Élite Propsects January 2025 draft ranking

[Stewie Griffin]

Besides even if we correct that to him being American, it seems unlikely that 20 of the best 32 players are Canadian.

They just went back to back years looking anemic at the World Juniors. Their share of NHL'ers goes down every year. This might be the first time maybe ever they don't have the best national team for best on best.

Why does it seem like this rankings and others seem to instead be doubling down and putting more Canadians in their first round than in the past? Maybe they haven't learned their lesson on what's happening within hockey and need to broaden their horizons and do more than watching so much of the CHL.

I know a few others quoted you already but it's been said by a lot of people that this is a weak year in general, specifically in all countries besides Canada. Which non-Canadian do you think is that much of an outlier here, that needs to be in the first round.

Secondly, the last 2 world juniors mean absolutely nothing in terms of this draft. Should all of the (weak) USNDTP players go in the first round since their country won the last 2 world juniors?

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Cullen Potter?

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

2 swedes in thr first is not going to happen, will be at least 3 or 4. Rankings are too NA heavy

Bobfather has Frondell, Eklund, Sascha & Gästrin in the first round. Ihs-Wozniak, Nilson & Genborg early 2nd round.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

why so angry

Canadian players are still the best, even if you and Hockey Canada don't see it haha

Nothing angry in my post.

Canadian players are systemically overrated with the draft. Wasn’t really a huge issue pre-COVID, and now it’s becoming a larger and larger issue. 20+ first round picks is kind of my point.

Their share of the first round picks is going up and the relative success is going down.

I think one of the main drivers of this is that CHL scoring is up, and people can’t contextualize what it means. An American player who the American program viewed as their worst forward on a team that had a few forwards go undrafted is a potential re-draft first rounder because he’s lit up the CHL statistically.

There’s something wrong with that equation, and it needs correcting.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I would imagine just at face value the results of the last two years world juniors don't mean a single thing to this years draft class. Like the Americans having a couple really strong birth years aging out isn't going to give this birth year a bump in the rankings don't think it would work that way.

How does an American player who wasn’t picked last year because he was cut for some of those YEARS YOUNGER American players and viewed by them as the worst forward on the team end up ahead in the draft rankings this year of those players? It seems like something is wrong with this equation.

Here are some of the CHL players drafted ahead of Cole Hutson:

Cole Beaudoin
Liam Greentree
Marek Vanacker
Ben Danford
Sam O’Reilly
Charlie Elick
Andrew Basha

Of course, it’s not just American players who’ve become undervalued (American players used to be overvalued and now people claim with no evidence that the age groups are excessively weak). How are these Czechs, Finns, Swedes achieving better results than the Canadians if the players are so much worse (like not even on the same planet when it comes to draft position and becoming more and more extreme as time goes by)?

I know a few others quoted you already but it's been said by a lot of people that this is a weak year in general, specifically in all countries besides Canada. Which non-Canadian do you think is that much of an outlier here, that needs to be in the first round.

Secondly, the last 2 world juniors mean absolutely nothing in terms of this draft. Should all of the (weak) USNDTP players go in the first round since their country won the last 2 world juniors?

Oh yes, always a weak year to stuff the coffers with Canadian and CHL players. Then those “weak years” for other countries beat Canada at the main international tournaments for these age groups and achieve better success relative to draft position.