One thing I have noticed in my time following blueshirt banter is that a huge part of the community, taking after their leader Joe, are major culprits of confirmation bias, and even more prominently, selective exposure.  This is true first and foremost in regards to our prospects, and system as a whole.  No one wants to see any opinion of a prospect or the system in general that doesn't mesh with their own preconceived thoughts (hopes?).  This is convenient as by definition these guys have not truly succeeded or failed yet, so among the crowd every successful game means Gordie is a genius, while every misstep is accompanied by the "he's just (fill in age)."  This was extremely clear in regard to Mr. Grachev, he of the meteoric rise to "top prospect" status, followed by the steady fall into near irrelevancy.  This path was filled by many trying to discount his failures and insist that trading him "would be insanity."  "Just imagine how good he will be in a couple years....." was the common refrain.  

While he may be the most evident example it is far from the only one.  Every "In Gordie We Trust" I see I am forced to laugh at.  Chris Kreider may be a great pick, or he can be yet another first round bust.  At this point that is unknown.  Christian Thomas looks like a worthwhile gamble, but he still has barriers in the way of any NHL success.  Dylan Mcllrath is hardly proof as genius as he is still a project and clearly in hindsight the better pick would have been Cam Fowler.  And of course never a mention of all the failures.

Long story short, this post was prompted by me seeing an alternative and slightly more critical view of the Rangers farm system, and coming to blueshirt banter to see some discussion on it only to see it not mentioned.  Nowhere.  Every other obscure prospect ranking that ever is fond of a ranger prospect always seems to be noted, but Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus' top 10 list with explanations and overviews does not make its way onto the site.

Regardless, here is a link:  http://www.hockeyprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1038

Thoughts, everyone?

And I apologize for the excessive ranting above.