HockeyProspect.com 2018 NHL Draft Black Book and Final Rankings

[TheWhiskeyThief]

We've released our Black Book and Final rankings. Once again we will be offering a coupon for $5.00 off - just use coupon code hfboards19 at checkout.

Our final rankings have also been posted. I'll be checking back in here to talk rankings as soon as I get some free minutes.

"Another year of scouting is in the books and the 2018 NHL Draft is fast approaching. Entering the 2017/2018 season we knew there was a dynamic defenseman at the top of the draft and a skilled Russian forward who had a leg up on the number two spot. Once we started hitting the highways things began to evolve. Players like Noah Dobson, Martin Kaut, Dominik Bokk and Jay O’Brien, just to name a few, began to make their names more well known."

2018 NHL Draft Black Book

Rankings

Gotta say, from the players I saw live, your evaluations match up with mine except I’m a bit harsher on D flaws with Boqvist.

Over the years your judgements has tracked well with my views.

Only suggestions would be to:

1: get another scout in Sweden outside of Götland & Skäne, the game reports suggest limited views of guys away from national stuff

2: get the scout consensus out of game reports. Games should be judged on the game, not the rep that’s out there.

 

[Der Jaeger]

@Mark Edwards

Black Book came in yesterday. It's a lot bigger than last year's. Read for a few hours last night. Quality work. No drama to my 1st round, though, since I'm a Sabres fan.

Who do you think Buffalo should look at with 32?

 

[Mark Edwards]

@Mark Edwards

Black Book came in yesterday. It's a lot bigger than last year's. Read for a few hours last night. Quality work. No drama to my 1st round, though, since I'm a Sabres fan.

Who do you think Buffalo should look at with 32?

Yes, it's 8.5" x 11" this year. Glad you like it.

Not sure who will be available to them but our rankings pretty much tell you who we think would be good picks for them. Best player available.

It might be a guy who's about 25th area on their list.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Yes, it's 8.5" x 11" this year. Glad you like it.

Not sure who will be available to them but our rankings pretty much tell you who we think would be good picks for them. Best player available.

It might be a guy who's about 25th area on their list.

Thanks!

 

[Dux917]

FYI - I received my Black Book today - purchased it through Amazon. Wow....so much better then I expected, it's the size of a of an old phone book - about 550 pages! So much information - if you haven't bought it yet - do it now.

Great job!

 

[jvr32]

@Mark Edwards

You had ranked Adam Mascherin 85th in your list, so late 3rd round pick, but had no profile on him in your Black Book.

What's your view on him now that he is available for the draft for the second time? How do you think his game will translate from juniors to pro?

 

[Mark Edwards]

FYI - I received my Black Book today - purchased it through Amazon. Wow....so much better then I expected, it's the size of a of an old phone book - about 550 pages! So much information - if you haven't bought it yet - do it now.

Great job!

Glad you like it and thanks for purchasing.

Amazon put it on sale Amazon.com

Even bigger sale on Amazon Canada right now.

 

[Mark Edwards]

@Mark Edwards

You had ranked Adam Mascherin 85th in your list, so late 3rd round pick, but had no profile on him in your Black Book.

What's your view on him now that he is available for the draft for the second time? How do you think his game will translate from juniors to pro?

We actually did a profile and it got left out somehow.

Skilled player who is a proven goal scorer with a lot of gaps to fix in his game still IMO. My buddy coached him in Kitchener (last season) so I heard a lot about his game from him last year.

 

[Meeqs]

I wonder if guys who spend so much time scouting players start to notice trends from specific NHL teams over the years that helps them with their lists.

 

[Belisarius]

Do you guys use the amazon package tracking? I ordered the paper copy in Canada on Sunday and according to Amazon it was supposed to ship yesterday but hasn't yet. It’s my first time ordering the Black Book and I don’t use Amazon all that much.

I might just be impatient.

 

[Mark Edwards]

Do you guys use the amazon package tracking? I ordered the paper copy in Canada on Sunday and according to Amazon it was supposed to ship yesterday but hasn't yet. It’s my first time ordering the Black Book and I don’t use Amazon all that much.

I might just be impatient.

I don't even see who orders it. All I see is sales numbers.

There is not much about our print version that is positive for me. I only keep it because it's important to some of our customers. Sorry I can't be much help, that said, customers have had almost zero complaints over the years about amazon delivery times, they are quite speedy. I'm pretty confident you will get it soon. Thanks for purchasing.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Bought the product, fantastic. Easily the best content you're going to get.

 

[Dux917]

One player that wasn't included in your rankings was Max Crozier from Nanaimo (BCHL). I've seen him included in a few mock drafts - did your western scouts get a chance to see him/or didn't think he good enough yet to be included?

Thanks

 

[AmericanDream]

Not quite as busy these days.

Don't want to say too much here but the more I saw the less I liked. As one scout said to me, "watch him in warmup and he looks like a first rounder, in the games it's a different story."

The tools are good, his compete not so much when I saw him.

If he flicks a switch with that compete level he could turn out to be really good.

Thanks Mark, much appreciated!

Interesting take on him, I will look a bit closer on him over the weekend on some video...I thought the skill was there from what I saw, need to delve a bit further and see compete level dedication...thanks!!

 

[Mark Edwards]

Glad you like it and thanks for purchasing.

Amazon put it on sale Amazon.com

Even bigger sale on Amazon Canada right now.

Just an FYI for anyone that was considering the print version. It's 21% off today on amazon.ca

Bought the product, fantastic. Easily the best content you're going to get.

Thanks

One player that wasn't included in your rankings was Max Crozier from Nanaimo (BCHL). I've seen him included in a few mock drafts - did your western scouts get a chance to see him/or didn't think he good enough yet to be included?

Thanks

I never got a profile on him (or I missed it somehow) so we didn't include him. Sorry.

Thanks Mark, much appreciated!

Interesting take on him, I will look a bit closer on him over the weekend on some video...I thought the skill was there from what I saw, need to delve a bit further and see compete level dedication...thanks!!

Skill is there for sure, my first impression was very positive. Just liked him a bit less with each viewing. Like I said, he has the talent to make our ranking look bad if he kicks it up a few notches.

 

[Mark Edwards]

Curious to know your thoughts on Nils Lundkvist, what made you believe he is the best of the rest in terms of defensemen (first after the consensus top5 D)?

Missed this question somehow, sorry.

He's a smart player. Offensive upside is quite high and he moved pucks well, smart and quickly. A lot of Boqvist in his game (not the shot) but better defensive game. His pro games were impressive vs men. He didn't play too safe, he showed off his talent. I think he's just getting started.

 

[Mark Edwards]

I've been getting some DM's asking about sample Black Book profiles. Figured I might as well post it here (should've done it earlier) Here is a one we posted a while back. LINK

 

[SlugsBernard]

Hi Mark,

My 1st year having the Black Book (as well as guides from ISS, McKeens, and FC) and BB is my fav of all of them!

1) love the scout quotes in the player bios
2) saw one other person mention this, but player bios in rank order than alphabetical would be a personal preference of mine
3) Its really neat you take the time to interact on fan forums such as HF

Question: Are analytics used at all by scouting organizations in conjuction with viewings to rank players?

 

[TylerJCampbell]

Hey Mark, this was the first year I picked up the Black Book after threatening to for 3 or 4 years now. It is AWESOME! Definitely will be buying it yearly from here on out, just tremendous stuff in it. Specifically love the info/notes on the combine interviews for a lot of the kids. Tremendous work by you and all your staff!

 

[Maverick41]

I got my copy today and only had time to read very little so far, but what I have read, I really like.
There is a very good chance that I will get it again next year.

There is a tiny error in the part about Moritz Seider (among the 2019 prospects), where you reference the route of Dominik Bokk. At the very end in the part in parentheses you mixed up Sweden and Germany. But that is just nitpicking.
I love it overall so far and I expect to be spending a lot of time tomorrow, as far as work allows it, with my head buried in this great book.

 

[93LEAFS]

Just saw Hockey Prospect posted Mark's interview with Shane Malloy on Sirus radio about his top 31 rankings. Here are the links.

2018 NHL Draft Top 31 Rankings Part 1 - Players 31 to 24 - HockeyProspect.com | 2018 NHL Draft

2018 NHL Draft Top 31 Rankings Part 2 – Players 23 to 16 - HockeyProspect.com | 2018 NHL Draft

2018 NHL Draft Top 31 Rankings Part 3 – Players 15 to 8 - HockeyProspect.com | 2018 NHL Draft

2018 NHL Draft Top 31 Rankings Part 4 – Players 7 to 1 - HockeyProspect.com | 2018 NHL Draft

 

[Mark Edwards]

Hi Mark,

My 1st year having the Black Book (as well as guides from ISS, McKeens, and FC) and BB is my fav of all of them!

1) love the scout quotes in the player bios
2) saw one other person mention this, but player bios in rank order than alphabetical would be a personal preference of mine
3) Its really neat you take the time to interact on fan forums such as HF

Question: Are analytics used at all by scouting organizations in conjuction with viewings to rank players?

I haven't got into this topic too deeply with scouts regarding their teams but from the info i have heard over the past few years, it varies from team to team.

Hey Mark, this was the first year I picked up the Black Book after threatening to for 3 or 4 years now. It is AWESOME! Definitely will be buying it yearly from here on out, just tremendous stuff in it. Specifically love the info/notes on the combine interviews for a lot of the kids. Tremendous work by you and all your staff!

Thanks a lot, appreciate it.

I got my copy today and only had time to read very little so far, but what I have read, I really like.
There is a very good chance that I will get it again next year.

There is a tiny error in the part about Moritz Seider (among the 2019 prospects), where you reference the route of Dominik Bokk. At the very end in the part in parentheses you mixed up Sweden and Germany. But that is just nitpicking.
I love it overall so far and I expect to be spending a lot of time tomorrow, as far as work allows it, with my head buried in this great book.

Glad you like it. Thanks.

 

[Mark Edwards]

The NHL Draft has finally arrived and I hope everyone enjoys it. Unfortunately for the first time in over a decade I'm unable to be attend the draft live this year (I'm not happy but it's not something I could control). I'll be back live next year in Vancouver.

I want to thank you for supporting our service and for the kind words. Feedback has been great over the years but I felt between posts here, twitter mentions and dm's and via email, that this year was even better. It was great to hear from first time purchasers as well. 2017/2018 was our best season yet, which is extra great news based on current gas prices heading into the fall .

We'll be back to start all over again beginning with the Hlinka and I already have my hotels booked for many of the big events. We are also working towards some improvements on our website this summer.

Thanks again.