Looking back: 2014’s Top 25 Under 25

With our annual Top 25 Under 25 series about to begin, let’s look back on Silver Seven’s rankings from five years ago for perspective.

There’s a lot to keep in mind. B_T, Ross, NKB, and I are the only staff members who were around for this set of voting. The late Bryan Murray was also still at the helm until he stepped down on April 10th, 2016, when he was replaced by current general manager, Pierre Dorion. The team has also gone through numerous changes in head coaches, scouts, and assistant general managers over this timeframe.

The list below is presented in order, from #1 to #25. You can read the full profiles for each player here.

Reflections

1. Jean-Gabriel Pageau (#10), Andreas Englund (#20), and Marcus Hogberg (#25) are the only remaining players in the Sens organization. Congratulations?
2. On Hogberg, it’s interesting to note just how long he’s been developing in the system, especially as some are antsy about Daccord, Gustavsson, Søgaard, and Mandolese. Granted, Hogberg’s only been in North America for two full seasons prior to 2019-20.
3. We’ve talked a lot about roster turnover over the past two years, but it’s meant almost full turnover on the development side, too. I don’t think we should read too much into this without some sort of league-wide comparison, but it’s jarring when presented in this format.
4. In total, 17 players departed by way of trade, three were lost to free agency (Patrick Wiercioch, Fredrik Claesson, Derek Grant), and one (Matt Puempel) was claimed on waivers by another team. Including the unsigned Mikael Wikstrand — remember that fiasco? — that’s 88% of players no longer with the Sens organization.
5. While Bryan Murray was still in his position as senior advisor until the end of the 2017 season, only five player departures came while he was GM. I never thought of Pierre Dorion as a GM who trades a lot, but eight of the team’s top 10 players were traded by him.
6. Yes: Silver Seven writers rated Cody Ceci above Mark Stone at some point. I’ll have you know, I didn’t.
7. I did, however, have Ceci, Lazar, and Wiercioch above Hoffman. Whoops.
8. It’s interesting to see who still has NHL careers on this list. Chris Wideman (#23) and Ryan Dzingel (#16) have arguably outperformed the likes of Patrick Wiercioch (#6), Curtis Lazar (#7), and the first or second round picks in Cowen, Puempel, and Prince.
9. Wiercioch, Prince, Guptill, Wikstrand, and Dunn have all had to go to (or stayed in) Europe to continue their hockey careers, and I’d expect Fredrik Claesson to join them shortly. Many in the bottom half, including Puempel, Grant, Robinson, and Schneider, have become good AHLers, having seasons around a point-per-game recently.
10. The only player who is no longer active? #11, Jared Cowen.