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2015 NHL Re-Draft
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- Created: Friday, 06 January 2017 17:47
By: Brendan Ross (@RossyYoungblood)
The 2017 World Junior Championship has freshly come to a close with the United States taking home the gold medal against a tough Canadian team, in a game that could have went any which way. It was a tournament stacked full of players selected in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and while it’s probably too early to visit a topic, attempting a 2015 NHL Re-Draft is a fun exercise.
Before diving into the rankings, it’s best to remind the readers that there are countless variables that play into deciding between Player A and Player B. Several of the following players are already competing and leaving their impact on NHL teams. Many others were selected by their teams, knowing that these players may take five years to really come into their own. So, let’s reiterate that this process is meant to be for fun and that in two or three years, could look entirely different as players undergo and fulfill their development game plans. Recency bias could certainly play an effect to some extent (see Kaprizov, Terry, and company), especially coming off the World Juniors, but given the amount of skill displayed, we will trust the eye-test and get a little excited about what these exciting prospects showed.
For the sake of simplicity, the draft order will remain in tack as it unfolded at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft site. The teams who traded for draft picks (Boston, New York Islanders, etc.) maintain those picks. Secondly, we are not taking into account team drafting styles but rather placing players in an order that we feel is based on a combination of NHL value (current and/or future) derived from their playing style and skills. Third, many players are only shuffled one, two or three spots from their original order making it important to understand that slight variances in a few spots isn’t all that significant – particularly lower in the first round (i.e. Jacob Larsson moving from 27th to 29th). It’s just how the players fell. Lastly, it’s a nearly impossible task to dissect every player’s performance to date from the 2015 draft crop so there’s a very real chance that players have been unintentionally omitted – we apologize for that!
It’s very early to assess the 2015 draft crop but early showings and productions have us believing that it’s a strong crop and each of the following players listed below have bright NHL futures.
Complete seven round 2015 NHL Entry Draft (Courtesy of www.EliteProspects.com)
DRAFT ORDER | PLAYER | ORIGINAL SELECTION |
@ROSSYYOUNGBLOOD’s ORIGINAL RANK |
1st EDM | Connor McDavid, C | 1st EDM | 1st |
2nd BUF | Jack Eichel, C | 2nd BUF | 2nd |
3rd ARI | Mitch Marner, C/RW | 4th TOR | 3rd |
4th TOR | Zach Werenski, D | 8th CBJ | 10th |
5th CAR | Ivan Provorov, D | 7th PHI | 8th |
6th NJD | Kirill Kaprizov, C $$ | 135th MIN | 54th |
7th PHI | Noah Hanifin, D | 5th CAR | 4th |
8th CBJ | Thomas Chabot, D $$ | 18th OTT | 34th |
9th SJS | Dylan Strome, C | 3rd ARI | 5th |
10th COL | Travis Konecny, RW/C $$ | 24th PHI | 15th |
11th FLA | Sebastian Aho, W/C $$ | 35th CAR | 56th |
12th DAL | Kyle Connor, LW/C | 17th WPG | 12th |
13th BOS | Matthew Barzal, C | 16th NYI | 9th |
14th BOS | Colin White, C | 21st OTT | 22nd |
15th BOS | Mikko Rantanen, RW | 10th COL | 11th |
16th NYI | Joel Eriksson-Ek, C | 20th MIN | 23rd |
17th WPG | Denis Gurianov, RW/LW | 12th DAL | 14th |
18th OTT | Ilya Samsonov, G | 22nd WSH | 30th (1st G) |
19th DET | Pavel Zacha, C/LW | 6th FLA | 6th |
20th MIN | Jeremy Bracco, C $$ | 61st TOR | 17th |
21st OTT | Timo Meier, LW | 9th SJS | 13th |
22nd WSH | Daniel Sprong, C $$ | 46th PIT | 24th |
23rd VAN | Brock Boeser, RW | 23rd VAN | 31st |
24th PHI | Lawson Crouse, LW | 11th FLA | 7th |
25th WPG | Jack Roslovic, C/RW | 25th WPG | 37th |
26th MTL | Jakob Zboril, D | 13th BOS | 20th |
27th ANA | Zach Senyshyn, LW | 15th BOS | 42nd |
28th NYI | Evgeny Svechnikov, LW/RW | 19th DET | 18th |
29th CBJ | Jacob Larsson, D | 27th ANA | 36th |
30th ARI | Brendan Guhle, D $$ | 51st BUF | 94th |
Honourable Mentions
An argument could be made to include any of the following players in a re-draft of the 1st round:
PLAYER | ORIGINAL SELECTION |
@ROSSYYOUNGBLOOD’s ORIGINAL RANK |
Anthony Beauvillier, LW/C | 28th NYI | 38th |
Brandon Carlo, D | 37th BOS | 29th |
Vince Dunn, D | 56th SJS | 33rd |
Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, C | 45th BOS | 50th |
Noah Juulsen, D | 26th MTL | 28th |
Matt Spencer, D | 44th TBL | 53rd |
Philippe Myers, D | Undrafted/Signed TBL | NR |
Out of 1st Round
The following players were originally selected in the 1st round but did not make the cut this time around:
PLAYER | ORIGINAL SELECTION |
@ROSSYYOUNGBLOOD’s ORIGINAL RANK |
Ethan Bear, D | 124th EDM | 98th |
Anthony Beauvillier, LW/C | 28th NYI | 38th |
Gabriel Carlsson, D | 29th CBJ | 32nd |
Jake Debrusk, LW | 14th BOS | 27th |
Caleb Jones, D | 117th EDM | 88th |
Oliver Kylington, D | 60th CGY | 21st |
Noah Juulsen, D | 26th MTL | 28th |
Nicholas Merkley, RW/C | 30th ARI | 16th |
Philippe Myers, D | Undrafted/Signed TBL | NR |
Rapid Risers
$$ - indicates prospects who have outperformed their original draft slots significantly (particularly in the 2016-17 season)
PLAYER | ORIGINAL SELECTION |
@ROSSYYOUNGBLOOD’s ORIGINAL RANK |
$$ Ethan Bear, D | 124th EDM | 98th |
$$ Stephen Desroschers, D | 155th TOR | NR |
$$ Adam Huska, G | 184th NYR | NR |
$$ Caleb Jones, D | 117th EDM | 88th |
$$ Oliver Kylington, D | 60th CGY | 21st |
$$ Denis Malgin, C/RW | 102nd FLA | 39th |
$$ Philippe Myers, D | Undrafted/Signed TBL | NR |
$$ Troy Terry, C/RW | 148th ANA | 145th |
$$ Mitchell Vande Sompel, D | 82nd NJD | 48th |