It’s been a long year for NHL scouts both professional and armchair. Their year officially concludes this weekend with the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, which starts tonight. Let’s take a look at the WHL players listed in the final NHL Central Scouting Service’s final rankings and where they were through the year.
Player | Position | Team | Final CSS Ranking | Midterm | November | Prelim |
Ty Smith | Defense | Spokane | 14 | 14 | A | A |
Alexander Alexeyev | Defense | Red Deer | 22 | 26 | A | B |
Jett Woo | Defense | Moose Jaw | 28 | 20 | A | B |
Calen Addison | Defense | Lethbridge | 30 | 34 | B | B |
Milos Roman | Forward | Vancouver | 41 | 40 | B | C |
Riley Stotts | Center | Calgary | 51 | 88 | C | C |
Kristian Reichel | Center | Red Deer | 53 | 80 | C | Not Ranked |
Filip Kral | Defense | Spokane | 54 | 52 | C | Not Ranked |
Kyle Topping | Center | Kelowna | 59 | 64 | C | Not Ranked |
Egor Zamula | Defense | Calgary | 64 | 100 | B | C |
Cole Fonstad | Center | Prince Albert | 65 | 78 | C | Not Ranked |
Vladislav Yeryomenko | Defsen | Calgary | 73 | 79 | C | Not Ranked |
Riley Sutter | Center | Everett | 80 | 72 | B | B |
Justin Almeida | Center | Moose Jaw | 88 | 125 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Luka Burzan | Center | Brandon | 91 | 89 | C | B |
Chase Wouters | LW | Saskatoon | 92 | 103 | C | C |
Eric Florchuk | Center | Saskatoon | 110 | 93 | C | Not Ranked |
Libor Zabransky | Defense | Kelowna | 115 | 110 | C | C |
Connor Dewar | LW | Everett | 117 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Cole Reinhardt | LW | Brandon | 121 | 164 | C | C |
Jackson Leppard | Forward | Prince George | 122 | |||
Brett Kemp | Center | Edmonton | 128 | 166 | C | Not Ranked |
Brodi Stuart | Forward | Kamloops | 129 | 144 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Dawson Barteaux | Defense | Red Deer | 133 | 156 | C | C |
John Ludvig | Defense | Portland | 137 | 107 | C | Not Ranked |
Isaac Johnson | RW | Tri-City | 140 | 170 | C | C |
Carson Focht | Center | Calgary | 155 | 200 | C | C |
Leif Mattson | Forward | Kelowna | 157 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Jermaine Loewen | Forward | Kamloops | 160 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Josh Paterson | Forward | Saskatoon | 163 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Chris Douglas | Forward | Red Deer | 168 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Martin Bodak | Defense | Kootenay | 172 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Kody McDonald | Forward | Prince Albert | 178 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Eli Zummack | Forward | Spokane | 184 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Dylan Plouffe | Defense | Vancouver | 185 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Artyom Minulin | Defense | Swift Current | 186 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Jacob Herauf | Defense | Red Deer | 188 | 203 | C | Not Ranked |
Brayden Pachal | Defense | Prince Albert | 200 | Not Ranked | Not Ranked | Not Ranked |
Chase Hartje | Defense | Brandon | 202 | 181 | Not Ranked | C |
-It seems that Spokane’s Ty Smith is the only WHL player for sure getting drafted tonight, but we should see a whole lot go over the weekend. As always, it seems likely that a name or two off this list will not be drafted and there will be some names not on this list that will be.
We will have much more from the draft as players get selected.
Links and notes:
Statement from the Calder family, the billets of Ryan Vandervlis. pic.twitter.com/t89ZvESVpq
— Lethbridge Hurricanes (@WHLHurricanes) June 22, 2018
-While he was a star player on a team that fell just shot of the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2017, Adam Brooks was quite okay with being an energy player on a team that did win it all. He was on the Toronto Marlies team that just took home the AHL’s top prize – the Calder Cup.
-He may not be writing on a daily basis, but Gregg Drinnan still has his sources. He reported last night that the Swift Current Broncos appear to have their replacement for Manny Viveiros. Former Saskatoon Blades coach Dean Brockman is in line to take over according to Drinnan.
Brockman was the head coach in Saskatoon for the last two years and was an assistant there for the two seasons prior.
-Drinnan goes further and also says that Matt Bardlsey has his guy in Kamloops as well and than man is former University of Alberta Golden bears bench boss Serge Lajoie. He played seven games for the Blazers back in 1986-87 before going to the AJHL and later the University of Alberta.After playing overseas, Lajoie came back to Alberta and was an assistant with the Golden Bears. He coached in some different areas of Alberta before coming back to take the head coaching job with the U of Alberta in 2015. He could be going full circle and land in Kamloops 23 years after he played there.
The Medicine Hat Tigers announced this morning that current assistant coach Bobby Fox has been promoted to Director of Player Personnel.
read more -> https://t.co/Iu5VWiqYcs#medhat #livebreatheorange #tigershockey #whl pic.twitter.com/PmcN7aolox
— Medicine Hat Tigers (@tigershockey) June 22, 2018