I’ve always been interested in the development process that turns teenage hockey players into NHLers, and for most of them the road to major-league employment runs through the AHL.



According to the 2018-19 AHL Guide & Record Book, 229 first- or second-round draft picks played in the AHL last season, while 87 percent of NHL skaters were graduates of AHL development. That’s skewed a little bit by various NHL lockouts — the publication prominently mentions Hart winner Taylor Hall and Lady Byng winner William Karlsson as AHL alumni, but one of those cases is very much not like the other.



Nevertheless, a fan of the game interested in identifying NHL up-and-comers could do a lot worse than look at the AHL’s most productive prospects from a year ago.



That’s what this is: one man’s list of the top-100 NHL prospects who played in the minors last season. If you’d like to skip ahead to the players, this is a good chance to...