Breaking Down The Latest Draft Ranking Releases

In the past couple of days we've seen the draft rankings released by Craig Button of TSN and International Scouting Services. As I've stated previously, there will always be questions asked of any list that is released and these two are no different.

No one can say for sure how many players on the list Button has seen play. And since ISS has a team of scouts who scout their own territories, they come to a consensus but again, how many crossover viewings have they had?

Personally, I prefer the scouting teams since they have seen most of the players and rate them accordingly and derive their rankings from it. But then again, the Independent, providing he has seen enough of them, judge each player the same way. There is no grey area.

Let's leave aside the Galchenyuk and Koekkoek (and others) season ending injuries. There is just to much of a difference in these two lists. Yakupov is ranked number 2 by ISS, and there is no doubt in my mind that he'll go number 1 or 2. His main competition, and many believe his only competition is Grigorenko. But Button has him ranked seventh.

Here's a look at some major differences :

Olli Maatta is ranked 10th by ISS and 41st by Button. NHL Central Scouting has him 6th.

Brendan Gaunce is ranked 7th by ISS and 23rd by Button. CSS has him 11th.

Daniil Zharkov is ranked 35th by both ISS and Button but CSS has him 11th.

Andreas Athanasiou is ranked 13th by ISS and 26th by Button. CSS has him 24th.

Scott Kosmachuk is ranked 38th by ISS and 52 by Button. CSS has him 23.

Matt Finn is ranked 17th by ISS and 8th by Button. CSS has him 15th.

And the list goes on and on. Beauty is definitely in the eyes of the beholder. I can live with discrepancies of a hand full of spots myself, but some of them are further apart than I have fingers and toes to count.

So what does this all mean? In January, nothing really. But it's interesting to dissect and compare anyway.The fun comes when the final lists are completed and when TSN's Bob McKenzie releases his consensus rankings based on a survey of NHL General Managers and Scouts.