2013 Draft: An Oilers Organizational Bias

The NHL draft rankings I put out each year are made to reflect my opinion of the overall "best player available" listed without organizational bias.  The list below is not that list (although for handy comparison purposes, I do show my BPA rankings beside each player).

Basically, on the list below, I rank the prospects in the order of preference I have towards the Oilers selecting them in the draft. It's based upon how I feel each player would potentially help the Oilers organization, and likely give them the most overall value.

I've also decided that I want to show which players I consider to be close to each other (in terms of my general level of interest in drafting them) and where my level of interest drops. I've decided to illustrate that by colour-coding this list.  If a group of prospects listed consecutively share the same background colour, I would classify those prospects as having very similar overall potential value to the Oilers, in my opinion. A change in colour from one (prospect/group of prospects) to another below shows a drop in my opinion of the overall potential value to the Oilers.

MY OVERALL RANK	FOR OILERS	PLAYER	POSITION
2	1	Nathan MacKinnon	C
4	2	Aleksander Barkov	C
1	3	Jonathan Drouin	LW
3	4	Seth Jones	D
6	5	Sean Monahan	C
8	6	Elias Lindholm	C
7	7	Darnell Nurse	D
9	8	Nikita Zadorov	D
11	9	Alexander Wennberg	C
13	10	Bo Horvat	C/LW
5	11	Valeri Nichushkin	LW
10	12	Hunter Shinkaruk	C/RW
17	13	Anthony Mantha	LW
19	14	Curtis Lazar	C
16	15	Adam Erne	LW
18	16	Madison Bowey	D
14	17	Rasmus Ristolainen	D
15	18	Josh Morrissey	D
21	19	Ryan Pulock	D
20	20	Valentin Zykov	RW
12	21	Max Domi	C/LW
24	22	Nicolas Petan	C
25	23	Morgan Klimchuk	C/LW
26	24	Laurent Dauphin	C
28	25	Ryan Hartman	C/RW
27	26	Frederik Gauthier	C
29	27	JT Compher	C
33	28	Ian McCoshen	D
31	29	Steve Santini	D
32	30	Robert Hagg	D
34	31	Mirco Mueller	D
36	32	Zachary Fucale	G
23	33	Artturi Lehkonen	LW
22	34	Andre Burakowsky	LW
38	35	Kerby Rychel	LW
35	36	Chris Bigras	D
39	37	Dillon Heatherington	D
40	38	Shea Theodore	D
41	39	Tristan Jarry	G
37	40	Jacob De La Rose	LW
48	41	Eric Comrie	G
30	42	Pavel Buchnevich	C/LW
42	43	Samuel Morin	D
59	44	Jusse Saros	G
52	45	Philippe Desrosiers	G
43	46	Anthony Duclair	LW
45	47	Connor Hurley	C
46	48	Jimmy Lodge	RW
47	49	Emile Poirier	LW
50	50	Michael McCarron	RW
51	51	Justin Bailey	C/RW
53	52	Jordan Subban	D
44	53	Jason Dickinson	LW
60	54	Spencer Martin	G
61	55	Eamon McAdam	G
57	56	Nick Sorensen	RW
58	57	William Carrier	LW
64	58	Zach Nastasiuk	RW
69	59	Tommy Vannelli	D
70	60	Hudson Fasching	RW
74	61	John Hayden	C/RW
55	62	Oliver Bjorkstrand	RW
49	63	Anton Slepyshev	LW
75	64	Nick Moutrey	C/W
56	65	Marko Dano	C
63	66	Juuso Ikonen	RW
54	67	Ryan Fitzgerald	C
62	68	Linus Arnesson	D
65	69	Jan Kostalek	D
66	70	Marc-Oliver Roy	C/LW
67	71	Keaton Thompson	D
68	72	Ryan Kujawinski	C/LW
73	73	Wilhelm Westlund	D
76	74	Michael Downing	D
77	75	Gustav Olofsson	D
78	76	Brett Pesce	D
79	77	Jonathan-Ismael Diaby	D
71	78	Sergey Tolchinsky	RW
80	79	Lucas Wallmark	C
81	80	Eric Roy	D
72	81	Taylor Cammarata	C/LW
82	82	Yan-Pavel LaPlante	C/LW
89	83	Adam Tambellini	C
90	84	Mason Geertsen	D
83	85	Gabriel Paquin-Boudreau	LW
84	86	Greg Chase	C
91	87	Peter Cehlarik	LW
85	88	Keaton Thompson	D
86	89	Jackson Houck	RW
87	90	Viktor Crus Rydberg	C
88	91	Nick Baptiste	RW
97	92	Will Butcher	D
98	93	Viktor Arvidsson	LW
94	94	Mitchell Wheaton	D
95	95	Niklas Hansson	D
92	96	Zach Sanford	LW
93	97	Stephen Harper	LW
96	98	Sergei Stetsenko	D
99	99	Vincent Dunn	C
101	100	Sven Andrighetto	RW
102	101	Carl Dhalstrom	D
103	102	Anton Cederholm	D
107	103	Myles Bell	LW/D
104	104	Remi Elie	LW
105	105	Gage Ausmus	D
106	106	Cole Cassels	C
100	107	Filip Sandberg	RW
108	108	Cody Corbett	D

With the Oilers currently selecting at 7th overall, I obviously hope they can get one of my top 6 choices.  The 7th - 12th listed prospects are very close in terms of my level of interest.

I have my slight concerns regarding the long-term commitment to playing in North America for European prospects, and that shows in places.  

I also prefer the Oilers taking forwards (especially Centres) above defencemen and sometimes lean towards bigger players.

I also like the chances of being able to draft a decent goalie prospect in the 2nd round (or later) this year, and of possibly snagging a legit prospect late in the draft. Best of luck to the Oilers and I wait in giddy anticipation of one of my favorite events of the hockey season!