2019 NHL Draft Consensus Rankings – Mid Season

The 2018-19 hockey season is well underway. The World Juniors have come and gone, the annual Sherwin-Williams CHL Top Prospects Game has occurred, and the major ranking agencies have all published their January and February mid-season rankings.

As a result, it’s the ideal time for the mid season 2019 NHL Draft Consensus Rankings, averaging out the variation in the major rankings to produce a single definitive ordering of prospects.

2019 NHL Draft top prospect Vasily Podkolzin of SKA St. Petersburg. (photo courtesy SKA)

Here’s the projected first round (the top 32 ranked players, as there’s a tie for 31st overall) according to the major rankers.

Included Rankings

We’ve included seven major rankings.

• International Scouting Service’s January ranking
• Sam Cosentino’s (of Sportsnet) January ranking
• Bob McKenzie’s (of TSN) January ranking
• Craig Button’s (of TSN) January ranking
• HockeyProspect’s January ranking
• Future Considerations’ winter ranking
• The Hockey News’ Feburary ranking

Feel free to compare the consensus first round to the latest rankings compiled by The Hockey Writers NHL Draft team: Ryan Pike’s Top 75, Larry Fisher’s Top 217, and Andrew Forbes’ Top 124.

Notes on the Top 32

The positional breakdown of the Top 32 is:

• 1 goaltender
• 9 defensemen
• 22 forwards (12 centers, 10 wingers)

The league breakdown of the Top 32 is:

• 9 United States Hockey League (all but one from the U.S. National Development Team)
• 7 Western Hockey League (all domestic)
• 4 Ontario Hockey League (3 domestic, 1 import)
• 3 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (all domestic)
• 3 Minor Hockey League (Russia)
• 2 SM-Liiga (Finland)
• 1 HockeyAllsvenskan (Sweden)
• 1 British Columbia Hockey League (junior A)
• 1 Swedish Hockey League
• 1 Deutch Extraliga (Germany)

There’s a pretty distinct grouping in the top seven, along with a general consensus within the top 32 – 19 of the 32 players listed here were on all seven rankings’ projected first rounds. Jack Hughes is the unanimous first overall prospect, with Kaapo Kakko as the unanimous second overall and Vasily Podkolzin as the consensus third. The two WHL centers, Dylan Cozens and Kirby Dach, are tightly grouped for fourth and fifth. Matthew Boldy and Bowen Byram are clustered for sixth and seventh.

Beyond the top seven the rankings spread out considerably, which could make for an eventful first night at the draft in Vancouver.

The Consensus First Round

(“Nov.” refers to the player’s rank, if applicable, in November’s Consensus Rankings)