From an under-the-radar darkhorse to a 50/50 shot at going first overall, Nico Hischier has had a meteoric rise this season. The word perhaps most commonly used to describe him: electric. Lightning quick, and oozing skill and finesse, Hischier has top line point producer written all over him. The dichotomy between Hischier and Nolan Patrick…
Winnipeg native Cody Glass can do it all. He’s a smart, playmaking centre, he can score goals, he’s an excellent skater, and he plays a physical puck possession game. He’s one of the more complete players in this draft class, which is all the more impressive consideration that he was hardly on the radar at…
For most of this season, Gabriel Vilardi has been viewed as a probable top five selection in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. His position in the rankings faltered a little bit of late, though much of this had to do with excessive hype around Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar than anything Vilardi has done or…
Elias Pettersson is one of the most skilled players in this draft and is a virtual lock as a top six NHL centre in the future – from there, the only place he has to go is up. His shot and skating are well above average, and his puckhandling skills are at an elite level,…
One of the best prospects to come out of the Czech Extraliga in the last decade or so, Martin Necas has few (if any) weaknesses in his game. Necas is a future top six centre who excels at both goal scoring and playmaking, and is a particularly potent weapon on the power play. He has…
Another teenager producing well in the professional ranks in Europe, Lias Andersson probably isn’t getting the respect he deserves. Playing in the professional leagues as a teenager naturally suppresses point totals in comparison to players still playing in junior, but sometimes it seems that not everyone making the immediate mental adjustments – cautioning against being…
Kristian Vesalainen’s season has been a roller coaster ride. He started out as a projected top ten pick, then nearly fell out of the first round following some middling numbers in Europe, before shooting back up the rankings after a dominant performance in the U18 tournament. This Finn plays a power forward type game, and…
Aleksi Heponiemi came over from Finland this season after being selected in CHL Import Draft and quickly made his presence felt. Tha presence is far from ominous – Heponiemi is a noticeably undersized player – but even pro scouts can’t help but be swayed by the skill that he displays on the ice. Silky hands…
Jason Robertson is another statistical standout whose numbers blast off the page. Whether it’s standard stats, on-ice data, adjusted scoring or cohort data, Robertson shows extremely well. Unfortunately, he’s been limited in the scouting rankings by a couple of potential red flags. Whether or not he can overcome those may be the difference between Robertson…
The big Russian power winger Klim Kostin, is this draft’s wild card. Limited in his draft season by a season-ending shoulder injury that also tainted much of his play before that, scouts will have to dig into their memory banks to remember the potential that Kostin showed is his impressive draft-minus-one season when they’re decided…
We’ve had a few players on our draft list that we’ve rated substantially higher than the field. Czech forward Filip Chytil is one of those players, and he might be my personal favourite. Apart from the fact that he plays in the Czech Republic and is very young (one of the youngest members of the…
On the very edge of the first round, we reach one of this draft most contentious players: Tri-City Americans centre Michael Rasmussen, Surrey born and raised, 6-foot-5, rangy, smooth, hard shooting and physical. There’s a lot to like about Rasmussen’ bio, and but for looking below the surface, it’d be easy to forgive the services that…
