The 2019 NHL Draft is less than two weeks away and with the date creeping up on us, we’re going to ramp up our coverage here at Raw Charge. The first round of the draft will be Friday, June 21st at 8PM ET and televised on NBCSN in the US. Rounds two through seven will get started on the following day at 1 PM on NHL Network.
We get a little bit of a later start this year with festivities being on the west coast in Vancouver. While I enjoy the tradition of getting going in the morning on day two with my coffee more than a little Irish, the 1PM start opens up lots of other options for beverage choices so that will be fun.
But before we get to the big day, we’ve got lots of coverage to bring you. We already started with Lauren Kelly posting her official Top 35 prospect ranking where she gave a scouting report of each of the best players on her list.
We’ll start with the more in-depth profiles beginning on Monday. We’ll bring those daily until the day of the draft focusing on players projected to go near the late first round where the Lightning make their first selection. We’ll also make our choice in the SBN mock draft this week.
On draft day, we’ll have live coverage of the Lightning’s picks just like last year and bring you profiles of each player following the draft. This year, the Lightning are scheduled to be picking 27th, 89th, 120th, 182nd, 198th, and 213th. They don’t have their second round pick because of the Ryan McDonagh trade and they swapped their 5th for an extra 7th as part of the Slater Koekkoek for Jan Rutta swap.
So to kickstart the next two weeks of coverage, I’ll share an early version of the consolidated rankings. As of now, this ranking includes seventeen different scouts or scouting services. I hope to add a few more as the draft approaches. Of the seventeen, five are paywalled and so aren’t displayed in the chart.
Also, of the seventeen, eight are not final lists and a few, including some important ones like Bob McKenzie and Jeremy Davis, are old enough to expect significant changes in the next update. Not all lists include goalies and/or overage players so names like Spencer Knight (goalie) and Brett Leason (overage) are probably lower here than they are on most teams’ lists.
With all of those caveats, here’s where the industry stands in general as of today:
If you were following along with our draft coverage last year, you probably remember the chart above. The next one is new and is a way of viewing the spread in how players are currently ranked in the various lists. For example, among players in the second round, Patrik Puistola is ranked all over the place while Brett Leason is tightly grouped in that end of the first or early second round range.
If there’s anything you want to see from us in terms of draft coverage this year or names that you’re interested in learning more about, drop us a line in the comments and we’ll see if we can work it in. Or if you have any early thoughts on what direction the Lightning should go with their picks, now’s the time to start the conversation.
We’ve got two full weeks of coverage coming. This is one of the most fun times of the year and we hope you’ll enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoy writing about it.
