HockeyProspect.com 2018 NHL Draft Black Book and Final Rankings

[Mark Edwards]

We've released our Black Book and Final rankings. Once again we will be offering a coupon for $5.00 off - just use coupon code hfboards19 at checkout.

Our final rankings have also been posted. I'll be checking back in here to talk rankings as soon as I get some free minutes.

"Another year of scouting is in the books and the 2018 NHL Draft is fast approaching. Entering the 2017/2018 season we knew there was a dynamic defenseman at the top of the draft and a skilled Russian forward who had a leg up on the number two spot. Once we started hitting the highways things began to evolve. Players like Noah Dobson, Martin Kaut, Dominik Bokk and Jay O’Brien, just to name a few, began to make their names more well known."

2018 NHL Draft Black Book

Rankings

Click to read more...

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

That is quite a list.

Biggest thing that caught my eye was no Veleno in the top 31. Wow.

 

[VictorLustig]

Love your stuff. Very cool to see Albin Eriksson in the 1st round.

 

[Frk It]

That is quite a list.

Biggest thing that caught my eye was no Veleno in the top 31. Wow.

Yeah. Personally I like Veleno, Wise, and Akil Thomas. Kind of surprising for me to not have any in the top 31 for this draft, but I always respect their ranking.

 

[Zaddy]

Interesting stuff. Some questions if you have the time to answer:

What made you drop Boqvist to #11?

What convinced you Kravtsov is worthy of a top6 pick?

What do you like so much about Albin Erikssons game?

 

[DJB]

Tkachuk at 3 is interesting . Seems people either love him or hate him and have him closer to the bottom of the top 10 if they don't .

Any concerns Mark in your estimation that he doesn't have first line winger potential ? Whether it be his skating or shot, or offensive upside ?

 

[DieTomi]

Interesting stuff. Some questions if you have the time to answer:

What made you drop Boqvist to #11?

What convinced you Kravtsov is worthy of a top6 pick?

What do you like so much about Albin Erikssons game?

Tkachuk at 3 is interesting . Seems people either love him or hate him and have him closer to the bottom of the top 10 if they don't .

Any concerns Mark in your estimation that he doesn't have first line winger potential ? Whether it be his skating or shot, or offensive upside ?

I bet if you bought the black book you'd find out!

 

[thelittlecoon]

Awesome list. Appreciate the time and effort you always put into the rankings and black book. Looks like after pick #2 there really is no consensus at all.

 

[Zaddy]

I bet if you bought the black book you'd find out!

I will likely get it but it's always nice to hear a more in-depth explanation.

 

[Peeps]

The price is in USD or CAD ?

 

[Hansen]

Does it still come with the past couple season's black books too? I think the last time I purchased was in 2014, definitely interested

 

[93LEAFS]

Does it still come with the past couple season's black books too? I think the last time I purchased was in 2014, definitely interested

If you get the yearly platinum pass you have access to all previous material.

 

[shotvalley]

We've released our Black Book and Final rankings. Once again we will be offering a coupon for $5.00 off - just use coupon code hfboards19 at checkout.

Our final rankings have also been posted. I'll be checking back in here to talk rankings as soon as I get some free minutes.

"Another year of scouting is in the books and the 2018 NHL Draft is fast approaching. Entering the 2017/2018 season we knew there was a dynamic defenseman at the top of the draft and a skilled Russian forward who had a leg up on the number two spot. Once we started hitting the highways things began to evolve. Players like Noah Dobson, Martin Kaut, Dominik Bokk and Jay O’Brien, just to name a few, began to make their names more well known."

2018 NHL Draft Black Book

Rankings

Ok, the Black Book is out but there should be also Draft Guide 2018 from HockeyProspect without any extras (like game reports). When the guide is released and what's the prize? I'm talking about this one: NHL Draft Guide | NHL Scouting Reports and Prospect Profiles

 

[Meeqs]

Sweet, Black Book is the best

 

[Fantomas]

Gutsy call on Kravtsov. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if he proved himself as one of the drafts better years in due time.

Denisenko still seems overrated to me.

 

[Mark Edwards]

Ok, the Black Book is out but there should be also Draft Guide 2018 from HockeyProspect without any extras (like game reports). When the guide is released and what's the prize? I'm talking about this one: NHL Draft Guide | NHL Scouting Reports and Prospect Profiles

I'll come back to answer questions and talk prospects when I have time later, but i wanted to answer this question.

We will have the NHL Draft Guide on our website tonight. It's $34.99 and is all 2018 NHL Draft content. no 2019 or 2020. Nothing in the Guide that isn't in the Black Book. Call it Black Book Light.

Print version will also be submitted to amazon tonight. It takes 48 hours or more to go live though.

 

[AmericanDream]

great job as always Mark, love the work and the way the site always looks...much appreciated!

Also, good to see besides Button, I am not the only one who is not high on Veleno...Mr. Jay O'Brien will start receiving his due shortly IMO..

 

[landy92mack29]

I obviously disagree with some of your views on players but you guys do the best job of anyone. Also it was a great sight to see Jacob ranked at 217 and thank you for having him on it.

 

[Thebesthockey]

Beaudin 24th
and veleno not ?
right team wrong player

 

[tigervixxxen]

My question is in regards to Beaudin, how does his ranking of 25 compare with Samuel Girard who you guys ranked 70. I know it's tough to compare different draft classes but I'm wondering if it's a change in your approach to a smilar type player from the same league in the last two years or just purely difference of opinion on the two, do you feel Girard's 70 ranking still holds up?

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

My question is in regards to Beaudin, how does his ranking of 25 compare with Samuel Girard who you guys ranked 70. I know it's tough to compare different draft classes but I'm wondering if it's a change in your approach to a smilar type player from the same league in the last two years or just purely difference of opinion on the two, do you feel Girard's 70 ranking still holds up?

Interesting question. I feel like Girard projected a lot better on draft day. Better skater, vision and ability to control the play at the same age imo. Maybe because players like Girard are proving that they can have success at the NHL level it is affecting how they evaluate that type of player. Curious to know their answer to this.

 

[JeromeHP]

My question is in regards to Beaudin, how does his ranking of 25 compare with Samuel Girard who you guys ranked 70. I know it's tough to compare different draft classes but I'm wondering if it's a change in your approach to a smilar type player from the same league in the last two years or just purely difference of opinion on the two, do you feel Girard's 70 ranking still holds up?

In my 7 years with HockeyProspect.com i don't think me and Mark have argue more on one player that we did on Girard in his draft year. I think everyone in the scouting business is changing slowly a bit their approach how they scout those small puck moving defenseman. One element that remains it's their ability to defend , that was the big debate with Girard in his draft year and one thing with Beaudin that he has improve a lot this year.

 

[Mark Edwards]

Interesting stuff. Some questions if you have the time to answer:

What made you drop Boqvist to #11?

What convinced you Kravtsov is worthy of a top6 pick?

What do you like so much about Albin Erikssons game?

Boqvist took a long time to rank. It was tight right from the 3-11 (especially 3-8 area) in the end I always tell our guys to imagine yourself on the draft floor with with a mortgage, a family to feed and one year left on your NHL team contract. I find that makes ranking the players a bit more real. Now attaching your name to the guy with two concussions, who's in a tight battle with other high end players gets more difficult to pull the trigger. I am a huge fan of Boqvist but when you attempt to make the draft real life it's not so easy to just throw the players u like anywhere on the list. This is a sample of conversations I have with NHL team scouts.

Kravtsov has ridiculous amount of skill. Going back to my answer about Boqvist, I wanted to talk to teams about their interviews with Kravtsov before I was willing to rank him as high as we did. I got great feedback and we ranked him way up there. I'm not predicting he goes that high but I can tell you based on some of my recent conversations with some scouts there is a lot of discussions about this player of late.

Albin is a big kid, smart and has skill. He doesn't play a nasty physical game but he uses his size well and competes hard. That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Mark Edwards]

In my 7 years with HockeyProspect.com i don't think me and Mark have argue more on one player that we did on Girard in his draft year. I think everyone in the scouting business is changing slowly a bit their approach how they scout those small puck moving defenseman. One element that remains it's their ability to defend , that was the big debate with Girard in his draft year and one thing with Beaudin that he has improve a lot this year.

lol, I was just replying to another question but was about to get to this one next.

When I coached, I hated when D turned away from the puck. Girard did it constantly in my viewings of him and it drove me crazy. He also had zero time for defensive hockey when I saw him. We have ranked other small guys high so it wasn't size.

Jerome loved Girard but i had final say, so you can blame that one on me. Can't let Jerome have his way all the time. ;-) - In truth it was a lesson learned. Jerome was a huge fan and saw him more than me and i should've let him have his guy.

As for Beaudin. I think he's much smarter than Girard at the same age. Beaudin plays a very mature game. As I mention in the Black Book, he also killed it in his combine interviews with teams so that didn't hurt him.

 

[Mark Edwards]

Beaudin 24th
and veleno not ?
right team wrong player

I know Veleno is a popular player (I hear he is a great kid too) but I can tell you that at least 80% of the NHL scouts I spoke to about Veleno had him as a 2nd rounder and thought exactly what I did (Jerome too) about him. He works hard but is not a pure goal scorer. Scouts also questioned his hockey sense. Now a lot of those scouts are Ontario based, but I know several Quebec based scouts who were not overly big fans of him either. I also know one Quebec scout who loves him and thinks he's going top 10. That's what makes scouting great.

I don't hate the player, I just don't personally see him as first rounder this year. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. I've also been correct a few times too though.