People were claiming he would be better than Eichel. The expectations were him and Veleno would be a very strong #1 and #2. Right now the top of the draft is looking like Rasmus Dahlin and Svetchnikov, although we are a long way out.
Eichel's stats weren't that good his first year with the NTDP program. For the U-17 Team, he was 19+15=34 in 36 games. For the U-18 team, he was 10+8=18 in 22 games. And for the Juniors in the USHL, he was 13+14=27 in 35 games. At the World Hockey Challenge Under 17, he was 3+0 in 5 games. Wise was 2+2=4 in 5 games at the World Hockey Challenge Under 17, so he was probably even better than Eichel at that tournament. And while his stats other than this tournament aren't that good, its been like two months of games. The team has struggled, not just Wise. He could rattle off a bunch of points the next month, and no one would question his stats.
I'm not even worried about the stats compared to those players. I'm not worried about the offense either. I think he is very dynamic offensively, based on what I watched at this recent tournament and the Youth Olympic games. The thing to question with Wise is his size. Can he stay at center at 5'10 185? Maybe, maybe not. If he was 6'0, I think it would be a lot easier to project him as Eichel level. Wise is probably going to be a 1st round pick just because he's not that short and has pretty good offensive skills that can probably project in an NHL top 6, even if its just as a 5'10 winger. What would get him to that top tier is being a player who scouts think can be a 1C. That'll likely depend a lot on his height. Very few 5'10 players at 1C's. Right now he's a talented offensive player with average height. He needs to do as much as he can to stay at center, and thats working on his defensive game, face-offs, and hoping he grows another few inches. If he doesn't grow another few inches and can become a complete player, maybe he's Claude Giroux and is one of the few under 6'0 who can stick as a high level center. We are only talking about another 2 or 3 inches though. His offensive skills are probably there with the Eichel's and Matthews in their first year with the NTDP. He's not Eichel or Matthews level yet, a lot of it because of his height.
I think the only three players who I'd place in the top tier for 2018 are Dahlin, Wilde and Veleno. Some others like Wise, Merkley, Khovanov have height concerns, Svechknikov has a positional concern as top level wingers are usually less valuable than top level centers or defenseman. I think the 2018 Draft looks like one of the better recent drafts about 20 months out, but there's a lot of unknowns near the top of the draft. In another year, there will probably be another few players who can be placed in that top tier, but right now, I'd say Dahlin probably has the advantage for 1OA for 2018 with Wilde and Veleno not too far behind.