The Athletic unveiled a draft ranking and huge surprises can be found there
Just about three weeks from the NHL draft, The Athletic's prospect specialist, Corey Pronman, today unveiled his rankings of the best young players of the crop.
However, this ranking is designed according to the ultimate potential of each of the prospects, meaning it only takes into account the ceiling of each player, what they could become in the NHL, in the best of worlds.
Already starting off, there is quite a significant surprise, as we don't even find Connor Bedard at the top of this list. Instead, it's Russian Matvei Michkov who takes the top spot, in terms of upside.
1.Matvei Michkov - RW (KHL)
2.Connor Bedard - C (WHL)
3.Adam Fantilli - C (NCAA)
4.Leo Carlsson - C (SHL)
5.Will Smith - C (USHL)
6.Nate Danielson - C (WHL)
7.David Reinbacher - RD (Switzerland)
8.Ryan Leonard - RW (USHL)
9.Gabriel Perreault - LW (USHL)
10.Daniil But - RW (KHL)
We can therefore note that the top-5 remains the same as what can be seen in all expert lists, with the nuance of Michkov at the top of the ranking rather than Bedard.
What is also interesting to note is that Dalibor Dvorsky ranks 14th, Eduard Sale ranks 19th, and Zach Benson ranks 26th, while they are all prospects perceived to potentially make the top-10, on June 28th.
Quite frankly, the one who totally surprises me to see him so far down is certainly Benson, who certainly has a profile to become an elite NHL player one day. At the 26th spot, it seems to me to be excessive as a drop compared to the standard ranking.
Nevertheless, this kind of evaluation allows us to understand that the 2023 draft is full of high-level young talents and that there could be numerous surprises during the first round.
Credit: HabsolumentFan
| POLL | ||
Who would you like to see being selected by the Canadiens at the 5th spot? | ||
| Matvei Michkov | 121 | 55.5 % |
| Will Smith | 85 | 39 % |
| David Reinbacher | 7 | 3.2 % |
| Ryan Leonard | 5 | 2.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
