Just an initial qualifier...
I'm a dad of a player heading into his minor midget year. I've had another go through the process. I'm sure some will argue me, but I like to think that I'm fairly level headed, I try to stay on my own at the rink and stay away from the games and drama that some other parents bring. I get my kid isn't Connor McDavid, he's an average AAA player, what ever happens next year will be based on his own play and growth vs what is said about him online. If he has fun next year, that's legitimately my only goal.
My first son went through the draft 5 years ago and I was fairly interested in draft info at the time, still am to an extent. Through minor hockey you always get to know new and different people from different areas and cheer for their success. My son knew a lot of 03s and 04s from summer hockey, training, etc. I kept an eye on their rankings and where they ended up.
I think anyone putting their thoughts out there are brave, there truly isn't much benefit, perhaps to get noticed and gain someone's eye and move up a ladder? The moment rankings go up they are wrong, someone will find some way to critique or tear down something that doesn't fit what they want to think. I respect anyone who is willing to put things out without the answers first.
That said, I think if you look at the past few years, there seems to be a wide enough variance between one site and how the draft played out, at least after the first few rounds. That's not to say that they were wrong, that's their opinion, but the results didn't end up mirroring their rankings as you would think they have, many players didn't turn out as good as one would think. There was one site that use to be quite effective at it, but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore.
Ill say again, anyone who puts out rankings has my utmost respect, they are putting things out there and taking bullets to do it, to very little benefit. But I think there can be danger from some in putting a bit too much value in those rankings without looking back at past years and seeing how accurate they ended up.
Just my 2 cents.
Apologize if that comes off aggressive, I attempt to be balanced with the feedback, I think its awesome that they are willing to put things out there, lets just be careful with treating it as gospel, as opposed to entertainment/opinion.