Setting Up The Top Prospects List

Photo: Wild.com

Greetings and a Happy Labor Day to you all!

Tomorrow kicks off the annual Top 10 prospects list and I figured I would go over the criteria for how players ended up on the list.

For this list, I followed the Hockey's Future prospect criteria. Here is their guidelines:

If a prospect is a skater (forward, defenseman) and has played in 65 NHL games or more before the completion of the season of his 24th birthday; or, if a goaltender has played in 45 NHL games before the completion of the season of his 24th birthday, that player will be considered graduated to the NHL. Conversely, if a player completes the season of his 24th birthday without passing those milestones, then that player will no longer be considered a prospect by Hockey’s Future, regardless of the player’s status with his NHL club.

An NCAA player who signs his first contract at or above the age of 22 has three years to meet the above criteria (65/45), while those NCAA players that turn pro under the age of 22 will be subjected to the criteria above.

European players who sign their first NHL contract at or above the age of 22 have three seasons from the time they sign that contract to meet the above criteria. Those European players below the age of 22 that have signed a NHL contract will be subjected to the criteria in section one.

Players from the 2013-14 list who are now considered "graduated" from this list include: Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter.

Here is the schedule for the Top 10 Prospects:

1. September 12

2. September 11

3. September 10

4. September 9

5. September 8

6. September 7

7. September 6

8. September 5

9. September 4

10. September 3

Honorable Mentions: September 2

Check back tomorrow to see who just missed the cut!

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell