Here is my guess as to the bargains that are left based on Central Scouting’s (CS) final rankings. Based on doing this last year, there will be enough of the selections I have as 4th round to last you through to the end of the draft - generally, a list of 120 is good enough to last a team to the end of the draft because other team's have significantly different lists after its comes to the 3rd round.I have also left a brief description as to why my rankings may differ from CS. Generally, they fall into the following categories:
1.
Injuries/illnesses - CS generally does not rank injured/ill players highly if at all - Couturier, Puempel, Tvrdon, Placek, Thomas
2.
Overagers - CS generally places a ranking on overagers less than where they will go in the draft or sometimes they just omit them. - Kichton, Jokipakka, Balisy, Dahlbeck, Stastny, Grenier, Coleman, Marchenko, Dvurechensky, O’Brien
3.
Special characteristics - CS evaluates draftees on their overall talent whereas GM’s may draft a candidate higher who has a special characteristic or talent such as size or fighting ability - Sproul, McKee, Vance, Gernat, Kessy
4.
U18 performance - CS does their evaluations before the U18 which can have a big impact on where a player gets drafted - Scheifele, Klefbom, Kucherov, Russo, Rask, Boucher, Yarullin.
5.
Playoff performance - Like the U18, CS does their evaluations before most of the playoffs occur - Leivo
6.
Upside evaluation - While two scouts may agree on a player’s current performance, they have a harder time agreeing on what type of performance that player may have done the road in the NHL - Khokhlachev, Clendening, Hofmann, Lowe, Forsberg, Pribyl, Sergeev
7.
Goalies - Goalies are special, on that, almost everyone can agree. Beyond that, not so much - I am not much of a goalie forecaster but to get a better appreciation on most of this year’s potential draftees, go to Jerry Shields blogspot on goalies -
http://www.goalierankings.com/ - Machovsky, Makarov.
8.
Errors - And yes, CS and I are likely to be wrong quite a bit of the time - Skinner is the best example from last year of a poor candidate evaluation.
In looking back at the 2003 to 2005 entry drafts, it is interesting to note the success rate for each of the rounds. By my calculations (players that are NHL regulars for the most part-your list could be slightly different), here are the figures:
01-15 – 82% (03-93%; 04-73%; 05-80%)
16-30 – 76% (03-93%; 04-67%; 05-67%)
31-45 – 33% (03-33%; 04- 7%; 05-60%)
46-60 – 24% (03-33%; 04-33%; 05- 7%)
61-90 - 24% (03-33%; 04-20%; 05-20%)
91-120 - 19% (03-10%; 04-30%; 05-17%)
120-150 - 11% (03-10%; 04-13%; 05-10%)
151-180 - 9% (03-13%; 04-13%; 05- 0%)
181-210 - 10% (03-17%; 04- 3%; 05-10%)
Over 210 - 12% (03-13%; 04-10%; 05-15%)
Overall - 23% (03-25%; 04-20%; 05-23%)
1st half of 1st round - Up more than 5 spaces from Central Scouting Combined
1.
Couturier, Sean: CSC = 7 - Belief that mono resulted in the improvement expected of him this year being delayed till next year. Note: I still expect Edmonton to take RNH.
2.
Puempel, Matt: CSC = 33 - Belief that this is the best goal scorer of the draft and a Jeff Skinner like bad ranking from CS
3.
Scheifele, Mark: CSC = 20 - U18 performance plus belief that this guy has a bigger upside than many are projecting - this year’s Ryan Johansen late bloomer.
2nd half of 1st round - Up more than 10 spaces from CSC
1.
Khokhlachev, Alexander: CSC = 34 - This is a guy I am wavering on but currently have his upside as a top 6 NHLer.
2.
Klefbom, Oscar: CSC = 43 - U18 performance + higher upside projection
2nd round - Up more than 15 spaces from CSC
1.
Kucherov, Nikita: CSC = 104 - U18 performance, wow!!!
2.
Clendening, Adam: CSC = 56 - This year’s Kevin Shattenkirk type - had a good 1st year in university
3.
Russo, Robbie: CSC = 69 - U18 performance
4.
Rask, Victor: CSC = 75 - U18 performance
5.
Sproul, Ryan: CSC = 68 - 6’4 guy with almost Subbanesque like shot and one-timer plus mobility, agility and ability from a big guy. GM’s will pay big for this kind of guy even if he currently has some defensive shortcomings
6.
Hofmann, Gregory: CSC = 71 - Just my belief that this guy is just a little bit of meat and bones away from being special
7.
McColgan, Shane: CSC = 167 - Playoff performance
3rd round - Up more than 30 spaces from CSC
1.
Tvrdon, Marek: CSC = 285 - Injured most of the year, size and skills, this year’s Curtis Hamilton
2.
Boucher, Reid: CSC = 149 - U18 and other recent international performance has been the best or close to the best of the US NDP U18
3.
Kichton, Brenden: CSC = Unranked - Small PP set-up guy with excellent D and excellent stats
4.
Harrington, Scott: CSC = 128 - Mark Hunter says this guy will be an NHLer - Mark knows more than I do and is also a good player evaluator.
5.
Lowe, Keegan: CSC = 114 - His Dad’s recommendation
6.
Yarullin, Albert: CSC = Undrafted - U18 performance
7.
Jokipakka, Jyrki: CSC = 232 - Overager who wowed them at the U20 with his solid performance
8.
Placek, Petr: CSC = 284 - Injured most of the year, 6’4 210 lb. size will make it hard for GM’s to back off
9.
Balisy, Chase: CSC = Unranked - Overager with ability and results in 1st year university
10.
McKee, Michael: CSC = 192 - Man-child who can skate - 6’5 230 - the rest is projection and pleasant dreaming
4th round - Up more than 30 spaces from CSC
1.
Thomas, Justin: CSC = Unranked - Injured most of the year, a poor man’s power forward with decent size and a touch of nasty
2.
Dahlbeck, Klas: CSC = 141 - Overager - One of the better U20 performers, a late bloomer
3.
Kessy, Kale: CSC = 132 - A poor man’s Milan Lucic comes at a premium
4.
Stastny, Anton: CSC = 247 - Overager - 6’4 215 lb. centers who show even flashes of brilliance are not going to be overlooked
5.
Grenier, Alexandre: CSC = Unranked = Overager; 6’5 guys who can skate and dangle and score causing every beer in the arena to spill come at a premium
6.
Vance, Troy: CSC = 198 = 6’5 guys who can monster mash guys out cold come with a premium
7.
Coleman, Blake: CSC = 264 - Overager; small guy who can skate, put up major points and has been compared to Bobby Clarke
8.
Matej Machovsky: CSC = 181 - Decent sized goalie who backed up most of the year and therefore lacked exposure
9.
Alexei Marchenko: CSC = 153 - Overager, PP QB who did not get any international exposure - add a little strength and U have a real good player
10.
Dvurechensky, Nikita: CSC = Undrafted - Overager, 6’3 size combined with the demonstated ability to score in small rinks (Subway Super Series + U20) plus a gold medal @ the U20.
11.
Gernat, Martin: CSC = Undrafted - 6’5 guys U18 performance plus the success of Martin Marincin last year means that this Slovak is likely to be drafted
12.
Leivo, Joshua: CSC = Unranked - Playoff performance
13.
Forsberg, Jesse: CSC = 221 - Some people believe his skating will not develop enough for the bigs - others do
14.
Pribyl, Daniel: CSC = 280 - a 6’3†project who has skill and can score - too high a projection not to be drafted when they are many out there without much projection
15.
Sergeev, Artem: CSC = Unranked - Decent size, decent skills, plays against the top lines - no idea why this guy went unranked
16.
Makarov, Andrey: CSC = Unranked - after the top 4 (the Gibsons, Perhonen and Hellberg), I am not impressed with CS’s goalie lists, let alone their rankings. Size, athleticism, agility, lacking some of the technical stuff.
17.
O’Brien, Zach: CSC = Unranked - Overager - an offensive guy who lost the QMJHL rookie award to U18 selectee Charles Hudon