PPP's Top 25 Under 25 - #22 Tony Cameranesi

One way or another, we're going to take some heat for today's ranking.

After a freshman season at the University of MInnesota-Duluth where he was a pleasant surprise and scored a point per game, the panel recognized that Cameranesi, a small, quick, late-round scorer, was probably one of the few players we had in the system at that time that could potentially become a useful scorer in the NHL. And accordingly, he moved up significantly in our countdown, all the way to 14th.

So what is he doing down here at #22 this time around?

Birthyear:	1993-08-12	Birthplace:	Maple Grove, MN, USA
Age:	21	Nation:	USA
Position:	C	Shoots:	R
Height:	178 cm / 5'10"	Weight:	82 kg / 181 lbs
Drafted:	2011 round 5 #130 overall by Toronto Maple Leafs

As we talked about in the discussion about Dominic Toninato on Monday, the NCAA is an unforgiving place, and if you aspire to be a useful hockey player at the next level, contributing offensively at the lower levels is compulsory. And when you happen to be relatively small in a league that tends to give players an extra chance or two when the height starts with a "6", and the weight starts with a "2", you better be damn good at finding the puck into the other teams' net.

So for Cameranesi, an exceptionally good skater (considered among the best skaters in his draft class) but definitely on the smaller side as far as aspiring NHL professionals go, a sophomore season in which he took a step back from his freshman campaign to score 21 points in 35 games is a step backwards.

But #22? Maybe this is an overreaction. After all, Cameranesi has 55 points in 74 games in his college career, so this isn't exactly a prospect that's having problems adjusting to the college game. It's just that, a freshman who puts up a point a game is someone definitely worth paying attention to. But now, while his production is still impressive, it's a lot more ordinary, and that means the bloom is just a bit off the rose. So maybe putting him all the way up to 14th the year before was the overreaction, I don't know.

We'll need more information to really know what sort of propsect going forward Cameranesi turns into. For now, he'll hang out here in the lower reaches of our countdown. And we'll take the heat for it if that turns out to be wrong.

Took a bit of a step backwards in terms of production so... that's bad. - BowerPower

After taking a step back, he kind of looks like a 5th round pick again. Given his relatively small size to boot, I think he might only be a non-prospect. - 67Sound

Cameranesi drops eight places in our rankings, but was comfortably ahead of the three players we profiled earlier, and one point behind our #21 entrant. A strong campaign as a junior could see him recover some of the places he's lost this time around.