1. Erik Johnson
2. Jordan Staal
3. Phil Kessel
4. Nicklas Backstrom
5. Jonathan Toews
6. Peter Mueller
7. Kyle Okposo
8. Derick Brassard
9. James Sheppard
10. Nigel Williams
11. Michael Frolik
12. Bob Sanguinetti
13. Jiri Tlusty
14. Bryan Little
15. Ty Wishart
Staal is only rated so high because of his name. What a joke.
All I have to say is wow.
How many times have you seen him play? And how many times have you seen everyone else play?
I have him at #3 behind EJ and Kessel. But number 2 is not ridiculously high for him. There's many scouts that feel Staal will be a better player than Kessel. And it really has very little to do with the name. Sure teams do recognize that this kid has two stud older brothers, but Jordan can flat out play. Scouts have been saying for years he has the potential to be better than Eric. Every time I've seen him play I've came away more and more impressed (4 times total). I've watched Kessel a fair bit too and I think his upside is higher than Jordan, but Staal will probably be the better all around player.
Not trying to be rude or insult anyone who will get offended here but why is Toews so high up? he doesn't strike me as anything special that should go at the top of a draft (is this draft really that weak?) or am i missing something totally here?
Not trying to be rude or insult anyone who will get offended here but why is Toews so high up? he doesn't strike me as anything special that should go at the top of a draft (is this draft really that weak?) or am i missing something totally here?
I think the problem is that most likely you have only seen him against older players (WJC and NCAA). If you look at competitions where he played against his own age he has been outstanding. He led Team Western to its first U17 title at last years U17 WHC with 8 goals and 4 assists in 6 games and he also led Canada to a gold medal at this years U18 WC with 5 goals and 4 assist in 5 games (both times he was top scorer and best player of the tournament).
It will be fun to see who will draft Bäckström. I am very impressed by him after seeing him several times this season. He really play as if he have been playing first line hockey at elite level for 10 years or so and it is really his first. Considering the age of Lidström, Sundin, Forsberg, Alfredsson, I, as a Swede am very happy about some new players coming up who one can follow.
Not trying to be rude or insult anyone who will get offended here but why is Toews so high up? he doesn't strike me as anything special that should go at the top of a draft (is this draft really that weak?) or am i missing something totally here?
I have to agree...I was not impressed with Toews. But if I could get him at 10-12th I would take him. Given everybody else's praises
Not really...it doesn't hurt his ranking. But Staal reminds me of an 18 year old Joe Thornton
Except of course that Thornton had 122 points (41 goals and 81 assists) in 59 games in his draft year and Jordan Staal has exactly a point per game with 68 points (28 goals and 40 assists) in 68 games.
Not trying to be rude or insult anyone who will get offended here but why is Toews so high up? he doesn't strike me as anything special that should go at the top of a draft (is this draft really that weak?) or am i missing something totally here?
If you've seen Toews in the past month/ month and a half you would see more of the player that he should turn out to be IMO. He's been downright dominating games with and without the puck. I think that people tend to forget just how young he is and that he isn't very close to being a finished product at all.
1. Erik Johnson
2. Jordan Staal
3. Phil Kessel
4. Nicklas Backstrom
5. Jonathan Toews
6. Peter Mueller
7. Kyle Okposo
8. Derick Brassard
9. James Sheppard
10. Nigel Williams
11. Michael Frolik
12. Bob Sanguinetti
13. Jiri Tlusty
14. Bryan Little
15. Ty Wishart
Surprised to see Frolik dropping so much now.
I talked to his agent none later than yesterday and he told me that Brassard, his other client, should go 5th or 6th and that Frolik was in fact going to be more of a 10th or 11th pick...
McKeens seems pretty accurate IMO... and his agent's!
Bryan Little has fallen also....kind of surprising to me.
Where did they rank Foligno?
#31.Wouldn't mind if the Rangers scooped up Foligno with their late first round pick.I'm sure the Rangers have seen him play many times considering he plays with Marc Staal in Sudbury and the Rangers are keeping close tabs on Staal
