by Eldon MacDonald (edited by @ChrisRalphTHW)
The War Room May Rankings
The 2015 NHL Draft Rankings War Room: May Edition brings you the Top 180 ranked prospects as compiled by THW’s Eastern Canada based hockey bird dog, Eldon MacDonald. The Next Ones Midterm Rankings (a.k.a. Chris’s List) can be found here, with final rankings under construction.
With winter and hockey almost over, the final ranking season is upon us. The NHL put out their final rankings in April and the Hockey News just put out their draft preview issue (a good value at $5.99 CDN with short but excellent write-ups on the top 60 prospects plus top 100 rankings). The rankings attached to this article are not the final ones from THW’s War Room but are close. One of the things I like to see in rankings is the reasoning, however brief, behind outlier picks. Here is the rationale behind some of mine: Top 13 War Room Outliers.
War Room In Depth Player Profiles for the 2015 Draft*
*alphabetical by surname
- Barzal, Mathew – Seattle, WHL, C, 5’11, 175 – 44gp 12g 45a 57pts +13
- Connor, Kyle – Youngstown, USHL, LW/C, 6’1, 177 – 56gp 34g 46a 80pts +3
- Crouse, Lawson – Kingston, OHL, LW, 6’4, 215 – 56gp 29g 22a 51pts +10
- Eichel, Jack – Boston University, Hockey East, C, 6’2, 196 – 40gp 26g 45a 71pts +51
- Hanifin, Noah – Boston College, Hockey East, D, 6’3, 205 – 37gp 5g 18a 23pts +12
- McDavid, Connor – Erie, OHL, C, 6’1, 195 – 47gp 44g 76a 120 pts +60
- Marner, Mitch – London, OHL, C/RW, 5’11, 160 – 63gp 44g 82a 126pts +36
- Meier, Timo – Halifax, QMJHL, RW, 6’1, 209 – 61gp 44g 46a 90 pts +20
- Provorov, Ivan – Brandon, WHL, D, 6’1, 201 – 60gp 15g 46a 61pts +36
- Rantanen, Mikko – TPS, Fin 1 (Liiga), C/RW, 6’4, 211 – 56gp 9g 19a 28pts -1
- Strome, Dylan – Erie, OHL, C, 6’3, 185 – 67gp 45g 84a 129pts +47
- Werenski, Zach – University of Michigan, Big Ten, D, 6’2, 206 – 35gp 9g 16a 25 pts +9
- Zacha, Pavel – Sarnia, OHL, LW/C, 6’3, 210 – 37gp 16g 18a 34pts +5
2015 War Room Sleeper Quiz
Six rounds of sleepers this year, twelve in all. Some will be easy; you could almost guess them by their catch phrases. Others may require a little more research or thinking. Good luck to all! And yes, answers are provided. Here are the teasers – complete descriptions and answers can be found here:
- Round 1 – The Potential Steal of the Draft
- Round 1 – Mr. I Don’t Get No Respect
- Round 2 – The Russian Lawson Crouse
- Round 2 – Mr. They Almost Forgot About Me
- Round 3 – Mr. I Almost Had Them
- Round 3 – Mr. Free Agent Rookie
- Round 4 – The Big Giraffe
- Round 4 – The Better Late Than Never Man
- Round 5 – The Bro
- Round 5 – The Whiz
- Round 6 – The Captain Who Didn’t Finish The Tournament
- Round 6 – The League Scoring Champion
The 2015 NHL Draft Ultimate Prospect Tracker
This update expands the previous list of draft eligible prospects covered to well over 700 players making this your quintessential draft resource.
[Related: NHL Draft War Room Rankings: The Top 13 Outliers]
The War Top 180 May Rankings
The Ultimate Rankings Spreadsheet Legend
THW’s War Room rankings are presented in the following formats in the accompanying spreadsheet:
- Tab 1 – Sorted byE-Mac’s NHL Draft War Room May ranking
- Tab 2 – Sorted by NHL Central Scouting Combined Mid-Term Ranking
- Tab 3 – Sorted by League
- Tab 4 – Sorted by Nationality
- Column 1 “Mar” = E-Mac’s War Room May ranking
- Column 2 “NHL” =NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm rankings combined
- Only a portion of the table displays by default; you can scroll over to see the rest of the player demographics and statistics or select View full-size workbook option, which is the icon in the bottom right hand corner, to view the full table.
- The beauty of the above option is that you can then download the file to your computer and play with it or adjust it anyway you like.
- Be sure to scroll over to see E-Mac’s War Room
- The spreadsheet is searchable; simply click on the spreadsheet and utilize CTRL/Command “F”
- Most prospects are also linked to their elite prospects
