The 2016 NHL draft is now in the books. Auston “Powers” Matthews officially landed in T-Dot. The Fab Finns, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi, landed in Winnipeg and Edmonton, respectively. Pierre-Luc Dubois did break up the Finnish landing party, with Puljujarvi unexpectedly being skipped over by the Finnish heavy brass of the Columbus Blue Jackets for PLD. 111 of 120 prospects ranked in The Next Ones Final Rankings were ultimately drafted. Some went higher, others lower than where they were ranked. But that is to be expected given this was not a prognostication of NHL results, rather where The Next Ones perception of their longterm potential and value.
Winners
Winners will not truly be known for perhaps five years or more down the road, but early analysis showed some interesting potential conclusions.
The Calgary Flames snagged outstanding value all over the draft. From Dillon Dube in the second to Adam Fox in the third to Linus Lindstrom in the fourth to Mitchell Mattson to Eetu Tuulola and Matthew Phillips in the sixth, all were ranked higher than they ended up going.
North of Calgary, The Edmonton Oilers landing Jesse Puljujarvi at fourth was tremendous value alone. Toss in Tyler Benson in the second, and Aapeli Räsänen in the sixth, and you have one heck of a haul from Buffalo.
The Los Angeles Kings selected two intriguing defenseman in Kyle Clague and Jacob Moverare, both with different skill-sets.
The Montreal Canadiens faired well in the third and fourth rounds picking Will Bitten and Viktor Mete respectively.
The Nashville Predators were savvy at the draft table, and for the most past the Toronto Maple Leafs accomplished good things.
AMERICA, Finland, Red Wings, Flames and other winners from the 2016 NHL Draft – https://t.co/xRXMrlRwaK
— NBC Sports Hockey (@NBCSportsHockey) June 25, 2016
The Undrafted Next Ones
The following players went undrafted. We might see them at prospect development camps this summer.
- 73 Fortier, Maxime 5’10 RW
- 75 Kuznetsov, Vladimir 6’1 RW
- 82 Stransky, Simon 5’11 LW
- 87 Wahlgren, Tim 6’0 C
- 93 Sawchenko, Zach 6’0 G
- 97 Gleason, Benjamin 6’0 D
- 99 Reichel, Kristian 6’1 C
- 103 Mäkinen, Otto 6’1 F
- 104 Maksimovich, Kyle 5’9 LW
- 109 Burke, Brayden 5’10 LW
- 115 Weissbach, Linus 5’9 W
Where Did The Next Ones Land?
The following table highlights the 2016 NHL draft results with respect to where players ranked in The Next Ones Top 120 landed ending off with the eleven who went undrafted. The second tab of the spreadsheet is sorted by team. If the player wasn’t ranked in The Next Ones rankings, he’s not included here.
*The 3rd column is the players’ The Next Ones final ranking
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THW’s War Room Top 210 NHL Draft Rankings (Final Edition)
(Downloadable spreadsheet, PDF formats)
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