Prospect Heroes

I have had a tremendous amount of trouble leaving my prospect list alone. I'm constantly revising, reworking, and re-thinking what players I want, and from conversations I've had with other GMs, I'm not alone.

It's not a problem anymore of knowing who will be available (thank the hockey gods), but more a problem of there being a surfeit of talent to have ones selection from. And while there are a plethora of choices, they are all flawed in some way or other, and I think it may be the flaws that is ultimately radomizing the possibilites so much. It's not so much as what do you want? As 'what's the downside?'.

Here are my rather limited deductions so far;

The Prospect Super Heroes (in no particular order):

'The Cloak' - Niklas Backstrom-C Wsh

Superpower: expected to have superhuman point totals as gifted setup man for Alex 'The Dagger' Ovechkin. Mesmerizing stickhandling, escapability, defensive awareness, and 360 degree vision are just the surface of Cloak's abilities.

Kryptonite: Has at least one more year of Superhero High before he can graduate to become the Dagger's full-time side-kick. There is also a concern that he may concentrate too much on developing his cloaking defense powers at the expense of his other attacks.

'The Thrill' - Phil Kessel-C Bos

Superpowers: He only has two, but they are awesome; The Thrill can fly at jetspeed and he has an unlimited arsenal of explosive rockets.

Kryptonite: The Guy Gardner of the prospect class. It's rumoured that he may have an almost fatal weakness to 'Stanford-Binet', and that this is why he was passed over by several Superteams before getting the call from the B's. The only official word is he doesn't 'test well'.

'Plague', Jordan Staal-C Pit

Fellow horseman of the Apocalypse, Eric 'Warmonger' has already arrived with no small amount of shock and awe, and Marc 'Goal Famine' is soon to follow (note that Jared 'Sudden Death' is still to come. I tremble.).

Superpowers: Passing is already contagious and deadly. Unnatural size , speed, and strength make him immune to physical abuse. Will eventually join up with heroes Wunderkid and Wingspan to form a terrific trio.

Kryptonite: Like The Cloak, Plague also has to spend at least one more year at Superhero High before he is ready to fight supervillains, and there is a concern that Wunderkid and Wingspan will leave Plague behind to run the second line by the time he arrives.

'Battleship', Eric Johnson - D StL

Superpowers: Impossibly strong, and seemingly invulnerable to attack. Developing what appear to be potentially lethal offensive powers, including a bazzooka shot, and guided missle passing. Battleship is reportedly both fearless and fearsome.

Kryptonite: May not have any, but he will need at least two years of Superhero High before he graduates. His superteam isn't much help either as they are going to be retiring most of their Heroes just as he arrives.

'The Rush'n Mystic', Igor Radulov - R Nsh

Superpowers: The Mystic developed his powers of puck wizardry and scoring alchemy during his tenure at SHH, and after an extra year of classes (goal-a-game, 150+pts), the test results are in and he is set to graduate.

Kryptonite: Ready to prove he's no illusion, the only question is how strong his sorcery will actually be.

'Berserker', - Bobby Ryan-R Ana

Superpowers: A potentially viable Cam Neely Clone, he has the blend of raw bone-crushing power, fast twitch muscle, and animal reflexes that make the breed so dangerous. A natural predator.

Kryptonite: Neely Clones typically take a year or two longer to manifest their alpha-male status, and many develop progressively fatal 'BradMay Syndrome' along the way, whereby the clones phenotype shows for most of the animal attributes but never develops the fundamental killpower (see: Scott Hartnell).

'Jack of Diamonds', Jack Johnson-D Car

Superpowers: Harder than tungsten, and capable of piercing just about any defense with precision strikes. Undoubtably has Pantheon quality superpowers.

Kryptonite: The team invited him to combat villainy in the Showdown With Ultimate Darkness last year, but he decided on his own to take another year of classes instead. Is he really ready to fight evil every day?

So there you have it, the cream of the latest hero class. At some point I've had each and everyone of these soon to be heroes in my top three, though I will admit some names have found themselves there more often than others, but as yet, I still can't make a call as to how they should be ordered.