Corey Pronman’s annual deep dive into the farm system of every NHL organization will be slightly different this year. First, it is occurring before the draft because of the change in schedule this season. But this allows you to see where teams stand going into the draft, and Pronman will update the rankings after the draft. Second, it will include all skaters in the organization who are 22 or younger as of Sept. 15, 2020, regardless of how many NHL games they’ve played. This allowed us to incorporate a lot of great young players who were on the fringe of graduating based on our old definition. Check out the full explanation of Pronman’s eligibility and the full ranking of all 31 systems here.

The Wings had a tough year and look to be at the start of a long rebuild. There are some promising draft picks such as Filip Hronek, who has been a top young defenseman in the league. Moritz Seider looks like a true top prospect, but a lot of their high draft picks in the last few years have either not aged well or look to be about par value. They’re going to need some home runs if they are going to take a 17-49-5 team to relevance again. While they have some good young pieces, this looks like a rebuild that is going to take a while.

Key graduates: Taro Hirose

2019 ranking: No. 13

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