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Mazatt · 08-31-2020, 01:16 AM

INTRO

Who doesn’t love some friendly competition? Especially between two teams that will surely be competing for much of the foreseeable future atop the eastern conference, no reason not to kick an early bit of competition into the picture. Plus, there were recent statements made saying that Tampa is nothing next to New England, so I kinda wanted to see if that was true. I honestly love many people involved with both teams and am just curious to see how their futures stack up.

A season ago, looking at these two teams in conjunction would be met with “Well that’s a big dummy move”, it would probably be because New England was set for the foreseeable future. Just one season ago they acquired Igor Volkov, which to everyone, it read as a move to compliment the core with Wagstrom, Kirkby, Poroshenko, Zheng, Clapper, and van Otter. Tampa was coming off of an 0-50-0 season, so why are their prospect pools being called into question here? Well, all of those players above, minus Volkov, we’re traded to spur a re-tool for the Wolfpack as there were rumours swirling of top players looking to explore free agency. And now we’re here, with both teams missing the playoffs, with a top 5 pick each, and deep prospect pools. Lets get to comparing!

Forwards:

NEW: Ethan Price, Stein Nilsen, Bobby Bergen, Ryan Rieley, Alexander Oscarsson, Gudmundor Kristjansson, Andrei Kostistyn

TBB: Frederick Wanesley, Zoltan Topalo, Dwight Knight, Panda Panico, Justin Keahi, Matthew Forrester, Taylor Gervais, Pavel Kharlamov, Jesse Seppanen, TURG TURG

There is a lot to unpack here. One thing that sticks out to me is that there are a lot of prospects for Tampa Bay. Quite a few top tier guys, like Knight, Forrester, and Keahi, with other solid depth pieces like TURG, Wanesly, Topalo, Panico, Kharlamov, and Seppanen. Solid prospects, with someone like Gervais looking like a long shot to be impactful, but can’t be undersold. They already have a dynamic 1-2 punch of the future with Fitted/Fiddler, alongside Ronlain as an elite wing. This makes sense as they have Forrester coming in as a 3C soon, but that makes their wings very packed. Not all prospects will pan out, but this gives them a strong amount of prospect capital to either trade for younger players down the line, or to trade for pieces “now” to support the Ronlain-Fitted-Fiddler core in their prime. Either way, options are never a problem.

With New England, they have less depth and seemingly have a few lower earning, long shot prospects in Nilsen and Bergen. Price and Kostistyn are active but also lower down the TPE rankings, I’d say comparable to Kharlamov or Seppanen. Kristjansson is the first of what I’d call “New England’s future”, being top 20 in a large S55 class and remaining active, which is exactly what Ryan Rieley also is. I can see these players staying active for a long time. Then you have the crown jewel of Alexander Oscarsson, top 10 in class TPE, was the J simmer for a bit before extenuating circumstances stepped in, and was taken in the coveted 8 spot of the draft. That being said, New England’s lack of prospects makes sense considering they are still in the thick of playoff races, they have MvdH, Bruchevski, and McShotty as a great centre core, Dangelcheck is also a potential impact player.

When you look at a direct comparison between the two prospect pools, it feels like Tampa has depth on top of more top end players in the pipeline. Especially with only one more future impactor on the Wolfpack prospect pool. However, with Sven Yxskaft in the big leagues, he offsets any advantage having one extra player for Tampa brings, and could honestly tip the scales in New England’s favour so I’ll call it even.

Defense:

TBB: Ambacas Cuddles, Elwulf Jericson, Devin Williams, Colin Lambert, Adrik Baranov, Joorgustrad Dubolk, Igor Victory

NEW: Erben Kasius, Michael Lee, Matthew Sawful, James Leblond, Hennesey Gallchobar O’Mcguiness, Leonidas Balzams

This is a much more even look at the prospect pools. First off, I have to point out Lee is inactive and I think Williams retired but I don’t know if that was a joke or not, let’s just call it a wash. Then you compare the “top of the class” guys. It starts and ends with Lambert (top 10 in TPE). Then Cuddles and Sawful are comparable prospects in terms of TPE relative to their class. Baranov, Victory, Dubolk, and Jericson all are putting up TPE, it’s a good set of depth to complement Lambert and Cuddles at the top of Tampa’s ladder. Then you look at New England’s support of Sawful. Kasius is only 60 back of Cuddle’s pace and is another high potential player, and Balzams is showing good potential behind those two, with Leblond also in that area. O’Mcguiness is active but due to a stretch of inactivity it’s hard to predict their long term impact with the Wolfpack.

Straight to comparisons, I still like Tampa here but by not a lot. They have top end talent in Lambert, which is the only really game changer with every Tampa player being matched by a New England player in terms of potential impact. That extra prospect for Tampa being very impactful in this ranking.

Goalies:
Neither team really has prospects. Tampa has Jerry Huuveri who is going to be called up next season but is also MIA dating back to August 13th.

This is where New England’s shining light comes in, the difference maker, the GOAT, Frans Eller. I might be biased in saying the goalie who won a challenge cup in my first run in the league has a great future, but Ace is a HOFer, has plenty-o-money, and is already a top goalie in the league. New England has a franchise legend in net, while Tampa still has many question marks to be filled in during this draft. I gotta give a dub to New England here.

Conclusion:

In an odd twist of fate, as though I’m the creator of a soapy reality TV show, things have ended with a tie. A dub one way, a tie the other, and a dub the final way. Seriously, this wasn’t planned at all, but that’s just how it goes. Seriously, if these prospects pan out both of these teams have great futures and I can’t comfortably call one better than the other. Maybe the 1st/5th overall picks will change things, but for now these are very even franchises for 5 seasons from now. It definitely doesn’t fit the idea a disgruntled New England player represents to the media: "Ever since your [Tampa's] goalie left, you have nothing.”
in case there were any questions on the inspiration of this post lol