Early Season 2019 Edition
The 2018-19 season began in September for many prospects and is now well into its third month. Most entities which rank prospects for the National Hockey League entry draft have released their first (or second) public rankings. As a result, it’s time for the early season 2019 NHL Draft Consensus Rankings, averaging out the variation in the major rankings to produce a single semi-definitive ordering of prospects.
Dylan Cozens of the Lethbridge Hurricanes is a consensus Top 3 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. (Robert Murray/WHL)
Here’s the projected consensus first round (the top 31 ranked players) according to the major rankers.
Included Rankings
We’ve included seven major rankings.
- International Scouting Service’s October ranking
- Sportsnet’s October ranking
- Bob McKenzie’s (of TSN) September preliminary (top 20) ranking
- Craig Button’s (of TSN) October ranking
- HockeyProspect’s September ranking
- Future Considerations’ fall ranking
- The Hockey News’ October ranking
Feel free to compare the consensus rankings to our latest compiled by The Hockey Writers NHL Draft team: Ryan Pike’s Top 50 and Larry Fisher’s Top 124.
Notes on the Top 31
The positional breakdown of the Top 31 is:
- 1 goaltender
- 11 defensemen
- 19 forwards (12 centers, 7 wingers)
The league breakdown of the Top 31 is:
- 8 USHL (all from U.S. National Development Program)
- 8 Western Hockey League (all domestic)
- 4 Ontario Hockey League (2 domestic, 2 imports)
- 3 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (2 domestic, 1 import)
- 2 SM-Liiga (Finland)
- 1 Minor Hockey League (Russia)
- 1 HockeyAllsvenskan (Sweden)
- 1 British Columbia Hockey League (junior A)
- 1 Swedish Hockey League
- 1 SuperElit (Sweden)
- 1 Deutch Extraliga (Germany)
There’s consensus at the top half of the first round: the top 16 players ranked were listed in the first round of all seven aggregated rankings. Beyond that, things spread out considerably between the rankings. Jack Hughes, Kaapo Kakko and Dylan Cozens appear to be the early kings of this class, but things can easily change as the season wears on.
Consensus Rankings
| Rank |
Player | Pos. | Primary Team | ISS | SN | McKenzie | Button | HP | FC | THN |
| 1 | Jack Hughes | C | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Kaapo Kakko | RW | TPS Turku (SM-Liiga) | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Dylan Cozens | C | Lethbridge (WHL) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 4 | Kirby Dach | C | Saskatoon (WHL) | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 3 | 3 |
| 5 | Vasily Podkolzin | RW | SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL) | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| 6 | Bowen Byram | D | Vancouver (WHL) | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| 7 | Raphael Lavoie | C | Halifax (QMJHL) | 10 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| 8 | Philip Broberg | D | AIK (Allsvenskan) | 8 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| 9 | Alex Turcotte | C | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 4 | 8 | 12 | 21 | 3 | 4 | 17 |
| 10 | Peyton Krebs | LW | Kootenay (WHL) | 11 | 9 | 9 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| 11 | Matthew Boldy | C | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 17 | 12 | 15 | 7 | 12 | 9 | 5 |
| 12 | Ryan Suzuki | C | Barrie (OHL) | 12 | 14 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 12 | 7 |
| 13 | Cam York | D | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 13 | 22 | 13 | 24 | 10 | 11 | 6 |
| 14 | Alex Newhook | C | Victoria (BCHL) | 9 | 11 | 14 | 22 | 7 | 26 | 13 |
| 15 | Trevor Zegras | C | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 26 | 13 | 19 | 12 | 18 | 14 | 14 |
| 16 | Matthew Robertson | D | Edmonton (WHL) | 16 | 15 | 11 | 28 | 19 | 16 | 15 |
| 17 | Cole Caufield | C | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 21 | — | 18 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 27 |
| 18 | Arthur Kaliyev | LW | Hamilton (OHL) | — | 21 | 16 | 10 | — | 25 | 16 |
| 19 | Victor Soderstrom | D | Brynas IF (SHL) | 18 | 18 | — | 26 | 13 | 29 | 26 |
| 20 | Matvei Guskov | C | London (OHL) | 15 | 16 | 17 | — | 20 | — | — |
| 21 | Alex Vlasic | D | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | 19 | — | 20 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 20 |
| 22 | Spencer Knight | G | U.S. National Dev. (USHL) | — | — | — | 16 | 15 | — | 22 |
| 23 | Anttoni Honka | D | JYP (SM-Liiga) | — | — | — | — | 25 | 22 | 18 |
| 24 | Moritz Seider | D | Adler Mannheim (DEL) | — | — | — | — | 24 | 19 | 24 |
| 25 | Kaedan Korczak | D | Kelowna (WHL) | 30 | 20 | — | 18 | — | — | — |
| 26 | Thomas Harley | D | Mississauga (OHL) | — | — | — | 15 | — | 23 | |
| 27 | Josh Williams | RW | Medicine Hat (WHL) | 14 | — | — | — | 26 | — | — |
| 28 | Tobias Bjornfot | D | Djurgardens IF U20 (SuperElit) | 28 | — | — | 14 | — | — | 30 |
| 29 | Nolan Foote | LW | Kelowna (WHL) | 29 | — | — | 27 | — | 20 | 29 |
| 30 | Maxim Cajkovic | RW | Saint John (QMJHL) | — | 19 | — | — | — | 24 | — |
| 31 | Valentin Nussbaumer | C | Shawinigan (QMJHL) | — | 22 | — | — | 21 | — | — |
