Marcus Westfalt – McKeen's Hockey

2018 NHL Draft Review: Metropolitan Division

Ryan Wagman — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:09:35 +0000

The draft is over and 217 young players are newly affiliated with 31 different NHL organizations. Outside of three to six of those players, who could jump right into NHL lineups in the fall, we will not know whether the vast majority of those players are draft successes for two, three, four, or five years.

The lack of clear foresight aside, we should still be able to judge draft classes at least in terms of expected value. In some cases, we can look at strategy as well, although the way the board shakes out based on the picks that came before, we can rarely truly discern what a club was trying to do, but only what they were able to do.

I had hoped that we would be able to provide an average Overall Future Projection of the various draft classes, but there are a few picks from the high school ranks, the NAHL and a few European junior leagues for whom we lack enough information to give a full grade, so we will focus on where we had players ranked as we assess the draft haul of each team, as we run division-by-division through the NHL.

Here is the Metropolitan Division

Carolina Hurricanes
1 (2) Andrei Svechnikov, RW, Barrie (OHL) - ranked 2nd
2 (42) Jack Drury, C, Waterloo (USHL) - ranked 66th
4 (96) Luke Henman, C, Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL) - ranked 156th
4 (104) Lenni Killinen, RW, Blues U20 (Jr. A SM-Liiga) - ranked 137th
6 (166) Jesper Sellgren, D, Modo (Allsvenskan) - ranked 207th
7 (197) Jacob Kucharski, G, Des Moines (USHL) - not ranked

For starters, a heartfelt congratulations are in order to the Carolina Hurricanes, their employees and their fans, as they did not overthink the #2 selection in the draft and walked away with the best forward money couldn’t buy in Andrei Svechnikov. In his first year in North America, he scored 1.2 points per game for Muskegon of the USHL in his age 16-17 season. After that, he moved up to the OHL and put up over 1.6 points per game for the Barrie Colts, despite missing time to the WJC and assorted injuries and suspensions. I am not saying we can expect two points per game as a rookie next season for the Hurricanes, but I am saying that he will be a rookie next season for the Hurricanes, and 20 goals is my minimal projection. He can play at both ends, but I expect him to be somewhat sheltered as a rookie. He is going to be very good for a long time. Moving on to the rest of the draft class.

After Svechnikov, the Hurricanes selected three more forwards, one blueliner and a goalie. Considering that the strength of the organization is on the blueline and most of their defenders are still rather young, that was a good strategy to take. Unfortunately, while I can say good things about the rest of the players that were drafted by Carolina, I cannot say that they selected the best player on the board at any other slot. Jack Drury is a good player with deep NHL bloodlines. He does a lot of things well. The points he put up for Waterloo were spectacular. On the other hand, way too many of those points were second assists and/or power play points. He is generally not the engine that makes the offense run. Just looking at the USHL, I would have taken either Blake McLaughlin or Sampo Ranta at that spot.

The Hurricanes did not have a third round pick, but selected twice in the fourth. The first pick there was used on Luke Henman, an athletic center from Blainville-Boisbriand in the QMJHL. He is an undersized playmaker, who performed well enough as a rookie in the Q this year and then upped his stock with a very good showing at multiple stations at the Draft Combine. Staying just with forwards from the Q, I would have preferred Dmitri Zavgorodny or Anderson MacDonald. But for those last two picks, it seems like the Hurricanes, with a management team that has not yet spent much time together, heavily weighted combine performance. With their second fourth rounder, the Canes finally took a non-combine player, grabbing Lenni Killinen from their usual stomping grounds in Finland. An explosive skater with promising offensive tools, Killinen put up respectable point totals in the Finnish junior ranks, but we would have preferred one of Ville Petman, Arttu Nevasaari, or Kristian Tanus, among young Finnish forwards.

Jesper Sellgren makes for a nice story as their sixth round pick. In his third year of eligibility, he was named to the Swedish team for the WJC. He is a very good skater and exhibits very good hockey sense, but his ceiling is limited. A reasonable pick in the sixth round, no doubt, but among Swedish netminders, fellow ’98 birthdate Henrik Malmstrom, would have been our pick there. Finally, in the seventh round, the Hurricanes added another netminder to their stable. Jake Kucharski has a lot of tools and can look very good at times, such as his performance in the USHL Top Prospects Game. But he could not keep the job in Des Moines, which brought in Roman Durny from Slovakia after the WJC. Kucharski scarcely played from there on out. This was a down year for netminder in the USHL, but I would have been inclined to gamble on one of Keegan Karki or Vincent Purpura instead. Your mileage may vary. In total, I cannot truly fault the Hurricanes for their draft picks. I don’t love it, but they did under circumstances (new management group) that do not often allow for exemplary draft planning.

OFP - 53

Columbus Blue Jackets
1 (18) Liam Foudy, C, London (OHL) - ranked 25th
2 (49) Kirill Marchenko, LW, Mamonty Yugry (MHL) - ranked 34th
3 (80) Marcus Kallberg, RW/LW, Leksands IF J20 (SuperElit) - unranked
6 (159) Tim Berni, D, GC Kusnacht Lions (NLB) - unranked
6 (173) Veini Vehvilainen, G, Karpat (Liiga) - unranked
7 (204) Trey Fix-Wolansky, RW, Edmonton (OHL) - ranked Honorable Mention

As a testament to the Blue Jackets history of going away from the so-called “consensus”, the example always brought up is when they selected Pierre-Luc Dubois third overall in 2016 instead of Jesse Puljujarvi, who was ranked third by literally everyone else. It is still early, but that pick looks pretty good so far for GM Jarmo Kekalainen. That, and the relative success of other recent unheralded prospect acquisitions by Columbus such as Markus Nutivaara (7^th round, 2015) or Markus Hannikainen (UDFA, 2015), suggest that we reserve judgement after the Jackets only selected two players we had ranked in our top 217, and only one more who made our top 300. The third round pick, Marcus Karlberg, was the biggest head scratcher of the lot. He put up great numbers in the SuperElit, but he is tiny, and outside of his hockey IQ, lacks tools that project to above average.

Their first sixth rounder, Tim Berni, is an accomplished young defender from Switzerland, who did not look completely overwhelmed at the last WJC, but similarly did not show much to suggest a surefire NHL upside is within. There is some promise there, but I would want to see him do something at the top flight in Switzerland. All of his success thus far has come in the junior ranks, or in the second tier. The other sixth rounder, a rare Finnish pick by Kekalainen, is someone I can get on board with. To be completely honest, we have had Vehvilainen ranked in previous drafts, but left him out this year, his fourth of draft eligibility. Mostly, we figured if his amazing run at the WJC in 2017 was not enough to get him noticed, what else could he do. He is borderline undersized by modern netminding standards, but he dominated in the top men’s league in Finland and then led Karpat to the Liiga championship while still mourning the death of his father. He was also named the top goaltender in Liiga. Not every goalie with that hardware makes it in the NHL, but some (Tim Thomas, Kari Lehtonen, Antti Raanta, Miikka Kiprusoff, etc.) do. Trey Fix-Wolansky, the Columbus draftee we listed as an honorable mention selection, does not look like a good player, as he is short and stocky, and he is not the greatest skater, but he is very strong on the puck and has finished first or second in scoring for the woeful Edmonton Oil Kings in each of the last two seasons. So those are the picks that are off our boards. Despite not having the full-throated backing of the McKeens scouting staff, we can see good reasons for liking each of them (OK, maybe not Karlberg).

Thankfully, we really like their first two picks. Liam Foudy was a classic late riser. He began the season in a bottom six role with the London Knights, but when the perennial powerhouse decided that this was not going to be their year, a few veterans were traded away and Foudy ascended way up the depth chart. And he excelled. Over the second half of the season, he was one of the more electric players in the OHL, and backed it up with strong performances in the CHL Top Prospects Game as well as at the WU18s. He also has a strong case to be proclaimed the best athlete in the draft class. Kirill Marchenko was someone who drew mixed reviews from our Russian-based scouts, but raised his play for international events. He has a great skill set and fantastic size and could project to nearly any role down the road. The Blue Jackets are certainly an enigmatic team when it comes to scouting, but they are correct more than their fair share of the time. I wouldn’t put it past them to surprise again.

OFP – 52.25

New Jersey Devils
1 (17) Ty Smith, D, Spokane (WHL) - ranked 15th
4 (110) Xavier Bernard, D, Drummondville (QMJHL) - ranked 71st
5 (136) Akira Schmid, G, Langnau U20 (Elite Jr. A) - ranked Honorable Mention
5 (151) Yegor Sharangovich, C, Dynamo Minsk (KHL) - ranked Honorable Mention
6 (172) Mitchell Hoelscher, C, Ottawa (OHL) - ranked 134th
7 (203) Eetu Pakkila, LW, Karpat U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga) - unranked

One year after injecting a boat load of talent into the organization thanks not only to owning the number one pick in the draft, but making 11 total selections, this year, the Devils exhibited a magnificent turnaround and ended up trading away both their second and third round picks, as part of packages for Michael Grabner, and Sami Vatanen. Considering that the team still has the young core drafted in 2017 as well as a surprise playoff berth in their recent past, it’s a pretty good trade off. And even picking 17^th this year, in a deep draft for defenders, the Devils were able to add another high end talent to their system, a player who many had projected to be taken in the top ten. Ty Smith, while small, is an excellent puck mover and plays an advanced positional game in his own end. In league play, he has been very effective at winning the puck back for his team, although he has had his bumps in the CHL Top Prospects Game as well as at the WU18s. Still, between his skating, puck skills, and high, high hockey IQ, there is potential for a future first pairing defender.

When they finally selected a second player, 93 picks later, the Devils were fortunate to get late Xavier Bernard, a player who looks much different than Smith, but has similar attributes. He is a smooth skater, can make the basic passes, and exhibits promising hockey IQ. On the other hand, Bernard is not a natural puck mover, but has much more impressive size and knows how to utilize it. New Jersey went to Europe with both of their fifth round picks, both times taking players from smaller hockey nations who have plenty of international experience. Akira Schmid started his draft off with a bang, thanks to a stellar showing at the Ivan Hlinka tournament. He was then one of the top goalies in the Swiss junior ranks, but struggled at the WU18s to end the year. He has enough size and athleticism to be a decent gamble. Yegor Sharangovich was in his third year of eligibility and has three WJCs (one in the second tier) under his belt for his native Belarus. He played a depth role for the Dynamo Minsk KHL team this year, but has flashed impressive goal scoring ability in the past.

Sixth rounder Mitchell Hoelscher is slight, but wiry strong. His production with the Ottawa 67s was not much in his first full season in the OHL, but he is a good skater, and plays an intelligent brand of hockey. He has energy line upside. With their final 2018 selection, the Devils popped Finnish winger Eetu Pakkila, a winger with great feet and a good shot. Despite decent numbers for Karpat’s U20 team, Pakkila slipped under the radar due to rarely being considered for international duty for any age group in Finland. While one could quibble about the upside about their late round selections, with the exception of Hoelscher, the Devils did a nice job of drafting players with a history of production in their local leagues. And without exception, each player has at least one attribute that suggest NHL upside.

OFP – 52.5

New York Islanders
1 (11) Oliver Wahlstrom, RW, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked 5th
1 (12) Noah Dobson, D, Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL) - ranked 8th
2 (41) Bode Wilde, D, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked 17th
2 (43) Ruslan Iskhakov, RW, Krasnaya Armiya Moskva (MHL) - ranked 68th
3 (72) Jakub Skarek, G, Dukla Jihlava (Czech) - ranked 93rd
4 (103) Jacob Pivonka, C, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked 182nd
5 (134) Blade Jenkins, C, Saginaw (OHL) - ranked 69th
7 (196) Christian Krygier, D, Lincoln (USHL) - unranked

Two years ago, the Islanders drafted Kieffer Bellows from the USNTDP and seem to be pretty happy with their choice. Of course, Lou Lamoriello was not there when that draft went down. He was in Toronto. His Maple Leafs drafted Auston Matthews, another (indirect) USNTDP alum, and a couple of other program graduates in the middle rounds. Prior to his time in Toronto, Lamoriello spent many years in New Jersey and his draft record there is also dotted with players who had come from the program. That history aside, it is still at least somewhat surprising that the Islanders ended up with three players from this year’s stacked USNTDP graduating class. Two of those players, right winger Oliver Wahlstrom and defensemen Bode Wilde, were widely not expected to be available at picks 11 and 41 respectively. Wahlstrom is one of the best natural goal scorers in the draft class. He is a near elite sniper, a fantastic puck player and a very strong skater as well. He can float for some stretches, but his talent suggested he should have gone up to five picks earlier were the other teams not so focused on drafting centers at the top. Wilde elicited some rumors that his stock had fallen before the draft, partially due to a poor showing at the WU18s and partly due to de-committing from Michigan. He is not the most intense defender, but looks downright pretty carrying the puck up the ice. He is a high end skater and puck handler and mostly needs refinements to his game away from the puck to be an impact player.

The third USNTDP player drafted by the Islanders this year, Jacob Pivonka is more of a grinding role player with decent hands, but plays a 200 foot game, and has NHL bloodlines, as father Michal played over 800 games in the NHL. Outside of those three, the Islanders drafted two others with USNTDP ties, although they were not in the program in their draft year. Fifth rounder Blade Jenkins left the program for Saginaw of the OHL prior to this past season. He plays a gritty game and is a gifted skater, although the latter trait does not always show up at game time. He has very good sleeper potential. In the seventh round the Islanders selected Christian Krygier, the more physical of the Krygier twins who spent this season with the Lincoln Stars of the USHL. Krygier has very marginal puck skills, but he skates well and plays hard.

Not every pick made by the Islanders this year was American. In fact, immediately after drafting Wahlstrom, Lamoriello and company returned to their table for a couple of minutes to work the phones (reportedly to trade the pick for immediate NHL help) but then returned to the podium and selected Noah Dobson, another player thought by some to be a potential top five pick and leading the Titan to both QMJHL and Memorial Cup championships, eating up a ton of minutes on the journey. Dobson looks like nothing so much as a future first pairing blueliner, between the wheels, the smarts, and the ability to put that bulk to work. His shot and puck playing ability also grade out as above average. He might be only twelve months from playing in the NHL. Two picks after nabbing Wilde, the Isles made an upside play in drafting pint-sized Russian winger Ruslan Iskhakov, who while not as quick as other players of his stature, has amazing hands and has been hard to catch. He has performed well both in Russian junior league play as well as on the international stage.

Finally, nothing rounds out a diverse draft class like a promising goalie. Along with four forwards and three blueliners, the Islanders selected Jakub Skarek, a highly accomplished netminder from the Czech Republic, in the third round. Although he looked bad at the most recent WJC (his second go round in the high profile tournament), he is very athletic, has prototypical size and reads the play well. He will get to test himself against more advanced competition this year as he leaves his homeland to play for Pelicans in Finland’s top circuit, Liiga. While I would have preferred them drafting the other Krygier with their seventh round pick, this is almost the perfect draft class. Two players ranked in our top ten, another ranked as a first round talent, and three more in our top 100. There are players who will be ready for professional hockey within one or two seasons, and players who will need (and due to where they were drafted from) and will receive three or four years before forcing the Islanders’ hands. Along with Mathew Barzal, Wahlstrom and Dobson should make up a big part of the team’s core for years to come.

OFP – 55

New York Rangers
1 (9) Vitali Kravtsov, RW, Traktor Chelyabinsk (KHL) - ranked 16th
1 (22) K'Andre Miller, D, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked 14th
1 (28) Nils Lundkvist, D, Lulea (SHL) - ranked 37th
2 (39) Olof Lindbom, G, Djurgardens J20 (SuperElit) - ranked 91st
3 (70) Jakob Ragnarsson, D, Almtuna (Allesvenskan) - ranked 152nd
3 (88) Joey Keane, D, Barrie (OHL) - ranked 99th
4 (101) Nico Gross, D, Oshawa (OHL) - ranked 82nd
5 (132) Lauri Pajuniemi, RW, TPS (Liiga) - unranked
6 (163) Simon Kjellberg, D, Rogle J20 (SuperElit) - unranked
7 (216) Riley Hughes, RW, St. Sebastian's School (USHS - MA) - ranked 208th

With three first round picks, including the drafting of my personal favorite player from the 2018 draft class, I want to be able to say nice things about the Rangers’ large draft haul. Unfortunately, I am underwhelmed. Of course, with 10 players taken, they have definitely given their organizational depth, for years an afterthought, a serious injection of talent. Further, considering the imbalance of their draft class, with six blueliners taken among the 10 picks, I know that they did not go for balance, but drafted the top player on their board. Further, with the early success of their two 2017 first rounders (Lias Andersson, and Filip Chytil), both of whom were thought to be reaches at the time, I cannot assume to know more than they do. I can note the six player drafted out of Europe, and how four of those six were already playing in men’s leagues, meaning their lead time to being ready will be shorter than others. That’s definitely a positive. Again though, I wanted to see more upside.

Starting in the first round, they took two Europeans who have already experienced impressive performances in the top leagues in their respective countries. Ninth overall pick Vitali Kravtsov had one of, if not the, best performances ever by a teenager in the KHL playoffs. He earned plus-plus grades for his skating, puck skills and shot. He might be able to come to North America after one more season with Chelyabinsk. If there is a concern here, it is due to having so little international experience, we do not have a great feel for how he would do on the smaller North American ice surface. At pick 22, the Rangers selected my personal favorite in K’Andre Miller. He is a tremendous athlete, has prototype build for a defenseman, is a terrific skater and plays with brawn and skill. If there is a downside, it is how raw he is as a defender, having only converted from forward three seasons ago. He could be a legit number one defender, but will need at least three years in college before he is ready. With the 28^th pick of the first round, the Rangers selected late rising Swedish blueliner Nils Lundkvist. He is undersized, but incredibly skilled with the puck and demonstrates very impressive hockey intelligence. He was excellent in the Swedish junior ranks, but struggled some in roughly half a season in the SHL and underwhelmed at the WU18s. There is also the question of whether he is a good enough skater to mitigate his size issues. All three first rounders could work, but none is without questions.

Similar to their second rounder, Olof Lindbom, the first netminder selected in 2018. He is a good goalie prospect, as far as that class goes, was a world beater at the WU18s, and receives especially high grades for his ability to read the play and his technique, but he is a goalie after all. He is also slightly undersized by modern goaltending standards, listed at only 6-1”. Of their remaining six picks the Rangers selected four defensemen. Jakob Ragnarsson and Simon Kjellberg were both drafted out of Sweden, and Joey Keane and Nico Gross were both selected out of the OHL. Keane is interesting as a second year eligible prospect who took big steps in his second season with the Barrie Colts. He is a very good skater, with a decent all around game. Ragnarsson’s father Marcus played for the Sharks and the Flyers around the turn of the century. He is more of a defense-first defender, who makes a sharp first pass. He has never been tested outside of Sweden’s domestic leagues.

Simon Kjellberg is another bloodlines player, as his father Patric spent time with Montreal, Nashville, and Anaheim. The younger Kjellberg has good size, and plays a muscular game, but his skating is currently very rough. He will need to improve that aspect of his game significantly to have a chance at playing in the NHL. Of the four mid round defenders, I have the most time for Nico Gross, a Swiss national who has already played at two WJCs and three WU18s. He is a solid skater, who plays with poise and energy. While not often an offensive force, he has shown enough flashes there to project for more growth in that side of his game. Of the two late round forwards, Lauri Pajuniemi could surprise. He has high end puck handling ability and held his own in his first year in Liiga. As for seventh rounder Riley Hughes, he is not bad as far as prep products go, but there is a reason why more and more future collegians are electing to play in the USHL instead of staying home. He has never really been tested against high end competition. He is likely to spend next year in the USHL (Sioux Falls has his rights) before attending Northeastern in 2019. I have no doubt but that one or two of the players drafted by the Rangers this year will exceed my expectations, but I would have been happier if I did not have to make this kind of mitigating remark.

OFP – 53.25

Philadelphia Flyers
1 (14) Joel Farabee, LW, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked 12th
1 (19) Jay O'Brien, C, Thayer Academy (USHS-MA) - ranked 48th
2 (50) Adam Ginning, D, Linkoping (SHL) - ranked 42nd
4 (112) Jack St. Ivany, D, Sioux Falls (USHL) - ranked 108th
5 (127) Wyatte Wylie, D, Everett (WHL) - ranked 139th
5 (143) Samuel Ersson, G, Bryan J20 (SuperElit) - ranked Honorable Mention
6 (174) Gavin Hain, C, USNTDP (USHL) - ranked Honorable Mention
7 (205) Marcus Westfalt, C/LW, Brynas IF (SHL) - ranked 162nd

As with the Rangers above, I expected to like the Flyers’ draft class more than I did. Again, this has nothing to do with the players taken. Fine talents, all of them. The Flyers have been strong with USHL prospects over the past few years and dug deep in the top NCAA-feeder league once again, with three selections, plus another who will head to college from the pre ranks. They have also scouted Sweden heavily in recent years and took three more Swedish prospects this year. And continuing the theme of visiting familiar territory, the final Flyers’ pick not yet accounted for came from the same Everett program in the WHL where they would have been comfortable in light of top prospect Carter Hart calling it home. I like the Flyers drafting from areas where they are comfortable that they can project out. I like that the Flyers selected players of different positions, with two centers, two wingers, three defensemen and a goaltender (it wouldn’t be a Flyers draft without at least one goalie). And, as stated above, I like the players. I just see this draft class and the draft slots that the Flyers owned, and do not see many high value picks. Some players drafted roughly where they should have been selected, some taken earlier than I would have advised, and one notably higher than we believed was reasonable.

They kicked things off in fine fashion, with winger Joel Farabee, one of two players they selected out of the USNTDP system. Farabee can play up or down the lineup. He has experience in the middle, but is more natural on the wing. He is a true 200 foot player with skill, grit and heavy on the intangibles. He will need to bulk up at Boston University, but his potential is top six, both special teams and a team leader. Five picks later, Ron Hextall and friends stepped to the podium again and dropped jaws across the hockey world. Jay O’Brien is a confident young man, brash even, and he shows some high end attributes, with a fine shot and slick puck handling skills. He plays tough and he has been well coached, but he has very rarely been tested against other high caliber prospects. He was the big man on campus at Thayer, scoring closing to three points per game than two. But in 12 games of experience in Tier I hockey over the last two years, he had only three points. All draft picks are risky, but high picks out of the high school ranks are riskier than most.

Philadelphia’s first three picks on day two were all blueliners, each with good size. Adam Ginning is the stay-at-home type of the trio. Although he contributed offense at a decent clip for Sweden at the WU18s, his game is about positioning and making the first pass to clear the zone. Low upside, but high floor. After sitting out the third round, the Flyers used their fourth rounder on second year eligible Jack St. Ivany of Sioux Falls in the USHL. He was very young in his first year of eligibility and only one year removed from playing U16 hockey in the Los Angeles area. He took a few big steps forward this year for the Stampede and shows some two-way ability. I’m a fan. The Flyers rounded out their blueline haul with Wyatte Wylie, an alliterative late 99 birthdate player who not only played with Carter Hart in Everett, but is actually from Everett. He is not bursting with skill but plays hard.

Later in the fifth round, Philadelphia drafted the obligatory goalie, picking up Swede Samuel Ersson, who has been overshadowed in his homeland by Olof Lindbom and others, but was an absolute workhorse for Brynas’ U20 team and some of the best numbers in the SuperElit. He is a technically proficient goalie with a good frame. Speaking of overlooked, sixth rounder Gavin Hain was often relegated to the bottom six with the USNTDP, below players like Farabee and others, but he is not without a modicum of hockey skill and is responsible in all three zones. I haven’t seen anything to suggest he has hidden talent, but he is not a bad way to use a sixth round pick. Finally, the Flyers used their seventh rounder on big Swedish winger Marcus Westfalt. His skill set is moderate, but he uses his big frame well to create havoc in front of the net. If Jay O’Brien works out, the Flyers will be laughing for ages. If not, Farabee is safe enough that the draft class will not be a write-off, but will be looked at as a relative disappointment.

OFP – 52.5

Pittsburgh Penguins
2 (53) Calen Addison, D, Lethbridge (WHL) - ranked 30th
2 (58) Filip Hallander, C, Timra (Allsvenskan) - ranked 47th
5 (129) Justin Almeida, C/LW, Moose Jaw (WHL) - ranked 173rd
6 (177) Liam Gorman, C, St. Sebastian's School (USHS - MA) - unranked

Only four picks, but the Penguins made them count. Well, most of them anyway. Actually, they would have had a fifth pick, but traded up into the late second round when they saw value on the board. Despite not picking until 53^rd overall, the Penguins walked away with two players who had reasonable arguments to go in the first round. Their first pick, Lethbridge defender Calen Addison is a modern style blueliner, making up in speed and daring what he lacks in size or the ability to play physically. He needs a lot of work off the puck, but he proved both in the Ivan Hlinka tournament and the WHL postseason that he can step up his production in the spotlight.

The player they gave up two later picks to nab towards the close of the second was Swedish center Filip Hallander, who had a very strong draft year in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s second highest men’s league. The fact that he was as productive as he was (20 points in 40 games) while dealing with a knee injury that kept him out of the WU18s. He is very physical while still playing clean, and grades out above average as a skater, shooter, and for his hockey intelligence. With Timra now in the top flight SHL, and Hallander presumably healthy, Hallander’s stock could leap forward next year. The Penguins went with production over physical maturity when they finally selected again late in the fifth round, selecting Moose Jaw’s second year eligible center, Justin Almeida. After scoring only 28 points between the Warriors and Prince George in his first year of draft eligibility, he was an afterthought entering the year, but with 43 goals and 98 points for the powerhouse Warriors, he could not be overlooked again. He is a strong skater and gifted with the puck on his stick. Finally, they took Massachusetts prepster Liam Gorman, with their final pick. Gorman was not really on our radar, and in fact was only the number three scorer with St. Sebastian’s, behind fellow draft pick Riley Hughes. He has plus size though, and is likely to spend next season in the USHL. The 2018 draft class will not alter the trajectory of the Penguins’ fortunes, but they should be pleased with the type of quality they came away with.

OFP – 52.25

Washington Capitals
1 (31) Alexander Alexeyev, D, Red Deer (WHL) - ranked 35th
2 (46) Martin Fehervary, D, Oskarshamn (Allsvenskan) - ranked 78th
2 (47) Kody Clark, RW, Ottawa (OHL) - ranked 138th
3 (93) Riley Sutter, RW, Everett (WHL) - ranked 87th
4 (124) Mitchell Gibson, G, Lone Star (NAHL) - unranked
6 (161) Alex Kannok-Leipert, D, Vancouver (WHL) - unranked
7 (217) Eric Florchuk, C, Saskatoon (WHL) - ranked 168th

If there is a team for which the draft is a serious afterthought, it would be the team that is still hungover from the release of winning their first Stanley Cup championship. That is not to imply that the Capitals did not draft some good prospects, but that they would not be focused from the top down on these players at the moment. True to the Washington drafting rulebook, they went heavy on the WHL (four players), avoided the QMJHL and Finland, and took a player from a lower level of hockey (NAHL goalie Mitchell Gibson). With three forwards, three defensemen and a goalie, they balanced themselves positionally.

Their first round pick, Alexander Alexeyev, could have been taken higher, but suffered through a trying draft year, most notably dealing with the unexpected passing of his mother in the days before the CHL Top Prospects game. He is a very big player who skates beautifully, handles the puck very well and processes the game wisely. Given a full, healthy season, he could take off. Washington buttressed the blueline with their first of two consecutive picks in the middle of the second round, taking Slovakian Martin Fehervary, who has been playing in Sweden for the last four seasons. A veteran of two WJCs and two WU18s, Fehervary is a great skater and a physical player, but has minimal offensive upside. While we think Fehervary was a slight reach at 46, the selection of Kody Clark (son of Wendel) at 47 was a massive overreach. Like Alexeyev (and his own father) Clark has been injury prone in his two OHL seasons, but has no real standout tool. His skating and shooting abilities are fine, but he looked like a better candidate for the middle rounds than the second round. Also, this is the first time the Capitals have selected a player out of the OHL since drafting Tom Wilson in the first round in 2012.

A more appropriate pick was their use of a fourth rounder on another bloodline player in Riley Sutter, the son of Ron from the famous clan. A big, beefy player, Sutter will never be mistaken for an elite skater, but he plays a responsible, heavy game and can finish. Goalie Mitchell Gibson was not very prominent on our radar, but the NAHL has a knack for producing one or two goalies of note every year, and Gibson was obviously the one for 2018. He was named the top netminder in the league and will likely spend next year in the USHL before moving on to Harvard. The Capitals will give him plenty of time.

The Capitals ended their draft with two more players from the WHL in Vancouver blueliner Alex Kannok-Leipert and Saskatoon center Eric Florchuk. Kannok-Leipert is undersized and does not have a standout attribute, although he is a decent skater and is surprisingly physical. Florchuk, on the other hand, 2018’s Mr. Irrelevant, is quote good value for the end of the draft. His trade at midseason from the competing Victoria Royals to the moribund Saskatoon Chiefs, might have pushed him off the radar for some scouts, but he scored a decent clip for both clubs. He is a fine skater and a gifted puck handler. Although the Capitals selected some interesting players here, the leap to draft safe early will hurt them within a few years when they need to integrate low salaried youth into an aging roster.

OFP – 51.5

Sweden: Marcus Westfalt (2018 Draft Eligible)

Jimmy Hamrin — Sun, 20 May 2018 14:07:20 +0000

Marcus Westfalt acquitted himself well this season playing with men in the SHL, albeit in a fourth line role. Jimmy Hamrin has followed his career and provides insight into his game and potential.

A note on the 20-80 scale used below. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity

CHELYABINSK, RUSSIA - APRIL 29: Sweden's Marcus Westfalt #26 celebrates at the bench after scoring a first period goal against the Czech Republic during bronze medal game action at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. (Photo by Steve Kingsman/HHOF-IIHF Images)

Marcus Westfalt	2018 NHL Draft Eligible
Position: C/LW, Shoots L	H/W: 6-3", 205 lbs
Stats to date (GP-G-A-PTS-PIMS)	Brynas, SHL (31-1-3-4-6)
	Brynas J20 SuperElit (26-12-15-27-38)
	Sweden U18, Hlinka (5-2-0-2-2)
	Sweden U18, WU18 (7-2-0-2-2)

Skating: Skates with a long stride and with good balance. Pushes his power from the outside of his skates. The technique is good, he leans a bit forward though, but he skates quite “clean” in his style. The top speed is average and Westfalt lacks the power to release himself from opponents due to lack of explosiveness and acceleration. If he gets stronger and works on his footspeed his skating could actually see improvement because the technique is there. He improved his skating quite a bit from last season to this season. But for now, I cannot see him being an elite skater. Grade: 50

Shot: Possess a good wrist shot bit is not a big shooter. He can shoot when moving forward and with quickness. He does not take many shots per game but had a high shooting percentage in juniors this season. That is mostly due to the fact that the goals he scores often are from near range of the goal. On a power play, for example, he will position himself in the slot or in front of the goal and take the chances he gets with deflections or on rebounds. He is more of a smart goal scorer than a powerful shooting goal scorer. Grade: 50

Skills: Westfalt’s puck skills are not elite but are good. He has good hand-eye coordination and good control of the puck. He is good at the simple plays and in tight spaces. He is a good passer of the puck and has playmaking skills. He is rarely that game breaking player that carries the puck or dominates the game, he is more quietly effective and has the skills to make those smart simple plays. Grade: 50

Smarts: The biggest strength in Westfalt’s game is his smarts. He reads the game well both offensively and defensively. He has played “senior-hockey” in junior hockey from when he came up to that level. He is mature in the way he takes responsibility over the ice and he can adjust his game to different kind of levels. When he got to play senior hockey in SHL this season he was reliable as a fourth line player and kept getting chances and played in the playoffs as well. He detects danger in the defensive side of the game and is most often in good position when backchecking or forechecking. On the offensive side he is not a big threat by himself, but he will go and get open into dangerous areas and is good at supporting the puck carrier making himself available for a simple pass. Grade: 55

Physicality: Westfalt is a big center that uses his size effectively around the puck. He is strong on faceoffs and around the net with his reach and good puck skills. He is not a physical player though and still could get stronger. As he does not have elite speed that he needs to be able to cover the puck and create with help from physical strength and his reach. Grade: 55

Summary: Marcus Westfalt has the size and the smarts to be an effective two-way center. He is this typical Swedish center that takes responsibility and is good in areas where it is important to be good. For example, his good positioning, his strength in front of the net, and in the faceoff circle. The question marks for me about putting Westfalt in an NHL role is that the speed and the skillset are not elite. When you look at today’s regular two-way centers in the NHL they were often skilled talents as juniors but then changed into a more defensive role. What I mean by that is that Westfalt needs to keep developing his foot speed and to work on his puck skills to become an NHL player and that is harder to develop than for example the knowledge of how to position himself when his team does not have the puck. This season he played most of his games at the SHL level, which is impressive at this age, but he got only seven minutes of ice time per game as part of a fourth line role. In junior he received a more offensive role and played on the power play and was effective, but I would like to see him create more offense on his own. For him to develop his offensive game he needs to play at a level where he gets trusted in offensive situations next season. I think Westfalt has a good shot of being drafted this summer, but I do not see him going in the early rounds. Overall Future Projection (OFP): 51.75

World U18 Team Preview: Sweden

Jimmy Hamrin — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 16:00:55 +0000

As a big hockey country but a small country otherwise, Sweden rarely wins gold at junior level. This age group of 2000-borns has been strong, with many players doing well for themselves at elite senior level already. I haven’t done the math, but I can’t remember an age group with so many players already playing senior hockey at this age in Sweden. Eleven 2000-born players played most of their games at elite senior level (SHL or Allsvenskan) this season.

As a national team they won the U17 WHC and won bronze at the Hlinka tournament. Obviously, they will miss their best player in Rasmus Dahlin who also did not play at the Hlinka or this tournament last year either because he played with men’s national team. They will also miss some other key players like Rasmus Sandin (OHL-playoffs) and Filip Hallander (knee injury).

POPRAD, SLOVAKIA - APRIL 22: Sweden's Jacob Olofsson #27 lets a shot go during semifinal round action against the U.S. at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. (Photo by Steve Kingsman/HHOF-IIHF Images)

Absences notwithstanding, this is still a strong team with five returning players from last year’s tournament. The big center Jacob Olofsson impressed in that tournament, especially with his highlight goal versus Canada in the quarterfinal. Adam Boqvist showed his skills that put him in the top of many early draft rankings for this years. The other returnees are big defenseman Adam Ginning and the big centers David Gustafsson and Oskar Back.

What stands out with this year’s Swedish team is the skills on their core of defenseman and the size of the centers. Those assets in the team will make Sweden a hard team to beat. I believe that Sweden will have a good chance of achieving good results at this tournament and probably are the best European team on paper.

The weakness may be in goal, where Olof Lindbom have been the only goalie to continually count on over the three years of international hockey for this age group. His development has been injury prone but he has delivered for the national team. He will most likely be the starter in this tournament. The biggest goalie talent in the roster is the late 2002 born Jesper Wallstedt who has impressed at every level he has faced. This year will probably be more of a see-and-learn experience for him, but who knows?

SPISSKA NOVA VES, SLOVAKIA - APRIL 16: Pavel Azhgirei #23 of Belarus plays the puck while Sweden's Adam Boqvist #3 defends during preliminary round action at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. (Photo by Steve Kingsman/HHOF-IIHF Images)

The defensive core has good balance between offensive defensemen, two-way defensemen and defensive defensemen. The standouts in the categories are Boqvist and Nils Lundkvist (offensive), Filip Johansson (two-way) and Ginning (defensively).

This year’s group of forwards have a very strong core of big centremen (Olofsson, Gustafsson, Back and Marcus Westfalt). All four will probably not play center though as they all are good enough to be big contributers. The wingers are speedy and creative (standout: Jonatan Berggren) and with some good goal scorers (standout: Samuel Fagemo and Lucas Wernblom).

TOP 10 to watch:

10. Nils Hoglander FW
- A potential surprise player with his individual skills. He has great balance and puck skills. He struggles a bit with consistency and can also be a non-factor depending on which role he gets.

9. Adam Ginning D
- Big with reach and sound positioning. He needs to be effective defensively for this team to win in the big games. He has mobility and okay puck skills as well.

8. Olof Lindbom G
- Lindbom was the MVP of the J18 playoffs in Sweden but can he deliver in the big games at this stage? He is big and plays a tight game, not a spectacular goalie.

7. Marcus Westfalt C
- Big and smart. He plays responsibly and can deliver both offensively as defensively. He has been a regular for his SHL team a big portion of the season. He has developed his skating this season.

6. David Gustafsson C
- Hard working two-way player that is strong in both power play and PK. He is strong physically and is a dangerous player in front of the goal on the power play.

5. Filip Johansson D
- A very smart and mobile two-way player who is a good puck distributor. He plays well positionally and has good control of the puck. Has been a regular for Leksand in Allsvenskan.

4. Jacob Olofsson C
- Center playing both power play and penalty kill for the best team in Allsvenskan. Steps up in big situations and tries to create offense. Sometimes sloppy and needs to cover the puck better but a very interesting prospect and an important tournament for him.

3. Jonatan Berggren FW
- Speed, creativity and smooth hands. The smallish forward is a very strong junior player that has been a point producer at all junior levels this season. He is the best point producer for this national team and was the top scorer in SuperElit.

2. Nils Lundkvist D
- A very smart player with strong puck control and skills. Has been charming his way into the SHL where he has been able to be an effective puck-mover. He likes to join the attack but rarely gets caught on the wrong side of the puck.

1. Adam Boqvist D
- His lack of defensive awareness has been keeping him out of regular minutes at senior hockey. His puck skills are tremendous though and he absolutely dominates at junior level, both in the Hlnika tournament as well as in the SuperElit. Needs to perform well here to keep his status as a high first round pick. Nobody doubts the potential but how much of a long-term project will he be?

McKeen’s 2018 NHL Draft Ranking – April 2018 – Top 125

Ryan Wagman — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 14:25:48 +0000

With the CHL leagues now into the second round of their respective playoffs, the NCAA season completed (congrats to new champions Minnesota-Duluth!), European leagues beginning to wrap up and the USHL with only one more weekend remaining in their regular season, it is time for the penultimate McKeens Hockey Draft List. This list once again runs 125 players deep, with a few more names tacked on at the end to keep in mind.

Our final list will run deeper – and be more definitive – but know that the names you see below are the fruit of the combined labor of the full McKeens scouting team. Covering all of the leagues touched on in the first paragraph above, we have watched them all and players in most cases were also cross-checked by multiple team members.

While the size of our list has not changed from the previous iteration, much else is different. Yes, Rasmus Dahlin still heads the ranking (hint: barring a career-threatening tragedy in the next 10 weeks, he will lead our final list as well), but the next player who maintains the same position as last time is Joel Farabee, still sitting in 12^th. Alexander Alexeyev, at 29^th, is the only other player in the top 31 who is ranked the same today as he was in February.

Andrei Svechnikovof the Barrie Colts. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.

Looking at the top ten, the changes begin in the two/three slots, as we saw fit to bump Russian import Andrei Svechnikov past Czech import Filip Zadina. The latter has been strong all season long, but the two keys for us were a) he plateaued to an extent in the dying days of the regular season while Svechnikov has taken his production to a new level down the stretch. On a point per game measure, Svechnikov’s 1.64 points per game outshine Zadina’s 1.44, and the latter’s extra ten games played cannot explain away the discrepancy. The first round of the playoffs have seen this trend continue. Zadina has been very good. Svechnikov has been stellar. b) Svechnikov is four months younger than Zadina. In the grand scheme of things, that is not much. In a draft class, that is a full third of the way from one year of eligibility to the next. There is just that much greater likelihood that Svechnikov has more development potential. This factor is not destiny, but cannot be overlooked.

ANN ARBOR, MI - MARCH 03: Michigan Wolverines defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) passes the puck during the Michigan Wolverines game versus the Wisconsin Badgers in the BIG10 Hockey Tournament on March 3, 2018. (Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire)

Quinn Hughes and Adam Boqvist, both undersized (by traditional standards, if not by modern ones) and very mobile defenders have almost switched places. Hughes, whose game grew by leaps and bounds since playing a supporting role for the US Bronze winning WJC entry ended his season in the Frozen Four. He was the youngest player in the NCAA this year and tied for 16^th among all defensemen in scoring. Only one of the blueliners with more points is within even one year of his age. Through the second half of the year, he was consistently the best player on the ice whenever he stepped over the boards. He leaps from 9^th last time, to 4^th now. Boqvist, who dropped from 5^th to 8^th, is still an electrifying skater whose speed brings an extra dimension to his game. He is still highly coveted, but there is at least a hint of a red flag due to his dearth of production at the senior level in Sweden. He scored nearly one point per game in the SuperElit league, but has only one assist in 18 regular and post-season SHL games. The skill set is obvious, but his struggles against men highlight the greater gap between what he is and what he should become.

The one change to the previous top ten sees Spokane defender Ty Smith fall from 10 to 16. His offensive production in the WHL has been fantastic all the way through the Chiefs’ first round playoff exit. There have been some questions about his play off the puck, which were highlighted by a rough showing earlier in the year at the CHL Top Prospects Game. He should have another chance to boost his stock in the coming weeks as part of Canada’s entry to the World Under 18 Championships.

Joe Veleno (#90), player of Drummondville Voltigeurs, season 2017-18 of the QMJHL. Drummondville, Que., Dec. 30, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Ghyslain Bergeron

Taking Smith’s place in the top ten is former Exceptional Status player Joe Veleno. Huge things were expected of Veleno this year, not only due to his unique entry point into the QMJHL, but a three goal showing for Saint John at last year’s Memorial Cup certainly whetted the appetite for a huge draft season. Unfortunately, his previous team, the Saint John Sea Dogs were gutted by graduation and trades, and Veleno started off slowly, amid reports that he was taking the team’s struggles too much on his own shoulders. He scored only six goals in his 31 games in the Maritimes. A mid-season trade to Drummondville has allowed him to take off in a more competitive atmosphere, finishing the year with 48 points in 33 games for the Voltigeurs. He is also having another strong post-season, helping his team into the second round. In short, Smith has seen questions added about his projection, while Veleno has answered more of his, helping him jump up from 11^th to 9^th.

Without laboring over each change in the list, let us meditate briefly on the four subtractions (and four additions) to the top 31. Dropping into our second round are Jett Woo, B-O Groulx, Jack McBain, and Martin Kaut. Like Ty Smith above, none of these players necessarily did anything to harm their own standing, but were simply surpassed by some players who managed to end on a strong note. For each of the four, it can legitimately be said that there are open questions about their offensive upsides. Woo, Groulx, and Kaut may lack top half of the roster upside, while McBain did not score as much as his talent would suggest he should have in the OJHL. Like Smith, he is expected to play for Canada at the WU18 and his performance with CHLers should speak volumes about his draft standing.

Rasmus Sandin of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.

Replacing those four are a trio of small defensemen who have finished strong in Rasmus Sandin, Nils Lundkvist, and Calen Addison, and one ultra-talented German forward developing in Sweden in Dominik Bokk. These four players all carry a dynamic element to their games that the four players falling to the second round do not look to have.

The next six weeks, including the completion of the North American junior playoffs as well as the WU18 competition will see several more reputations made and others tarnished, as happens every year. We try to see the whole picture, and promise not to inordinately elevate the ranking of any player simply for getting hot at the right time. Our final list will reflect not just good or bad production at the right time, but the skill sets of the best draft-eligible talent in the hockey world, leavened by their ability and success rates of those skills in actualizing as performance.

We welcome your feedback on this list and look forward to seeing our draft list through to its completion in Dallas in late June.

To link to a player page, use the tags at the bottom of the page, or from our McKeen's Draft Ranking found here It is also downloadable to an excel file.

RANK	PLAYER	POS	TEAM	HT/WT	DOB	GP-G-A-PTS
1	Rasmus Dahlin	D	Frolunda (Swe)	6-2/185	13-Apr-00	41-7-13-20
2	Andrei Svechnikov	RW	Barrie (OHL)	6-2/185	26-Mar-00	44-40-32-72
3	Filip Zadina	RW	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-0/195	27-Nov-99	57-44-38-82
4	Quinn Hughes	D	Michigan (B1G)	5-10/175	14-Oct-99	37-5-24-29
5	Brady Tkachuk	LW	Boston University (HE)	6-3/195	16-Sep-99	40-8-23-31
6	Evan Bouchard	D	London (OHL)	6-2/195	20-Oct-99	67-25-62-87
7	Oliver Wahlstrom	RW	NTDP (USHL)	6-1/205	13-Jun-00	54-40-43-83
8	Adam Boqvist	D	Brynas (Swe Jr)	5-11/170	15-Aug-00	25-14-10-24
9	Joe Veleno	C	SNB-Dru (QMJHL)	6-1/195	13-Jan-00	64-22-57-79
10	Noah Dobson	D	Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)	6-3/180	7-Jan-00	67-17-52-69
11	Isac Lundestrom	C	Lulea (Swe)	6-0/185	6-Nov-99	42-6-9-15
12	Joel Farabee	LW	NTDP (USHL)	5-11/165	25-Feb-00	54-27-37-64
13	Barrett Hayton	C	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	6-1/190	9-Jun-00	63-21-39-60
14	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	C	Assat Pori (Fin)	6-1/190	6-Jul-00	57-10-19-29
15	Bode Wilde	D	NTDP (USHL)	6-2/195	24-Jan-00	53-11-25-36
16	Ty Smith	D	Spokane (WHL)	5-10/180	24-Mar-00	69-14-59-73
17	K'Andre Miller	D	NTDP (USHL)	6-3/205	21-Jan-00	50-7-17-24
18	Akil Thomas	C	Niagara (OHL)	5-11/170	2-Jan-00	68-22-59-81
19	Jared McIsaac	D	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	27-Mar-00	65-9-38-47
20	Grigori Denisenko	LW	Loko Yaroslavl (MHL)	5-11/175	24-Jun-00	31-9-13-22
21	Serron Noel	RW	Oshawa (OHL)	6-5/200	8-Aug-00	62-28-25-53
22	Rasmus Kupari	C	Karpat Oulu (Fin)	6-1/185	15-Mar-00	39-6-8-14
23	Ryan McLeod	C	Mississauga (OHL)	6-2/200	21-Sep-99	68-26-44-70
24	Ryan Merkley	D	Guelph (OHL)	5-11/170	14-Aug-00	63-13-54-67
25	Mattias Samuelsson	D	NTDP (USHL)	6-3/215	14-Mar-00	50-9-19-28
26	Rasmus Sandin	D	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	5-11/185	7-Mar-00	51-12-33-45
27	Nils Lundkvist	D	Lulea (Swe)	5-11/180	27-Jul-00	28-2-3-5
28	Alexander Alexeyev	D	Red Deer (WHL)	6-3/200	15-Nov-99	45-7-30-37
29	Calen Addison	D	Lethbridge (WHL)	5-10/180	11-Apr-00	68-11-54-65
30	Jacob Olofsson	C	Timra (Swe 2)	6-2/190	8-Feb-00	43-10-11-21
31	Dominik Bokk	LW	Vaxjo Lakers (Swe Jr)	6-1/180	3-Feb-00	35-14-27-41
32	Vitali Kravtsov	RW	Traktor Chelyabinsk (KHL)	6-2/170	23-Dec-99	35-4-3-7
33	Martin Kaut	RW	Dynamo Pardubice (Cze)	6-1/175	2-Oct-99	38-9-7-16
34	Jett Woo	D	Moose Jaw (WHL)	6-0/205	27-Jul-00	44-9-16-25
35	Benoit-Olivier Groulx	C	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	6-Feb-00	68-28-27-55
36	Jesse Ylonen	RW	Espoo United (Fin 2)	6-0/165	3-Oct-99	48-14-13-27
37	Nicolas Beaudin	D	Drummondville (QMJHL)	5-11/175	7-Oct-99	68-12-57-69
38	Adam Ginning	D	Linkopings (Swe)	6-3/195	13-Jan-00	28-1-1-2
39	Jack McBain	C	Tor. Jr Canadiens (OJHL)	6-3/195	6-Jan-00	48-21-37-58
40	Jonny Tychonick	D	Penticton (BCHL)	6-0/175	3-Mar-00	48-9-38-47
41	Ty Emberson	D	NTDP (USHL)	6-0/195	24-May-00	53-4-18-22
42	Ty Dellandrea	C	Flint (OHL)	6-0/190	21-Jul-00	67-27-32-59
43	Allan McShane	C	Oshawa (OHL)	5-11/190	14-Feb-00	67-20-45-65
44	Blake McLaughlin	LW	Chicago (USHL)	6-0/165	14-Feb-00	52-23-28-51
45	Gabriel Fortier	C	Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)	5-10/170	6-Feb-00	66-26-33-59
46	Kevin Bahl	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-6/230	27-Jun-00	58-1-17-18
47	Sampo Ranta	LW	Sioux City (USHL)	6-1/195	31-May-00	53-23-14-37
48	Filip Hallander	C	Timra (Swe 2)	6-1/185	29-Jun-00	40-9-11-20
49	Jay O'Brien	C	Thayer Acad. (USHS-MA)	5-10/185	4-Nov-99	30-43-37-80
50	David Gustafsson	C	HV 71 (Swe)	6-2/195	11-Apr-00	45-6-6-12
51	Liam Foudy	C	London (OHL)	6-0/185	4-Feb-00	65-24-16-40
52	Filip Johansson	D	Leksands (Swe Jr)	6-1/175	23-Mar-00	29-4-5-9
53	Niklas Nordgren	RW	HIFK (Fin Jr)	5-9/170	4-May-00	18-8-18-26
54	Aidan Dudas	C	Owen Sound (OHL)	5-8/170	15-Jun-00	68-31-34-65
55	Jacob Bernard-Docker	D	Okotoks (AJHL)	6-0/180	30-Jun-00	49-20-21-41
56	Xavier Bernard	D	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-2/210	6-Jan-00	66-11-24-35
57	Martin Fehervary	D	Oskarshamn (Swe 2)	6-1/190	6-Oct-99	42-1-6-7
58	Jonatan Berggren	RW	Skelleftea (Swe Jr)	5-10/185	6-Jul-00	38-18-39-57
59	Alexis Gravel	G	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-2/225	21-Mar-00	20-11(3.38).890
60	Cole Fonstad	C	Prince Albert (WHL)	5-10/160	24-Apr-00	72-21-52-73
61	Xavier Bouchard	D	Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)	6-3/190	28-Feb-00	65-3-18-21
62	Cam Hillis	C	Guelph (OHL)	5-10/170	24-Jun-00	60-20-39-59
63	Marcus Westfalt	C	Brynas (Swe)	6-3/205	12-Mar-00	31-1-3-4
64	Pavel Gogolev	RW	Peterborough (OHL)	6-0/175	19-Feb-00	66-30-17-47
65	Alexander Khovanov	C	Moncton (QMJHL)	5-11/195	12-Apr-00	29-9-19-28
66	Scott Perunovich	D	Minn-Duluth (NCHC)	5-10/170	18-Aug-98	42-11-25-36
67	Giovanni Vallati	D	Kitchener (OHL)	6-1/180	21-Feb-00	65-3-23-26
68	Olivier Rodrigue	G	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-0/160	6-Jul-00	31-16(2.54).903
69	Oskar Back	C	Farjestads (Swe Jr)	6-2/195	12-Mar-00	38-10-22-32
70	Riley Sutter	RW	Everett (WHL)	6-3/205	25-Oct-99	68-25-28-53
71	Stanislav Demin	D	Wenatchee (BCHL)	6-1/190	4-Apr-00	57-9-36-45
72	Lenni Killinen	RW	Blues (Fin Jr)	6-2/180	15-Jun-00	38-13-28-41
73	Tyler Weiss	LW	NTDP (USHL)	5-10/160	3-Jan-00	50-10-17-27
74	Ruslan Iskhakov	C	Krasnaya Armiya (MHL)	5-8/155	22-Jul-00	33-6-24-30
75	Kody Clark	RW	Ottawa (OHL)	6-1/180	13-Oct-99	56-18-21-39
76	Patrick Giles	RW	NTDP (USHL)	6-4/205	3-Jan-00	54-10-9-19
77	Anderson MacDonald	LW	Moncton (QMJHL)	6-2/205	16-May-00	58-27-18-45
78	Jake Wise	C	NTDP (USHL)	5-10/190	28-Feb-00	30-9-27-36
79	Jakub Lauko	C	Pirati Chomutov (Cze)	6-0/175	28-Mar-00	42-3-6-9
80	Adam Samuelsson	D	NTDP (USHL)	6-6/240	21-Jun-00	54-4-20-24
81	Philipp Kurashev	C	Quebec (QMJHL)	6-0/190	12-Oct-99	59-19-41-60
82	Sean Durzi	D	Owen Sound (OHL)	6-0/195	21-Oct-98	40-15-34-49
83	Kirill Marchenko	RW	Mamonty Yugry (MHL)	6-3/190	21-Jul-00	31-8-8-16
84	Jakub Skarek	G	Dukla Jihlava (Cze)	6-3/200	10-Nov-99	21GP(2.41).913
85	Milos Roman	C	Vancouver (WHL)	6-0/190	6-Nov-99	39-10-22-32
86	Blade Jenkins	LW	Saginaw (OHL)	6-1/195	11-Aug-00	68-20-24-44
87	Danila Galenyuk	D	St. Petersburg (MHL)	6-1/200	10-Feb-00	20-1-5-6
88	Kyle Topping	C	Kelowna (WHL)	5-11/185	18-Nov-99	66-22-43-65
89	Tyler Madden	C	CIL-TC (USHL)	5-10/155	9-Nov-99	50-15-19-34
90	Jack Drury	C	Waterloo (USHL)	5-11/180	3-Feb-00	54-23-40-63
91	Alec Regula	D	London (OHL)	6-3/200	6-Aug-00	67-7-18-25
92	Ivan Morozov	C	Mamonty Yugry (MHL)	6-1/180	5-May-00	30-11-12-23
93	Jachym Kondelik	C	Muskegon (USHL)	6-6/225	21-Dec-99	43-16-16-32
94	Riley Damiani	C	Kitchener (OHL)	5-9/165	20-Mar-00	64-19-18-37
95	Samuel Fagemo	RW	Frolunda (Swe Jr)	5-11/195	14-Mar-00	37-19-11-30
96	Jack St. Ivany	D	Sioux Falls (USHL)	6-2/200	22-Jul-99	51-6-30-36
97	David Lilja	C	Karlskoga (Swe 2)	5-11/175	23-Jan-00	37-3-5-8
98	Curtis Douglas	C	Bar-Wsr (OHL)	6-8/235	6-Mar-00	66-22-24-46
99	Luka Burzan	C	MJ-Bdn (WHL)	6-0/185	7-Jan-00	72-15-25-40
100	Linus Karlsson	C	Karlskrona (Swe Jr)	6-1/180	16-Nov-99	42-27-25-52
101	Kristian Reichel	C	Red Deer (WHL)	6-1/170	11-Jun-98	63-34-23-57
102	Toni Utunen	D	LeKi (Fin 2)	5-11/175	27-Apr-00	28-2-10-12
103	Dmitri Zavgorodny	LW	Rimouski (QMJHL)	5-9/175	11-Aug-00	62-26-21-47
104	Samuel Bucek	LW	Chicago (USHL)	6-1/215	19-Dec-98	47-19-23-42
105	Nathan Dunkley	C	Kgn-Ldn (OHL)	5-11/195	3-May-00	60-21-36-57
106	Carter Robertson	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-2/180	15-Jan-00	57-5-13-18
107	Albin Eriksson	RW	Skelleftea (Swe Jr)	6-4/205	20-Jul-00	38-22-18-40
108	Ryan O'Reilly	RW	Madison (USHL)	6-2/200	21-Mar-00	42-20-12-32
109	Nando Eggenberger	LW	Davos (Sui)	6-2/185	7-Oct-99	36-3-2-5
110	Tyler Tucker	D	Barrie (OHL)	6-1/205	1-Mar-00	59-3-20-23
111	Axel Andersson	D	Djurgardens (Swe Jr)	6-0/180	10-Feb-00	42-6-25-31
112	Alexey Polodyan	LW	St. Petersburg (MHL)	5-11/165	30-Jul-98	21-5-6-11
113	Jack Perbix	RW	Elk River (USHS-MN)	6-1/175	13-Sep-00	25-19-42-61
114	Nico Gross	D	Oshawa (OHL)	6-1/185	26-Jan-00	58-4-10-14
115	Declan Chisholm	D	Peterborough (OHL)	6-1/185	12-Jan-00	47-3-17-20
116	Ivan Prosvetov	G	Youngstown (USHL)	6-4/175	5-Mar-99	18-9(2.87).913
117	Kevin Mandolese	G	Cape Breton (QMJHL)	6-3/180	22-Aug-00	15-13(3.46).884
118	Vladislav Kotkov	RW	Chicoutimi (QMJHL)	6-4/205	8-Jan-00	61-21-28-49
119	Jonathan Gruden	C	NTDP (USHL)	5-11/175	4-May-00	53-25-26-51
120	Anthony Del Gaizo	C	Muskegon (USHL)	5-11/195	31-Jan-98	58-39-32-71
121	Justus Annunen	G	Karpat Oulu (Fin Jr)	6-4/215	11-Mar-00	26GP(2.31).907
122	Olof Lindbom	G	Djurgardens (Swe Jr)	6-2/185	23-Jul-00	20GP(3.10).897
123	Matthew Struthers	C	OS-NB (OHL)	6-2/210	26-Dec-99	62-23-22-45
124	Alex Steeves	C	Dubuque (USHL)	5-11/185	10-Dec-99	53-18-36-54
125	Ben Copeland	C	Waterloo (USHL)	5-10/180	27-Apr-99	58-17-42-59

OTHER DRAFT CANDIDATES
Jett Alexander	G	North York (OJHL)	6-4/190	8-Nov-99
Yaroslav Alexeyev	LW	Sherbrooke (QMJHL)	5-9/160	17-Jan-99
Justin Almeida	C	Moose Jaw (WHL)	5-9/160	6-Feb-99
Seth Barton	D	Trail (BCHL)	6-2/175	18-Aug-99
Justin Bergeron	D	Rouyn Noranda (QMJHL)	6-0/180	14-Sep-00
Erik Betzold	RW	Koln (Ger)	5-11/165	18-Jan-00
Brandon Biro	RW	Penn State (B1G)	5-11/165	11-Mar-98
Mikhail Bitsadze	C	Dynamo Moscow (Rus)	5-11/170	18-Nov-99
Shawn Boudrias	RW	Gatineau (QMJHL)	6-4/195	14-Sep-99
Jakob Brahaney	D	Kingston (OHL)	6-1/185	26-Mar-99
Justin Brazeau	RW	North Bay (OHL)	6-5/220	2-Feb-98
Dennis Busby	D	Flint (OHL)	5-10/190	6-Jan-00
Michael Callahan	D	Central Illinois (USHL)	6-2/195	23-Sep-99
Ryan Chyzowski	LW	Medicine Hat (WHL)	6-0/190	14-May-00
Powell Connor	D	Chilliwack (BCHL)	6-1/175	4-May-00
Connor Corcoran	D	Windsor (OHL)	6-1/185	7-Aug-00
Paul Cotter	C	Lincoln (USHL)	6-0/190	16-Nov-99
Angus Crookshank	LW	Langley (BCHL)	5-11/185	2-Oct-99
Max Crozier	D	Nanaimo (BCHL)	6-1/185	19-Apr-00
Ethan de Jong	RW	Prince George (BCHL)	5-10/170	12-Jul-99
Jack DeBoer	C	NTDP (USA)	6-2/190	17-Aug-00
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev	C	Peterborough (OHL)	5-10/160	15-Sep-00
Lukas Dostal	G	Kometa Brno (Cze)	6-1/165	22-Jun-00
Grigori Dronov	D	Magnitogorsk (Rus)	6-2/205	10-Jan-98
Justin Ducharme	LW	Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)	5-11/180	22-Feb-00
Daniel Dvorak	G	Hradec Kralove (Cze)	6-3/160	9-Jan-00
Jesper Eliasson	G	Troja/Ljungby (Swe)	6-3/200	21-Mar-00
Caleb Everett	D	Saginaw (OHL)	6-1/185	20-Jan-00
Christian Felton	D	Kimball Union (USHS-NH)	6-0/190	4-Feb-00
Trey Fix-Wolansky	RW	Edmonton (WHL)	5-8/185	26-May-99
Eric Florchuk	C	Saskatoon (WHL)	6-1/175	10-Jan-00
Carson Focht	C	Calgary (WHL)	6-0/180	4-Feb-00
Adam Gajarsky	RW	Kometa Brno (Cze)	5-10/175	4-Mar-00
Jeremi Gerber	RW	Bern (Sui)	6-1/185	1-Mar-00
Damien Giroux	C	Saginaw (OHL)	5-10/175	3-Mar-00
Jack Gorniak	LW	West Salem High (USHS-WI)	5-11/180	15-Sep-99
Matthew Grouchy	RW	Quebec (QMJHL)	6-1/190	19-Nov-99
Glenn Gustafsson	C	Orebro (Swe)	5-10/200	4-Sep-98
Curtis Hall	C	Youngstown (USHL)	6-2/195	26-Apr-00
Kevin Hancock	LW	Owen Sound (OHL)	5-11/185	2-Mar-98
Jordan Harris	D	Kimball Union (USHS-NH)	5-11/180	7-Jul-00
Reece Harsch	D	Seattle (WHL)	6-3/195	7-Jan-99
Brady Hinz	C	Peterborough (OHL)	5-9/150	3-May-00
Mitchell Hoelscher	C	Ottawa (OHL)	5-11/160	27-Jan-00
Mac Hollowell	D	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	5-9/170	26-Sep-98
Krystof Hrabik	C	Bili Tygri Liberec (Cze)	6-4/210	24-Sep-99
David Hrenak	G	St. Cloud State (NCHC)	6-2/190	5-May-98
Riley Hughes	RW	St. Sebastian's (USHS-MA)	6-1/175	27-Jun-00
Jere Huhtamaa	G	Blues (Fin)	6-2/190	10-Apr-00
Logan Hutsko	RW	Boston College (HE)	5-10/175	11-Feb-99
Jacob Ingham	G	Mississauga (OHL)	6-3/185	10-Jun-00
Jere Innala	LW	HPK (Fin)	5-9/175	17-Mar-98
Michal Ivan	D	Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)	6-1/185	18-Nov-99
Georgi Ivanov	C	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Rus)	6-0/190	25-Sep-98
Jan Jenik	RW	Benatky nad Jizerou (Cze)	6-1/165	15-Sep-00
Jack Jensen	C	Eden Prairie (USHS-MN)	6-0/195	31-Aug-00
Joey Keane	D	Barrie (OHL)	6-0/185	2-Jul-99
Brett Kemp	C	Edmonton (WHL)	6-0/165	23-Mar-00
Michael Kesselring	D	New Hampton School (USHS-NH)	6-4/185	13-Jan-00
Juuso Ketola	D	Assat Pori (Fin)	5-11/210	18-Mar-00
Patrick Khodorenko	C	Michigan State (B1G)	6-0/205	13-Oct-98
Liam Kirk	C	Sheffield (EIHL)	6-2/160	3-Jan-00
Semyon Kizimov	RW	Lada Togliatti (Rus)	6-0/175	19-Jan-00
Jordan Kooy	G	London (OHL)	6-2/185	30-Apr-00
Ivan Kosorenkov	RW	Victoriaville (QMJHL)	5-10/185	22-Jan-98
Demetrios Koumontzis	LW	Edina (USHS-MN)	5-10/185	24-Mar-00
Nikolai Kovalenko	RW	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Rus)	5-10/175	17-Oct-99
Filip Kral	D	Spokane (WHL)	6-1/170	20-Oct-99
Renars Krastenbergs	LW	Oshawa (OHL)	5-11/185	16-Dec-98
Cole Krygier	D	Lincoln (USHL)	6-3/195	5-May-00
Daniel Kurovsky	LW	Vitkovice (Cze)	6-4/215	4-Mar-98
Michal Kvasnica	RW	Frydek-Mistek (Cze)	6-1/190	7-Apr-00
Owen Lalonde	D	Guelph (OHL)	6-0/180	1-Feb-00
Jackson Leppard	LW	Prince George (WHL)	6-1/200	18-Jan-00
David Levin	C	Sudbury (OHL)	5-10/180	16-Sep-99
Mitchell Lewandowski	RW	Michigan State (B1G)	5-9/175	17-Apr-98
Adam Liska	C	Kitchener (OHL)	5-11/185	14-Oct-99
John Ludvig	D	Portland (WHL)	6-0/185	2-Aug-00
Brady Lyle	D	Owen Sound (OHL)	6-1/205	6-Jun-99
Guillaume Maillard	C	Geneve-Servette (Sui)	6-0/200	11-Oct-98
James Malm	C	Vancouver (WHL)	5-9/180	25-Jun-99
Anton Malyshev	D	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Rus)	6-0/180	27-Feb-00
Riley McCourt	D	Flint (OHL)	5-11/170	26-Jun-00
Aidan McDonough	LW	Thayer Academy (USHS-MA)	6-1/175	6-Nov-99
Nolan McElhaney	D	Cushing Academy (USHS-MA)	6-3/175	22-Apr-99
Jeremy McKenna	RW	Moncton (QMJHL)	5-10/175	20-Apr-99
Albert Michnac	LW	Mississauga (OHL)	6-0/180	18-Oct-98
Amir Miftakhov	G	Irbis Kazan (Rus)	6-0/160	26-Apr-00
Artyom Minulin	D	Swift Current (WHL)	6-2/200	1-Oct-98
Travis Mitchell	D	Muskegon (USHL)	6-2/195	25-Nov-99
Billy Moskal	C	London (OHL)	6-0/185	22-Mar-00
Nolan Moyle	RW	Green Bay (USHL)	6-1/185	13-Apr-99
Arttu Nevasaari	RW	Karpat Oulu (Fin)	5-11/180	23-Jan-00
Tristen Nielsen	C	Calgary (WHL)	5-9/180	23-Feb-00
Kirill Nizhnikov	RW	Sudbury (OHL)	6-2/190	29-Mar-00
Linus Nyman	RW	Kingston (OHL)	5-9/160	11-Jul-99
Andrei Pavlenko	RW	Edmonton (WHL)	6-1/175	4-Apr-00
Radovan Pavlik	RW	Hradec Kralove (Cze)	5-9/175	18-Feb-98
Ryan Peckford	LW	Moose Jaw (WHL)	6-0/190	4-Mar-99
Matej Pekar	C	Muskegon (USHL)	6-0/170	10-Feb-00
Ville Petman	C	Lukko Rauma (Fin)	5-10/180	18-Jan-00
Mathias Emilio Pettersen	C	Muskegon (USHL)	5-10/170	3-Apr-00
Jacob Pivonka	C	NTDP (USA)	5-11/200	28-Feb-00
Karel Plasek	RW	Kometa Brno (Cze)	5-10/155	28-Jul-00
Dylan Plouffe	D	Vancouver (WHL)	6-0/195	27-Apr-99
Martin Pospisil	C	Sioux City (USHL)	6-2/180	19-Nov-99
Josh Prokop	C	Vernon (BCHL)	5-10/175	30-Jan-00
Cole Purboo	RW	Windsor (OHL)	6-3/205	18-Jun-99
Vincent Purpura	G	Omaha (USHL)	6-3/195	29-Oct-98
Jacob Ragnarsson	D	Almtuna (Swe)	5-11/170	23-Sep-99
Jack Randl	LW	Omaha (USHL)	5-11/180	7-May-00
Connor Roberts	C	Flint (OHL)	6-4/210	22-Feb-00
Alexander Romanov	D	Krasnaya Armiya Moskva (Rus)	5-11/185	6-Jan-00
Nikita Rtishchev	RW	CSKA Moscow (Rus)	6-1/195	23-May-00
Merrick Rippon	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-0/190	27-Apr-00
Radim Salda	D	Saint John (QMJHL)	6-0/185	18-Feb-99
Santeri Salmela	D	KOOKOO (Fin)	6-1/195	10-Jun-00
Akira Schmid	G	Langnau (Sui)	6-4/165	12-May-00
Phillip Schultz	C	Rodovre (Den)	6-0/195	24-Jul-00
Zdenek Sedlak	RW	Karpat Oulu (Fin)	6-2/205	23-Mar-00
Peetro Seppala	D	KOOKOO (Fin)	6-1/175	17-Aug-00
Bulat Shafigullin	LW	Reaktor Nizhnekamsk (Rus)	6-1/165	29-Dec-99
Yegor Sharangovich	C	Dinamo Minsk (Rus)	6-2/195	6-Jun-98
Alexander Shepelev	D	Chelyabinsk (Rus)	6-2/185	17-Mar-98
Marsel Sholokhov	RW	Chelyabinsk (Rus)	5-10/170	12-Jan-98
Graham Slaggert	C	NTDP (USA)	5-11/185	6-Apr-99
Egor Sokolov	LW	Cape Breton (QMJHL)	6-3/225	7-Jun-00
Zach Solow	RW	Northeastern (HE)	5-9/185	6-Nov-98
Riley Stotts	C	Calgary (WHL)	6-0/175	5-Jan-00
Vladislav Syomin	D	SKA-Neva St. Petersburg (Rus)	6-3/215	17-Feb-98
Matt Thiessen	G	Steinbach (MJHL)	6-2/190	9-Jun-00
Michael Vorlicky	D	Edina (USHS-MN)	6-1/165	17-Jul-00
Pavel Vorobey	D	Kunlun Red Star (Rus)	6-3/195	10-Sep-97
Lukas Wernblom	C	MoDo (Swe)	5-9/170	22-Jul-00
Chase Wouters	C	Saskatoon (WHL)	5-11/180	8-Feb-00
Wyatte Wylie	D	Everett (WHL)	6-0/190	2-Nov-99
Vladislav Yeryomenko	D	Calgary (WHL)	6-0/185	23-Apr-99
Libor Zabransky	D	Kelowna (WHL)	6-1/190	26-May-00
Egor Zamula	D	Calgary (WHL)	6-3/170	30-Mar-00
Danila Zhuravlyov	D	Irbis Kazan (Rus)	6-0/165	8-Apr-00

2018 NHL Draft – McKeen’s Mid Season Rankings – Top 100 plus Honourable Mentions

Ryan Wagman — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:00:33 +0000

One of the first lessons I learned when I began scouting a number of years ago was that draft eligible prospects generally start to make their marks after Christmas of their draft year.

Around two months ago (Dec. 8), we released a snapshot of the 2018 draft class, walking through the 62 strongest prospects at the time. Since then, all of the 62 have had plenty of chances to make their marks. In addition to the weeks and weeks of regular season action they all had, some were also afforded the showcase of appearing in the World Junior Championships, while others fought to be included in the CHL and USHL Top Prospect Games or the World Junior A Challenge.

Some of the WJC combatants were already considered to be at or around the top of the draft class, including each of the top four of our Mid-Season ranking. Others found themselves in the spotlight by virtue of holding nationalities that do not have the depth of talent in their age 19 class as we found with the Gold Medal winners from Canada, from which the entire roster consisted of previously drafted players.

BUFFALO, NEW YORK - JANUARY 4: Sweden's Axel Fjallby Jonsson #22 and Isac Lundestrom #20 have words during semifinal round action against the U.S. at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship. (Photo by Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images)

While an appearance at the WJC will only go so far for most of the prospects of Denmark, Switzerland, or Belarus, for players like the Czech Republic’s Martin Kaut (#31) and Kristian Reichel (#83), Slovakia’s Milos Roman (#57), Sweden’s Isac Lundestrom (#14), and others, players who came into the tournament with some expectations and managed to exceed them, they were able to ensure that they will be front of mind for scouting staffs through the end of the season. In fact, three of those players have seen their respective places in our rankings rise between December and now. The fourth, Milos Roman, did not fall all that much, and that can be explained largely with an injury that has limited him to a single game played since the tournament ended.

Speaking of movement in the lists, we can report that each member of the previous version of this list, which went 62 deep, is still in the mid-season top 100. Only four of those 62, Nando Eggenberger (#76), Olivier Rodrigue (#78), Marcus Westfalt (#86), and Adam Samuelsson (#95) are now lower than 75. Even though Eggenberger had a poor WJC and Rodrigue failed to impress in the CHL’s Top Prospect game, the midseason marquee event of Canadian Junior hockey, the current rankings of those four is more a reflection of other players making bigger moves than they have. All still profile as draftable prospects of note. If anything, they still have more to prove before late June in Dallas.

Evan Bouchard of the London Knights. Photo by Terry Wilson/OHL Images.

One of the two biggest jumps in the past two months belong to the aforementioned Kaut, who was fantastic at the WJC, showing a wide range of skills, plus hockey IQ and even a bit of a physical game to boot. He jumped up from 55 in December to 31 now and some in our scouting team felt that we may still be underrating him. Climbing only 21 spots, but more impressive as he started off at a higher level in December than Kaut is now, is London blueliner Evan Bouchard (#7). At the time, there were some concerns about his foot speed. Not only has he put those concerns to rest with steady displays of solid top end velocity, showing his ability to defend against rushes from some of the players long considered to be among the quickest in the OHL, but between his plus shot, advanced hockey brain and quarterbacking style, it is no real surprise that he is currently seven points clear as the highest scoring blueliner in the OHL.

The highest ranked newcomer to the list is Swedish defenseman Nils Lundkvist (#40), who had a scouting report from our own Jimmy Hamrin posted just last week. Although undersized, Lundkvist is mobile, moves the puck ably and has exceptional hockey IQ. Others debuting in the top 50 include Jakub Lauko (#44) a teammate of Kaut’s from the Czech WJC squad, Stanislav Demin (#45) a blueliner from the BCHL who impressed in the WJAC, and Niklas Nordgren (#49) an undersized, yet silky skilled winger who has been tearing up the Finnish junior ranks.

When I mentioned above that draft eligible prospects begin to make their marks after Christmas, that does not mean to suggest that we feel this present snapshot will be an accurate representation of how things ultimately shake out in June. There are some players who start the year hot and then slowly peter out. We may think we are viewing a rough mid-season patch and for some, they will never recover. Eggenberger is one. Xavier Bouchard (#62), who looked like a strong second tier draft prospect from the QMJHL two months ago, has contributed only two points since the calendar flipped to 2018. He is not an offensive blueliner, but more is expected.

Liam Foudy of the London Knights. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.

Other players started off very slowly and have been hot of late, getting themselves some mid-season recognition. One such player we debated at length was Liam Foudy (#82). When we released our December rankings, he had played 27 games and had put up a mere five points. Since then, in 23 games, he has 19 points, a period highlit by a strong showing at the CHL Top Prospect Game. In his case, it seems that London’s decision to sell off a large number of their regular top six forward options has given Foudy the chance to play in an offensive role and he has thus far flourished, to the extent that he was just named the OHL Player of the Week on the morning of this writing. He is a great skater and if he can keep this level of offensive production up for a few more weeks, showing that his recent play has not just been a flash in the pan, he will likely rocket up the list.

As we continue to scout the junior aged prospects of the world, this draft list will change again and again. In addition to extending our list to 100 as we pass the mid-season point for all leagues, we have also included a group of 25 others who had some fans about the McKeens scouting squad. As the intensity of the season rises with many teams and players jockeying for a post-season berth, some of the 125 players listed here will see their respective stocks go up and others will go down. Players who we may have skipped over in November and January will force us to pay attention in March and April. From now until draft weekend, we will continue to post scouting reports of the players you need to know about for the 2018 draft. We welcome your questions and comments and hope you enjoy the ride with us.

To link to a player page, use the tags at the bottom of the page, or from our McKeen's Draft Ranking found here It is also downloadable to an excel file.

RANK	PLAYER	POS	TEAM	HT/WT	DOB
1	Rasmus Dahlin	D	Frolunda (Swe)	6-2/185	13-Apr-00
2	Filip Zadina	RW	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-0/200	27-Nov-99
3	Andrei Svechnikov	RW	Barrie (OHL)	6-2/185	26-Mar-00
4	Brady Tkachuk	LW	Boston University (HE)	6-3/195	16-Sep-99
5	Adam Boqvist	D	Brynas (Swe Jr)	5-11/170	15-Aug-00
6	Oliver Wahlstrom	RW	NTDP (USA)	6-1/205	13-Jun-00
7	Evan Bouchard	D	London (OHL)	6-2/195	20-Oct-99
8	Noah Dobson	D	Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)	6-3/180	7-Jan-00
9	Quinn Hughes	D	Michigan (B1G)	5-10/175	14-Oct-99
10	Ty Smith	D	Spokane (WHL)	5-10/180	24-Mar-00
11	Joe Veleno	C	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-1/195	13-Jan-00
12	Joel Farabee	LW	NTDP (USA)	5-11/165	25-Feb-00
13	Bode Wilde	D	NTDP (USA)	6-2/195	24-Jan-00
14	Isac Lundestrom	C	Lulea (Swe)	6-0/185	6-Nov-99
15	Grigori Denisenko	LW	Loko Yaroslavl (Rus Jr)	5-11/165	24-Jun-00
16	K'Andre Miller	D	NTDP (USA)	6-3/205	21-Jan-00
17	Barrett Hayton	C	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	6-1/190	9-Jun-00
18	Jared McIsaac	D	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	27-Mar-00
19	Akil Thomas	RW	Niagara (OHL)	5-11/170	2-Jan-00
20	Ryan McLeod	C	Mississauga (OHL)	6-2/200	21-Sep-99
21	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	C	Assat Pori (Fin)	6-1/190	6-Jul-00
22	Serron Noel	RW	Oshawa (OHL)	6-5/200	8-Aug-00
23	Rasmus Kupari	C	Karpat Oulu (Fin)	6-1/185	15-Mar-00
24	Jacob Olofsson	C	Timra (Swe 2)	6-2/190	8-Feb-00
25	Ryan Merkley	D	Guelph (OHL)	5-11/170	14-Aug-00
26	Jett Woo	D	Moose Jaw (WHL)	6-0/205	27-Jul-00
27	Benoit-Olivier Groulx	C	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	6-Feb-00
28	Alexander Alexeyev	D	Red Deer (WHL)	6-3/200	15-Nov-99
29	Mattias Samuelsson	D	NTDP (USA)	6-3/215	14-Mar-00
30	Jack McBain	C	Toronto Jr Canadiens (OJHL)	6-3/195	6-Jan-00
31	Martin Kaut	RW	Pardubice (Cze)	6-1/175	2-Oct-99
32	Calen Addison	D	Lethbridge (WHL)	5-10/180	11-Apr-00
33	Jonny Tychonick	D	Penticton (BCHL)	5-11/175	3-Mar-00
34	Jesse Ylonen	RW	Espoo United (Fin 2)	6-0/165	3-Oct-99
35	Dominik Bokk	LW	Vaxjo Lakers (Swe Jr)	6-1/180	3-Feb-00
36	Blake McLaughlin	LW	Chicago (USHL)	6-0/165	14-Feb-00
37	Kevin Bahl	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-6/230	27-Jun-00
38	Vitali Kravtsov	RW	Traktor Chelyabinsk (Rus)	6-2/170	23-Dec-99
39	Ty Dellandrea	C	Flint (OHL)	6-0/190	21-Jul-00
40	Nils Lundkvist	D	Lulea (Swe)	5-11/180	27-Jul-00
41	Rasmus Sandin	D	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	5-11/190	7-Mar-00
42	Adam Ginning	D	Linkopings (Swe)	6-3/195	13-Jan-00
43	Allan McShane	C	Oshawa (OHL)	5-11/190	14-Feb-00
44	Jakub Lauko	C	Chomutov (Cze)	6-0/175	28-Mar-00
45	Stanislav Demin	D	Wenatchee (BCHL)	6-1/190	4-Apr-00
46	Filip Hallander	C	Timra (Swe 2)	6-1/185	29-Jun-00
47	Xavier Bernard	D	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-2/210	6-Jan-00
48	Ty Emberson	D	NTDP (USA)	6-0/195	24-May-00
49	Niklas Nordgren	RW	HIFK Helsinki (Fin Jr)	5-9/170	4-May-00
50	Sampo Ranta	LW	Sioux City (USHL)	6-1/195	31-May-00
51	Jay O'Brien	C	Thayer Academy (USHS-MA)	5-10/185	4-Nov-99
52	Jonatan Berggren	C	Skelleftea (Swe Jr)	5-10/185	6-Jul-00
53	Kody Clark	RW	Ottawa (OHL)	6-1/180	13-Oct-99
54	David Gustafsson	C	HV 71 (Swe)	6-1/195	11-Apr-00
55	Nicolas Beaudin	D	Drummondville (QMJHL)	5-11/175	7-Oct-99
56	Cam Hillis	C	Guelph (OHL)	5-10/170	24-Jun-00
57	Milos Roman	C	Vancouver (WHL)	6-0/190	6-Nov-99
58	Gabriel Fortier	C	Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)	5-10/190	6-Feb-00
59	Riley Sutter	C	Everett (WHL)	6-3/205	25-Oct-99
60	Martin Fehervary	D	Oskarshamn (Swe 2)	6-1/190	6-Oct-99
61	Philipp Kurashev	C	Quebec (QMJHL)	6-0/190	12-Oct-99
62	Xavier Bouchard	D	Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)	6-3/190	28-Feb-00
63	Giovanni Vallati	D	Kitchener (OHL)	6-1/185	21-Feb-00
64	Alexander Khovanov	C	Moncton (QMJHL)	5-11/190	12-Apr-00
65	Blade Jenkins	LW	Saginaw (OHL)	6-1/195	11-Aug-00
66	Filip Johansson	D	Leksands (Swe 2)	6-1/185	23-Mar-00
67	Alec Regula	D	London (OHL)	6-3/200	6-Aug-00
68	Jakub Skarek	G	Dukla Jihlava (Cze)	6-3/200	10-Nov-99
69	Nico Gross	D	Oshawa (OHL)	6-1/185	26-Jan-00
70	Anderson MacDonald	LW	Moncton (QMJHL)	6-2/205	16-May-00
71	Kyle Topping	C	Kelowna (WHL)	5-11/185	18-Nov-99
72	Oskar Back	C	Farjestads (Swe Jr)	6-2/200	12-Mar-00
73	Nathan Dunkley	C	London (OHL)	5-11/195	3-May-00
74	Patrick Giles	RW	NTDP (USA)	6-4/205	3-Jan-00
75	Jake Wise	C	NTDP (USA)	5-10/190	28-Feb-00
76	Nando Eggenberger	LW	Davos (Sui)	6-2/185	7-Oct-99
77	Alexis Gravel	G	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-2/225	21-Mar-00
78	Olivier Rodrigue	G	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-0/160	6-Jul-00
79	Tyler Madden	C	Central Illinois (USHL)	5-10/155	9-Nov-99
80	Lenni Killinen	LW	Blues (Fin Jr)	6-2/185	15-Jun-00
81	Filip Kral	D	Spokane (WHL)	6-0/170	20-Oct-99
82	Liam Foudy	C	London (OHL)	6-1/185	4-Feb-00
83	Kristian Reichel	C	Red Deer (WHL)	6-1/170	11-Jun-98
84	Danila Galenyuk	D	Mamonty Yurgy (Rus Jr)	6-1/200	10-Feb-00
85	Aidan Dudas	C	Owen Sound (OHL)	5-8/170	15-Jun-00
86	Marcus Westfalt	C	Brynas (Swe)	6-3/205	12-Mar-00
87	Jachym Kondelik	C	Muskegon (USHL)	6-6/225	21-Dec-99
88	Jacob Bernard-Docker	D	Okotoks (AJHL)	6-0/180	30-Jun-00
89	Carter Robertson	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-2/180	15-Jan-00
90	Kevin Mandolese	G	Cape Breton (QMJHL)	6-3/180	22-Aug-00
91	Ryan O'Reilly (2000)	RW	Madison (USHL)	6-1/205	21-Mar-00
92	Merrick Rippon	D	Ottawa (OHL)	6-0/190	27-Apr-00
93	David Lilja	C	Karlskoga (Swe 2)	5-11/175	23-Jan-00
94	Alex Steeves	C	Dubuque (USHL)	6-0/185	10-Dec-99
95	Adam Samuelsson	D	NTDP (USA)	6-6/240	21-Jun-00
96	Linus Karlsson	C	Karlskrona (Swe Jr)	6-1/180	16-Nov-99
97	Jack Drury	C	Waterloo (USHL)	5-11/180	3-Feb-00
98	Albin Eriksson	LW	Skelleftea (Swe Jr)	6-4/205	20-Jul-00
99	Sean Durzi	D	Owen Sound (OHL)	6-0/195	21-Oct-98
100	Jacob Ingham	G	Mississauga (OHL)	6-3/185	10-Jun-00
HM	Curtis Hall	C	Youngstown (USHL)	6-2/195	26-Apr-00
HM	Toni Utunen	D	LeKi (Fin 2)	5-11/175	27-Apr-00
HM	Riley Damiani	C	Kitchener (OHL)	5-10/165	20-Mar-00
HM	Cole Fonstad	C	Prince Albert (WHL)	5-10/160	24-Apr-00
HM	Pavel Gogolev	RW	Peterborough (OHL)	6-0/175	19-Feb-00
HM	Jan Jenik	RW	Benatky nad Jizerou (Cze 2)	6-1/165	15-Sep-00
HM	Daniel Kurovsky	LW	Vitkovice (Cze)	6-4/200	4-Mar-98
HM	Luka Burzan	C	Brandon (WHL)	6-0/185	7-Jan-00
HM	Eric Florchuk	C	Saskatoon (WHL)	6-1/175	10-Jan-00
HM	David Levin	C	Sudbury (OHL)	5-10/180	16-Sep-99
HM	Chase Wouters	C	Saskatoon (WHL)	5-11/180	8-Feb-00
HM	Justus Annunen	G	Karpat Oulu (Fin Jr)	6-4/215	11-Mar-00
HM	Seth Barton	D	Trail (BCHL)	6-2/175	18-Aug-99
HM	Declan Chisholm	D	Peterborough (OHL)	6-1/185	12-Jan-00
HM	Paul Cotter	C	Lincoln (USHL)	6-0/190	16-Nov-99
HM	Caleb Everett	D	Saginaw (OHL)	6-2/185	20-Jan-00
HM	Johnny Gruden	C	NTDP (USA)	5-11/175	4-May-00
HM	Jordan Harris	D	Kimball Union (USHS-NH)	5-11/175	7-Jul-00
HM	Michael Kesselring	D	New Hampton School (USHS-NH)	6-4/185	13-Jan-00
HM	Juuso Ketola	D	Assat Pori (Fin Jr)	5-11/210	18-Mar-00
HM	Jackson Leppard	LW	Prince George (WHL)	6-1/200	18-Jan-00
HM	Scott Perunovich	D	Minn-Duluth (NCHC)	5-10/170	18-Aug-98
HM	Ivan Prosvetov	G	Youngstown (USHL)	6-4/175	5-Mar-99
HM	Tyler Weiss	LW	NTDP (USA)	5-10/160	3-Jan-00
HM	Dmitri Zavgorodny	LW	Rimouski (QMJHL)	5-9/175	11-Aug-00

2018 NHL Draft – McKeen’s Mid-Season Rankings

Ryan Wagman — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:53:52 +0000

One of the first lessons I learned when I began scouting a number of years ago was that draft eligible prospects generally start to make their marks after Christmas of their draft year.

Evan Bouchard of the London Knights. Photo by Terry Wilson/OHL Images.

Liam Foudy of the London Knights. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.

Here is our mid-season top 31 ranking for the 2018 NHL Draft. For subscribers the full list of 100 plus honourable mentions can be found here - Top 100 2018 NHL Draft - Mid Season. If you are interested in a subscription, you can learn more here - $9.99 for three months access, plus any downloads we release. We publish a 2018 NHL Draft Guide on June 1st, 2018 and our 24th anniversary of the McKeen's Hockey Pool Yearbook on September 1st, 2018.

RK	PLAYER	POS	TEAM	HT/WT	DOB	GP-G-A-PTS
1	Rasmus Dahlin	D	Frolunda (Swe)	6-2/185	13-Apr-00	35-6-11-17
2	Filip Zadina	RW	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-0/200	27-Nov-99	44-35-28-63
3	Andrei Svechnikov	RW	Barrie (OHL)	6-2/185	26-Mar-00	32-30-18-48
4	Brady Tkachuk	LW	Boston University (HE)	6-3/195	16-Sep-99	29-7-16-23
5	Adam Boqvist	D	Brynas (Swe Jr)	5-11/170	15-Aug-00	23-14-7-21
6	Oliver Wahlstrom	RW	NTDP (USA)	6-1/205	13-Jun-00	38-31-22-53
7	Evan Bouchard	D	London (OHL)	6-2/195	20-Oct-99	52-18-48-66
8	Noah Dobson	D	Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL)	6-3/180	7-Jan-00	53-13-42-55
9	Quinn Hughes	D	Michigan (B1G)	5-10/175	14-Oct-99	27-3-15-18
10	Ty Smith	D	Spokane (WHL)	5-10/180	24-Mar-00	53-9-47-56
11	Joe Veleno	C	Drummondville (QMJHL)	6-1/195	13-Jan-00	49-14-48-62
12	Joel Farabee	LW	NTDP (USA)	5-11/165	25-Feb-00	38-19-25-44
13	Bode Wilde	D	NTDP (USA)	6-2/195	24-Jan-00	38-7-17-24
14	Isac Lundestrom	C	Lulea (Swe)	6-0/185	6-Nov-99	35-6-9-15
15	Grigori Denisenko	LW	Loko Yaroslavl (Rus Jr)	5-11/165	24-Jun-00	23-4-10-14
16	K'Andre Miller	D	NTDP (USA)	6-3/205	21-Jan-00	38-6-12-18
17	Barrett Hayton	C	Sault Ste Marie (OHL)	6-1/190	9-Jun-00	52-18-31-49
18	Jared McIsaac	D	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	27-Mar-00	53-7-30-37
19	Akil Thomas	RW	Niagara (OHL)	5-11/170	2-Jan-00	53-15-47-62
20	Ryan McLeod	C	Mississauga (OHL)	6-2/200	21-Sep-99	52-18-36-54
21	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	C	Assat Pori (Fin)	6-1/190	6-Jul-00	52-8-17-25
22	Serron Noel	RW	Oshawa (OHL)	6-5/200	8-Aug-00	48-21-19-40
23	Rasmus Kupari	C	Karpat Oulu (Fin)	6-1/185	15-Mar-00	31-5-5-10
24	Jacob Olofsson	C	Timra (Swe 2)	6-2/190	8-Feb-00	38-9-11-20
25	Ryan Merkley	D	Guelph (OHL)	5-11/170	14-Aug-00	50-12-44-56
26	Jett Woo	D	Moose Jaw (WHL)	6-0/205	27-Jul-00	30-8-15-23
27	Benoit-Olivier Groulx	C	Halifax (QMJHL)	6-1/195	6-Feb-00	55-21-20-41
28	Alexander Alexeyev	D	Red Deer (WHL)	6-3/200	15-Nov-99	37-6-25-31
29	Mattias Samuelsson	D	NTDP (USA)	6-3/215	14-Mar-00	34-6-13-19
30	Jack McBain	C	Toronto Jr Canadiens (OJHL)	6-3/195	6-Jan-00	44-19-33-52
31	Martin Kaut	RW	Pardubice (Cze)	6-1/175	2-Oct-99	35-5-6-11