Craig's List 2014 Prospects

[djsFlames]

Just wish these stinkin Oilers would crawl far enough up the basement to destroy their dreams of Ekblad and put us in the drivers seat for that 2nd overall pick.

[StrykerSteve]

Central Scouting releases updated mid season rankings today.

C Sam Bennett is now the top-ranked NA skater.

[Table 5]

Not only has Bennett passed Reinhart on the list in terms of fowards, but also Draisaitl.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699921

North American skaters
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699869

International skaters, led by Kasperi Kapanen
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699913

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Central Scouting releases updated mid season rankings today.

C Sam Bennett is now the top-ranked NA skater.

Reinhart is 4th.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6...id=DL|NHL|home

[strombad]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Central Scouting releases updated mid season rankings today.

C Sam Bennett is now the top-ranked NA skater.

Ugh, I was hoping we could sneak him away at the 3rd or 4th pick.

[sureLoss]

Corey Pronman @coreypronman
What should be noted about the 2014 class is ATM there is no runaway guy at the top. More just a top group.

Corey Pronman @coreypronman
However when I asked one NHL head scout how big the drop is following the top group he said, "it's a huge drop"

[loob job]

I watched Draisaitl in the world juniors and wasn't overly impressed with him. Obviously he was playing on a crapt team but would rather have bennett, reinhart or ekblad.

[Table 5]

Not the most valuable year to get a #1 pick it looks like... which is probably why we'll get it. Although if we get #1, perhaps we pull a Flames-special and trade down a couple of picks and still get our guy, and maybe pick up a 2nd rounder.

[Vulcan]

Looking at the NA goalie rankings, you have to go down to the 6th spot to find a Canadian. That's pretty pitiful.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699916

[lanny9]

Now that puts a wrench in our draft discussions, doesn't it? I mean to see the "only" two sure things fall to #3 & #4?.

Still like Ekblad for us though! He is everything we need on the back end and I feel because D'men take longer than forwards that we will have more than enough high draft picks the following two seasons to get our top end talent up front. There are some very remarkable forwards available in the following two drafts imo, some of which could step right in and be big contributors on a team.

[sureLoss]

January Top 30 rankings from hockeyprospect.com

http://www.hockeyprospect.com/2014-n...nuary-edition/

1	EKBLAD, AARON	RD	BARRIE	OHL
2	REINHART, SAM	RC	KOOTENAY	WHL
3	DAL COLLE, MICHAEL	LW	OSHAWA	OHL
4	RITCHIE, NICK	LW	PETERBOROUGH	OHL
5	BENNETT, SAM	LC	KINGSTON	OHL
6	DRAISATL, LEON	LC	PRINCE ALBERT	WHL
7	EHLERS, NIKOLAJ	LW	HALIFAX	QMJHL
8	NYLANDER, WILLIAM	LW	SODERTALJE	SWE
9	MCCANN, JARED	LC	SAULT STE. MARIE	OHL
10	PERLINI, BRENDAN	LW	NIAGARA	OHL

[Goodlad]

Rankings from CSS:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=699913

North American Skaters

Rank    Player	         Team	League	Position	Height	Weight
1	BENNETT, SAMUEL	KINGSTON	        OHL	C	6' 0.25"	178
2	DRAISAITL, LEON	        PRINCE ALBERT	WHL	C	6' 1.75"	208
3	EKBLAD, AARON	        BARRIE	        OHL	D	6' 3.5"	216
4	REINHART, SAM	        KOOTENAY	        WHL	C	6' 0.75"	185
5	DAL COLLE, MICHAEL	OSHAWA	        OHL	C/LW	6' 1.5"	179
6	FLEURY, HAYDN	        RED DEER	        WHL	D	6' 2.5"	198
7	RITCHIE, NICHOLAS	PETERBOROUGH	OHL	LW	6' 2.25"	231
8	PERLINI, BRENDAN	NIAGARA	        OHL	LW	6' 2.5"	205
9	VIRTANEN, JAKE	        CALGARY	        WHL	RW	6' 0.75"	208
10	DEANGELO, ANTHONY	SARNIA	        OHL	D	5' 10.75"	175

Euro Skaters

Rank           Player           Team     League          Position	Height	Weight
1	KAPANEN, KASPERI       KALPA	       FINLAND	RW	6' 0.0"	180
2	NYLANDER, WILLIAM	SODERTALJE      SWEDEN-2	C/RW	5' 11.0"	169
3	KEMPE, ADRIAN	        MODO JR.	       SWEDEN-JR. 	LW	6' 1.5"	187
4	PASTRNAK, DAVID	SODERTALJE	SWEDEN-2	        RW	6' 0.0"	167
5	VRANA, JAKUB	        LINKOPING	        SWEDEN	        LW/RW	5' 11.0"	185
6	KARLSSON, ANTON	FROLUNDA JR.	SWEDEN-JR.	RW	6' 1.25"	187
7	NEKOLENKO, ARKHIP	SPARTAK 2	        RUSSIA-JR.  	LW	6' 2.0"	176
8	KAMENEV, VLADISLAV	MAGNITOGORSK 	RUSSIA-JR.  	LW	6' 2.0"	198
9	AHO, SEBASTIAN	        SKELLEFTEA JR.	SWEDEN-JR.	D	5' 9.25"	165
10	PETTERSSON, MARKUS	SKELLEFTEA JR.	SWEDEN-JR.	D	6' 4.0"	167

[jg13]

I never was sold 100% on reinhart as a top 2 pick in this draft.

I'm still convinced Ekblad should be though. If draft day was today i'd take him first overall.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Not the most valuable year to get a #1 pick it looks like... which is probably why we'll get it. Although if we get #1, perhaps we pull a Flames-special and trade down a couple of picks and still get our guy, and maybe pick up a 2nd rounder.

Not necessarily true as you will still likely get a very good player. To me it looks more like a bad year to pick just out of the top 5 as the talent drop is much steeper than last year.

[devo22]

These CSS rankings are weird. Draisaitl has done nothing to deserve that jump ... he had a bad WJC tournament (significantly worse than last year, and that's never a good sign) with two game misconducts and a suspension. No way he should be ahead of Ekblad and Reinhart right now. Also they have Anton Karlsson at 6 among European skaters ... that's crazy too. I expect him to be one of the first Euros to go ... maybe behind Kapanen and Nylander, but that's about it.

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not necessarily true as you will still likely get a very good player. To me it looks more like a bad year to pick just out of the top 5 as the talent drop is much steeper than last year.

That's how I look at it too. The top-5 guys still have top-line/top-pairing upside. There just aren't any "franchise" players in this draft, and certainly not any generational talent.

If we were picking 6th this year, as opposed to last year, I think we would be pretty disappointed.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Corey Pronman @coreypronman
What should be noted about the 2014 class is ATM there is no runaway guy at the top. More just a top group.

Corey Pronman @coreypronman
However when I asked one NHL head scout how big the drop is following the top group he said, "it's a huge drop"

Thankfully we should be in that top group this year.

[devo22]

I would be happy with Reinhart or Bennett, but man, I really hope they get Ekblad. Then go for a C next year ... even if we lose the McDavid sweepstakes, there'll be other great C prospects in tha draft. Especially Eichel, that kid is awesome.

Ekblad/Eichel intrigues me a lot more than, say, Bennett/Hanifin.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not necessarily true as you will still likely get a very good player. To me it looks more like a bad year to pick just out of the top 5 as the talent drop is much steeper than last year.

While true that we'll still get a good player, I don't think its necessarily because they are all exceptional talents, but more because there aren't necessarily any guys who stand out as clear-cut no-brainer elite prospects. I think this year is more akin to the 2012 draft (Yakupov/Murray/Galchenyuk year) than what we saw in 2013 (where there were 3-4 guys who could've easily gone as #1's in any other year). 2013 everyone was fighting over 9's, while this year we are trying to decide between 8's.

[CliffFletcher]

With no prospects in the top 6 or so head and shoulders above the rest, I expect we'll see the rankings scramble every month leading up to the draft.

But I never was sold on Reinhart. A number one overall pick needs to bring more to the table than hockey IQ and soft hands. Size, power, speed, grit, a nose for the net. Something. And Reinhart's dad may have been the most skilled d-men on the roster during his stint with the for the Flames, but he was also the softest player on that team. I think Hakan Loob was chippier.