The 2019/20 NHL season may be on pause while the world figures out what to do about the COVID-19 pandemic, and we all may be cooped up at home for 99% of our day to day lives, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enrich our lives. For example, NHL Central Scouting yesterday released their final North American and European rankings for the 2020 NHL draft eligible prospects, for players and goalies.

But how does that help us enrich our lives, I hear you ask? Could we dig deeper into mid round prospects than ever before using the extra time we have, to try and unearth more diamonds in the rough?

Pfft, hell no. What we do is look through the full list and find some of the best named players we secretly hope the Leafs pick just for their name.

And I gotta tell you, the 2020 list has some bangers. For starters, there are some returning prospects who were undrafted in 2019 and are still eligible for this year that we all remember — Gunnarwolfe Fontaine comes to mind.

But there are some others you probably don’t know about, or forgot. Here’s a list of my personal favourites, in no particular order — and yes, these are all real names you can look up on Elite Prospects:

  1. Primo Self
  2. Daemon Hunt
  3. Roman Faith
  4. Luke Evangelista
  5. Bear Hughes
  6. Nick Capone
  7. Sam Strange
  8. Antonio Stranges
  9. Jake Boltmann (if the Lightning don’t pick him they have to fold the whole franchise)
  10. Zayde Wisdom
  11. Leo AND Linus Lööf
  12. Winter Wallace
  13. Huge Styf
  14. Rhett Rhinehart
  15. Ivan Ivan
  16. Fabio Iacobo
  17. Zakhar Zakharov
  18. Vili Munki
  19. Ozzy Wiesblatt
  20. Mavrik Bourque
  21. Evan Bushy
  22. Timofey Spitserov
  23. Calle Clang
  24. Mans Forsfjall (I’m pronouncing his last name in my head as Forceful)
  25. Tobias Handl
  26. Thimo Nickl
  27. Viktor Persson
  28. Oskar Magnusson
  29. William Wallinder
  30. Michal Gut
  31. Matteo Costantini
  32. Billy Constantinou
  33. Gage Goncalves
  34. Colby Ambrosio
  35. Jake Neighbours

Which is your favourite? Quite frankly if the Toronto Maple Leafs do not pick Daemon Hunt,  Primo Self and Roman Faith then I’m starting a riot I don’t even care.

If you want to vote, Colin Cudmore from the Silver Seven Sens has a bracket with his favourites (though I have some differences of opinion on them):

Marlies GDT: re-watching the 2018 Calder Cup run | by Hardev

The Leafs are sitting on a mountain of wingers | by Jon Steitzer at TLN

Kristians Rubins: Latvian Lightning | by Earl Schwartz at TLN

Transcript from a Kyle Dubas interview where he spoke about Barabanov, and other things | transcribed by MLHS

Leafs 3-in-3: How much of a difference would a healthy defence have made? | by Kristen Shilton and Mark Masters

AROUND THE HOCKEY WORLD

Down Goes Brown: Remembering some of the NHL’s greatest one-hit wonders | by Sean McIndoe at The Athletic

Sportsnet’s 2020 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings: April | by Sam Cosentino

Lafreniere on what he can bring to a team; Byfield talks Malkin comparisons | by TSN.ca

Hup

Have a great Thursday everyone!

What’s the best prospect name?

Primo Chemmy39
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