[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I was thinking about this the other day. Can someone provide links and information to Kylington's earlier draft rankings and projections, and why he fell so hard in his draft year? I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to find any of these after the fact.

Just googling around:

Ranked 4th (Sept 2014)

4. Oliver Kylington, D – Farjestad (SHL): The slick-skating Swede has decent size and excellent vision. Held out of the world under-18s last year because Farjestad needed him, he also won the puck control competition against the American League all-stars at 16.

Ranked 7th (Dec 2014

The seventh through ninth slots remain unchanged from the November rankings. Farjestad defenseman Oliver Kylington remains seventh in the rankings,

Ranked 6th (December 2014)

Noah Hanifin of Boston College is a very talented player but he no longer stands alone as the next best player after McDavid and Eichel. I have always felt that Zach Werenski of the Michigan Wolverines is very close to Noah in ability and potential. Both are 17-year-old defensemen playing NCAA hockey and both are faring well. Along with Oilver Kylington of AIK in the Swedish Allsvenkan and Ivan Provorov of the Brandon Wheat Kings, they comprise a quartet of defensemen who all show potential to be top two defensemen in the NHL.

Ranked 10th (April 2015)

How Good Is He? Kylington has the potential to be a significant contributor for an NHL team. His offense was solid to very good at all levels this season, and that skill will take him a long way.

As for why he fell so hard in his draft year?

A combination of things

1) The switch from Swedish Junior to Sweidh Pro was brutal for his icetime. He ended up actually asking his SHL team if he could get demoted to the Allskvenskan because they simply were not playing him IIRC, but this was taken as an "attitude problem"
2) He was injured much of that year
3) As Hakan Loob noted, he had never actually been coached on how to play the defense position. For a guy who was a forward growing up, this led to concerns about his defensive play (the actual play without the puck).
4) Even then, most final rankings had him in the 12-17ish range. I remember thinking it'd be awesome if we got any of Kylington, Connor, Barzal, Konecny, or Boeser at 15 because it was such an interestly deep draft. His freefall was insane.