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2014 NHL Draft Rankings


BanTSN

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Every year there's a lot of hype made by various bloggers and media outlets on various players with a fairly good chance to be a bust in the NHL.

Why is this? To give desperate Canadian hockey fans a fantastical pot of gold chance at the end of the undersized rainbow? Or do the players themselves lobby on speed and skill factors to try to climb in the draft? Who knows.

All I know is that there should be a no-nonsense, cut the bull edition of draft rankings put out there so we educated fans can make the correct call and then judge their teams' performance accurately when they once again fail to make the correct call.

As it pertains to the Canucks, well, this is the start of the Trevor Linden era in Canuck management. With that comes a lot of hype, and a lot of expectation. If Linden's first pick is another dud, then that is certainly not a good start to his tenure here.

But no doubt the Canucks will be hyping up whoever they pick, regardless of what his actual, legit NHL upside is. How do we cut the bull when that time comes? Well, let's just do it. Let's make a comprehensive list based on the information readily available out there on all the top prospects today. Let's forget about all the 'well the undersized player can possibly grow' bs and add that factor in. Let's look at players that certain media outlets and bloggers have been underrating or even totally ignoring for some strange reason. Cut the bull.

On that note, here's my top-15 rankings, no-nonsense edition:

1. RD Aaron Ekblad b

2. RC Sam Reinhart a

3. LW Sam Bennett a

4. LC Michael Dal Colle bp

5. LC Leon Draisaitl bsn

6. RW Jake Virtanen bep

7. LW Brendan Perlini b

8. RW Alex Tuch bp

9. LW Nick Ritchie odp

10. LD Haydn Fleury b

11. LC Dylan Larkin a

12. RW Kasperi Kapanen u

13. LW Nikolaj Ehlers u-e

14. LW/LC Willie Nylander u-

15. LW Sonny Milano a

u Undersized

a Average-sized

b Big

o Overweight

s Slow but skilled

- One-dimensional

d Dumb penalty-taker

e Elite speed

p Powerful

n Not a big gamer

1. Based more on NHL central scouting and ISS, combined with legit upside, not a fantasy/preseason upside.

2. Frankly, i'm astounded as to how the americans are being largely ignored on cdc. They're good.

3. There are a lot of decent players to select from that don't carry an amazing amount of risk with them. The Canucks would be better suited to start picking those prospects up.

4. Nylander, the girlie-looking powerplay specialist wildcard, will drop that far because of his attitude problems.

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It should read

1. Bennett

2. Ekblad

3. Draisatl

5. Reinhart

5. Dal Colle

6. Virtanen

7. Ehlers

8. Nylander

9. Ritchie

10. Fleury

11. Perilini

12. Kapenen

13. Tuch

14. McCann

15. Kempe

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Your bias is showing lol. Virtanen has more positives than the top three players in the draft. Why don't you tack on to that list of descriptions 't' for tunnel vision. Virtanen has no awareness of teammates on the ice. He's a me myself and I type player.

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this guys bias hate on all players on the smaller side is just ridicules, those first two paragraphs my god

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"with the first overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft, the Florida Panthers are proud to select from the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL, Jake Virtanen" - BanTSN

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Attitude for me is everything, since I used to be an athlete (competitive swimmer). If you want something badly enough, you'll probably get it. If Virtanen wants to be here, I'll take him every day of the week over someone who doesn't appreciate how lucky they are to play a child's game for 6 figures and is willing to earn that money as a result.

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Attitude for me is everything, since I used to be an athlete (competitive swimmer). If you want something badly enough, you'll probably get it. If Virtanen wants to be here, I'll take him every day of the week over someone who doesn't appreciate how lucky they are to play a child's game for 6 figures and is willing to earn that money as a result.

Agreed. No other prospect has that attitude.

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Wow Ehlers and nylander sure take a hit in you opinion for not being big. Good thing Pittsburgh and Chicago didn't feel that way eh? Crosby, Kane.. Ehlers and Nylander will go in the top 10 maybe one will be top 5

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