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Official 2025 NHL Draft Thread

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deadhead

deadhead

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Feb 26, 2014
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Appleyard said:
In terms of AHL, VHL, Allsvenskan, Mestis, NLB etc? 2nd tier pro leagues?

I mean, I can give an educated guess order but have not ran the actual numbers aha.
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Yeah. Might throw in KHL and SHL, all minor leagues from the NHL perspective.

I've heard lots of rumors that KHL has really slipped the last few years as fewer foreigners play there, but no confirmation.
 
Appleyard

Appleyard

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Mar 5, 2010
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Appleyard said:
If anyone is interested in the strength of junior leagues "against each other" I.E. not transferability to pros, but how strong the leagues are independently? (I created a matrix which accounts for league scoring and team strength with players going between leagues over the last 10 years)

1. USHL
2. OHL
3. WHL
4. MHL (Russia)
5. SM-Saarja u-20 (Finland)
6. J20 (Sweden)
7. QMJHL
8. ELJ (Czechia)
9. Swiss u-20 Elit
10. Slovakia u-20
11. DNL (Germany)

In terms of tiers? The top 3 are all actually quite similar level wise. Though there actually is an edge to the USHL, maybe surprisingly, but the league is a bit older than all the other junior leagues sans Switzerland. And they do produce more "pros" than the other junior leagues even if not as much top end talent. So the depth of the league is what probably sways it.

Then MHL is kind of on an island equidistant between WHL and SM-Saarja... but the difference from WHL to SM-Liiga is not crazy and all 5 of the top leagues are within around ~15% of each other.

Then there is a drop to the J20, surprisingly. Not enormous, but a bigger drop than from MHL to SM-Liiga u-20.

Then comes the Q, slightly below J20 seemingly, shocking really how poor it is, all the Euros who come over score more adjusted for team in Q than in Finland, Sweden, Russia.

Then ELJ and Swiss u-20 are a bit below the Q. ELJ is clearly better, but that is mainly due to top end guys, overall they are not crazily dissimilar levels median wise.

Then Slovakia and the DNL, well, they are actually a similar level. Around half as good as North American junior hockey if can equate it like that.
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Looked a bit an NAHL... oh boy.

Honestly the QMJHL is about equidistant between USHL and NAHL.

(NAHL slots in just after the Czech and Swiss u-20s, but is actually in a similar tier to them before a bigger drop to Slovakia and DNL)

Actually surprised me how good relatively the NAHL grades out... again, ofc it does not produce many high end talents but just produces quite a lot of solid NCAA, ECHL and AHL players. And again, an older league.

BigToe said:
Ryabkin is off to a super slow start. Might score less than he did last year.
Click to expand...

While Limatov is on pace to obliterate all but Gulyayev's draft year paces.
 
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macleish1974

macleish1974

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BigToe said:
Where'd you get that from? EP has him at 152.
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I could not find it again, but I did find this from Quant.

Cameron Schmidt​

Canada

Born on: January 19, 2007
Birth place: Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Forward, shoots right
5 ' 8" (173 cm) | 132 lb (60 kg)

Did you know that Bobby Clarke, would hit a low of 145 at the end of a season???
 
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BigToe

BigToe

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Jan 6, 2018
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macleish1974 said:
I could not find it again, but I did find this from Quant.

Cameron Schmidt​

Canada

Born on: January 19, 2007
Birth place: Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Forward, shoots right
5 ' 8" (173 cm) | 132 lb (60 kg)

Did you know that Bobby Clarke, would hit a low of 145 at the end of a season???
Click to expand...
Yea, idk where they got that from but everyone else has him at at least 150.

FLYguy3911 said:
This is the one we've been waiting for.
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I'm not that high on Frondell and even I don't have him that low lol. Biggest surprise is not having Potter in the first round though. They usually seem higher on guys that are great skaters.
 
FLYguy3911

FLYguy3911

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Oct 19, 2006
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BigToe said:
I'm not that high on Frondell and even I don't have him that low lol. Biggest surprise is not having Potter in the first round though. They usually seem higher on guys that are great skaters.
Click to expand...
I meant this draft. Not that list.

They usually identify the right guys but the orders early in the year are wonky.
 
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Appleyard

Appleyard

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FLYguy3911 said:
I meant this draft. Not that list.

They usually identify the right guys but the orders early in the year are wonky.
Click to expand...

I love EP but do feel like there is an arms race to put out lists earlier and earlier... used to be they put it out in November. Which makes more sense.

Right now you have top prospects (including the likely #1) who have not played a game yet this season as leagues have not fully started... and very few have played more than 5-10 games anyway. And they will ofc have had their meetings and draft call about this like a week ago probably when even less games were played.


However, a LOT of the Euros are underperforming early.

Eklund, Limatov, Eriksen, Gastrin, Osmanis, Nilson, Pobezal, the HIFK boys are the only ones I have watched so far and have came away thinking they are clearly improved vs last year. Albeit super early.

Annnd does not help that Luleå U20 team are having a mini crisis when they have 2 of the best Swedish prospects for this draft on them.
 
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