Bobby Mac's Midterm Rankings

[yanokovich]

Any name missing in this list.

 

[arsmaster*]

Yeah there certainly are differences.

1. Mock draft
2. Personal list
3. Insider source list (McKenzie)

Bob's list is nice because you know it's credible and your getting information from the inside which no one here can give you in depth at all. It's my belief that once you get out of the top 10 and more so as you move down...you will see how this style of list has it's faults (not that I'm complaining).

As you move down the list you have a guy like Dan Catennacci who Bob explained, some people have him top 15-20 and some have him in the middle 2nd round or something. So Bob kinda has to start guessing. It's a good list but it's also a list he could make with the same method the day before the draft and still come out completely wrong with...because teams draft boards differ widely from each other.

I think it's a great method at the mid-term to give you a general idea of what the general interest in which players is at the time.

No Guessing involved.....

There is often much confusion/misunderstanding about how TSN evaluates prospects for its annual pre-season, mid-season and final rankings for the NHL entry draft.

These rankings below are not a subjective view of any one person and certainly not me. I try to be as up on the NHL draft as anyone, but it's foolish to think I have the time or the ability to make hard calls on which prospects should be rated above other prospects. I mean, having to cover the NHL on a daily basis doesn't leave me a lot of time to go out to watch juniors or high schoolers or collegians or jet off to Europe. That's not my job and I've never suggested it is.

But I do know some people who are equipped to do this job and they are, of course, NHL scouts.

So the system used – and I started employing it when I founded The Hockey News Draft Preview way back in the 1980s – is to tap into the scouts' expertise in the form of a survey where I ask scouts to numerically grade or rank the prospects in terms of where the scouts either think the player will be drafted or where they would draft him. The goal is create a consensus ranking or range for each player.

In a sense, once the information is collected, it's more of a mathematical equation to determine where to slot each prospect. Once the numbers are in, there is little or no subjectivity involved. These rankings should not be confused with the various scouting services which personally evaluate prospects and rank them according to who they feel will one day be the best pro.

In other words, the rankings below are not where I would necessarily choose a player so much as they are an indicator of where I believe that prospect is most likely to be selected in the draft. Historically, this list has been a relatively solid indicator of when a prospect is likely to be taken. It's far from perfect – what is the entire draft if not an inexact science – but I'm satisfied with how it works and I think the results over the years speak for themselves so long as people understand what it is they're looking at.

 

[Minister of Offence]

No Guessing involved.....

The mathematical equation is a guessing tool, you could say. I was aware of how Bob gets his info, although I didn't know about how exactly he gets to the exact slots. But using an equation can simply be looked at like a guessing tool. That's what I meant by guessing.

 

[DungeonK]

Wow, those are some of the craziest surnames I have ever seen. I sincerely hope the Thrashers draft one of Huberdeau, Puempel, Zibanejad, Jurco or Klefbom... so much more fun than having a bunch of Smiths and Johnsons.

Also, Scott Mayfield? That's up there with Michal Jordan!

 

[Jevo]

I would guess that he ranks the players based on average rankings in the infos that he gets. That makes Bob having to use little to none subjective opinions in his ranking. That way he really don't have to guess even the slightest.