The 2026 Raw Charge Top 20 Under 25 ranking is now open

It’s one hundred degrees in the shade. The water in the Gulf is only slightly cooler than a nice hot cup of tea. The Rays are fighting for a pennant. That can only mean one thing – it’s time to rank some prospects! That’s right, our annual ranking of the youngsters in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization is upon us. As always, you, the readers have a say in who the top prospects will be. In fact, you have the only say. Much like last summer, you alone will determine the final rankings.

As you might have noticed, this year’s final list will only have twenty names on it. That’s five fewer prospects than in previous summers. There are a couple of reasons for that. The biggest reason is the fact that once we get outside of the top fifteen or so, it’s pretty much a crapshoot in terms of rankings. Many of these prospects have similar profiles and similar performances up to this point.

Reason number two? It’s five less profiles that we have to write up. Yes, it might seem like a lazy excuse, but there are only so many ways we can write “high IQ, 200-foot player who might top out as a middle-six AHL forward”. Granted, there will still be a few players that applies to on this final list, but history shows us that most players ranked 21-25 have brief NHL careers. Yes, there is the occasional Erik Cernak (ranked 25th in 2017) or Yanni Gourde (22nd in 2015), but for the most part those spots are taken up by the Dennis Yan’s and Oleg Sosunov’s of the hockey world.

We did debate also dropping the age limit to Under 24, a cut-off point other prospecting sites tend to use as well, but quite frankly, we didn’t know if we’d get to twenty prospects at that point. So, we stuck with the player having to be 24 or younger as of October 1, 2026. Players can still change their stars at 24, and it gives us a nice pool of 39 players.

The group of players to rank, along with their projected 2026-27 team is below.

Like last season, we will be using Tally to rank the players. You will be able to drag and drop the players in order (with 1 being the highest-ranked on your list). We do ask that you rank at least 20 players and that you only vote once. The site is locked by IP address, so if there are multiple people in your household that want to vote, you may have to visit a Starbucks or two. That being said, please share this with friends and family. We had 56 submissions last year, and would love to see that number grow.

Voting will be open until August 10th, so there will be time to do some research on some of the newer prospects. If we set this up correctly, the hyperlinks on the player’s name in the table should take you to their Elite Prospects page. You can also click on this link to see last year’s countdown.

There are many ways to look at the rankings. Some base it on the players with the highest potential. Others factor in which players are closest to NHL ready while some throw darts at the list. We are not here to tell you how to rank the players. Choose whatever is the best method for you and roll with it.

If all goes to plan, we will start posting the results on August 24, which should run us right up to the beginning of training camp in September (unlike the 2025 list which didn’t end until January of 2026). Will Connor Geekie make it three in a row or will he be usurped by another prospect? How far up the list will Benjamin Rautianen (ranked 20th last year) rocket up the list? You are the ones who will decide, so go forth and rank, rank, rank!

So please click on this link and get at it!