To kick off my coverage of the top prospects outside the NHL heading into the 2016-17 season, I begin with a ranking of each NHL team's organizational prospect depth, sometimes referred to as its farm system or pipeline.
Star power is what drives NHL teams, and thus, my farm system ranking reflects that. Elite prospects provide substantially more value than high-end prospects, who provide substantially more value than above-average prospects and so on. That said, I don't entirely discount depth. In fact, it comes into play in several spots. Boston is not a team full of top-30 prospects, but has incredible depth. Colorado has a couple of fantastic prospects, and a thin system after them. This is reflected in the rankings.