February 2017 NHL Draft Consensus Rankings

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February Edition

We’re now more than halfway through the junior and college hockey seasons. Most rankings entities have put out several lists featuring prospects for the upcoming 2017 NHL Draft, and the esteemed Bob McKenzie of TSN has finally put out his midseason rankings. Given that all the major rankers have had a chance to update their fall rankings, it’s time to update our Consensus Rankings. And don’t forget to check out our complete guide to the 2017 NHL Draft.

Here’s the projected consensus first round (the top 31 ranked players) as of early February 2017.

Included Rankings

Notes on the Top 31

The positional breakdown of the Top 31 is:

  • 0 goaltenders
  • 9 defensemen
  • 22 forwards

For the curious, goaltenders Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Jake Oettinger and Michael Dipietro were all on at least one top 31 list, but they all failed to crack the consensus first round.

The league breakdown of the Top 31 is:

  • 7 Western Hockey League
  • 6 Ontario Hockey League
  • 5 Swedish Hockey League
  • 3 United States Hockey League
  • 2 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
  • 2 VHL (Supreme Hockey League)
  • 2 SM-Liiga
  • 1 Czech Extraliga
  • 1 Alberta Junior Hockey League
  • 1 HockeyAllsvenskan
  • 1 NCAA

In what may be a unique circumstance this year, all 11 European players that cracked the top 31 are currently playing professional hockey.

With a bit of variation, every ranking has five of the consensus-top-six players in their top six. After that, chaos reigns. As you can see, once you get beyond Owen Tippett at sixth, there’s tremendous variation from ranking to ranking regarding where players fit. And there has also been considerable movement between this ranking and the previous consensus ranking back in November, outside of a handful of prospects.

Big movers are all over the February rankings. Cale Makar and Cody Glass both go from being outside the top 31 in November to right in the meat of it this time out. Nico Hischier continues the momentum from his strong World Juniors and Top Prospects Game by moving from 15th in November to second overall here. On the flip side, Maxime Comtois (four to 20), Klim Kostin (five to 12) and Kristian Vesalainen (eight to 23) dropped significantly.

Consensus Rankings

Rank Player Pos. Team ISS Marek McKenzie Button HP FC
1 Nolan Patrick C Brandon (WHL) 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Nico Hischier C Halifax (QMJHL) 3 3 2 2 2 4
3 Timothy Lijlgren D Rogle BK (SHL) 2 2 3 3 7 2
4 Gabriel Vilardi C Windsor (OHL) 5 5 4 5 5 5
5 Casey Mittelstadt C Green Bay (USHL) 6 8 5 10 3 3
6 Owen Tippett RW Mississauga (OHL) 4 6 6 6 12 6
7 Eeli Tolvanen LW Sioux City (USHL) 10 4 9 8 14 7
8 Martin Necas C HC Kometa Brno (Extraliga) 18 10 8 4 6 23
9 Michael Rasmussen C Tri-City (WHL) 7 11 7 11 15 20
10 Cale Makar D Brooks (AJHL) 13 12 12 13 8 18
11 Lias Andersson C HV71 (SHL) 25 14 15 9 11 10
12 Klim Kostin RW Dynamo Balashikha (VHL) 9 7 10 25 24 12
13 Elias Pettersson C Timra IK (Allsvenskan) 21 11 15 4 8
14 Ryan Poehling C St. Cloud State (NCAA) 15 23 17 7 20 17
15 Miro Heiskanen D HIFK (SM-Liiga) 18 13 14 9 16
16 Cal Foote D Kelowna Rockets (WHL) 8 19 18 23 13 22
17 Nic Hague D Mississauga (OHL) 12 9 21 31 21 9
18 Juuso Valimaki D Tri-City (WHL) 11 13 16 21 13
19 Cody Glass C Portland (WHL) 14 16 14 16 19 30
20 Maxime Comtois LW Victoriaville (QMJHL) 17 15 22 29 18 11
21 Kailer Yamamoto C Spokane (WHL) 22 23 12 22 14
22 Shane Bowers C Waterloo (USHL) 24 24 20 18 16
23 Kristian Vesalainen D Frolunda HC (SHL) 29 17 19 28 30 15
24 Matthew Strome LW Hamilton (OHL) 20 27 29 20 28 19
25 Nick Suzuki C Owen Sound (OHL) 27 25 27 17 26 21
26 Nikita Popugaev RW Prince George (WHL) 16 29 26 24 23
27 Urho Vaakanainen D JYP (SM-Liiga) 23 21 24 25 27
28 Isaac Ratcliffe LW Guelph (OHL) 28 10 29
29 Alexei Lipanov C Dynamo Balashikha (VHL) 19 17
30 Marcus Davidsson C Djurgardens IF (SHL) 30 30 27 24
31 Erik Branstrom D HV71 (SHL) 20 28