Quote:
Originally Posted by mile
I think he would likely get picked after Jones and before Lindholm/Monahan.
There is no way Bennett falls after Horvat - I think there would be more of a debate choosing between Barkov/Bennett (although most would easily take Barkov) than Horvat/Bennett.
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Bennett rose this year though. Or at least players like Nylander fell from their 2012 rankings. Had he had a similar career but born 1 year earlier players like MacKinnon, Jones, Barkov, Monahan and Lindholm would have easily been ranked ahead of him at the start of his draft season. These were players often found in the 2013 top 5 rankings long before the actual draft and if not for Drouin climbing would have been drafted there.
So a player like Monahan has high expectations going into his draft 2012-2013 season and more-or-less meets them. He's an older draft pick but he's a safe pick. Bennett was a young draftee, a bit harder to gauge and while he's no doubt rising and entering the discussion I still see Calgary, especially, going with the safe pick of Monahan. Edmonton, in a similar fashion to this draft with going with the bigger forward, pretty much has to take the defenseman over Bennett. If he makes it by Buffalo, I could still see Horvat being taken by Vancouver simply because they obviously saw something they liked in him. Which puts him with the high risk-high reward camp as Nichushkin.
It's no slight on Bennett but I could see him being drafted outside of the top 10 a lot easier than in the top 5. The 2013 was a deep and talented draft and like the 2003 draft you'll probably see a lot of quality players picked outside the top 10.