Top 25 Under 25 season is officially upon us, and while yesterday we introduced the series to anyone who might be new to it, today we’re getting a little into the weeds as far as the ballot is concerned, before we dive into our final ranking.
Between a draft that, even after packaging some picks to move up, still saw the Flyers select nine players, after also adding four more to the pool of young talent through signings and trades, it’s been a big year for the Flyers and building towards their next core. But just as with every other year, some departures had to take place in order to make room for those additions, so as we continue to knock out our bit of housekeeping, let’s run through the group of players who have exited this edition’s ballot.
Joel Farabee
Farabee had already aged out of the ranking when we did our mid-season edition, and he would have been extra aged out of this big summer edition if he was still in the system at all. But alas, with the trade back in January that sent him off to Calgary, he’s well and truly out of the picture. And that’s one perennial top of the rankings hanger out off the board — as we recall, Farabee occupied the fifth spot in last summer’s final ranking. So it goes.
Sam Ersson
Similarly, Ersson made his final appearance of the series in last summer’s expanded edition, clocking in at that eighth spot, before his in-season birthday brought him to the aged-25 mark and past eligibility for the mid-season ranking. And just like that, that’s one more goaltender off the board around here, thinning out a group that was already quite small to begin with.
Adam Ginning
Ginning, too, fell off the ballot for age related reasons, but this came after he more organically fell off the ranking for performance or perception reasons even before that — last summer’s main list was the last one he was eligible for, and between his solid but unspectacular resume he’s put together in the organization along with some shiny new toy effect elevating some of the younger prospects, he failed to secure a spot in the top-25.
Egor Zamula
After securing a tidy 10th position in our mid-season ranking on the back of his NHL career beginning to really take shape, we say goodbye to Zamula. It was a good run, but with his 25th birthday coming and going in March, he’s officially aged out of eligibility for this ranking. But hey, at least he went out on a reasonably high note, and retains his spot in the Flyers’ young core mix, even if he’s crossed our threshold here.
Matteo Mann
From here, though, we move into the realm of players who are no longer in the mix at any capacity. Back in June, the deadline to sign a handful of their drafted prospects before they become free agents came and passed, and the Flyers opted not to sign Mann, allowing him to continue his career elsewhere (that elsewhere turned out to be Colorado College). So we lose a former seventh round pick who has never ranked on this from the ballot. Moving on!
Carter Sotheran
Sotheran was another player who was left unsigned as of that June deadline, as they opted to move on from a player who had a reasonably productive junior career and had a bit of potential, it would seem, but who also seemed to leave a bit on the table, relative to expectations. But it was a slight surprise to some, all the same. That said, he wasn’t in the mix for one of our ranking spots in a major way over these last few years, so it’s a small drop in that bucket, in the big picture.
Brian Zanetti
And completing that trio of unsigned players is Zanetti, and this one was not much of a surprise — after an attempt to get accustomed to the North American game and two sort of middling seasons in Peterborough of the OHL, Zanetti moved back to Europe and played these past two seasons in the top Swiss league, and never really seemed to be in the mix for a contract.
Elliot Desnoyers
The qualifying offer deadline saw the next round of player exits pushed through, and Desnoyers was one of three who failed to receive an offer. It’s been a steady decline for him over these last couple of seasons, and after a promising start to his professional career, he’s been left floundering some, and ultimately worked himself out of the organizational big picture
Jakob Pelletier
Pelletier, we hardly knew ye. Brought in as one of the return pieces in that aforementioned Farabee and Frost trade, Pelletier was in the mix and earned a spot on our mid-season ranking still as an unknown quantity (visa issues kept him out of the lineup still as of ranking time), and just as quickly as he arrived, he’s gone again.
Zayde Wisdom
And finally, after a very solid season with the Phantoms this past year, the Flyers still opted not to tender him a qualifying offer. Now, the good news for the Phantoms is that he’ll be sticking around, as he agreed to an AHL contract for this upcoming season, so they get to keep his impacts, but as he’s no longer technically a Flyers property, he loses his eligibility for this ranking.