In a surprise to absolutely no one, Alex DeBrincat was the No. 1 player on our annual ranking of the Chicago Blackhawks’ Top 25 Under 25 players, as revealed earlier on Friday.
But ranking players 1-25 can be an incredibly difficult task when the players are merely prospects. How should players like Landon Slaggert and Evan Barratt be handled, who are both yet to reach the NHL but have roughly similar skill sets? How much credit should a player receive for making it to the NHL — even if their production is minimal — when so many players ranked lower on the organizational depth chart will never advance that far?