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.

Vasily Podkolzin of SKA St. Petersburg
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.

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)

Rank
Player Pos. Primary Team Nov. ISS SN McKenzie Button HP FC THN
1 Jack Hughes C U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Kaapo Kakko RW TPS Turku (SM-Liiga) 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 Vasily Podkolzin RW St. Petersburg (MHL) 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 5
4 Dylan Cozens C Lethbridge (WHL) 3 5 4 5 4 9 5 3
5 Kirby Dach C Saskatoon (WHL) 4 4 6 4 8 8 4 4
6 Matthew Boldy LW U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 11 7 5 7 7 5 7 11
7 Bowen Byram D Vancouver (WHL) 6 6 8 6 10 11 6 6
8 Trevor Zegras C U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 15 11 14 10 6 6 10 8
9 Philip Broberg D AIK (Allsvenskan) 8 8 16 8 5 14 18 9
10 Alex Turcotte C U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 9 15 9 11 28 4 9 7
11 Peyton Krebs LW Kootenay (WHL) 10 23 7 9 17 7 8 13
12 Raphael Lavoie C Halifax (QMJHL) 7 13 10 14 14 28 11 12
13 Cam York D U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 13 16 12 15 18 20 14 15
14 Ryan Suzuki C Barrie (OHL) 12 9 20 12 29 22 12 17
15 Victor Soderstrom D Brynas IF (SHL) 19 14 22 17 19 13 13 23
16 Alex Newhook C Victoria (BCHL) 14 10 17 20 25 16 19 16
17 Arthur Kaliyev LW Hamilton (OHL) 18 31 11 13 9 28 14
18 Cole Caufield C U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 17 17 15 18 13 30 16 30
19 Matthew Robertson D Edmonton (WHL) 16 12 28 16 20 24 15 25
20 Spencer Knight G U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 22 13 19 15 10 21
21 Moritz Seider D Adler Mannheim (DEL) 24 25 29 21 30 12 17 22
22 Jakob Pelletier LW Moncton (QMJHL) NR 18 31 11 26 20 20
23 Thomas Harley D Mississauga (OHL) 26 28 21 22 16 10
24 Bobby Brink RW Sioux City (USHL) NR 24 30 26 15 23 27
25 Ilya Nikolayev C Yaroslavl (MHL) NR 20 12 18
26 Ville Heinola D Lukko (SM-Liiga) NR 23 24 23 17
27 Alex Vlasic D U.S. National Dev. (USHL) 21 21 27 23 30 19
28 Brett Leason C Prince Albert (WHL) NR 30 19 25 21 26
T29 Nolan Foote LW Kelowna (WHL) 29 18 24 27
T29 Samuel Poulin LW Sherbrooke (QMJHL) NR 19 28 22
T31 Connor McMichael C London (OHL) NR 26 23 21
T31 Pavel Dorofeyev LW Magnitigorsk (MHL) NR 26 19 25