In early June I published a quick look at the first round through the eyes of many NHL experts, looking to isolate what players would be available when the Flames picked at 16th overall.
With the draft now three days away it’s a good time to update recent changes to rankings and have one last look at the rankings prior to Friday.
If anything the consensus is even weaker than it was in the first week of June. Updates from Craig Button, Bob McKenzie and others have sent some players down the list, others up the list, muddying the waters even more.
Here is a look at the change in the consensus list from June 6th to today.
The column on the right shows the change for each player in the last two weeks.
Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar are making a defined move up the list and into the top five or six, while all of Owen Tippett, Martin Necas and Timothy Liljegren have dropped two spots, potentially moving out of the top ten.
In the area around 16 Cale Foote is moving up, and Nicolas Hague is moving down as the two defenders have seemed to swap positions.
The level of confusion seems to start earlier in the draft now as well, as the range of players that have multiple rankings past the Flames choice at 16 has widened to include the 9th pick (was 13th). Overall the list of possible players has increased from 8 players to 13. Should be quite a ride.
It’s interesting to note Craig Button has pushed Owen Tippett even further down the list; he had him at 20th overall two weeks ago and now he sits 23rd.
Has your choice changed over the past two weeks?
I had Nick Suzuki a few weeks ago, but now I’m starting to think he won’t be on the board when the Flames make their choice. I’ll update my choice to Kristian Vesalainen.
