Craig Button's List: Defensemen Dominate the top of '21 Draft

Ed Ned and Leddy

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Poppy Whoa Sonnet

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Johnson seems to be falling despite scouting reports that he has great offensive skills. Not sure why is it just cause he seems to be a lesser prospect than the other two U Michigan guys?
 

PumpkinBomb

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I used to shit on Button's lists a lot, then a few years ago i noticed one of his drafts were more accurate than Bob's list from his scouts.
So i looked into it, and typically he gets about 1 player less than Bob's list in the first round. (Button usually misses on 4 Bob's 3)
The average draft of Button's lists vs actual is he misses by 2.6 vs actual, and Bob misses by 2.2 (the average player in the first round is drafted that much higher than their lists)
The standard deviation from their picks vs actual: Button 10.4 Bob: 9.1

The one thing i'll say about him, he only bases his rankings on actual viewings of players he sees.
I mean he's had big misses, such as Jankowski etc but he's probably as good as any scout i've met and when you compare his list to an average of 10 (like Bob does) it's about what you would expect
 

Ryan Van Horne

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L'Heureux should send Tom Wilson a share of his paycheck if he ends up that high lol
L'Heureux is more of a Brad Marchand-type than a Tom Wilson-type of player. Any team hoping to draft L'Heureux to counteract Tom Wilson will be sorely disappointed. He is not in Wilson's weight class -- assuming that's where you're going with that.
 
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Ryan Van Horne

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Craig’s List: Defencemen dominate top of NHL draft prospect rankings - TSN.ca

1. Owen Power (LHD)
2. Brandt Clarke (RHD)
3. Simon Edvinsson (LHD)
4. Luke Hughes (LHD)
5. Matt Beniers (C)
6. William Eklund (LW)
7. Dylan Guenther (RW)
8. Zachary L'Heureux (C)
9. Jesper Wallstedt (G)
10. Fedor Svechkov (C)
Thanks for posting. I knew he liked L'Heureux, but that's the highest I've seen him ranked. FWIW, I would flip McTavish and L'Heureux in a ranking. In a mock, I think L'Heureux would go lower but that would depend a lot on his interviews with teams. He's going to face some tough questions about his suspensions.
 
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57special

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Johnson seems to be falling despite scouting reports that he has great offensive skills. Not sure why is it just cause he seems to be a lesser prospect than the other two U Michigan guys?
Seems kind of silly, to me. I like Beniers better because he is almost a sure thing to be a C in the NHL, but Johnson is a definite talent, and making an impact in the NCAA pre draft like he did is quite a feat. I think it's more a case of "out of sight, out of mind", AKA, "Recency Bias".

Guys sitting at home with no views are not going to be rated as highly. Conversely, when Powers, Beniers, and Johnson were playing around Christmas, and the CHL and AHL were dormant, those three were in the top 5 of most lists.

Svechkov...well i really like him....sort of a poor man's Beniers, to me, but 10 is the highest i've seen him. Coronato at 11, and Samoskevich not even in the first round is surprising.
 
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Hollel

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Jun 15, 2019
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Oh no my boy Lysell! Also I generally don't have a problem with some of these forwards being ranked higher than consensus, I have Svechkov in my top 15, and think L’Heureux has some more offensive potential than he gets credit for. With that being said, Sillinger being behind a lot of these names and down at 17, Johnson at 13...these are things I very much disagree with !
 
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JohnLennon

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Mar 26, 2011
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I used to shit on Button's lists a lot, then a few years ago i noticed one of his drafts were more accurate than Bob's list from his scouts.
So i looked into it, and typically he gets about 1 player less than Bob's list in the first round. (Button usually misses on 4 Bob's 3)
The average draft of Button's lists vs actual is he misses by 2.6 vs actual, and Bob misses by 2.2 (the average player in the first round is drafted that much higher than their lists)
The standard deviation from their picks vs actual: Button 10.4 Bob: 9.1

The one thing i'll say about him, he only bases his rankings on actual viewings of players he sees.
I mean he's had big misses, such as Jankowski etc but he's probably as good as any scout i've met and when you compare his list to an average of 10 (like Bob does) it's about what you would expect
Yup, I used to trash Button's lists but if you go back and look at every year's, he ends up being surprisingly accurate for the most part. I respect what he does and I respect these rankings, no matter how different they are from consensus.

To me, what sticks out most is how high L'Heureux is, and how low Johnson is.
 

WingsMJN2965

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L'Heureux is more of a Brad Marchand-type than a Tom Wilson-type of player. Any team hoping to draft L'Heureux to counteract Tom Wilson will be sorely disappointed. He is not in Wilson's weight class -- assuming that's where you're going with that.

Ehh, I mean Wilson has height on him but Elite Prospects has him at 196 and he’s not quite 18.

So as a 17 year old, he outweighs Marchand by 15 pounds.
 

majormajor

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Jun 23, 2018
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I used to shit on Button's lists a lot, then a few years ago i noticed one of his drafts were more accurate than Bob's list from his scouts.
So i looked into it, and typically he gets about 1 player less than Bob's list in the first round. (Button usually misses on 4 Bob's 3)
The average draft of Button's lists vs actual is he misses by 2.6 vs actual, and Bob misses by 2.2 (the average player in the first round is drafted that much higher than their lists)
The standard deviation from their picks vs actual: Button 10.4 Bob: 9.1

The one thing i'll say about him, he only bases his rankings on actual viewings of players he sees.
I mean he's had big misses, such as Jankowski etc but he's probably as good as any scout i've met and when you compare his list to an average of 10 (like Bob does) it's about what you would expect

Button had Chinakhov in the second round, while he was unlisted everywhere else, including in a full 7 round mock that Pronman made.
 

majormajor

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Jun 23, 2018
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If Eichel/Reinhart are gone Sabres will 100% be drafting Matt Beniers

At center you've got Cozens, Mitts, and maybe more depending on the return for Eichel and Reinhart. Who do you have at right side D? I think Brandt Clarke would fit really well there.
 
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PumpkinBomb

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Button had Chinakhov in the second round, while he was unlisted everywhere else, including in a full 7 round mock that Pronman made.
Yeah it's a pretty good example of him needing to view players too.
He wasn't on his March 30th list at all, but he would've watch the KHL playoffs on TV and saw him then and he made it onto his final list just inside round 2
 
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EichHart

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Jul 3, 2011
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At center you've got Cozens, Mitts, and maybe more depending on the return for Eichel and Reinhart. Who do you have at right side D? I think Brandt Clarke would fit really well there.

Dahlin, Risto (1 year left), Miller (1 year left), Jokiharju, McCabe (injured this year), Borgen, Johnson/Samuelsson (both promising 2nd round picks last 2 years)
 

majormajor

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Jun 23, 2018
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Dahlin, Risto (1 year left), Miller (1 year left), Jokiharju, McCabe (injured this year), Borgen, Johnson/Samuelsson (both promising 2nd round picks last 2 years)

That's 4 left-side D, two pending UFAs, Joki, and Borgen. I think it's more likely that Clarke would be your top RD than Beniers would be your top center.
 

Ed Ned and Leddy

Brokering the Bally Sports + Corncob TV Merger
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If Eichel/Reinhart are gone Sabres will 100% be drafting Matt Beniers

I would think that the Sabres are in such dire straits that they should draft the BPA regardless of position, but considering they're not even bothering to scout several key leagues this year I guess they could do a lot worse than Beniers.
 

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