Draft rumblings and the Top-60

7 years ago

Round one of the draft begins tonight at 5 p.m. MDT and will wrap up around 9 p.m. It is a long night, but a very exciting one for players, families, scouts, management and fans.

History tells us to expect a significant trade, and Oilers fans are hoping it involves their team, but Anaheim, Buffalo, Arizona and Calgary are other teams to watch. There will likely be a trade no one has been discussing either. Those are the best, because they surprise everyone.

Tonight, 30 young men will fulfill their dream of being drafted, while another 181 will wait until tomorrow to hear their name. What a ride it will be for them, and for fans across the NHL, who will wait with anticipation to see what moves and selections their teams make.

Let’s get it going.

While Auston Matthews is #1 on the majority of rankings, he wasn’t the consensus #1 pick. A few people ranked Patrick Laine higher, but Matthews is the overwhelming favourite to go to the Maple Leafs, and there is no doubt in my mind Toronto will pick him.

Laine and fellow Finn, Jesse Puljujarvi, should be the second and third picks, but we’ve seen teams go off the board before.

We put together the top-60 from five different publications. Bob McKenzie’s list is based on conversations he’s had with all 30 NHL teams. They are not his rankings, while the other four are rankings by individuals or scouting services. Every evaluator will have a bias, we all do, and that’s why we see many different names in the top-60 and slotted in varying spots.

If you want a complete scouting report on the players I highly recommend getting the Black Book from HockeyProspect.com. It is extremely detailed. Mark Edwards and his staff do a great job. The names in bold are Edmonton and area players, and ones I wrote about in this piece.

#	Bob McKenzie	Craig Button	Hockey Prospect	Hockey Prospectus	Corey Pronman
1.	Auston Matthews	Auston Matthews	Auston Matthews	Auston Matthews	Patrik Laine
2.	Patrik Laine	Patrik Laine	Patrik Laine	Patrik Laine	Auston Matthews
3.	Jesse Puljujarvi	Jesse Puljujarvi	Jesse Puljujarvi	Jesse Puljujarvi	Jesse Puljujarvi
4.	Matthew Tkachuk	Pierre-Luc Dubois	Pierre-Luc Dubois	Jakob Chychrun	Clayton Keller
5.	Pierre-Luc Dubois	Matthew Tkachuk	Matthew Tkachuk	Alex Nylander	Pierre-Luc Dubois
6.	Olli Juolevi	Clayton Keller	Olli Juolevi	Matthew Tkachuk	Matthew Tkachuk
7.	Alex Nylander	Logan Brown	Logan Brown	Olli Juolevi	Alex Nylander
8.	Clayton Keller	Mikhail Sergachev	Mikhail Sergachev	Clayton Keller	Olli Juolevi
9.	Mikhail Sergachev	Olli Juolevi	Clayton Keller	Michael McLeod	Tyson Jost
10.	Logan Brown	Alex Nylander	Tyson Jost	Pierre-Luc Dubois	Dante Fabbro
11.	Tyson Jost	Tyson Jost	Dante Fabbro	Charles McAvoy	Jakob Chychrun
12.	Jake Bean	Jake Bean	Alex Nylander	Luke Kunin	Logan Brown
13.	Jakob Chychrun	Kieffer Bellows	Charles McAvoy	Alexander DeBrincat	German Rubstov
14.	Charlie McAvoy	German Rubstov	Jakob Chychrun	Dante Fabbro	Kieffer Bellows
15.	Michael McLeod	Charlie McAvoy	Jake Bean	Mikhail Sergachev	Alex DeBrincat
16.	Dante Fabbro	Dante Fabbro	German Rubtsov	Tyson Jost	Mikhail Sergachev
17.	Julien Gauthier	Jakob Chychrun	Luke Kunin	German Rubtsov	Luke Kunin
18.	Kieffer Bellows	Brett Howden	Kieffer Bellows	Wade Allison	Tyler Benson
19.	Max Jones	Michael McLeod	Michael McLeod	Logan Brown	Jake Bean
20.	Luke Kunin	Luke Kunin	Max Jones	Kieffer Bellows	Michael McLeod
21.	Riley Tufte	Alex DeBrincat	Rasmus Asplund	Jake Bean	Vitali Abramov
22.	Logan Stanley	Cam Dineen	Boris Katchouk	Tyler Benson	Kale Clague
23.	German Rubstov	Vitali Abramov	Riley Tufte	Vitaly Abramov	Samuel Girard
24.	Brett Howden	Carter Hart	Jonathan Dahlen	Riley Tufte	Julien Gauthier
25.	Dennis Cholowski	Dennis Cholowski	Julien Gauthier	Jonathan Dahlen	Rasmus Asplund
26.	Libor Hajek	Will Bitten	Dennis Cholowski	Julien Gauthier	Max Jones
27.	Tage Thompson	Samuel Girard	Brett Howden	William Bitten	Charlie McAvoy
28.	Lucas Johansen	Dillon Dube	Tage Thompson	Trent Frederic	Dmitri Sokolov
29.	Boris Katchouk	Jordan Kyrou	Vitaly Abramov	Sam Steel	Carl Grundstrom
30.	Kale Clague	Logan Stanley	Logan Stanley	Max Jones	Sam Steel
31.	Rasmus Asplund	Janne Kuokkanen	Tyler Parsons	Rem Pitlick	Adam Fox
32.	Pascal Laberge	Tage Thompson	Libor Hajek	Dillon Dube	Brett Howden
33.	Alex DeBrincat	Matthew Phillips	Alex DeBrincat	Max Zimmer	Joey Anderson
34.	Jordan Kyrou	Henrik Borgstrom	Tyler Benson	Jake Ryczek	Will Bitten
35.	Henrik Borgstrom	Pascal Laberge	Filip Gustavsson	Mitchell Eliot	Jordan Kyrou
36.	Nathan Bastian	Rasmus Asplund	Carl Grundstrom	Rasmus Asplund	Alexander Polunin
37.	Dillon Dube	Mitchell Mattson	Joseph Woll	Ivan Kosorenkov	Pascal Laberge
38.	Markus Niemelainen	Adam Fox	Lucas Johansen	Evan Fitzpatrick	Ryan Lindgren
39.	Tyler Benson	Tyler Parsons	William Bitten	Ryan Lindgren	Adam Mascherin
40.	Carl Grundstrom	Taylor Raddysh	Connor Hall	Luke Green	Jonathan Dahlen
41.	Sam Steel	James Greenway	Givani Smith	Matt Filipe	Riley Tufte
42.	Taylor Raddysh	Max Jones	Mark Niemelainen	Cam Dineen	Cam Dineen
43.	Janne Kuokkanen	Julien Gauthier	Carter Hart	Adam Mascherin	Victor Mete
44.	Filip Gustavsson	Tyler Benson	Adam Mascherin	Janne Kuokkanen	Linus Lindstrom
45.	Samuel Girard	Riley Tufte	Kale Clague	Tage Thompson	Dillon Dube
46.	Ryan Lindren	Braydon Burke	Taylor Raddysh	Brett Howden	Jacob Moverare
47.	Will Bitten	Cameron Morrison	Nathan Bastian	James Greenway	Libor Hajek
48.	Tyler Parsons	Noah Gregor	Pascal Laberge	Carl Grundstrom	Anatoli Golyshev
49.	Filip Hronek	Boris Katchouk	David Bernhardt	Jacob Moverare	Taylor Raddysh
50.	Cliff Pu	Lucas Johansen	Cameron Morrison	Carter Hart	Jesper Bratt
51.	Vitali Abramov	Givani Smith	Henrik Borgstrom	Colton Point	James Greenway
52.	Wade Allison	Aapeli Rasanen	Timothy Gettinger	Tyler Parsons	Sebastian Aho
53.	Adam Mascherin	Adam Brooks	Frederic Allard	Dennis Cholowski	Filip Hronek
54.	Trent Frederic	Jonathan Dahlen	Evan Fitzpatrick	Henrik Borgstrom	Frederic Allard
55.	Adam Fox	Kale Clague	Sam Steel	Logan Stanley	Logan Stanley
56.	Joey Anderson	Sam Steel	Noah Gregor	Lucas Johansen	Aapeli Rasanen
57.	Carter Hart	Adam Mascherin	Janne Kuokkanen	Kale Clague	David Quenneville
58.	Sean Day	Markus Niemelainen	Wade Allison	Artur Kayumov	Janne Kuokkanen
59.	Cameron Morrison	Artur Kayumov	Jordan Sambrook	Adam Fox	Yegor Rykov
60.	Luke Green	David Quenneville	Dillon Dube	Victor Mete	Simon Stransky

It is interesting to compare how will these ranking will look compared to what actually unfolds tonight and tomorrow.

QUICK HITS…

Both the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens are interested in Cam Fowler. The Sabres won the eighth pick, while the Habs have #9. Could we see a significant trade in the first ten picks? I sure hope so. There is always a lot of talk and conjecture leading up to the draft, and often most of it doesn’t come to fruition. Hopefully this year we see a few deals.
I fully expect to see more trades on Saturday. And not just trading up or down in the draft, I mean NHL players moving teams. They might not be big names, but keep in mind that starting at midnight EST NHL teams can start discussions with unrestricted free agents. If a team feels comfortable they have a deal with a UFA, they will make moves accordingly to fit them into their payroll.
The Minnesota Wild really want an NHL centre, and they’d be willing to move Jonas Brodin or Marco Scandella. Keep an eye on the Wild.
Edmonton product Mark McNeill was drafted 18th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011. He hasn’t been able to crack their lineup, and he’s been very good in the AHL. He was the team captain and he is a name I would expect to move over the weekend. I could see Nail Yakupov moving and also Quinton Howden out of Florida with the new management in place.
It made sense for the Oilers and other teams to see if Marc Bergevin was interested in trading P.K Subban, but I doubt it happens. There are very few legitimate #1 defenders in the league and Subban is one of them.

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Draft rumblings and the Top-60

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