I've got Hughes, Turcotte, Boldy, Cole Caufield, Beecher, Vlasic, Warren, McCarthy, York, Vlasic, Thun and Knight as potential first rounders right now. Thats 11 guys, although I would not say all 11 are first rounders, at the moment.
Hughes and Turcotte I expect to go very high, competing for among the top spots. Hughes looks like the next coming of the Kane, Marner, Keller archetype. Lets see if he can stay at center. If he can, he'll be the obvious first pick in the 2019 draft. Turcotte I think provides more of a two way game, insanely smart player, same type of smarts I see of out Elias Pettersson. He combines that with a more well rounded game than Hughes, he's not as dynamic, but plenty dynamic himself. If Hughes does not go 1OA, he looks like one of the top candidates for 1OA. Among the other forwards, Beecher is more of a project. Size, skating, and he can really shoot the puck. Not that good yet, but maybe in a few years. Boldy is very well rounded. I don't expect him to be a particularly high pick, but he's good right now, and projects as a good player. Caufield is wait and see depending on his height. Could very well be the next Yamamoto type who goes in the first round despite not being that tall. Very good player right now, but playing with Hughes does not help evaluate him. How would he do without playing with the likely 1OA?
On defense, I'm not as sure about any of these guys. Vlasic has nice size, decent movement, shows a shutdown D game at times with more offense than you'd think, but he is inconsistent defensively, and I'm not sure his movement is better than good for his size. Its hard to project these types of players. If he continues to improve his mobility and show offense, he could be a top 10 pick. If not, he could fall out of the first round or be a late first rounder, hard to know. York is a decent puck mover, good skater, okay defensively, some offense. Nothing special, IMO, but a quality defensemen. Warren I expected more. He's not a bad player, he just doesn't control games, like I had heard. He's rather good defensively and he's a good skater, but offensively he's not shown that much. McCarthy has nice size, a good defensive game, can skate and can move the puck. Thun is very similar, but instead from the left side. Knight is a really impressive goalie. Really polished, but also has size and athleticism. I consider him the top goalie so far for 2019, but even if thats the case, the top goalies aren't always first rounders.