The EliteProspects Rinkside 2020-21 Off-Season Prospect Pool Rankings: the No. 1-ranked Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings have the best prospect pool in the NHL. They've consolidated their hold on the top spot so firmly, it's hard to imagine them much lower than this for at least the next two or three seasons.

They're the only team in the league with 15 prospects who rate at an FV (Future Value) of five or better -- an FV grade of 5 suggests a reasonably high level of confidence among our scouts that the player in question will develop into a full-time NHLer.

[Read more: On our methodology for the prospect pool rankings and a Future Value explainer]

The Kings 15 best prospects generated a cumulative FV more than 100 points greater than that of the No. 2-ranked New York Rangers system; we could combine the FV outputs of the No. 12 and 13-ranked teams in this series, and still fall six points short of the Kings.

The players who couldn't squeeze their way into Los Angeles' top 15 would be a formidable prospect pool unto themselves, with Lukas Parik, Kim Nousiainen, Jordan Spence, Sean Durzi, Aidan Dudas, and Alex Laferriere, among others, highlight a reserve group that would perhaps trump some team's frontline prospects.

It's an embarrassment of riches for the future, but it's come at no small expense to the present. The Kings under Rob Blake's stewardship have stripped this thing down to the foundation, moving every contract they could short of their three franchise players at every premium position -- Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick, and Drew Doughty.

It's made all the difference in the world. In their Dir. of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti, the Kings already have one of the draft's best sharpshooters, and now he's got the ammunition to hit every moving target.