McKenzie's top 60 is pretty worthless this year given his own caveat that in the 20 plus years's he's done this,this year's draft has the most divergence of opinon he's ever seen..that some guys he ranks in the 50's are getting 1st round consideration by some teams ... and the unknown of how far Russians will slip due to the no transfer agreement is another complicating factor...
McKenzie's rankings supposedly are different that the independent scouting services (includding CSS which is paid by all 30 NHL teams) because Mckenzie compiles his rankings from talking to actual NHL teams' own scouts --BUT:
i) He only talks to some teams' scouts not to all 30 teams scouts if I understand correctly...THAT is a skewed view rather than a reliable "consensus".
ii) still --even if this smaller "sampling" of opinion is representative of how MOST of the top 60 will go per many NHL teams,this does not mean some teams won't pull off
big discrepancy surprises from this ranking....so that it is entirely possible that some guys McKemzie has as only 3rd rounders =his "honourable mentions" --willbe seen by certain NHL teams as going even as early as late first to mid-second..
After the first ten picks or so itis anyone's guess as to how each NHL team l ranks a player..
Here is the fun part...do a 'target list" for your favourite team's picks through all rounds... then after the draft compare if your "targets" for each pick (you mmight have 3-4 possibles you think they might take if they were left on the board ateach pick your team has) to what ACTUALLY was left on the board...IF your targets were there at the pick,you know your projected choices were correctly slotted---if for example you had pick #35 but the 3-4 possible targets you projected would stillbe on the board were all or mostly gone by then,in that case you know you were not realisticenough...The 2nd part of the after draft work,is 5 years later to re-visit the "targets" you had still left on the board for your team to select at each pick,BUT WHICH THEY BY-PASSED TO TAKE SOMEONE ELSE ...if such bypassed "targets" turned out better for the teams that eventually took them later than the guy yourteam pickeb-THEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE A BETTER DRAFTER THAN YOUR NHL TEAM SCOUTS WERE--in which case they should be fired and you should send in your resume to the tem GM in question who will likely not be the same GM as was there 5 years ago.
