JD’s Final And Only NHL Draft Rankings

By JD Lagrange – Admittedly, I am not a NHL Draft expert. But with the Canadiens having the first overall pick, and my colleague Bob Trask enjoying talking about prospects, I have followed this year’s developments a lot more than usual. So I figured that I would see how I match up with the Draft experts around the NHL by publishing my very own Final and Only NHL Draft Rankings. This will give me something to look back on and to either laugh… or cry about.

Without further ado, here are my first round rankings. Height and weight from Elite Prospects:

RANK	PROSPECT	POSITION	HEIGHT	WEIGHT
1	Juraj Slafkovsky	LW	6’4″	218
2	Shane Wright	C	6’0″	198
3	Logan Cooley	C	5’10”	181
4	Simon Nemec	D	6’1″	192
5	David Jiricek	D	6’3″	190
6	Matthew Savoie	C	5’9″	179
7	Joakim Kemell	RW	5’9″	176
8	Jonathan Lekkerimäki	RW	5’11”	172
9	Frank Nazar	C/RW	5’10”	181
10	Cutter Gauthier	C/LW	6’3″	201
11	Danila Yurov	RW	6’1″	179
12	Brad Lambert	C/RW	6’0″	183
13	Kevin Korchinski	D	6’2″	185
14	Pavel Mintyukov	D	6’1″	192
15	Denton Mateychuk	D	5’11”	194
16	Ivan Miroshnichenko	LW	6’1″	185
17	Marco Kasper	C	6’2″	187
18	Conor Geekie	C	6’4″	205
19	Liam Öhgren	LW	6’1″	201
20	Noah Östlund	C	5’11”	163
21	Jiri Kulich	C	6’0″	181
22	Rutger McGroarty	C	6’1″	205
23	Jimmy Snuggerud	RW	6’2″	185
24	Isaac Howard	LW	5’10”	181
25	Filip Mesar	RW/C	5’10”	174
26	Jagger Firkus	RW	5’10”	154
27	Ryan Chesley	D	6’0″	201
28	Owen Pickering	D	6’5″	179
29	Tristan Luneau	D	6’2″	190
30	Gleb Trikozov	RW	6’1″	185
31	Nathan Gaucher	C	6’3″	207
32	Calle Odelius	D	6’0″	185

I picked Slafkovsky to go first overall for two reasons:

To be different than the majority. It will either be a homerun or a strikeout; and,
To get a reaction as the Wright extremists get very upset when you dare pump someone else’s tires.

Now the real question: how will it compare to those who spend hours upon hours watching videos, reading about prospects and sell us all on having the best rankings? I guess we’ll find out in just over a week.

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