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The Big List of NHL Draft Resources

Kent Wilson
8 years ago
There is a lot of information and analysis to consider when it comes to the NHL entry draft. Hundreds of draft eligible kids, thousands of stats lines, dozens of draft coverage publications/blogs and innumerable opinions about who is going to pick whom.
If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of time clicking from tab-to-tab in your browser, or wasting your time searching for draft reports, mock drafts and consensus rankings. So to make things easier for myself (and for you), I’ve compiled all the lists, ranks and tools I use to follow the draft. 
Enjoy!

Prospect Stats

HockeyDB – Everyone knows about the hockey database. Search for your prospect and his career numbers are probably here. Good for a very basic overview. 
Eliteprospects – If HockeyDB fails you, sometimes you can find an obscure prospect here, especially if he is playing in a lower tier european league. Can include a scouting report and draft rankings as well.
WHL – The official Western Hockey League stats site. Good for looking at where a guy ranked in the league or amongst his team. You can also look at game-by-game results.
OHL – Same as above, except for the Ontario hockey League.
QMJHL – Ditto, this time for the Quebec Major Junior League. Has a bit of extra information versus the other leagues, like scoring chances.
CHL Stats – Created by the Nation’s own Josh Weissbock, CHL Stats is the Extra Skater of CHL junior stats. Here you can find each kids points split by even strength and power play and even his NHL equivalency. Sort by age to rank the draft eligible kids in each league. Invaluable for those who want to dig deeper.
NCAA Mens Hockey Stats – College stats availability isn’t great, but this site helps.
College Hockey Inc – More NCAA stats. Good interface and more options.

Draft Rankings

Central Scouting Final Rankings – Categorized by skater, goalie, NA and European players.
International Scouting Service (ISS) top 30 – ISS is another one of the more respected scouting outfits.
Bob McKenzie, TSN Ranking – The industry standard for a reason.
Future Considerations top 30 – Quality scouting magazine puts together good previews, reports and rankings.
Future Considerations top 100 –  The longer list.
Hockey Prospectus top 100 – The stats-centric site continues a tradition that began with Corey Pronman.
Art of Scouting top 100 – Prepared by the author of the Art of Scouting book.
Corey Pronman top 100 (warning: paywall) – One of the best in the business. Worth the subscription to ESPN Insider.
Damien Cox, SportsNet top 30 – Read this one if you want. I guess.
Hockey Prospect top 30 – Another top-30 ranking. Why not?
McKeen’s Hockey top 30 – Subscribe to get more in depth info and scouting reports, but here’s the basic top-30 list from McKeen’s.
MyNHL Draft consensus Ranking – A first round ranking combining 7 other prospect rank lists.

Scouting and Prospect Profiles

Many of the above links also include scouting profiles. Here’s some other options as well.
OHL Prospects Blog – I’ve read Brock Otten’s OHL blog for years. Really good info.
WHL From Above Blog – I only stumbled across Dub from Above this year, but the works look very thorough.
Redline Report (paywall) – I can’t afford the good stuff, but the sample reports from Redline look stellar. 
Hockey’s Future – Not really a pro outfit, but one of the most popular destinations for prospect stuff online.
Over the Boards – College hockey scouting reports. 
SBN College Hockey – Blog with comprehensive coverage of college hockey.
Top Shelf Prospects – A series of individual player profiles. 
Dobber Prospects – Scouting reports from the industry leader in fantasy sports coverage.

Mock Drafts

My NHL Draft 
The Hockey Writers
Damien Cox, Sportsnet
Mike Morreale, NHL.com
Adam Kimelman, NHL.com
Scott Wheeler, McKeen’s
SBNation Network Mock Draft – Includes the SBN mock plus results from numerous other drafts.

Other

Draft Probability Tool – Want to know what the chances are that hot shot prospect will be around when your team picks? This tool helps you find out.
Draft Pick Value Scale – What is that 12th overall pick worth anyways? Find out with this tool (and the accompanying explanation).
Draft Pick Value Scale 2 – a Different take on pick values from Chris Abraham (aka @CrzyCanucklehead on Twitter).
What is the value of an NHL draft pick? – One of the inspirations for the link above. Written by Eric Tulsky, before he was hired by the Carolina Hurricanes.
2015 Draft Picks by team – All the picks by team per round. Includes information on which picks were traded and for what.
NHL Equivalencies – Seminal investigation by Gabe Desjardins on how to translate performance from junior and other lower leagues to the NHL.
Prospect Cohort Success Model (PCS%) – New model of prospect prediction and evaluation presented by Josh Weissbock and Moneypuck of Canucks Army.
Player Projection Tool – Say goodbye to your productivity at work. Enter a prospect’s last name and see how similar NHL players have fared previously. Gives you each prospect’s “bust rate”, and how many of a given guy’s comparables were elite, first liners, second liners, etc. 
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If you think we’re missing anything on our draft resources list, please contact Kent Wilson via email (kent.wilson@gmail.com) or on Twitter (@kent_wilson). 

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