Bob McKenzie final rankings are on TSN.ca

[Rabid Ranger]

I'd love to see the Leafs end up with Grimaldi and his future bodyguard Biggs.

 

[Madic]

Hi folks.

I wrote the profiles for TSN this year..the first time they've had draft profiles to go along with Bob's list.

I've got an hour to spare to talk about the draft if anyone has some question they'd like to ask. I'm a former scout who also co-published McKeen's draft rankings. Their top 100 rankings were published last night.

Do you really see Puempel's injury and inconsistency as enough to bump him into the 20's? His offensive performance for such a terrible team combined with a perceived high upside make me extremely skeptical he'll be around anywhere near 27.

 

[Erza Scarlet]

Macs sources for these kind of rankings are better than the so called "experts" in this forum.
I like the Leafs chances of getting some good players even if we stand still.

 

[arsmaster*]

I know that guy.

I'm not one of his "scouts" - but Bob and I talk regularly.

Bob does indeed talk to several scouts, gets their input on where guys should go, then he averages out the numbers. He doesn't get input from any outside sources including myself.

Let's say he talked to ten scouts and Biggs ended up 15th. Three could have ranked him in the 10-15 range, and three could have ranked him in the 15-20 range, and four ranked him in the 20-25 range. Averaged out to 15th.

I find Bob's list to be as accurate as any every year.

Biggs is quite highly regarded by a number of teams - don't be shocked if he goes in the top 15 despite what many see as limited offensive abilities. He's the type of player a team like Vancouver could have used in the playoffs against Boston for instance.

Damn you Grant.

The wounds are still fresh.

 

[Grant McCagg]

Do you really see Puempel's injury and inconsistency as enough to bump him into the 20's? His offensive performance for such a terrible team combined with a perceived high upside make me extremely skeptical he'll be around anywhere near 27.

Scouts like to see an upward curve with players...what worries a lot of folks is that Puempel didn't really improve much this season, while lots of other prospect did, and thus passed him in the rankings.

Puempel is not that big, and he's not the fastest player out there..his skating still needs lots of works if he's going to be an above average skater at the NHL level, and usually players under 6-0 need to be elite skaters to excel at the pro level.

It's for those reasons that I would not be surprised to see Puempel drop to the bottom part of the first round. WE ranked him 29th on McKeen's list.

 

[arsmaster*]

Do you really see Puempel's injury and inconsistency as enough to bump him into the 20's? His offensive performance for such a terrible team combined with a perceived high upside make me extremely skeptical he'll be around anywhere near 27.

Ditto on this.

I think he is THE sleeper of this draft.

I think he is a top 12 player.

 

[Madic]

Scouts like to see an upward curve with players...what worries a lot of folks is that Puempel didn't really improve much this season, while lots of other prospect did, and thus passed him in the rankings.

Puempel is not that big, and he's not the fastest player out there..his skating still needs lots of works if he's going to be an above average skater at the NHL level, and usually players under 6-0 need to be elite skaters to excel at the pro level.

It's for those reasons that I would not be surprised to see Puempel drop to the bottom part of the first round. WE ranked him 29th on McKeen's list.

Cheers.

 

[Strapping Jocks]

Grant, how much do you know about the D-men in next year's draft? Where would you rank the top few of them compared to Larsson, Hamilton, Murphy, etc.

 

[MK9]

I believe that was a TSN scout, not McKenzie himself.

I'm pretty sure that McKenzie gets these rankings based off of talking to the actual NHL scouts from all 30 teams.

As a Ranger fan, I really hope Bartschi is around at 15, and I really hope the Rangers aren't dumb enough to take another low-upside pick in Biggs.

As Wild fan, I'm hoping Minnesota picks him up. So...hopefully he's not around at 15 unless the Wild can trade down and still pick him up.

 

[YNWABoston]

Grant, how is Ryan Murphy viewed with in the scouting community? I know he is a polarizing player, but I'm just curious to how those involved in the scouting process see him.. I'm really hoping the Bruins end up with him at #9.

 

[DangerMan]

Scouts like to see an upward curve with players...what worries a lot of folks is that Puempel didn't really improve much this season, while lots of other prospect did, and thus passed him in the rankings.

Puempel is not that big, and he's not the fastest player out there..his skating still needs lots of works if he's going to be an above average skater at the NHL level, and usually players under 6-0 need to be elite skaters to excel at the pro level.

It's for those reasons that I would not be surprised to see Puempel drop to the bottom part of the first round. WE ranked him 29th on McKeen's list.

I agree, something other than sniping needs to set him apart. Everytime I see him play I think Joffrey Lupul.

 

[Prussian_Blue]

2010: http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=24944

2009: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11891

Well, he was spot-on re: Tarasenko in 2010, but missed Jaden Schwartz by 15 spots, and was way off on Gormley and Fowler as well.

 

[DuklaNation]

Re:10 scouts with same top 9. It could be scouts not associated with teams picking in the top 9, therefore, they assume they will all be gone. If that makes any sense. At any rate, I wouldnt read anything into that. It rarely works out that way. More likely 8 of 9 will occur.

 

[Em Ancien]

I know that guy.

I'm not one of his "scouts" - but Bob and I talk regularly.

Bob does indeed talk to several scouts, gets their input on where guys should go, then he averages out the numbers. He doesn't get input from any outside sources including myself.

Let's say he talked to ten scouts and Biggs ended up 15th. Three could have ranked him in the 10-15 range, and three could have ranked him in the 15-20 range, and four ranked him in the 20-25 range. Averaged out to 15th.

I find Bob's list to be as accurate as any every year.

Biggs is quite highly regarded by a number of teams - don't be shocked if he goes in the top 15 despite what many see as limited offensive abilities. He's the type of player a team like Vancouver could have used in the playoffs against Boston for instance.

I'm not exactly surprised. 1st you have the Lucic story. 2nd it's not uncommon for teams to reach for toughness with hopes of offense blooming in said player.

It doesn't mean that people think he can develop into more than a grinder/glue-guy that his offensive game will develop.

It's like in basketball, when people see bigs that are physical freaks, and good defensive players in the NCAA/Europe/high school, and for some reason think they're gonna develop post-moves, hook shots, maybe a jumper, but never get to the point where you want them to touch the ball. And then, you have those whose defensive game doesn't translate and turn into pure rebounders that are bench warmers.

In other words, just because someone likes what he sees in Biggs doesn't mean his marginal offensive production will turn into a reliable one. From what I've seen, his offensive repertoire is quite limited. If you're drafting him for that bottom 6 role, I guess you're probably gonna get what you want. But I just don't see good value in that type of player for a mid first-round pick.

 

[nowayguy]

Re:10 scouts with same top 9. It could be scouts not associated with teams picking in the top 9, therefore, they assume they will all be gone. If that makes any sense. At any rate, I wouldnt read anything into that. It rarely works out that way. More likely 8 of 9 will occur.

Not so sure, Bob seemed pretty confident when he said that.

 

[Zeroknowledge*]

Grant, which forward from these you think is the safest best to have a long and stable career and which one has the most potential to be a star caliber player.

Grimaldi
Miller
Scheifele
McNeil
Jensen

 

[DuklaNation]

Biggs is ranked that high because its a low risk pick. Big, physical, can skate. If he can play a solid 2 way game, players like that can gross >$20M easily in their career, without ever scoring 20 goals. What does that tell you???

 

[Grant McCagg]

Grant, how is Ryan Murphy viewed with in the scouting community? I know he is a polarizing player, but I'm just curious to how those involved in the scouting process see him.. I'm really hoping the Bruins end up with him at #9.

Murphy's the one guy I could see slipping a little bit in the top ten
The scouts I talk to like him, but always find other guys to like a little more in the top ten. There are worries about his size/defence...those aren't good worries to have if you're a defenceman despite his offensive dynamics.

He may very well go to Boston at 9 though..would be hard to pass him up, and they could use a young PP quarterback...one of their few needs really.

 

[Grant McCagg]

Grant, which forward from these you think is the safest best to have a long and stable career and which one has the most potential to be a star caliber player.

Grimaldi
Miller
Scheifele
McNeil
Jensen

Grimaldi may be the safest That may seem odd considering his height, but I don't see him busting. He's also got the most potential along with Scheifele I think.

 

[Raptactics29]

Grant, if you're still around.. Joe Morrow & Ty Rattie. Products of a great offensive team or junior stars with star NHL potential in their own right?

I like your rankings.. in my 30 team keeper I drafted Mcneill @ 10, JT Miller @ 31, Kucherov @ 32, Rattie @ 37, & Morrow @ 39.

 

[rocketdan9]

Grant would u say siemens compares well to eric gudbranson ? If so why is he considered outside 10 while gud was drafted third last year? Can u see pc reaching for him at 9th?

 

[Grant McCagg]

Well, he was spot-on re: Tarasenko in 2010, but missed Jaden Schwartz by 15 spots, and was way off on Gormley and Fowler as well.

He was "off" in terms of where Gormley and Fowler were picked, but was he "off" in where they "should" have been picked?

all it takes is one team to like one player a little more for one or two players to drop in the draft..doesn't mean the majority of teams didn't like that prospect higher than he ended up being selected..one of the many reasons that makes this an unpredictable exercise...and frankly lots of fun.

 

[Grant McCagg]

Grant would u say siemens compares well to eric gudbranson ? If so why is he considered outside 10 while gud was drafted third last year? Can u see pc reaching for him at 9th?

I wouldn't call it a reach...seems like a Boston-type player so you never know.

 

[Brad Coccimiglio]

I have to give Bob a lot of credit when putting together this list every year. I don't remember the numbers exactly but generally he's pretty good in the first round. i think the lowest he's had in recent years is 23. Of course the list is not spot on, but he does his homework when putting this list together.

It's pretty safe to say that anywhere from 23 to 27 players listed in the first round on this list end up there come Friday.

 

[Jonas1235]

Boston would be better off taking a centreman.