TORONTO. Bob McKenzie of TSN posted the final version of its draft ranking. Ten scouts from NHL clubs contributed to it.
This ranking is considered one of the most accurate. The player who was the first in the final version during the previous thirteen years eventually became the draft unit. At least since 2009, McKenzie has not been wrong in predicting first choice.
Juraj Slafkovský took first place in it. He overtook Shane Wright very closely. Five out of ten scouts put the Slovak in first place, four chose a Canadian.
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Slafkovský leads his prestigious ranking for the first time ever. He was in fifth place in the middle of the season, but the Olympics and the World Hockey Championships moved him to the forefront. Four scouts placed him in second place, one in fourth.
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But McKenzie points out that the idea of first place is very narrow. For another group of scouts, the vote could turn out 5: 4 in favor of Wright.
The goal of the scouts was to rank the best players, not to guess how they would be selected.
“Slafkovsky is ahead of Wright by being bigger, playing harder, competing more consistently and increasing his production in big tournaments,” said one of the NHL’s top scouts. “From my point of view, he has the best chance of becoming a player until the first attack.”
Wright’s advantage is his game maturity and versatility. The fact that it is a center also plays in its favor.
Wright received four votes in first place, four second and two third.
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“Teams that see the unit in Slafkovsky see a problem in Wright’s last season being only average,” one scout summed up. “On the contrary, the teams that have him in the first place can’t forget what he did in his first season in the junior OHL and at the Under-18 World Championships in 2021.”
Several scouts have added a note that it may well be that neither of the Slafkovský-Wright duo will be the best draft of this year.
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Šimon Nemec took fourth place in the ranking. McKenzie described him as a player who skates fluently, is intelligent and efficient with the puck, and is a two-way defender. He has no wow factor in the offensive and is not even the toughest player, but his skating and hockey IQ make him a very valuable player.
In the ranking of scouts, he was between second and seventh place. They predict that he could be the second or third best defender in the NHL club.
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Filip Mešár was also included in the selections of the first round. The scouts placed him in 30th place.
Adam Sýkora took 63rd place.
No other Slovak was in the top 100.
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Slafkovsky and Wright are joined in the top three by Logan Cooley. One of the scouts of the American Center even ranked first.
The highest defender David Jiříček finished from the Czechs. He finished sixth. The scouts ranked him in fifth and twelfth place.
Jíři Kulich is in eighteenth position in the ranking, Matyáš Šapovaliv is 46th and Tomáš Hamara is 56th.
The NHL entry draft will take place on July 7 and 8 in Montreal.
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