Craig Buttons Final 2018 Draft Ranking

[Rzombo4 prez]

SHL stats has nothing to do with it. It's nearly impossible for a player like Boqvist to get ice time in the SHL, Makar went 3rd last year but he would not have played regularly in the SHL either. Erik Karlsson was never more than a 7th D in his draft year.

Why did Button drop him? I don't think he likes Boqvist's compete level.

Button was really critical of his U18 performance if I remember correctly and started dropping him shortly thereafter. I can't remember the exact criticism of his play in that tournament.

 

[ForestCityHky]

My guess would be underscouting?

Haven’t been impressed with Kaut myself. Second round player

 

[ForestCityHky]

This is a joke right? Hayton at 7?

You haven’t seen the best of Hayton yet. Kid was buried but he’s going to have a huge year next season. It’s about projection and his combination of smarts and subtleties project to be a very good two way NHLer. See him as a Joe Pavelski type. 7 is high but if you like a player then rank him to show that

 

[93LEAFS]

Button has been an NHL Director of Scouting, Director of Player Personnel and GM. He continues to watch draft eligible players FAR more than most on these boards, and he’s also a FAR better judge of talent.

His opinions don’t always line up with the “consensus” - that’s fine, they’re his opinions! Plenty of his “weird picks” look bad in retrospect, but lots of them look great too. I always find his opinions/rankings interesting, personally. Real NHL scouts have tonnes of “dissenting opinions” too.

With that being said, this is actually one of his least controversial “final rankings.” A few guys are higher/lower than the “consensus” (for example Boqvist/Veleno low, Hayton high), but it’s actually pretty in line with standard media opinions for the most part.

He's definitely cut down on how much he is watching prospects these days, as TSN has him wearing way too many hats. For example, one of the biggest scouting events of the year was the U-18 5 nations tournament, which Button missed completely due to being in South Korea having to cover the Olympics (where the only player who needed to be ranked their was Dahlin, not a hard ranking). TSN has him in studio way too much these days which has cut into his ability to get live viewings of people.

Now, he's still better than a decent amount of sources such as ISS or McCagg. But, the overall quality is slipping.

 

[Omar]

This is an annual explanation of Button's list. He is not predicting draft order. He is ranking players on their future successes in the NHL. For example, he expects Kotkaniemi to be the 5th best player coming out of this draft long-term. If he's ranked 7th or 8th on other lists, it considers his age and other factors in an immediate ranking. This is not what Button is ranking. We do this every year.

 

[goonybird]

Veleno at 28 is surprising

It's Button, so not really tbh.

 

[tigervixxxen]

That's not a thing anymore.

It certainly is. Maybe there's more knowledge about players but some viewings are definitely still limited.

Kaut's heart issue, though professed not serious, will probably have him drop.

This is pretty tame for Button. Only really Hayton and Beaudin are eyebrow raise level high and Veleno low.

 

[McFlash97]

Boqvist at 12? Smith at 22? And then Hayton at 7?

What a joke.

Button just trying to play possum, trying to get his Team Calgary a decent pick in the 2nd round ? ppl might buy this garbage lol

 

[Petes2424]

Why do people freak out over these lists?

It's a personal opinion and if you've followed any draft there's guys that are ranked high that completely bust and guys that are ranked low end up being the better picks of the draft. It's not an exact science.

People would go suicidal if they seen most top 200 lists from teams. There's plenty of teams that will have Hayton pushing top 10-12 and many who wouldnt waste a top ten pick on Boqvist. It wasnt until we heard about teams interest in Kotkaniemi that we're now seeing some publications showing him at 5-7.

There's hundreds of examples over the years. Central Scouting is simply a tool for many and media sources use it as though it's the gospel. Then in two years after we have a draft, those same media people are saying how Detroit wasnt stupid after all, taking Bertuzzi in the second round, etc, etc...

Button's list is closer to what an actual team will have compared to lists compiled by media sources.

 

[McFlash97]

Congrats to the Oilers for getting the next Mike Bossy at 10th overall

Boqvist AND Wahlstrom... thats tough man ...

 

[Scott Malkinson]

Craig Button was the only guy right about Jake Virtanen.

He had him at 44, while other services had him in the top 10-12.

Button's lists are good.

 

[Draft Dynasty]

Jesse Ylonen at 84. No way he gets past the second round

 

[Kipper933]

Now he has future Mike Bossy dropping to #10? He ran out of complimentary adjectives to describe Wahlstrom at the u18s.,. Button never seems to have a real strong conviction in his rankings. I mean he had Boqvist all the way at #2 in January and at that point he would have seen him already in last year's u18s and at the Hlinka, plus his strong play in the Swedish u20 league to that point. Now he's free fallen to #12 despite continued strong play.

I also don't understand how he could watch all of Canada's games at the u18s and then have Tychonick at #54, that's perplexing.

 

[AmericanDream]

You haven’t seen the best of Hayton yet. Kid was buried but he’s going to have a huge year next season. It’s about projection and his combination of smarts and subtleties project to be a very good two way NHLer. See him as a Joe Pavelski type. 7 is high but if you like a player then rank him to show that

big fan of Hayton, this kid is going to be the best center taken in the first round...

 

[MrHeiskanen]

This is the best time of the year from NHL fans. I come on these threads and laugh my ass off because if someone is more than 3-5 picks from the concensus spot for the player the list is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE HOT SHIT WOW IDIOT.

LMFAO

Keyboard warriors of HF.. calm down when the list doesn't follow consensus. Remember when Yakupov was consensus #1.. ya hes garbage.. want me to list another thousand examples from the top 30 consensus picks being a flop?

 

[Petes2424]

Button was really critical of his U18 performance if I remember correctly and started dropping him shortly thereafter. I can't remember the exact criticism of his play in that tournament.

Button also has mentioned on NHL Radio (I believe) that there's concerns from many scouts that not only is Boqvist a few years away, he had also heard some very worrying things about him after his jump to SHL. Then when the kid comes out and says he's a few years away, it's almost as if we're now seeing a confidence issue too. Compare that to Hughes who is obviously not scared of anything or proving anyone wrong.

There's hundreds of players out there who have better skills than 25% of NHL players. After junior though, you cant get by with just skill. Commitment, maturity, hockey sense, etc. is just as important.

 

[McTonyBrar]

This list is actually garbage.

its completely backwards except the top 3

 

[Winston Wolf]

Go back and read the last ten years of these threads. The majority of the time, the people calling Button a moron for rankings of certain players are the ones that end up looking like morons. Go read the 2014 thread filled with outrage over him having Virtanen in the 2nd round. He obviously has plenty of misses like everyone, but there's been numerous occasions where he has someone way higher or lower than "consensus" and is completely right.

 

[AmericanDream]

Kyle Woodlief from Red Line Report was just on NHL Now, he has ZERO centers ranked in his top 11...he thinks only 1 will possibly go top 10 and that is Kotkaniemi....

Woodlief also has a top 10 of:

Dahlin
Svech
Zadina
Hughes
Wahlstrom
Dobson
Bouchard
Tkachuk
Smith
Boqvist

Woodlief has been doing this for over 25 years, compare his top 10 to Button and you can see how people just see things differently...it is why we debate all day long on here as well!!

 

[kabidjan18]

There's hundreds of players out there who have better skills than 25% of NHL players. After junior though, you cant get by with just skill. Commitment, maturity, hockey sense, etc. is just as important.

I hope this is meant purely metaphorically, as an excellent exercise of the instrument of hyperbole.

 

[VictorLustig]

Button also has mentioned on NHL Radio (I believe) that there's concerns from many scouts that not only is Boqvist a few years away, he had also heard some very worrying things about him after his jump to SHL. Then when the kid comes out and says he's a few years away, it's almost as if we're now seeing a confidence issue too. Compare that to Hughes who is obviously not scared of anything or proving anyone wrong.

There's hundreds of players out there who have better skills than 25% of NHL players. After junior though, you cant get by with just skill. Commitment, maturity, hockey sense, etc. is just as important.

The kid is just being realistic, Hughes won't make it to the NHL quicker just because he says he will. Some players could definitely benefit from being a bit more humble about things. Boqvist is also a year younger than Hughes, of course he's likely going to need an extra year.

 

[93LEAFS]

The kid is just being realistic, Hughes won't make it to the NHL quicker just because he says he will. Some players could definitely benefit from being a bit more humble about things. Boqvist is also a year younger than Hughes, of course he's likely going to need an extra year.

It is good for people to be modest about expectations publicly and realize what they need to work on. Rather than be in denial about issues in their game.

It'd be crazy for Boqvist to state he thinks he can jump from J-20 to the NHL next year, as he wasn't able to make an impact at any level against men this year.

Pretty much all the elite players who spent most of their draft year in J-20's (even players who ended up elite like Kopitar and Karlsson) needed at least one full year in the SHL before they were ready to come over.

In general, for Europeans based in Europe, the big adjustment is learning to play on small ice, and the increased pace but they have experience playing grown men. CHLers and College players have to adapt to the big jump in speed and size of playing against grown men. For someone like Boqvist, he will be primarily making the jump forward on both fronts.

 

[uncleben]

I can certainly see Hatyton becoming the 7th best player of the draft

Of course the way things go, theres a chance he's the 70th best or worse too, but I'm surprised ppl see this as such a stretch
The drops were more controversial than Hayton jumping 5, 10 spots

 

[boredmale]

Veleno at 28 is surprising

This is the one that makes me go what the hell. I get not liking Veleno as much as others, but 28th seems a bit to low

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

This is the one that makes me go what the hell. I get not liking Veleno as much as others, but 28th seems a bit to low

If you subjectively think he projects as a third-line center at the next level is that such a bad ranking?