[Discussion] Top 31 Draft Prospects of 2019

[DrJockitch]

Would like to make a note here to all the people upset about the size of the prospects taken this year that of the top 10 listed next year, 7 are under 6 foot.

[Noble 6]

10 hours ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

No doubt the USNTDP has become a premiere development program. But 2019 is also just looks like a really deep draft for American players.

 

Beyond the guys listed in that posted 2019 top-31 coming from USDP (Hughes, Turcotte, Boldy, Caufield, York, Zegras, Beecher, Knight, Vlasic), you’ve got other notables from that program like Warren, McCarthy, Helleson, Thrun, Weight, Gildon, etc.

 

Then you have a bunch of guys who just missed out on making the USDP or maybe only played a handful of games for USNTDP Juniors, who in other years might very well have been mainstays for Team USA.

 

Guys like Dexter’s John Farianacci, whose D-1 production isn’t far off where Jay O’Brien (2018 19th overall) was a year ago. Or Silianoff from Shattuck’s St. Mary, who’s another intriguing guy out of the prep school system. Or Mastrosimone, who’s been killing it in the USHL for the Chicago Steel (45 points as a 17yo). And Mancinelli as well (35 points for Madison in the USHL).

 

Then, of course, you have the Minnesota boys. That top-31 has Donovan and Brinkman listed, but that MN high school system is really strong for 2019. Brady Meyer and Bobby Brink are a couple others that could definitely be in the mix. And plenty of others I’m not aware of (but the people I know out that way say it’s a strong year for Minnesota hockey).

 

And can’t forget the Americans who’ve chosen the CHL route, like Kaliyev, Nick Robertson, Stranges, and Rolston (actually I think those last two are 2020 eligibles—but they’re gonna be good too).

 

2019 is definitely shaping up to be a year when “buying American” might be a pretty decent draft strategy. 

 

Not that the Canadians aren’t fielding a good group next year, especially the ones coming from out West (Newhook, Byram, Dach, Krebs, Foote, Cousins, Mutala, etc). And plenty of great European options, with what looks to be an excellent Finnish class (Kakko, Honka, Kokkonen, Aaltonen, Nikkanen, etc), the usual strength of options from coming out of Sweden (Söderström, Holmström, Björnfot, Grewe, Höglander, etc, plus that Slovakian kid, Cajkovic), and also some interesting Russians (Abramov, Podkolzin, Zaitsev, Spiridonov, etc). And that Swiss kid, Nussbaumer, who’s already playing NLA (top men’s pro league). Plus a few Czechs getting early buzz like Strondala and Cajka.

 

Many not listed that could be mentioned. And countless more I just don’t know about yet. Some may blossom into top prospects by next year and many others (both listed and unlisted here) likely will fade into obscurity.

 

Really didn’t mean for this post to grow quite as big as it did. Just got started talking about the 2019 class and found it hard to stop. Suffice to say, next year really could be another dandy of a draft.  

 

It might just be me, but it seems like every year is a deeper year for American talent in the draft. They're just consistently producing good players all over the draft. They might have to expand the program in the future to have more than 1 National Development team. The strength and recognition of the USHL has been growing as well. 

 

The bottom line is there are going to be interesting names from all over next year. Thanks for that early look at some of them. 

[cyoung]

Hughes, turcotte or newhook would be sick. 

[Psycho_Path]

Say what you want about Bettman (get that scrub outta there is what I say), but he is certainly helping the sport grow in the states in particular.

[Isam]

On 24/06/2018 at 8:41 AM, Rush17 said:

Came across this.  Figured the hardcore among us might want to start looking at next years projected top players! Cheers

Lavoie shouldn't be that low and no way dach is the 12th ranked prospect.