Hey all. Taking a break from the interview scene this week. The good news is we've hardly tapped the well dry -- in fact, we're trying to cook up some new stuff to make this feature even better. We've got a few potential awesome candidates coming up, so make sure you keep reading. If you missed any, here's Nick Jensen, Willie Coetzee, Landon Ferraro, and Tomas Tatar.

The news goes on, however. Today's been an interesting day, following a few teams shuffling players before the Olympic trade deadline. We're getting down to the stretch run. For leagues outside of the NHL, that time is even closer. Every other league will be in the playoffs when the NHL's regular season concludes. Generally in this feature, we focus on the individual prospect, but everything's relative.

A player flourishing on a bad team is a little more impressive than a player being carried along by a ton of top scorers on a good team... so it's interesting to keep in mind. But sometimes, a team can be bad enough to where they're only scoring points because nobody else can, so just because a players stats are good on a bad team doesn't necessarily mean anything, if you see what I'm saying.

Among the more interesting notes:

• Grand Rapids has absolutely fallen apart, currently sitting in the conference cellar, 3rd worst in the league. They were in a playoff position until they got Michael Nylander, and then offense, defense, and goaltending simultaneously fell apart. They've shown life recently, but might be too little too late to make a playoff run. The good news is there's penalty for trying, because it's not like they're fighting for a draft pick.
• Toledo (ECHL) is last in their division, but they'd be second in the other division in the conference. They're well over .500, at 25-19-1-3.
• Looking at the junior ranks, Detroit has a couple prospects poised for potential Memorial Cup runs. If you don't know what that is, they take the champion out of the Western, Quebec, and Ontario leagues and pit them against a host team (determined years in advance) in a week long tournament.
• One prospect guaranteed to be there is Brent Raedeke, as the Brandon team he is now on will host the tournament.
• The top team in the OHL is Windsor, represented by Stephen Johnston. Johnston was a deadline acquisition for Windsor, and now that he's healthy, is earning rave reviews for the impact he's made.
• Detroit's top candidate from the QMJHL is Andrej Nestrasil, on a 3rd place Victoriaville team that were definite buyers at the deadline.
• In the college ranks, both Brendan Smith (Wisconsin) and Gustav Nyquist (Maine) should be locks for Hobey Baker nominations (best collegiate player), but their teams are also sitting nicely as solid best for invites to the NCAA tournament.
• However, it's Nick Oslund (St. Cloud State) who's team boasts the best collegiate record among Detroit prospects. St. Cloud is tied for 1st in the WCHA, the same conference Smith plays in.
• Attending St. Cloud next year is Nick Jensen, who knows all about winning: His Green Bay Gamblers are 1st in the USHL.
• Adam Almqvist has been forced into the SEL mainly due to injuries; his HV-71 club has had each of it's top four blueliners out for considerable lengths of time. It comes as a surprise that they still sit in 1st place.

Statistical report is after the jump. In the spirit of the postseason, the "notes" section contains the team's current position in the league standing

Statistical Report:

American Hockey League

ECHL

NCAA

Swedish Eliteserien

Swedish Allsvenskan

Swedish J20 League

Kontinental Hockey League

Ontario Hockey League

Western Hockey League

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

United States Hockey League