The Corey Pronman Penguins rankings were already a disaster before you even got to the Penguins section. The biggest story in hockey the last few days has unfortunately been the disgusting under 23 player rankings revealed by Corey Pronman of The Athletic. X, the everything app, was set ablaze yesterday as fans began reading their favorite team’s rankings. He somehow had the Capitals with several players within the top 60 but they had an overall ranking underneath the Penguins despite the Penguins top player coming in at 80th (more in the Penguins portion in a bit). Somehow several draftees from this years class were ahead of already established NHL players/stars, and several were ranked above McKenna. Just absolute bananalands stuff from Pronman. People are seriously considering if the article was written completely by AI, it was seriously that atrocious. I have linked the tweet to article below if you feel like looking at whatever the opposite of a masterpiece is…
There were several glaring issues with the article, but the largest had to be the placement of Buffalo’s Zach Benson. Benson made the NHL directly out of his first camp and was one of the best Sabres in this years playoff run. He also received a very nice contract this summer. Yet somehow, someway, Pronman ranked him 126!!!!!!! out of all u23 players, and the sixth best u23er on the Sabres. Just pure insanity. Benson somehow got worse too as Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund, and Konsta Helenius have all passed him. I felt like I was in the twlight zone reading this slop.
Why the Corey Pronman Penguins rankings miss on Kindel and Murashov
Onto the Penguins rankings, since I do primarily blog about the Pens. The Penguins entry continued the trend of being absolute dogshit. The rankings for the Penguins under 23 players went as followed:
- Rutger McGroarty
- Ben Kindel
- Harrison Brunicke
- Liam Ruck
- Will Horcoff
- Bill Zonnon
- Peyton Kettles
- Mikhail Ilyin
- Tomas Glavas
- Jake Livanavage
- Owen Pickering
- Chase Pietila
- Markus Ruck
- Kale Dach
- Pierce Mbuyi
- Gabriel D’Aigle
- Sergei Murashov
I could understand when you’re looking at that list you might say that it isn’t in order. Well, you’d be wrong because this is in fact a rankings list. Pronman looked at the Penguins system and saw Ben Kindel play all season in the NHL during his age 18 year and ranked him below McGroarty. Now, I hate to take runs at Rutger because I do think he’s a valuable piece for the Penguins moving forward but in no scenario is he better than Ben Kindel. Also, there is some sort of fascination at The Athletic of making Kindel a winger and anyone who has actually watched the kid play knows he is significantly better at the center position, and his style of play is certainty more suited for that position.
Now, the biggest crime (in my opinion) of this whole list comes towards the end of the Penguins rankings. Not only is it hockey ranking malpractice to put Sergei Murashov at the bottom of the Penguins list, but it becomes a fireable offence when you place him behind another goaltender in Gabriel D’Aigle. D’Aigle has some great promise but he has never performed to Murashov’s level in any league. Murashov might not pan out how most of the fanbase hopes, but when you look at his body of work he is one of the most exciting goaltending prospects in the entire league. Murashov has dominated the MHL, KHL, ECHL, and AHL while also posting a shutout in one of his three NHL performances so far. Murashov is the odds on favorite to be the 1A with Silovs as the 1B this upcoming season. I am not sure how Murashov’s actual on ice performance could ever land him on a list behind any other Penguins prospect, let alone another goaltending prospect. Kindel and Murashov are this team’s two best young players and I believe the true debate would be which is number 1 between the two of them. Kindel has the NHL experience, but Murashov’s track record at various levels might give him the nod.
I could not believe my eyes while reading this article. It is littered with horrible ranking after horrible ranking. Truly one of the worst pieces of media I have ever consumed and I just had to sit through 45 minutes of random anime porn to pirate the new Spider-Man movie.
The correct Penguins rankings for their under 23 talent should have been listed as followed:
- Ben Kindel
- Sergei Murashov
- Harrison Brunicke
- Rutger McGroarty
- Bill Zonnon
- Liam Ruck
- Will Horcoff
- Tomas Glavas
- Mikhail Ilyin
- Jake Livanavage
- Owen Pickering
- Peyton Kettles
- Markus Ruck
- Gabriel D’Aigle
- Pierce Mbuyi
- Kale Dach
- Chase Pietila
Once you get past Pickering, the order can be varied to be honest. There could also be a couple of swaps in the top 11 but for the most part that is how the fan base, and legit pundits would rank the Penguins. I truly cannot believe The Athletic allowed this article to be published. Hopefully they hire someone new to reevaluate the NHL’s up and coming stars. The only list that rivals what Pronman wrote was when the NHL deemed Evgeni Malkin not a top 100 player in NHL history. I guess if you’re gonna do something poorly, do it as poorly as possible to create clicks.
