Brian Lee

Love the Dawgs, Braves, Preds, Nashville SC, and Titans

[Nick @nickiacoban]

Prospect Pool Rankings: The grand finale. We made it! If you were keeping track, you knew it was between Nashville and San Jose. The order might surprise you, but I have Nashville at #1 and San Jose at #2.

#1 - Nashville Predators
To me, Nashville has the best prospect pool in the NHL. Their star power is 2nd to San Jose, but they have the best depth, and it's not even close.

Nashville's pool has an expected 9.84 NHLers. Anaheim, the squad in 2nd for xNHLers, has 8.89, a full projected NHLer behind the Predators. This gap is what puts Nashville at #1.

Wyatt Cullen is first in the #1 pool. Post-update, Cullen is ranked 5th overall in the 2026 Draft. His production is strong on its own, but considering he won't turn 18 for another month, he deserves to be ranked as one of the league's best.

Brady Martin was seen as a little bit of a reach last summer. I was a fan of his despite this, and today, his projection is pretty much in the same spot. He has a pretty safe path as a top-six forward and possibly a 1st liner for Nashville.

Tommy Bleyl was a favorite of mine in this past draft class. He's ranked 19th in it, and Nashville was able to get him at 31st. I call that great value for a potential top-four defenseman with elite mobility.

Cameron Reid also projects well for the Predators blueline one day. His NHL outcome is evenly split between each of my tiers, but right now, he is sitting at a 75% shot of making the NHL.

Nashville's list of potential future NHLers continues with Ryker Lee, Yegor Surin, and Ryan Ufko. Lee and Surin both have strong NHL projections. Ufko's is a little lower, but considering he played 19 NHL games last year and did well, he should also be an NHLer full-time.

My graphic limits a pool to ten prospects, but Nashville has way more that deserve a mention. All of the following would show much higher up in any other, not as deep, pool: Rombach, Nilsson, Floris, Stiga, and Kemell.

Nashville's pool is loaded with star talent and is the deepest pool in the league, by far. A well-deserving group of my #1 ranking.

#2 - San Jose Sharks
If I had to guess, most people would have expected San Jose to finish 1st in these rankings. I can see why.

San Jose's star power is clearly the best in the league with Stenberg, Verhoeff, and Lin. What most people don't account for is a pool's depth since it's a lot harder to track 20+ prospects for each team versus the top few.

If these rankings were solely based on a team's top five prospects, San Jose would be #1, and it wouldn't be that close. In reality, the Sharks don't have the same amount of depth as a pool like Nashville, and thus, slot in 2nd.

Ivar Stenberg leads San Jose's pool. Throughout the entire Reid vs Stenberg debate, I was always of the opinion that Stenberg was the better pick. I'm glad to see that Mike Grier agreed.

Stenberg is good enough to be a team's franchise player himself, but since the Sharks are so stacked with young talent, there's a real world in which he hits his ceiling and still is the 3rd or 4th best player on this team.

Verhoeff was San Jose's next selection and is also next in this ranking. The possible 1st-pair defender rose a good amount post-update to end up where I have him now. Getting Stenberg and one of the class's best D in Verhoeff is something that will pay off in San Jose for the next decade.

To me, Ryan Lin is in the same tier as Daxon Rudolph and Alberts Smits from this summer's class. I have him 5th among all defensemen drafted in 2026. Getting him at 21oa is an absolute steal.

Leo Sahlin Wallenius and Luca Cagnoni fall in the same tier for me. Both are likely NHLers with odds of becoming top four defensemen at around 40%.

Quentin Musty's odds fell decently this year. He was good in the AHL, but the model expectation after his OHL production was to jump in the NHL and produce well. He has plenty of time to turn it around, but last season was not a step in the right direction to me.

The next tier of prospects all sit around 30% of making the NHL, serving as solid depth options for San Jose. Between Wang, Wetsch, Pohlkamp, and McKinney, you can expect an NHLer or two.

There's no doubt San Jose has the best young core in the NHL. Their prospect pool is right at the top, and it doesn't even include the following established U24 NHLers: Celebrini, Smith, Misa, Dickinson, Chernyshov, and Graf.

The Sharks are set up for long-term success and will likely be the team to beat in the Western Conference in a few years.

[Byron Bader @ByronMBader]

Killer pick by the Predators to end the 1st round!!

Bleyl showed up on the scene in the Q in his draft year and produced like a machine.

HP had him ranked 16th on the Top 35.

[Tykee Smith @TykSmith]

Repost to help send me to the Pro Bowl 🙏🏾
#ProBowlVote  @TykSmith

[Frank Caliendo @FrankCaliendo]

Celebrating
National Sandwich Day

[Golazo America @GolazoAmerica]

HISTORY MADE!

The first trophy in the history of Tennessee professional sports belongs to @NashvilleSC as they claim the U.S. @opencup title! 🇺🇸🏆

[Tom Bogert @tombogert]

Very poetic and fitting that it's Hany Mukhtar and Walker Zimmerman the first two to get their hands on the trophy and lifting it together

[U.S. Open Cup @opencup]

The very first piece of hardware in @NashvilleSC history is in their hands! 🙌🏆

[U.S. Open Cup @opencup]

TFW you're heading to your 1st Open Cup FINAL 🙌

@NashvilleSC | #USOC2025

[Ben Wright @benwright]

Hany Mukhtar just became the fifth player in MLS history to log 10 assists in five-consecutive seasons, along with Preki (8), Carlos Valderrama (5), and Robert Warzycha (5).

Genuinely one of the best players in league history.

📸 @cmoorestories

[CJ @CJNitkowski]

"Ramirez flies out to left."

[Nashville SC @NashvilleSC]

𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 amazing night at GEODIS Park ✨

All 5️⃣ goals from tonight's win over D.C. United 📺

[Nashville SC @NashvilleSC]

A work of art 🖼️

[Atlanta Braves @Braves]

THIS. CATCH! 💸

@MoneyyyMikeee | #BravesCountry

[Major League Soccer @MLS]

📈📈📈📈📈

BJ Callaghan is building something special @NashvilleSC: https://t.co/3P0PSqr1Xi

[MLS Communications @MLS_PR]

With two assists this evening, @NashvilleSC's Hany Mukhtar tied Roy Lassiter (117) for the seventh most goal contributions by a player in @MLS history through their first 150 regular season appearances.

[Major League Soccer @MLS]

Joe Willis penalty save? Joe Willis penalty save. 🧤

[USA Hockey @usahockey]

THAT'S AMERICAN HOCKEY. 🇺🇸🦅 #4Nations

[Radi Nabulsi @RadiNabulsi]

Could not ask for a better guy to win the Butkus Award.

[Chris Fallica @chrisfallica]

Georgia pretty much had the most difficult conference schedule the SEC could have spat out of the generator - at Bama, at Texas, at Ole Miss, Tenn... and they still won the league.

[College Sports Only @CSOonX]

It's time for an annual offseason tradition unlike any other:

College Football's All-Name Team.

Here's the 2024 squad, in thread form. 🧵

• QB General Booty (ULM) 🍑