Craig Button's December Rankings for the 2019 Draft

[Peasy]

https://www.tsn.ca/craig-s-list-kakko-hughes-set-for-world-junior-clash-1.1225187

1. Jack Hughes
2. Kaapo Kakko
3. Vasili Podkolzin
4. Dylan Cozens
5. Kirby Dach
6. Philip Broberg
7. Matthew Boldy
8. Bowen Byram
9. Trevor Zegras
10. Arthur Kaliyev

Click to read more...

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Turcotte out of the first round? No way. That's insane to me.

 

[93LEAFS]

He's going to overrate Broberg until his final list isn't he, where he'll slightly adjust.

His ranking of Turcotte is really low. But, he's always been low on Turcotte.

 

[BondraTime]

Turcotte out of the first round? No way. That's insane to me.

He's not out of the 1st

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

He's not out of the 1st

Yeah, sorry. I'm still not used to that. Turcotte at the very end of the first round?!

 

[93LEAFS]

Turcotte out of the first round? No way. That's insane to me.

Technically he'd still be in the 1st round, as there are 31 teams. Although, the likelihood that any team using this list would draft Turcotte in the first is miniscule, as you would likely have higher guys left on the board at pick 31. Ranking someone after 25 (and generally closer to 22 or so) is essentially a 2nd round grade.

 

[maaran]

Turcotte out of the first round? No way. That's insane to me.

With Vegas there are 31 teams in the NHL, and turcotte is ranked at 31

 

[AmericanDream]

Turcotte out of the first round? No way. That's insane to me.

psst....Vegas is our 31st team lol!!

though regardless, that ranking is too low...but Button is obviously punishing him from barely playing this year. oh well, when he comes back he will rise, no big deal.

Kaliyev in the top 10!!! about damn time!

I enjoy much of this list, he has most of the US kids in the right spots, strong draft for the Americans..

 

[Frk It]

Pelletier at #11... love it!

 

[Dominance]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.tsn...-set-for-world-junior-clash-1.1225187?tsn-amp

1. Hughes
2. Kakko
3. Podkolzin
4. Cozens
5. Dach
6. Broberg
7. Boldy
8. Byram
9. Zegras
10. Kaliyev
11. Pelletier
12. Lavoie
13. Caufield
14. Nikolaev
15. Knight
16. Harley
17. Krebs
18. Suzuki
19. Bjornfot
20. Robertson
21. Grewe
22. Newhook
23. Brink
24. Soderstrom
25. York
26. Afanasyev
27. Warren
28. Korczak
29. Poulin
30. Seider
31. Turcotte
32. Leason
33. Kallionkieli
34. Foote
35. Vlasic
36. Jones
37. Kolyachonok
38. Kokkonen
39. Bychkov
40. McMichael
41. Thomson
42. Robertson
43. Chistyakov
44. Donovan
45. Campbell
46. Blaisdell
47. Has
48. Mironov
49. Spence
50. Hoglander
51. Gutik
52. Firstov
53. Pinto
54. Aaltonen
55. Holmstrom
56. Beecher
57. Honka
58. Légaré
59. Caufield
60. Ellis
61. Farinacci
62. Abramov

His ridiculous commitment to Podkolzin and especially Broberg continues. I really like the love for Thomas Harley, but he’s way too low on Newhook and McMichael IMO. As has been discussed on here before, I don’t agree with Kaliyev quite that high, and the Turcotte and Honka rankings will surely raise eyebrows.

Regardless of the rankings, it continues to shape up as a damn good draft at least through the first round.

 

[jvr32]

Two Russians have rocketed up in his rankings: Ilya Nikolaev at #14 and Roman Bychkov at #39

 

[Tryamkin]

He's going to overrate Broberg until his final list isn't he, where he'll slightly adjust.

His ranking of Turcotte is really low. But, he's always been low on Turcotte.

Yup. He did the same with Boqvist who he had over Svechnikov for almost the entire year until the end. Boqvist > Broberg obviously but the same idea.

 

[Tryamkin]

Turcotte, Newhook and McMichael are just way too low. All three are lottery picks in my opinion.

 

[93LEAFS]

psst....Vegas is our 31st team lol!!

though regardless, that ranking is too low...but Button is obviously punishing him from barely playing this year. oh well, when he comes back he will rise, no big deal.

Kaliyev in the top 10!!! about damn time!

I enjoy much of this list, he has most of the US kids in the right spots, strong draft for the Americans..

He's always been low on Turcotte. He didn't rank him among his top 19 for 19 last year and has had him in the 20's prior to this. So, he's getting slightly punished for not playing, but him being low on Turcotte is not a recent development. He's in a similar boat with Newhook. It's just one of Button's quirky ratings that he'll get judged on because he is so far off from consensus. Similar to Virtanen, Boeser, Zacha, and Connor in the good category, or guys like Matt Finn, Zach Fucale, Ristolainen, and Malcolm Subban, in the bad category.

 

[93LEAFS]

Yup. He did the same with Boqvist who he had over Svechnikov for almost the entire year until the end. Boqvist > Broberg obviously but the same idea.

He always somewhat slightly correct that overranking at the end, but he still will do it. The most glaring example in recent years was Poehling who he had top 10 most of the year.

 

[FinPanda]

Podkolzin has been excellent this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see him go 3rd, even 2nd is possible.

 

[Orthodox Caveman]

Red Wings better pick top 3.

 

[mphmiles]

Two Russians have rocketed up in his rankings: Ilya Nikolaev at #14 and Roman Bychkov at #39

Egor Afanasyev looks to be getting more and more attention as well. Hadn't heard much about him, but saw a recent interview and his english is really good for a 17 yo expat. His accent is kind of funny to hear because it's like 50% midwestern teenager and 50% russian. Anyone know how long he's been in the US?

 

[93LEAFS]

Egor Afanasyev looks to be getting more and more attention as well. Hadn't heard much about him, but saw a recent interview and his english is really good for a 17 yo expat. Anyone know how long he's been in the US?

He looks to have moved here for 2016/17 season, as he was listed as being in the CSKA Moscow system in 2015/16. But, he could have lived in the United States prior to that, as he was granted entry into the OHL Priority Selection draft, which is hard for Euro's to accomplish.

 

[BondraTime]

Turcotte, Newhook and McMichael are just way too low. All three are lottery picks in my opinion.

Newhook isn't a lottery pick. He will slot in nicely for some team in the ~10-20 range.

 

[cmcneil02]

Don’t think Raphael Lavoie should be that low. Should be somewhere around 18-22 in my opinion.

 

[Tryamkin]

Newhook isn't a lottery pick. He will slot in nicely for some team in the ~10-20 range.

Disagree with you there. Such a high end skillset.

 

[canucks4ever]

I wonder what is lacking in Bobby Brink's skillset that prevents him from climbing up to the top 15. He is producing at a very high rate, is he viewed as a by product of Pospisil?

 

[MaxV]

He isn’t a fan of Dorofeev, I guess.

 

[Kevin Musto]

Nikolayev that high is such a strange pick.