Bob McKenzie's Draft Rankings - A Final Look
I love the NHL draft. This may seem to be a bit of a dis-connect being a Leaf fan and all. The Leafs are not exactly a franchise known for keeping their picks, using their picks wisely, or developing the kids they do manage to grab. This is a team, after all, that once used all of their first round picks to draft three Belleville Bulls.
Each year, in the days leading up to the draft, TSN's Bob McKenzie puts together a master list of the order in which thinks players will be drafted. It's not a ranking per se - like Central Scouting or Red Line Report puts together - rather it's McKenzie's insight into what the final draft order may be, based on discussions with NHL scouts, managers, and other executives.
The following table looks at the actual draft order and how it compared with the master list assembled by McKenzie. As much as expressions like "off the board" were thrown around during the draft coverage, one look at this chart shows that McKenzie was actually very close. Sure, nobody would have seen Hishon going at 17 or Visentin at 27, but otherwise McKenzie was pretty close.
The first column is the actual draft order, followed by the drafting team, McKeznie's projected ranking and finally a differential between the projected draft ranking and where the player was actually taken.
Actual Player Picked | Team | McKenzie’s Index | Differential |
1. TAYLOR HALL | | 1 | - |
2. | | 2 | - |
3. ERIK GUDBRANSON | | 3 | - |
4. RYAN JOHANSEN | | 6 | +2 |
5. NINO NIEDERREITER | NYI | 7 | +2 |
6. BRETT CONNOLLY | | 8 | +2 |
7. JEFF SKINNER | | 10 | +3 |
8. ALEXANDER BURMISTROV | | 12 | +4 |
9. MIKAEL GRANLUND | | 13 | +4 |
10. DYLAN MCILRATH | NYR | 15 | +5 |
11. JACK CAMPBELL | | 9 | -2 |
12. | | 5 | -7 |
13. BRANDON GORMLEY | | 4 | -9 |
14. JADEN SCHWARTZ | | 29 | +15 |
15. DEREK FORBORT | | 11 | -4 |
16. VLADIMIR TARASENKO | | 16 | - |
17. JOEY HISHON | | 51 | +34 |
18. AUSTIN WATSON | | 14 | -4 |
19. NICK BJUGSTAD | | 19 | - |
20. BEAU BENNETT | | 18 | -2 |
21. RILEY SHEAHAN | | 21 | - |
22. JARRED TINORDI | | 23 | +1 |
23. MARK PYSYK | | 20 | -3 |
24. KEVIN HAYES | | 49 | +25 |
25. QUINTIN HOWDEN | | 26 | +1 |
26. EVGENY KUZNETSOV | | 24 | -2 |
27. MARK VISENTIN | | 60 | +33 |
28. CHARLIE COYLE | | 32 | +4 |
29. EMERSON ETEM | Anaheim | 17 | -12 |
30. BROCK NELSON | NYI | 34 | +4 |