The month is May and as June and the NHL draft will inevitably arrive, the different rankings from different people do as well. Each and every ranking is unique as it varies a ton and a lot of that due to how people are. People are different and value different things and the same principle applies to ranking prospects.
One scout may value a quality a lot more than another and that results in the variation that is generally spotted in rankings, especially when outside the top 4. Some may prefer Kakko at one and have Podkolzin at three while another prefers Jack Hughes and doesn’t share the same appreciation for Podkolzin’s game. It doesn’t get easier when you consider that these are teenaged players whose trajectory is still yet unknown. Players may explode in the season following their draft year whereas others may stagnate.
Ranking 17 and 18 year olds is not easy and many different evaluators have many different approaches to it. The way I attempt to mitigate that is to add more opinions, welcoming variety and distinction, and combine it into a list.
Doing a consolidated rankings helps to average out what we feel the ranking should be based off personal preference and understanding of the players. A consolidated ranking is a ranking in which multiple lists are averaged out to find the mean. As you can see, the order varies for each individual but with the amount it varies, some conclusions can be reached on how controversial a prospect is and also how much some may agree on one.
The No Huddle writers participating are Spencer Loane, Evan Butler, Peter Rhinevault, Brendan Fretwell, Joseph (Joey) Bartnicki, and I.
Each of us compiled a list of the 15 best draft eligible prospects ranked by how good we believe that they will become. The rankings are then averaged out to find the mean. Since not everybody has the same players on their lists, if a player was omitted, it is considered that they were ranked 16 for the averaging processes sake.
Everybody agreed that Hughes and Kakko are in a tier of their own with everyone also agreeing that Hughes is still the superior prospect.
Next at 3 and 4, 83% of the rankers agreed on Byram and Turcotte deserving the spots. The sole ranking that was an exception to the perceived second tier had Turcotte exempt from the top 4. In his spot was Dylan Cozens. Turcotte immediately followed at 5.
Four out of six rankings also had Byram at third.
The rankings thus far are something that I agree with. In my personal ranking I have Hughes above Kakko and Byram at three followed by Turcotte at four.
It splits wide open at 5 though.
One had Cozens as high as three while another had him tenth. This pattern is followed throughout the list and gets increasingly wider at eleven where some did not even have players such as Podkolzin or Newhook on their list.
Here are the consolidated rankings. Below that are everyone's individual lists.
