Top 5 New York Islanders Islanders Prospects Today

Top 5 New York Islanders Islanders Prospects Today

In this video, let’s look at the Islanders’s top five prospects in the prospect pool as of today, July 21st, 2025. You’re listening to Up the Turnpike with hosts Mitch Anderson, Mattal. Now, I haven’t done one of these top five prospects in the Islanders prospect pool videos for a while. I don’t know if I’ve even done them on this channel. I may have done like one or two. And obviously not with any sort of relative frequency. Uh but damn it, that’s going to change. We’re going to continue doing more deckhand style content on the Up the Turnpike channel. Uh more Islanders prospect stuff here. And we’re going to start with this video here, which is the top five prospects as it stands today, July 21st, 2025. And now, the reason we’re doing that today isn’t just because there any sort of updates to the prospect pool, per se. They are obviously not playing any games, but we haven’t done this in a while. And the Islanders have added a bunch of really high quality prospects into the prospect pool. Not only did we trade for Callum Richie, nor not only did we also uh draft first overall with Matthew Schaefer and then added Victor Ecklan and Kahan Aerson uh who I freaking love. Um all of that together, there’s a lot of quality adding itself to a prospect pool that that had some gems. Maybe not relative to the rest of the NHL, but there are some good players there. So, now that we’ve got these new players in, who are the top five prospects in our prospect pool? Now, to some of you who have watched my content in the past when I was doing this on Deckands, you’re going to be familiar with the format. So, maybe skip ahead a minute or two here, um, as I explain the format to maybe the uninitiated. Basically, what I do for these rankings, and it’s not perfect, uh, is I rank all these players based off of NHLE, NHL expected. Effectively, what that does is it takes a player’s production as where they are right now. So, let’s say they’re playing either in Sweden or Finland or the USA in the NCAA or juniors in Canada and it takes their production rate and say says based off of what they’ve done here this year, this is what we would expect them to do based off of everyone else who’s played leading up to this point at the NHL level. So, this is what they would look like as an NHL player. So, it’s a good way of just kind of comparing and contrasting players as far as where they are today in their uh development, if you will. Now, my NHLE, I’ve added like an age curve to it where I take I shave off some points for players who are older in the prospect pool because they’re maybe not developing at the same rate as some of the younger guys who are like Schaefer who’s 17 years old. Uh more impressive when he’s scoring a point per game versus someone who’s 24 scoring a po point per game at like the NCAA level. It’s not the same kind of weight, right? So, I baked that all into my ANHLE to uh effectively give you a sense of who’s producing or who’s playing at the higher rate today if they were to jump into the NHL. Now, again, not perfect because it’s based off production, right? So, I it’s not really um the most accommodating ranking to defenseman, specifically those who maybe don’t play a high offensive style. So, that’s something that I have to fix with the model going forward, but we’ll do that at some point. Right now, it’s just top five guys. So, I explained how I do it. Uh, now we’re going to get into who they are, and I’ll give you a peak behind the curtain in terms of my entire top 10, just so you see how some players rank that maybe didn’t make it. Um, so here’s my top 10 players based off of NHLE, and this is based off of their production from last year. Number one is Schaefer. That does should not surprise anyone at all. Richie two, Quinn Finley is probably going to be surprised at number three. Victor Ecklund four makes sense. Alex Jeff may not necessarily be a surprise for some at five, but you might be wondering where the heck is Cole Eisermanman. Well, there he is at six. Isaiah George, not necessarily an offensive defenseman, still sticking in at the top 10, which is pretty goddamn impressive. Cameron Berg eight. Kahan Aes number nine. I expect that to go up next year. And Danny Nelson number 10. That’s my top 10 rankings. And again, it’s this is not subjective. I haven’t said like, oh, I’ll play around with it because I like this guy better for this, that, and reason. This is just straight up numbers, man. This is Excel crunching the numbers and saying this is what they are. So, again, not perfect, but it’s a good way to start the discussion. And I think we all already agree that Matthew Schaefer is easily the best prospect in the Islanders prospect pool. just it’s not even close just based off of everything that he’s done and uh the production that he puts up. Um for me it even goes beyond that. It gets to like the skating which I know I may not have been as high on to some of those who are uh watching our um our up the turnpike uh podcast. Not to say that I didn’t think he was a good skater. I was kind of like I I don’t know. I’ve only seen 17 games. Like how good can he actually be? Like sure good, but like how awesome can he be? like does he really live up to the hype type of thing. And then we see him at dev camp and he really is living up to the hype. Like you you you can see it here from from Stefan’s video. Um like if I just make it bigger here like he’s killing 58. Here is Cam Thon. Look at him. He goes right through him like he doesn’t even exist. Cam Thon’s a 24 year old player. That’s not some 17-year-old kid that that um Matthew Schaefer is punking here. He’s picking a 24 year old player, someone who has played at the NHL at the AHL level last year and he’s going right around him like he doesn’t exist. Um, wildly impressive. And it’s not just because of the fancy dancy move there that he makes, which again is also cool and great and gets that separation for him, but it’s the foot speed. Camp the just can’t match it. And he’s by the time Schaefer hits the blue line as you can see here. Um you can see that the thing is in the rearview window just not just done. He’s on he’s gone. That’s super impressive. But to to me that wasn’t the one video that kind of sold me on like okay I was dead wrong uh on him. It’s this one here. Uh again from the Islanders development camp um where they’re doing these like quick little onetwoss, right? And again, thank you Stfan for the video. Uh the quick onetwoss here between them and then they go off to get a shot on net. It’s the first couple of strides after he’s made the one two. So he’s at the blue line going around whatever like basically pylon, but it’s a it’s a person trying to like up block his way in the most passive way possible, but still. And he goes around them. First two strides, cut, cut, and he’s gone. Uh was the thing for me that kind of sold me like watch him here. Obviously, you’re going to go through the entire drill, so there’s a there’s a bit to go, but already like the edge work is fantastic. And watch here. Boom. Boom. Gone. Done. Just that to me was going, “Okay, okay, kid.” And it might not seem like a lot, but that’s where I went, “All right, we’re good here. We’re good here.” Um, number one prospect in the prospect pool easily. The production is there. The skating is there. I think the only question for Matthew Schaefer at this point is can he make the NHL? Well, will he make the NHL on day one? We’ll see. Number two on our list, as we saw, is Callum Richie, a player who has no no needs no introduction. We’re allware well aware of him at this point, even though he hasn’t necessarily been in the prospect pool for a while. was uh a lot a lot to do about the the trade and he was the best prospect in the avalanche system uh and has done very very well for himself um in terms of his development. Maybe took a little bit of a step back this year and I I’ll kind of corroborate that here with this graph that I’ve got. Uh the green line is his development year-over-year. The blue line is what um a typical first liner does or what eventually is a first liner at the NHL level, his development level, right? And you can see he was kind of following that until this year where he kind kind of took a step back. Not making the NHL, I think, kind of kicked him in the can a little bit. Um, and he had a few troubles this year, but like it was nothing nothing really to worry about. He obviously put those to bed in the playoffs scoring well not well over, but I think it’s 25 points in 23 games. Just nuts. He’s still at worst a second line center, which is this red line here. At worst, which is still bonkers. Um, and and the thing with him is that his style of play is solid two-way player, can do all things and just really really solid and fundamentally sound was the word I was I was struggling to find there. But it goes beyond that with with Callum Richie. He’s a hell of a creative player. And I I really want to bring up this specific shootout move that he’s got or that he has done that has blown the minds of guys like Nathan McKinnon and just just watch it and react to it as as you watch it live. If you haven’t seen this already, maybe you have, but just watch this here. We’re going to play this video and watch what the Who thinks of that? He fakes the shot, right? I don’t know if you saw that. If you caught it, I hope you did. But watch him. He goes to take a shot, but he doesn’t actually touch the puck until it’s too goes beyond the goalie and it’s too late. Goalie can’t react. It’s done. That’s wild. And even Nathan McKinnon is going, “Yeah, I can’t do that. I’ve tried it. I can’t do it.” Um I’m sure Nathan McKinnon, if he took the time to practice, would figure it out pretty goddamn quick. But he hasn’t yet. Or hadn’t at that at a point during the year where um he had spoken about this. That’s insane. And like that wasn’t accidental. It was very much on purpose as the tweet suggests here is very much on purpose. And he did it again as you can see. Nathan McKinnon assures you that this is on purpose. He did it at an ABS practice. Um just stly creative on top of that solid fundamental game. That that’s why you’re going he’s at least a second line center which thank you very much Brock Nelson. Uh, number three on our list, and this is where maybe gets a little u not contentious. I I think it’ll it can explain itself pretty easily, uh, is going to be Quinn Finley, right? Some of you are looking at is Quinn Finley going like, “Okay, I didn’t expect him to be number three.” But Quinn Finley had a monster year for Wisconsin the past season. If you’re not well aware of what Quinn Finley has done for Wisconsin, let me just bring it up here just so I can get the numbers exactly right because I don’t remember off the top of my head. He had 40 points in 37 games and even split between 20 goals and 20 assists, leading the Badgers by heads and shoulders. Um the the kid is a hell of a player at that level already. He’s going back this year, which is totally fine. Uh, but I want to bring up this specific tweet here where someone kind of breaks down NHL Foley breaks down the underlying numbers to Quinn Finley’s game last year. And it is very impressive. Very, very impressive. Uh, in the percentage, he’s number 113 forward out of 930 in the nation. And the expected goals are high. Basically, what I’m looking at is the bottom numbers here. His shooting has gone up. defense has maybe struggled a little bit but not not by a whole lot. Scoring has gone up and the transition play has gone up. His NCAA rank went up from 113 last year in 232 24 to 52 last year out of 900 and some odd players. So the these stats that you’re looking at here versus season 23 24 where he was still having a really really good year but he only got better this past season. And as Foley says, um, there is a major gap between Quinn Finley and all the other UW players, University of Wisconsin. He is a lineup leader and it’s absolute at its absolute fullest. So this guy is again heads and shoulders over the rest of his teammates, but you put him on any team and he’s a leader on that team offensively. Defensively, he’s maybe not great, but like what kid is? What kid is good defensively? They’re all going to tell you they need to work defensively. And so the fact that he’s improving offensively at his age, which is only 21, I’m going to say he was the youngest kid at the draft when we picked him up uh in 2022. He’s only 20 years old. He turns 21 August 8th, so pretty soon. He’s still quite young and he’s been at the college level for two years now. This is going to be year number three. Impressive stuff. Um, that’s why he’s number three on the list. Again, 40 points in 37 games at the uh NCAA level where he’s not playing on a team with a bunch of first round prospects. He is the guy, he’s the differencemaker on that team. Even more impressive. Number four on our list is Victor Ecklan. And I don’t think this kid needs much more of an introduction. we’ve seen what he can do uh and what he’s done so far at that in the Swedish League. Um he’s a hell of a shot. He’s got a hell of a creative play. He’s fast. Most of these guys are pretty goddamn fast. Quinn Finley, another really fast player here. Uh so no surprise there. But when you look at the numbers, he’s pretty close. Most of these guys are pretty close to one another, right? 22.7 is Finley, 22.3 for uh sorry, 227 Richie, 223 Finley, and 221 if we round up for Victor Ecklan. They’re really close, so you could interchange them in any way, shape, or form when you round up. Um, so like maybe Richie becomes 23, so he’s maybe a little closer to Schaefer. and Eklan and Finley are separated by 0.2 NHLE hair difference between Quinn Finley and Victor Ecklan which is great to see in our prospect pool that was horrendous just a year ago. And then number five is Alex Jeff who had a great year uh when it came to the AH maybe not great year but had a really good start to the year in in Bridgeport until it kind of fell off because LOL’s Bridgeport. Um, but the production, it looks bad when you just look at the number at at 29 points in 59 games. That does not look good for Alex Jeff. Um, but if I bring up the the AHL stats, we can look at the first month or two of the season and uh it was it was significantly better for him. That is last that is this year. Okay, perfect. So, let me switch over there to what I’m looking at. Look at all those points. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. He’s got points in the first five of seven games. Sorry, eight of the last or sorry, six of his LA first eight games of the season. And he does it again like scoring in bunches here. So through December, 1 2 3 5 7 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 of his however many points was it? 29 points came in the first like three months of the season and then it kind of fell off which admittedly is is a knock on him cuz his scoring still dried up. How much is that playing in the horrendous situation that is the Bridgeport Islanders? Like if you’re not playing with Chris Terry, you’re probably not putting up points and you’re having to play defense because you you just can’t keep up at that level. like your linemates can’t keep up and then at that point it’s no longer a a game of individuals and Alex Jeff for all of his talents is not going to carry a team let’s say even at the AHL level. If he makes the NHL it’s going to be as a third lines a third line winger which is great to have. He’s got speed and he’s got intelligence and he can play on the power play and on the penalty kill and he led a program kind of like what Finley did is doing at University of Wisconsin. Alex Jeff was doing that at Marramac where he was the leader on that team. Offensively, he was carrying it and he wasn’t playing on a team loaded with first round talents like Higgins was doing at BC. It’s not the same situation at all for Alex Jeff or was it for Alex Jeff, nor is it for Quinn Finley. So these guys or this guy Alex Jeff has that that ability to take a line over, but he’s doesn’t have the ability to take over a team specifically when it it jumps in difficulty from the college ranks to the professional ranks at the AHL level as we’re seeing as we’ve seen in the second half of last season. So he put up over 50% of his points in the first three months of the year and then it really really slowed down for him unfortunately. But there is a really good player there, a really smart, a really cerebral player who’s got speed to burn, man. And again, can play all situations. When I spoke to his coach at the college level, Scott Borax, he said he’s one of the smartest players in that division. That speaks volumes to what he can potentially do going forward. So, Alex Jeff, while he may be surprised here in in the top five, I’m letting you know now that it’s you shouldn’t be surprised that he’s in the top five. Um, it sucks that Cole Eerman isn’t there, but I fully well expect that by the end of the 2526 season, Cole Eerman is going to be in the top, he’s going to be in the top five easily, but I was going to say top three and that it could even be the top two depending on what happens here with with Schaefer and Richie if we still consider them prospects or not. Uh, so that’s my top five as it stands today, July 21st, 2025. Again, not a perfect ranking. If you have problems with the fact that I use NHLE, I get it. But it’s a really good way to start the discussion. And I don’t think we’re going to have too many people nitpicking this top five. Some of you might include Cole Eisermanman, but as you saw, he’s just he’s right there, right? Like I’ll show it again one last time. Cole Eisman 20.79 NHLE. Round that up to 21. Alex Jeff 21.033. Round that up to 21. Cole Eisermanman is basically already there and he wasn’t playing top six minutes for BEu all season. So, he’s going to be there guaranteed um the second the season starts. Thank you for watching. Thank you for following. If you haven’t hit that subscribe button yet, please do so. It helps so much. We helps us grow the channel, reach a larger audience. If you have done that already, thank you. Thank you.

Who are the New York Islanders top 5 prospects after an EXCELLENT 2025 NHL draft? Where do top prospects like Matthew Schaefer, Victor Eklund, and Kashawn Aitcheson rank in the Isles pool?

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