No I have no proof. It is talked about though. Players pop up on the radar, get scouted, go to the next level, get scouted again, next level, scouted again, then teams set there draft orders.
You say no one knows, it is impossible. Okay, I have a way to test it, it is a bit of story. When I was 14, we added a kid from the birth year lower to my team. He didn't do all that great, but he assured he was sick at his own birth year. I said sure ya are bud. Even then, He got a lot of attention from scouts and was very plugged in. After he went back down to his own birth year, He ended up on USNDTP then played D1 at UCONN followed by a short ECHL Stint. When he was 13 he told me scouts already knew the 97 birth year had a way deeper talent pool than the 96 birth year. I thought yeah right bud.
As this exactly applies to topic here lets review the statement my guy made 3‐5 years prior to 96/97 birth year draft years.
97s:
Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Kaprizov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sebastian Aho, Barzal, Boeser, Hanifin, Konecny, Brandon Carlo, Charlie McAvoy, Debrincat, Adam Fox, Tage Thompson, Chabot, Dylan Strome, Troy Terry
96s:
Pasta, Eichel, Rantanen, Kyle Connor, Brayden Point, Will Nylander, Dylan Larkin, Kevin Fiala, Kempe, Ehlers, Roope Hintz, Nick Schmaltz, Ekblad, Alex Tuch, Sam Bennett, Sanheim
Which team are you taking? Did the scout that told my boy the 97s have a better group have his head up his bum? Or was he right? I think it is pretty close, but the 97s win for D and McDavid might just make me lean 97 forwards, but the 96s have a really balanced group of star forwards so it is tough