1) One of the good things about the proliferation of NHL Draft ratings in recent years -- apart from the traditional Central Scouting, ISS and The Hockey News rankings, it is also worth hearing what Bob McKenzie (TSN), McKeens and Craig Button have to say -- is that is shows just how much fluctuation and difference of opinion there really is, especially beyond the top few picks.
Every NHL team uses its own internal rankings, and those rankings vary every bit as widely from one another as from the cross-section of the sources listed above. Certain players are more polarizing than others.
For example, the rankings for Michael McLeod range from top 10 (7th by McKeens, 10th by THN) to top 20 (13th by ISS, 15th by McKenzie, 19th by Button, 13th on the Central Scouting rankings). He might, however, be the consensus "safest pick" outside the top four or five draft eligible players: a speedy two-way player with decent size whom everyone agrees consistently brings a strong work ethic and has leadership upside. The fluctuations are in projecting his offensive upside as a pro. Those who believe he has top-six upside rank him in the top 10. Those who place him outside the top 10 see him more as a top-nine forward, but the type who wind up being a team's best player in the playoffs.
Julien Gauthier is 15th in the THN Draft Preview, 17th by McKenzie/TSN, 20th in the McKeen's rankings, 21st in the ISS rankings and 12th in the Central Scouting Northern American skater rankings (after being 4th at midterm). Button, however, ranked him 43rd and McKeen's quotes an Eastern Conference NHL scout trashing the player as soft, selfish with the puck, invisible in big games and one-dimensional.
Another polarizing player, University of Connecticut center Tage Thompson is ranked anywhere from late first-round to mid-second range. He's 24th by ISS, 27th by McKenzie, 28th by McKeens, 32nd by Button, 47th by THN and 20th on the Central Scouting North American skater list.
THN has power forward Max Jones ranked 13th. ISS has him 14th. McKenzie ranked him 19th. Central Scouting has him 14th on their North American skater list (which would be lower overall if their European skater list was combined). McKeens has him 17th. So far, there's not too much variation on the aggressive power forward, but Button has him 42nd.
Once granted exceptional player status to enter CHL hockey at age 15, now draft-eligible defenseman Sean Day is 51st by McKeen's, 58th by TSN, 59th North American skater by CS and 67th by THN. Button ranked him outside his top 100. 2) The NHL Awards in Las Vegas are tonight. Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, up for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, is the only Philadelphia player to finish in the top three of the voting in any category (because there is only one balloting round the oft-used terms "finalist" is a misnomer, although the top three vote-getters are all recognized before the winner is announced). While it is unlikely that Gostisbehere won the Calder, he is a shoo-in for an NHL All-Rookie Team selection.
3) June 22 -- Flyers Alumni Birthdays: Roger Pelletier (1945), Ilya Bryzgalov (1980), Darroll Powe (1985). In memoriam: Wayne Stephenson (January 29, 1945 - June 22, 2010).
4) As a reminder that one never really knows how a draft pick asset will turn out, and why hindsight is always 20-20: On June 22, 2003, during the NHL Draft the Flyers swapped their seventh round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a sixth-round pick the next year.
Ho hum exchange, right? Most of the time, yes.
But this particular year, the Sharks used their added seventh-round pick on Waterloo Black Hawks forward Joe Pavelski. The next year, the Flyers took Ladislav Scurko with the sixth-round pick from San Jose. Pavelski, of course, went on to NHL stardom. Scurko went on to be convicted of the multiple-stabbing death of Slovakian referee Marek Liptaj. Scurko was released from a Slovak prison in December 2015.
