Multiple Draft Rankings: What They All Say

By JD Lagrange – Admittedly, I am no expert in the Draft but I can appreciate that others do spend a lot of time watching, studying and compiling information regarding the NHL’s top prospects available each year for the NHL Draft. It is a thankless and time consuming job that needs to be appreciated.

Here at Cheering the Logo, our collaborator Bob Trask has done a fantastic job compiling the NHL’s top hopefuls to be drafted at the next NHL Draft in Montreal this summer. Please look at the links at the end of this article to see not only the complete list for each round, but who the Canadiens are likely to select with their many picks this year.

The price is Wright

For the purpose of this article, I have decided to compile the Top-5 from several people who have taken the time to create lists. I have included the NHL’s Centra Scouting lists (North American and European skaters) for you to see where, in each list, those names are ranked.

BY	1	2	3	4	5
NHL – North America	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Matthew Savoie	Conor Geekie	Pavel Mintyukov
NHL – Europe	Joakim Kemell	Juraj Slafkovsky	Danila Yurov	David Jiricek	Brad Lambert

Bob Trask (CTL)	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Juraj Slafkovsky	Matthew Savoie	Simon Nemec
Bob McKenzie	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Joakim Kemell	Matthew Savoie	Juraj Slafkovsky
Craig Button	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Juraj Slafkovsky	Simon Nemec	Joakim Kemell
Dobber Prospects	Shane Wright	Simon Nemec	Logan Cooley	Juraj Slafkovsky	Matthew Savoie
Sportsnet	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Juraj Slafkovsky	Matthew Savoie	Simon Nemec
Elite Prospects	Shane Wright	David Jiricek	Simon Nemec	Frank Nazar	Logan Cooley
FC Hockey	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Simon Nemec	Juraj Slafkovsky	Matthew Savoie
Sporting News	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Simon Nemec	Juraj Slafkovsky	Matthew Savoie
McKeen’s	Shane Wright	Simon Nemec	Matthew Savoie	Logan Cooley	Danila Yurov
Recruit Scouting	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Simon Nemec	Joakim Kemell	Matthew Savoie
The Hockey Writers	Shane Wright	Logan Cooley	Juraj Slafkovsky	Simon Nemec	Matthew Savoie

For the first half of the season or so, Shane Wright was not the clear-cut consensus number one pick. But it seems like with his second half of the season, he has gained that status and the odds of the team winning this year’s NHL Draft Lottery is very likely to select him first overall on the podium in Montreal.

It looks like Logan Cooley is, for the most part, the preferred candidate to be selected second overall. For third spot, it’s a battle between Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec, for the most part. Matthew Savoie and Joakim Kemell appear to be favourites to round up the top-5, although Frank Nazar and Danila Yurov could sneak in ahead of them.

Canadiens’ odds

Finishing 32nd in the NHL is no guarantee that the Canadiens will select first at this year’s NHL Draft. In fact, they have just about three out of four chances of NOT getting the first overall pick! That is something the NHL must remedy. I’m all for preventing teams from purposely throwing games but there are way too many teams with chances at getting that elusive first overall pick.

The NHL Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 10th. That’s when we will know the exact draft ranking for all 16 teams who missed the playoffs this year.

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