HockeyProspect.com releases Final 2013 Top 30 Prospects list

June 4th, 2013, Oakville, Ontario - HockeyProspect.com has released the first Top 30 prospect rankings to the general public since February 15. The release of the list goes hand in and with the release of the 2013 NHL Draft Black Book and it's included Top 210 ranked prospects.

Leading the way from our first published list of 2013 prospects posted on February 15th, 2012 to June1st, 2013 at the top overall spot is the Halifax Mooseheads' Nathan Mackinnon. "Nathan is a special talent, while Seth Jones and Jonathan Drouin are exceptional players, Nathan is our choice to be the most valuable prospect to an NHL team in the years ahead." HockeyProspect.com's Director of Scouting, Mark Edwards explained. "I love his competitiveness and when you combine that with his on ice skill, it's a lethal combination for opponents. His acceleration is elite and he is fantastic and creating time and space for himself."
There are a couple of changesto the list since the previously posted February list. Climbing once again is Nikita Zadorov. The London Knights prospect has been a steady climber. "I think he is already playing at a high level, but what I really like is the room I see for potential growth." Edwards explained.

HockeyProspect.com also released it's Top 10 prospects for the 2014 NHL Draft. "Keep an eye on the Lyamkin kid we have at #6 overall. We didn't get dozens of viewings, but we sure liked him in the games we scouted. If he is willing to come to Canada he could be a very high import pick." Said Edwards.

For more information on the NHL Draft and CHL import Draft, check out our 2013 NHL Draft Black Book.

June 1st, 2013, Oakville, Ontario - HockeyProspect.com announces official release of the 2013 NHL Draft Black Book.  HockeyProspect.com is used by numerous hockey organizations and is a leader in Independent Scouting of prospects eligible for the National Hockey League Draft. No other service reports on as many prospects or provides the comprehensive scouting reports from games attended.

The 2013 NHL Draft Black Book provides detailed scouting reports on over 600 prospects who are eligible for the 2013, 2014, 2015 and even the 2016 NHL Draft. With over 380 scouting reports on prospects eligible for the upcoming 2013 NHL Draft, it’s easy to understand why hockey industry leaders are turning to HockeyProspect.com.

“The Hockey Prospect NHL Draft Black Book provides NHL executives and fans alike, with a comprehensive look at the top prospects for the NHL Draft. The HockeyProspect.com scouting staff are visible at rinks throughout the course of the entire hockey season around the world, giving subscribers confidence that Hockey Prospect scouting reports are reliable and accurate. The in-depth player profiles provide a great overview of the top prospects skills and abilities.  If you want to be fully prepared for the NHL Draft then the Hockey Prospect NHL Draft Black Book is a must have.”  

- Mike Oke – General Manager, Peterborough Petes

February 15, 2013 Oakville, Ontario HockeyProspect.com has released its latest rankings of the top prospects eligible for the 2013 NHL Draft. This month we have also provided a top 60 prospect list which is available via a newsletter format in our members section for our subscribers.

Heading up the rankings once again this month is Nathan Mackinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads. Mackinnon has been atop the HockeyProspect.com rankings all season long.  Seth Jones from the Portland Winterhawks sits behind MacKinnon in the #2 position. Falling one spot this month is Jonanthan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads. Valeri Nichushkin, who is coming off a strong 5 Nations tournament moves up to the #4 position and Alexander Barkov of Finland rounds out the top five.

Making his first appearance on the HP top 30 list this month is Nic Petan of the Portland Winterhawks. The WHL’s 2nd leading point getter jumps from just outside the top 30 all the way up to the #16 spot in the latest rankings. HP’s Director of Scouting Mark Edwards spoke about Petan making the jump this month. “It’s not as big a jump for us to move Petan up to that range as some may think. We have been very high on Petan all season. It was just a case of waiting to get some extra live viewings before we moved him into the first round.” Edwards recalled a player in the 2008 NHL Draft who was similar in size to Petan, “I think back to another smallish forward in Tyler Ennis. We had Tyler ranked at #21 in the 2008 NHL Draft, he ended up coming off the board at #26 to the Buffalo Sabres."

Another player making his first appearance in HP’s top 30 this month is Ian McCoshen from Waterloo of the USHL.

Mark Edwards will talk about the latest rankings on this weekends Hockey Prospects radio show on Sirius XM NHL Radio and TSN 1050.

You can see a full list of all seven rounds of rankings in our NHL Draft Guide and NHL Draft Black Book. Both publications are released in may each year.

HockeyProspect.com is pleased to release their latest 2013 NHL Draft Top 30 Prospect rankings. Halifax forward Nathan Mackinnon remains the top-rated NHL prospect for the January edition of the list. Moving up a couple spots this month is his Mooseheads teammate, forward Jonathan Drouin. Defenceman Seth Jones and forwards Alex Barkov and Elias Lindholm round out the top 5.

"It's been interesting to watch a player like Drouin become a household name as the season has progressed," said HockeyProspect.com's Director of Scouting, Mark Edwards, when speaking about their latest list. "I was surprised when he didn't even show up in the top 30 on some other early season lists I saw published. We had him in the top #10 going into the season, but after watching him early this year we moved him into the top 5, and this month he moves up again."

In existence since 2004, HockeyProspect.com has made many ranking lists over the years and the 2013 draft class has impressed their scouts.

"There are some pretty special players in the top 7 this season," Edwards noted. "The remainder of the first round is very tight as well.We have players we really like in the 30-40 range who could easily be considered as first round talents. The gap between a player we have ranked at #15 and the player we have around #35 is not as big as in previous seasons."

Newcomers to the HP Top 30 this month are Tri-City Americans goaltender Eric Comrie and forward Alexander Wennberg from Djurgarden in Sweden. Both players have previously been knocking at the door to make the top 30 list, and this month, they kicked the door down. Other notable moves are Darnell Nurse who moves up five spots from 17th to 12th and Madison Bowey who moved up from 19th to 13th overall.Among the players that dropped in the rankings are forwards Connor Hurley and Jacob de la Rose, both of whom slipped out of the top 30.

Tune in to NHL RADIO on SIRIUS XM & TSN 1050 on January 19th as HP's Mark Edwards will chat about these latest NHL Draft rankings.

Watch for our next list in approximately 30 days. Subscribers will be able to access an expanded Top 60 list.

Our December rankings reveal a few changes in the top 10. While Nathan Mackinnon remains in the top spot, Alex Barkov jumps into the number two spot as he continues to have a strong season. Also moving into our top 10 is Hunter Shinkaruk, the WHL forward sneaks into the #10 spot. Andre Burakowsky slipped out of the top 10 and into the early 20's after the recent U20 tournament in Sweden.
 
 One player who is a riser this month is Nikita Zadorov of the London Knights. After viewing him last season we loved his potential to be high end prospect in the 2013 NHL Draft. Zadorov is now beginning to show off his tools on a consistent basis, progressing nicely in his rookie season in the OHL. Nikita moves from being just outside our top 30, all the way up to #16 overall. He is a player with the ability to keep rising as we continue to watch his progress in the second half of the OHL season.

Anthony Duclair slides just outside our top 30 and Ryan Hartman of the Plymouth Whalers gets the last spot in the first round. Like Zadorov, Hartman was another player who sat just outside our top 30 in our previous lists.

Tune into the Hockey Prospects radio show on Sirius XM's NHL Network Radio and TSN 1050 on December 15th as HockeyProspect.com's, Mark Edwards, will be a guest and chat for a full hour about the latest rankings. You can access podcasts of the Hockey Prospects radio show on TSN 1050's website here.

HockeyProspect.com has released our latest Top 30 rankings for the 2013 NHL Draft. Leading the list once again in a very close race is Nathan Mackinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads. Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks is next at the second overall position. Sean Monahan of the Ottawa 67’s holds his spot at number three, while Jonathan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads rises from number ten overall to number four overall. The top 5 is rounded out by Finland’s Alexander Barkov.

There are several new additions on our list this time around. One of those players is Frederik Gauthier of the Rimouski Oceanic, who makes a big move from outside our top 30 all the way to number 12 overall.

Spencer Martin of the Mississauga Steelheads takes over as our top rated goaltender. We really like four goaltenders at this point of the season for the 2013 NHL Draft. Martin of the Steelheads, Eric Comrie in Tri-City,  Zach Fucale from the Mooseheads and Austin Lotz, who is a member of the Everett Silvertips.

Another player making his debut in our top 30 is Connor Hurley. Hurley is a part timer for the USNTDP and a full time player for Edina High School in Minnesota. While the young Hurley has some physical maturing to do, he has impressed us in every single viewing of him. We recently saw Connor in Ann Arbor during the U18 Four Nations tourney. We spoke to Hurley after a game in Ann Arbor and the young prospect impressed us during the conversation. Hurley was well spoken and in our opinion, he had a very good grasp of himself as player.

Unlike the 2012 Draft, this season we are finding it difficult to leave out several players from our top 30 draft list. It’s a very good crop of prospects this season and players will need to remain on top of their games to keep themselves in the rankings.

Here are some honourable mentions for this month:

Remi Elie, London , Nikta Zadorov, London, Ryan Hartman, Plymouth,  Gustov Possler, Modo, JT Compher, USNTDP, Bogdan Yakimov, Reaktor, Shea Theodore, Seattle, Hudson Fasching, USNTDP, Ian McCoshan, Waterloo,  Zach Fucale, Halifax, Eric Comrie, Tri-City,  Austin Lotz, Everett, Ryan Kujawinski, Kingston, Eric Roy, Brandon.

HockeyProspect.com's November 14th, 2012 Top 30 NHL Draft Rankings

*Remember that it’s still early in the season and the range on the number of viewings on one player versus another can still vary for us until the gaps close later on in the season.

Our initial 2013 NHL Draft Rankings have been released and they are included in our fall newsletter which is a FREE PDF download. The newsletter will also be available for free in the iTunes iBook store. Our newsletter includes brief hits on our initial top 30 ranked players. We also have an interview with 2013 NHL Draft Prospect, Sean Monahan, of the Ottawa 67's. Also included in the newsletter are two game reports and our full top 30 2013 NHL Draft Rankings, plus a list of honorable mentions.

You can download the FREE PDF here.

HockeyProspect.com 2013 NHL Draft Rankings

The latest HockeyProspect.com rankings have been released for the 2013 NHL Draft and they feature a mix of fast-climbing stars and some new entries to the list.

The top three prospects remain the same and all of them are off to a quick start this season.  Nathan MacKinnon (#1) has 4 goals & 4 assists in 5 games while his Halifax teammate, Jonathan Drouin (#10), leads the team with 3 goals & 7 assists.  Drouin made one of the biggest jumps in the rankings, moving up 10 spots.

Seth Jones (#2) made his WHL debut and then scored a goal for the winning team at the inaugural All-American Prospects Game.

Ottawa 67’s co-captain Sean Monahan (#3) has scored in each of his team’s four games to begin the season, recording 3 goals & 4 assists.

The biggest rise on the list belongs to Andre Burakowsky (#8), who moved up 13 spots and into the Top-10.