OHL Writers’ Final Draft Rankings

If you’ve followed us in the past, you’ll notice a couple of different things we’ve done for the 2018 National Hockey League Draft. In the past, we’ve only ranked Ontario Hockey League players.

But, for the first time ever, we are including players that played in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) and three players make our list. They are Jack McBain, Mason Snell, Dustyn McFaul and goaltender Jett Alexander.

In previous years that we’ve done these lists, we’ve only included players eligible for the National Hockey League Draft for the first time. Usually, the number of players re-entering the draft (and getting drafted) are few, but in 2018, there are as many as half dozen with a legitimate chance of being selected on day two in Dallas.

Beginning with goaltenders, there are two netminders re-entering the draft that make NHL Central Scouting’s list: Christian Propp and Anthony Popovich but do not make our list.

Five skaters re-entering the draft made our OHL players list. We had two, Linus Nyman (26^th) and Sean Durzi (32^nd) ranked a season ago.

Two other re-entry players were ranked on our 2016 list. Brandon Saigeon and Justin Brazeau were on our list at 48^th and 50^th respectively two summers ago. Four others made Central’s list of top 50 OHL players but not ours: Albert Michnac, Mac Hollowell, Joey Keane and Hugo Leufvenius. Adam Mascherin re-entered the draft after Central Scouting released it’s final list.

Six first time eligible players are on Central’s top 50 OHL players, Riley McCourt, Oliver True, Andrew Bruder, Hunter Holmes, William Ennis and Adam Liska. However, they too are on the outside looking in. Tyler Tucker does not make Central’s top 50 but makes the cut on this list.

As much as Andrei Svechnikov is the consensus top player from Ontario, and may I add from start to finish, Evan Bouchard is the consensus number two pick and Barrett Hayton is the consensus third pick. But from there on, lists are going to vary.

You can click on most of the player’s names to read their profile, written at different points throughout the season.  This season, we’ve done the top 46 skaters and top 4 goaltenders. These are the players we feel should be drafted.

Players with an asterisk (*) are re-entering the draft for the second time. Players with two asterisks (**) are re-entering for the first time. The NHLCS column is the player’s rank (North American) on Central Scouting’s final ranking.

 

RK	PLAYER	POS	TEAM	NHLCS
1	Andrei Svechnikov	RW	Barrie Colts	1
2	Evan Bouchard	D	London Knights	4
3	Barrett Hayton	LW	Soo Greyhounds	9
4	Serron Noel	RW	Oshawa Generals	10
5	Ty Dellandrea	C	Flint Firebirds	25
6	Rasmus Sandin	D	Soo Greyhounds	11
7	Akil Thomas	RW	Niagara Ice Dogs	15
8	Ryan McLeod	C	Mississauga Steelheads	16
9	Liam Foudy	C	London Knights	19
10	Jack McBain	C	Toronto Jr Canadiens- OJHL	35
11	Kevin Bahl	D	Ottawa 67’s	29
12	Ryan Merkley	D	Guelph Storm	45
13	Sean Durzi**	D	Owen Sound Attack	37
14	Allan McShane	C	Oshawa Generals	50
15	Kody Clark	RW	Ottawa 67’s	34
16	Alec Regula	D	London Knights	72
17	Cam Hillis	C	Guelph Storm	67
18	Adam Mascherin*		Kitchener Rangers	*
19	Nico Gross	D	Oshawa Generals	56
20	Blade Jenkins	C	Saginaw Spirit	26
21	Giovanni Vallati	D	Kitchener Rangers	57
22	Aidan Dudas	C	Owen Sound Attack	68
23	Mitchell Hoelscher	C	Ottawa 67’s	62
24	Curtis Douglas	C	Windsor Spifires	63
25	Declan Chisholm	D	Peterborough Petes	52
26	Pavel Gogolev	RW	Peterborough Petes	79
27	Semyon Der-Arguchintsev	C	Peterborough Petes	82
28	Carter Robertson	D	Ottawa 67’s	78
29	Caleb Everett	D	Saginaw Spirit	84
30	Merrick Rippon	D	Ottawa 67’s	85
31	Linus Nyman **		Kingston Frontenacs	89
32	Maxim Golod	LW	Erie Otters	97
33	Billy Moskal	C	London Knights	99
34	Riley Damiani	C	Kitchener Rangers	100
35	Sam Bitten	C	Ottawa 67’s	106
36	Nathan Dunkley	LW	London Knights	109
37	Mason Snell	D	Wellington Dukes – OJHL	173
38	Dustyn McFaul	D	Pickering – OJHL	164
39	Tyler Tucker	D	Barrie Colts	171
40	Matthew Struthers	C	North Bay Battalion	124
41	Connor Corcoran	D	Windsor Spifires	123
42	Peter Stratis	D	Sudbury Wolves	139
43	Brandon Saigeon*		Hamilton Bulldogs	147
44	Justin Brazeau*		North Bay Battalion	142
45	Connor Roberts	C	Flint Firebirds	146
46	Dennis Busby	D	Flint Firebirds	NR
	GOALIES
1	Jacob Ingham	G	Mississauga Steelheads	13
2	Jordan Kooy	G	London Knights	15
3	Nick Donofrio	G	Hamilton Bulldogs	31
4	Jett Alexander	G	North York Rangers	30