It's been sometimes since I visited their rankings. I think the last time I checked there a year ago the Islanders were ranked somewhere around 27th or so. I just checked in today to find it was updated in April and has the islanders ranked twentieth.

Strengths: Talented puck-moving defensemen Calvin de Haan and Travis Hamonic headline the Islanders list, but the Islanders have solid depth at every position. They stockpiled picks the last two years and those picks are starting to bear fruit. The Islanders have been willing to take some chances on players with issues, and those bets have been good ones. Weaknesses: Goaltending remains the weak area for the organization, despite attempts at addressing it last summer. Questions about de Haan's size, assertiveness, and now durability, remain. Top five prospects: 1. Calvin de Haan, D, 2. Jesse Joensuu, LW, 3. Travis Hamonic, D, 4. Kirill Petrov, RW, 5. Andrew MacDonald, D. Lost to graduation: John Tavares, C.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/nhl_organisation_rankings/?start=18

And then I looked at this;

Strengths: The Rangers have excellent depth at both center and on defense. New York has been very successful in drafting top talent players in the middle of the first round, and Chris Kreider, who was drafted out of prep school in 2009, looks to be another of those gems. Weaknesses: The Blueshirts biggest organizational weakness is on right wing. There are only two wingers on the right side in the entire organization, and one, David Kveton, may never again play in North America. There is also uncertainty between the pipes. Chad Johnson has played well in his first professional season, but his upside is still uncertain. University of Alabama-Huntsville netminder Cameron Talbot was signed recently. However, it is unclear whether there is a true NHL backup to Henrik Lundqvist within the system, let alone a starter. Top 5 Prospects: 1. Evgeny Grachev, C; 2. Derek Stepan, C; 3. Chris Kreider, LW; 4. Bobby Sanguinetti, D; 5. Ilkka Heikkinen, D. Lost to graduation: Artem Anisimov, Michael Del Zotto.

In case you haven't figured it out, that last one is a synopses of the Rangers farm system. Not that I am really hung up on the Rags or anything. Trust me, I fully understand that there are a multitude of other teams with prospect pools besides us and the Rags. Given that they are our cheif rivals they are just the orgainzation that I am familiar with the most outside of us (and the Bruins given that I live in Boston).

What I don't understand here is how they rank an organization that is weak on the right side and in goal above an organization that  have solid depth at every position.  Furthermore, I believe Derek Stepan was written off as a bust this season long before this analysis was published.

Secondly, I have to wonder how the Rag organization is ranked now given that they've tossed off Sanguinetti. Hockey Futures has him written in as their fourth ranked prospect. Not that getting tossed off by the Rags when you are a prospect really means you have no future or anything.

It wasn't long ago (Maybe three seasons ago) that HockeyFutures had this organization in their top 10 ranking. Al Montoya was listed in their top five propospects. At this time, and it was deservedly, the Isles were ranked around 29th. I would like to know how one of the worst drafting teams in the league, they have been by far worse than us even in the Milbury years, gets in the top five of the NHL. Dating back to about 92 there have been only handful of draftees by this team that have had NHL careers.

WTF!!!!!