It’s time for the first ranking release of the draft season from McKeen’s Hockey. Our preliminary ranking is a Top 50 with several honorable mentions. Around the holiday season, correlating with the World Juniors, we will release our second one, an expanded Top 100.
Regina’s Connor Bedard remains on top of our rankings, despite the incredible start to the year from Adam Fantilli. We remain steadfast that Bedard is an incredible talent who is a surefire star in the National Hockey League. That said, this draft is living up to its hype early on with so many strong performances from players inside of the lottery. As mentioned, Fantilli is on a record setting pace at Michigan as a freshman. Leo Carlsson is performing exceptionally well in the SHL. Matvei Michkov is lighting the VHL (Russian second league) on fire. It’s going to be a great year to be bad in the NHL.
Coming into the draft season, we knew it would be a strong one for Western Canada and this ranking reflects that. Ten Western players (WHL and BCHL) found themselves in our first round and 14 in the Top 50. It is looking very likely that we could see double digit WHL players selected in round one come June.
In terms of European nations, love is much more evenly spread. The breakdown (based on the league being played in and not by “nationality”) is as follows: Sweden (6), Russia (4), Finland (2), Czechia (2), and Slovakia (1).
Our 16 honorable mentions all received heavy consideration from our scouting team to be included in this Top 50. In particular, it was very difficult to leave Noel Nordh and David Reinbacher outside looking in. We will be watching these players closely in the next few months.
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | TEAM | HT/WT | DOB | GP-G-A-PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor Bedard | C | Regina (WHL) | 5-10/185 | 17-Jul-05 | 16-13-18-31 |
| 2 | Adam Fantilli | C | Michigan (B1G) | 6-2/195 | 12-Oct-04 | 10-9-11-20 |
| 3 | Leo Carlsson | C | Orebro (SHL) | 6-3/200 | 26-Dec-04 | 17-2-10-12 |
| 4 | Matvei Michkov | RW | SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (VHL) | 5-10/170 | 9-Dec-04 | 8-8-4-12 |
| 5 | Brayden Yager | C | Moose Jaw (WHL) | 5-11/165 | 3-Jan-05 | 15-7-11-18 |
| 6 | Eduard Sale | LW | Kometa Brno (Cze) | 6-2/175 | 10-Mar-05 | 16-3-3-6 |
| 7 | Calum Ritchie | C | Oshawa (OHL) | 6-2/185 | 21-Jan-05 | 14-6-6-12 |
| 8 | Dalibor Dvorsky | C | AIK (Allsvenskan) | 6-1/200 | 15-Jun-05 | 11-4-2-6 |
| 9 | Will Smith | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-0/175 | 17-Mar-05 | 15-11-19-30 |
| 10 | Zach Benson | LW | Winnipeg (WHL) | 5-9/160 | 12-May-05 | 16-8-14-22 |
| 11 | Colby Barlow | LW | Owen Sound (OHL) | 6-0/195 | 14-Feb-05 | 11-7-7-14 |
| 12 | Matthew Wood | RW | UConn (HE) | 6-3/195 | 6-Feb-05 | 11-4-6-10 |
| 13 | Nate Danielson | C | Brandon (WHL) | 6-1/185 | 27-Sep-04 | 17-7-8-15 |
| 14 | Andrew Cristall | LW | Kelowna (WHL) | 5-9/165 | 4-Feb-05 | 13-11-11-22 |
| 15 | Ethan Gauthier | RW | Sherbrooke (QMJHL) | 5-11/175 | 26-Jan-05 | 16-9-13-22 |
| 16 | Otto Stenberg | C | Frolunda (Swe J20) | 5-11/180 | 29-May-05 | 14-4-5-9 |
| 17 | Riley Heidt | C | Prince George (WHL) | 5-10/180 | 25-Mar-05 | 16-7-13-20 |
| 18 | Cam Allen | D | Guelph (OHL) | 6-0/195 | 7-Jan-05 | 16-1-5-6 |
| 19 | Michael Hrabal | G | Omaha (USHL) | 6-6/210 | 20-Jan-05 | 3-2-2, 2.45, .926 |
| 20 | Mikhail Gulyayev | D | Avangard Omsk (KHL) | 5-11/170 | 26-Apr-05 | 11-0-1-1 |
| 21 | Jayden Perron | C | Chicago (USHL) | 5-9/165 | 11-Jan-05 | 13-6-12-18 |
| 22 | Carson Bjarnason | G | Brandon (WHL) | 6-3/185 | 30-Jun-05 | 6-5-2, 2.67, .925 |
| 23 | Axel Sandin Pellikka | D | Skelleftea (SHL) | 5-11/180 | 11-Mar-05 | 7-1-0-1 |
| 24 | Caden Price | D | Kelowna (WHL) | 6-0/185 | 24-Aug-05 | 13-1-8-9 |
| 25 | Dmitri Simashev | D | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (KHL) | 6-4/200 | 4-Feb-05 | 14-0-0-0 |
| 26 | William Whitelaw | RW | Youngstown (USHL) | 5-9/170 | 5-Feb-05 | 10-5-3-8 |
| 27 | Kasper Halttunen | LW | HIFK (Fin-Liiga) | 6-3/205 | 7-Jun-05 | 8-0-1-1 |
| 28 | Lukas Dragicevic | D | Tri-City (WHL) | 6-1/190 | 25-Apr-05 | 16-5-16-21 |
| 29 | Oliver Moore | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 5-11/185 | 22-Jan-05 | 15-6-11-17 |
| 30 | Charlie Stramel | C | Wisconsin (B1G) | 6-3/215 | 15-Oct-04 | 10-1-1-2 |
| 31 | Bradly Nadeau | LW | Penticton (BCHL) | 5-10/165 | 5-May-05 | 16-17-18-35 |
| 32 | Hunter Brzustewicz | D | Kitchener (OHL) | 5-11/185 | 29-Nov-04 | 12-0-13-13 |
| 33 | Theo Lindstein | D | Brynas (SHL) | 6-0/180 | 5-Jan-05 | 4-0-0-0 |
| 34 | Mathieu Cataford | C | Halifax (QMJHL) | 5-11/185 | 1-Mar-05 | 15-10-11-21 |
| 35 | Ryan Leonard | RW | USN U18 (USDP) | 5-11/190 | 21-Jan-05 | 13-13-8-21 |
| 36 | Daniil But | LW | Loko Yaroslavl (MHL) | 6-5/200 | 15-Feb-05 | 14-11-5-16 |
| 37 | Luca Cagnoni | D | Portland (WHL) | 5-9/180 | 21-Dec-04 | 14-5-9-14 |
| 38 | Gabe Perreault | RW | USN U18 (USDP) | 5-11/165 | 7-May-05 | 15-11-16-27 |
| 39 | Koehn Ziemmer | RW | Prince George (WHL) | 6-0/205 | 8-Dec-04 | 16-13-13-26 |
| 40 | Gavin Brindley | C | Michigan (B1G) | 5-8/165 | 5-Oct-04 | 10-1-5-6 |
| 41 | Beau Akey | D | Barrie (OHL) | 6-0/170 | 11-Feb-05 | 12-3-8-11 |
| 42 | Alex Ciernik | LW | Sodertalje (Swe J20) | 5-11/175 | 8-Oct-04 | 8-5-5-10 |
| 43 | Quentin Musty | LW | Sudbury (OHL) | 6-2/200 | 6-Jul-05 | 14-4-9-13 |
| 44 | Luca Pinelli | C | Ottawa (OHL) | 5-8/165 | 5-Apr-05 | 13-7-11-18 |
| 45 | Lenni Hameenaho | RW | Assat (Fin-Liiga) | 6-0/175 | 7-Nov-04 | 21-3-6-9 |
| 46 | Ondrej Molnar | LW | Nitra (Svk) | 6-0/175 | 8-Feb-05 | 16-2-2-4 |
| 47 | Jakub Dvorak | D | Bili Tygri Liberec (Cze) | 6-5/205 | 25-May-05 | 17-0-2-2 |
| 48 | Samuel Honzek | LW | Vancouver (WHL) | 6-3/185 | 12-Nov-04 | 17-9-12-21 |
| 49 | Carson Rehkopf | C | Kitchener (OHL) | 6-1/195 | 7-Jan-05 | 12-5-5-10 |
| 50 | Kalan Lind | LW | Red Deer (WHL) | 6-0/160 | 25-Jan-05 | 15-2-13-15 |
| HM | Noel Nordh | RW | Brynas (Swe J20) | 6-3/195 | 25-Jan-05 | 15-5-6-11 |
| HM | David Reinbacher | D | Kloten (Sui-NL) | 6-2/185 | 25-Oct-04 | 18-2-8-10 |
| HM | Timur Mukhanov | C | Omskie Yastreby (MHL) | 5-8/170 | 17-Jun-05 | 12-8-7-15 |
| HM | Arttu Karki | D | Tappara (Fin-U20) | 6-1/175 | 8-Dec-04 | 17-7-15-22 |
| HM | Roman Kantserov | RW | Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk (MHL) | 5-9/175 | 20-Sep-04 | 18-10-13-23 |
| HM | Martin Misiak | RW | Nove Zamky (Svk) | 6-2/195 | 30-Sep-04 | 16-0-5-5 |
| HM | Maxim Strbak | D | Sioux Falls (USHL) | 6-1/205 | 13-Apr-05 | 12-1-7-8 |
| HM | Jesse Nurmi | LW | KooKoo (Fin-U20) | 5-10/165 | 7-Mar-05 | 20-14-17-31 |
| HM | Jesse Kiiskinen | RW | Pelicans (Fin-U20) | 5-11/180 | 23-Aug-05 | 16-11-16-27 |
| HM | Tuomas Uronen | RW | HIFK (Fin-U20) | 5-11/180 | 19-Mar-05 | 15-7-10-17 |
| HM | Emil Jarventie | LW | Ilves (Fin-U20) | 5-9/165 | 4-Apr-05 | 21-8-11-19 |
| HM | Oliver Bonk | D | London (OHL) | 6-2/175 | 9-Jan-05 | 13-3-5-8 |
| HM | Scott Ratzlaff | G | Seattle (WHL) | 6-0/175 | 9-Mar-05 | 4-1-0, 2.57, .901 |
| HM | Ivan Remezovsky | D | SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL) | 6-1/165 | 8-Feb-05 | 17-0-4-4 |
| HM | Magomed Sharakanov | D | MHK Dynamo Moskva (MHL) | 6-1/200 | 11-Oct-04 | 11-1-8-9 |
| HM | Noah Dower Nilsson | LW | Frolunda (Swe J20) | 6-0/175 | 25-Apr-05 | 18-19-15-34 |
| HM | Yegor Klimovich | RW | Sibirskie Snaipery (MHL) | 5-9/160 | 14-May-05 | 18-6-13-19 |