Another summer has come and gone, and with our recognition of the Flames’ prospects, so has the 2016 edition of the Top 20 Prospects. Out of the 35 players in the system eligible to win the Calder this season – although for the strong majority of them, that’s but an extremely far off pipe dream – nine of us parsed through the list, and came together to form our own top 20.

You may agree. You may disagree! We’ve seen the praise and the occasional yelling in the comments. But let’s give you guys a spot to really praise and/or yell at us, as we’ll reveal to you just how the rankings went down.

We used a pretty simple system to compose nine separate lists into one. A first place vote got the prospect 20 points; a 20 place vote got him one. Because this is all very subjective, and the differences between prospects can be contentious – the differences between already established NHLers can be, too – there were a number of very, very close cases.

So if you thought someone was ranked a little too high or too low, there is a chance it wouldn’t have been the case if just one or two people had submitted lists slightly differently.

There’s some clear division here. For example, Tkachuk was unanimously ranked the top prospect in the Flames’ system, while Shinkaruk and Gillies were close, as were Andersson and Kylington. The gap doesn’t get noticeably bigger until after Mangiapane, so we were all pretty settled on who the Flames’ top six is, for the most part.

The closest, though? Jankowski missed being a part of the top 10 by one point.

And for the record, Garnet Hathaway came in 21st with 10 points to his name. After that, it was only stray votes here and there that saw a couple of other prospects get a bit of acknowledgment, depending on our views.

Now here’s the chance to yell at us as individuals! Have fun, please be gentle, and such.

This is where I note that when we were submitting our lists, the Flames still held Gilmour’s rights.

I can’t speak for everyone else, but I do know this list was pretty difficult for me, with a lot of what ended up being, I’d say, arbitrary swapping. Am I ranking someone on his NHL readiness? Well, I guess I was with Shinkaruk. Am I ranking on potential? I think I was for most of the list, otherwise.

Was I constantly flipping who I was ranking? Yup! I knew Tkachuk was my number one. I knew who I wanted two-five, but wasn’t sure in what order. I knew Mangiapane was my sixth, I knew Fox was my seventh, I knew who I wanted up until about 12 but wasn’t sure of my order for those players. Eventually you just… pick something and go with it.

That’s just me, though. Maybe I’m not a good list-maker.

Share your thoughts in the comments!