Friday, June 22, 2007

2005 Top 36

I selected that number given the number of picks EDM has in the first 2 rounds, but it will probably end up covering me fairly deeply into the draft this year - someone I have ranked this high will almost surely fall a long way.

I'll be honest, this is my least complete ranking since I've started doing this, but I've been compiling it for a bit so I thought I might as well post what I have before the draft starts in ~ 1 hour. At least, it feels incomplete, but I'm starting to wonder if that's just because everyone has their warts. Some guys read the play well, some are big and strong, some can pass, etc, but something seems to be missing from everyone once you get to the bottom half of the first round. I guess it's probably always like that, but it has seemed more apparent to me this year than in previous years.

Some thoughts before the list - I think the top 4 is a tier, 5-7 the second tier (I have no idea where to place Cherepanov?), and then 8 - ~15 is a tier. After that I just don't know what to make of it, very hard to get any sort of solid read IMO.

1. Jakub Voracek
2. Patrick Kane
3. James VanRiemsdyk
4. Kyle Turris
5. Sam Gagner
6. Alexei Cherepanov
7. Logan Couture
8. Karl Alzner
9. Angelo Esposito
10. Ryan McDonagh
11. Zach Hamill
12. Kevin Shattenkirk
13. Lars Eller
14. Mickael Backlund
15. Maxim Mayorov
16. Patrick White
17. Jonathon Blum
18. David Perron
19. Bill Sweatt
20. Ian Cole
21. Nick Petricki
22. Max Pacioretty
23. Logan MacMillan
24. Simon Hjalrmarsson
25. Keaton Ellerby
26. Alex Plante
27. Thomas Hickey
28. Jim O’Brien
29. Brett McLean
30. Colton Gillies
31. Brandon Sutter
32. Dana Tyrell
33. Riley Nash
34. Tommy Cross
35. Oscar Moller
36. Michal Repik