OHL Writer’s Final Draft Ranking

It’s not your typical National Hockey League Draft. At least not compared to the last few seasons where fans and teams were spoiled.

After Nolan Patrick (Brandon Wheat Kings – WHL) and Nico Hischier (Halifax Mooseheads – QMJHL) who are the consensus top two picks – although there are those including yours truly that would have Hischier at the top, you could break the draft class down into segments of five or ten, shuffle the deck, and it would still be a reasonable ranking.

It’s not as strong or as deep as we’ve seen lately at forward and defence, but it is a strong goaltending class where two goaltenders could go in the first round. If they make it to the second round, there could be as many as five go on the second day.

As we’ve always done in the past, we look only at the players eligible for the first time. Players re-entering the draft or passed over in previous drafts are not included. So, you won’t see the likes of Kevin Hancock, Drake Rymsha, Trenton Bourque or Stephen Dhillon on the rankings.

With our list, you will also see where the player ranked on NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings in January and their final ranking sits overall among North American skaters and goaltenders.

Three OHL players made Central Scouting list that didn’t make my top 44 skaters, Fedor Gordeev, Liam Hawel and Jacob Golden. Taking their place on my list are Matthew Philip, Ben Jones and Macauley Carson, the latter not making Central Scouting’s final list at all.

Here is our final list. You can click on most player’s names for a profile on them written throughout the OHL season. Again, as always, it’s open to criticism.

Rk	Player	Pos	Team	CS-Mid	CS-FINAL
1	Gabriel Vilardi	C/W	Windsor	3	4
2	Owen Tippett	RW	Mississauga	4	7
3	Nick Suzuki	C	Owen Sound	16	10
4	Jason Robertson	LW	Kingston	34	14
5	Conor Timmins	D	Sault Ste Marie	26	18
6	Isaac Ratcliffe	LW	Guelph	20	15
7	Robert Thomas	C	London	28	22
8	Morgan Frost	C	Sault Ste Marie	29	31
9	Nicolas Hague	D	Mississauga	11	20
10	Matthew Strome	LW	Hamilton	19	33
11	Eemeli Rasanen	D	Kingston	57	32
12	Jonah Gadjovich	LW	Owen Sound	60	39
13	Adam Ruzicka	C	Sarnia	27	37
14	Alex Formenton	LW	London	24	29
15	Mackenzie Entwistle	RW	Hamilton	35	44
16	Jack Studnicka	C	Oshawa	80	120
17	Ivan Lodnia	RW	Erie	37	36
18	Dmitri Samorukov	D	Guelph	122	69
19	Zach Gallant	C	Peterborough	71	64
20	Nate Schnarr	C	Guelph	32	47
21	Kirill Maksimov	RW	Niagara	185	66
22	Markus Phillips	D	Owen Sound	62	50
23	Brady Lyle	D	North Bay	53	48
24	Maksim Sushko	RW	Owen Sound	73	72
25	Greg Meireles	C	Kitchener	39	93
26	Linus Nyman	RW	Kingston	102	100
27	Marian Studenic	RW	Hamilton	86	101
28	Noel Hoefenmayer	D	Ottawa	41	75
29	Jacob Paquette	D	Kingston	90	105
30	Adam Thilander	D	North Bay	59	96
31	Austen Keating	LW	Ottawa	92	115
32	Sean Durzi	D	Owen Sound	139	124
33	Macauley Carson	LW	Sudbury	183	NR
34	Sasha Chmelevski	C	Ottawa	38	43
35	Shaw Boomhower	C	Mississauga	123	112
36	Zachary Roberts	LW	Owen Sound	180	113
37	Nicholas McHugh	LW	Kitchener	176	145
38	German Poddubnyi	C	Erie	NR	130
39	Nick Isaacson	LW	Peterborough	168	148
40	Matthew Philip	C	Niagara	173	152
41	Ryan McGregor	C	Sarnia	79	107
42	Dylan Seitz	C	Kitchener	100	123
43	Cole Coskey	RW	Saginaw	96	150
44	Ben Jones	C	Niagara	99	170
	Goaltenders
1	Michael DiPietro	G	Windsor	7	4
2	Matthew Villalta	G	Sault Ste Marie	14	16
3	Kyle Keyser	G	Oshawa	10	11
4	Jake McGrath	G	Sudbury	23	19
5	Kaden Fulcher	G	Hamilton	12	18