What follows are my rankings of the best prospects outside the NHL, serving as a conclusion to the summer series looking at the talent in each NHL organization. This is just the top skaters; the goaltenders were ranked separately.



Here I re-introduce tools grades on the 20-80 scale that were not present in the farm rankings, grading skating, puck skills, physicality and hockey sense for every player. I only grade the shot if it is notably good or poor. In this scale, 50 projects as pro average, 55 as above-average, 60 top third, 70 as elite and 80 as among the very best; 45 is below-average and 40 is fringe pro quality.



The tiers and analysis did not change much from what I wrote in the team rankings this summer, with slight modifications accounting for any games that took place in the past month, in NHL camps and in preseason overseas.



The list will extend up until the end of the very good/legit bubble tier, which I think gives a comprehensive overview of...