Hockey This Week Puts Out Isles' Top 20 Prospects

Holy crap, there are 20??

There, I got the dumb joke out of the way for you.

Anyway, the Isles' top 20 prospects in the eyes of this magazine were listed, and I pretty much agree with the assessment. Do I think projecting Ryan Strome as an All-Star forward is a bit much? Yeah, maybe. The kid is still a kid. Anything can happen between now and 2012 (his NHL ETA) for that projection to be compromised- plus, as we all know, the OHL, AHL and NHL are all three different leagues. Players are affected accordingly.

I am excited to death about Nino Niederreiter, however. He has size, offensive prowess, and I love his attitude. Many people are projecting him to crack the lineup come this season, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised- he's coming off a great WHL season, and while the Isles are loaded with centers, I don't think they'll have a problem fitting him in as a RW.

Kevin Poulin is a #7, and while I get that the Isles have a few goalies in Al Montoya, Rick DiPietro and that Russian guy, I'll be surprised if KP doesn't see a couple of games at the very least. The Isles have just signed Anders Nilsson to an entry-level as well, but he'll likely spend most of his time in Bridgeport if Rick is healthy or if His Highness decides to report to training camp and join the team as planned. At any rate, I agree that Poulin is at the very least their top goalie prospect for the time being.

Poor Mikko Koskinen falls to #18. The guy had it hard last season, being thrown into the mix after Ricky went down and then Poulin ended up with his knee injury. The guy is likely a dream for some- HE'S HUGE. 6'8" of goalie? Sign me up any day. He faltered at first, but got a bit better with every game, yet something tells me that with all of the guys we have in net right now, he's not really fitting into the mix anymore. Who knows, though? With our luck in goalies, we may just do better by holding on to him.

Those are just the guys that jumped out at me the most; the entire list is linked at the beginning, so feel free to take a look and make your own conclusions. All I know is that the Isles' future doesn't look quite that dim to me.