season, while Lehner also made a big jump, moving up 15 spots to 31st from 46th, on the basis of his lights out season in Bingo and his strong performance in Craig Anderson‘s absence.

The only team to have more players in the top 50 was Minnesota, who had 4 prospects on the list.  Montreal, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Florida and Edmonton all placed 3 on the list along with the Senators.

Twenty-five teams had at least one prospect on the list, with a couple of non-playoff teams among the 5 who did not.  Carolina, Colorado and Philadelphia are among the teams that have some work to do in the minors as well as on the big club, while Nashville and Vancouver also did not place a player among the top 50.

Edmonton was the only team with two players among the top 10, and only 2 of the top 10 prospects have not seen NHL action this season.

Here are the TOP 10 from the list (previous ranking in parenthesis)

1. Vladimir Tarasenko, STL (2)

2. Alex Galchenyuk, MTL (8)

3. Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA (4)

4. Dougie Hamilton, BOS (3)

5. Nail Yakupov, EDM (1)

6. Yevgeni Kuznetsov, WSH (6)

7. Justin Schultz, EDM (22)

8. Mika Zibanejad, OTT (5)

9. Morgan Rielly, TOR (16)

10. Sven Baertschi, CGY (9)

OTHER PLAYERS OF NOTE:

Former Senators defenseman David Rundblad is ranked 45th, one spot below Joe Morrow, who was the player Dallas acquired in the Brenden Morrow trade this week.  Former Ottawa 67’s winger Tyler Toffoli was ranked 41st, while Winnipeg’s top prospect Mark Scheifele was only ranked 33rd, which was lower than I would have expected for such a highly touted player.