This draft is going to make a lot of people pull out their hair.
Normally, I would call the 2021 class great fun, on account of -- not only is there not a clear-cut #1 or #2 pick -- but there is not a clear cut tier anywhere whatsoever. When you combine that with the fact that some of these kids are not even playing due to the pandemic? It's chaos.
There will be players ranked #3 overall by one expert who does not make the first-round cut for another expert. The consensus is shot to hell.
Corey Pronman just came out with a top 31 list for 2021. It literally made me laugh. I actually love Pronman, I read everything he writes and find him to be fantastic, even when I disagree strongly with him. But first of all -- isn't the first round 32, not 31, this year? Second of all, Pronman admittedly down-ranks defenders in favor of forwards in his draft rankings. For 2021, Pronman has a D at #1, two D in his top 3 and 4 in his top 10.
But Corey Pronman is good. What happens when some of these lesser writers start coming out with their draft rankings? At the Athletic, with all my respect for Scott Wheeler I completely disagree with his entire ranking philosophy. In his recent prospect rankings, Wheeler had the Devils at #11 (I have the Devils top 5). This made sense to me in that Wheeler ranks Reilly Walsh as the Devils #5 prospect. (I do not rank Walsh as a top 5 defenseman among Devils prospects). What is Wheeler going to do in a draft where many of the top prospects are the type of players who Wheeler notoriously down-ranks -- defensemen who focus on defense first? Owen Power, Carson Lambos, Kiril Kirsanov, Stanislav Svozil -- will these players even make Wheeler's first round?
I think we certainly need some sort of prospect tournament to be played in the month prior to the draft. Let's take the consensus 250 or so players and split them up into 12 teams -- not by nationality but by "lottery". We can't have coaches making g their roster decisions based on the immense pressure of national pride, this should be about seeing what the draft eligible players can do against top players of their own age group.