NHL Entry Draft (2007)

For archive purposes I am compiling and re-posting my NHL Entry Draft (2007) stuff here. Below are links to a review of the 1st round of the draft and then to a review of the picks the Oilers made in the draft:

NHL Entry Draft 2007 - First Round Review

NHL Entry Draft 2007 - Oiler Picks

For myself, Voracek is the real deal imo and I am on record as preferring that the Oilers:

-- trade up to get him OR

-- they trade down to secure more top-30 picks.

i.e. Using the 6th pick and a roster player to get the 9th, 24th and 26th out of St. Louis wouldn't be a bad way to go.

Without further ado...

Oiler Draft Picks (for use or trade)

01 -- __6

01 -- _15

01 -- _30

02 -- _36

03 -- ___ Traded to Minnesota (Roloson)

04 -- _96

05 -- 126

06 -- 156

07 -- ___ Traded to Buffalo (Hejda)

Remember to adjust for compensation picks.

Team Order - 1st Round

01.. Chicago ....... via Lottery

02.. Philadelphia

03.. Phoenix

04.. Los Angeles

05.. Washington

06.. Edmonton

07.. Columbus

08.. Boston

09.. St. Louis

10.. Florida

11.. Carolina

12.. Montreal

13.. Toronto

14.. Colorado

15.. Edmonton ....... via ... NY Islanders

16.. Anaheim ........ via ... Tampa Bay

17.. NY Rangers

18.. Calgary

19.. Minnesota

20.. Pittsburgh

21.. Phoenix ........ via ... Dallas

22.. Montreal ....... via ... San Jose

23.. Nashville

24.. St. Louis ...... via ... Atlanta

25.. Vancouver

26.. St. Louis ...... via ... New Jersey

27.. Detroit

28.. Washington ..... via ... Buffalo

29.. Ottawa

30.. Edmonton ....... via ... Anaheim

Top-15 Player Rankings (aggregated)

Below are the listings of the top-15 picks of each of the different, and independent, scouting bureau's. They are: McKeen's, ISS (International Scouting Service), Redline (Woodlief), The Hockey News and the CSB (Central Scouting Bureau).

Below that is an aggregated listing of those datasets after they have been fed through a scoring system. The scoring system simply reverses the order on the list (i.e. a player ranked #1 on the list scores 15 points while a player ranked #15 scores 1 point) and then adds ALL the points that player generates from the different lists.

Note that I counted the number of times a draftee made the top-10 of a list. This is to help add perspective. Prospect 'A' may have fewer points than prospect 'B' but if prospect 'A' shows up top-10 on all 5 lists then prospect 'A' may be seen as a safer pick to make.

The Scouts Recommend (Final Lists)

... McKeens ..... ISS ......... Redline* .... Hockey News . CSB**

1.. Kane ........ Kane ........ Kane ........ Kane ........ Turris

2.. Turris ...... vanReims. ... Voracek ..... vanRiems. ... Kane

3.. Voracek ..... Turris ...... Turris ...... Turris ..... *Cherep.

4.. Alzner ...... Cherep. ..... vanReims. ... Voracek ..... vanReim.

5.. vanReims. ... Voracek ..... Gagner ...... Cherepanov .. Ellerby

6.. Cherepanov .. Alzner ...... Couture ..... Gagner ..... *Backlund

7.. Shattenkirk . Gagner ...... Hamill ...... Couture ..... Alzner

8.. McDonagh .... Mayorov ..... Cherepanov .. Alzner ...... Gagner

9.. Gagner ...... Ellerby ..... Esposito .... Esposito ... *Eller

10. Couture ..... Backlund .... Moller ...... Sutter ...... Voracek

11. Sweatt ...... Esposito ... *Alzner ...... Ellerby ..... Esposito

12. Hamill ...... Gillies .... *Cole ........ Hamill ..... *Mayorov

13. Eller ....... Couture .... *McDonagh .... Gillies ..... Hamill

14. Ellerby ..... Petrecki ... *Katic ....... Mayorov ..... Perron

15. MacMillan ... Perron ..... *Petrecki .... Petrecki .... McDonagh

Graded Rankings

.......... Top-10 . Scoring

Kane ........ 5 ___ 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 14 = 74

Turris ...... 5 ___ 14 + 13 + 13 + 13 + 15 = 68

vanReimsdyk . 5 ___ 11 + 14 + 12 + 14 + 12 = 63

Voracek ..... 4 ___ 13 + 11 + 14 + 12 + 06 = 56

Cherepanov .. 4 ___ 10 + 12 + 08 + 11 + 12 = 53

Gagner ...... 5 ___ 07 + 09 + 11 + 10 + 08 = 45

Alzner ...... 4 ___ 12 + 10 + 05 + 08 + 09 = 44

Couture ..... 3 ___ 06 + 03 + 10 + 09 + 00 = 28

Ellerby ..... 2 ___ 02 + 07 + 00 + 05 + 11 = 25

Esposito .... 2 ___ 00 + 05 + 07 + 07 + 05 = 24

Hamill ...... 1 ___ 04 + 00 + 09 + 04 + 03 = 20

Backlund .... 2 ___ 00 + 06 + 00 + 00 + 10 = 16

Mayorov ..... 1 ___ 00 + 08 + 00 + 02 + 04 = 14

McDonagh .... 1 ___ 08 + 00 + 03 + 00 + 01 = 12

Eller ....... 1 ___ 03 + 00 + 00 + 00 + 07 = 10

Shattenkirk . 1 ___ 09 + 00 + 00 + 00 + 00 = 09

Gillies ..... 0 ___ 00 + 04 + 00 + 03 + 00 = 07

Sweatt ...... 0 ___ 05 + 00 + 00 + 00 + 00 = 05

Petrecki .... 0 ___ 00 + 02 + 01 + 01 + 00 = 04

Perron ...... 0 ___ 00 + 01 + 00 + 00 + 02 = 03

Cole

Katic

MacMillan

The big 3: Kane, Turris & vanReimsdyk

Next best thing: Voracek, Alzner, Cherepanov & Gagner

Could be Good: Couture, Ellerby & Esposito

Afterthoughts: Hamill, Backlund & everyone else

A Rule Of Thumb

When looking at the list I tend to apply an arbitrary rule of thumb: any draftee within 10 points of another draftee is at threat to be picked ahead or behind that draftee. This is to recognize, in part, the modestly random (to me) aspect of what teams prefer in their players. It is also a measure of reasonableness.

Eller has 10 pts - it would not be a big surprise to see him preferred over Backlund by any number of teams. It would also, however, be a surprise to see him picked ahead of Esposito or Couture.

Using that rule of thumb I can expect that:

-- Turris could go #1 and Voracek could overtake vanReimsdyk but not Turris or Kane

-- Cherepanov may overtake Voracek but Gagner will not

-- If anyone ranked below Gagner is chosen in the top-7 it SHOULD be a major surprise

-- If anyone ranked below Backlund is taken in the top-9, the team making that call probably just made a big mistake

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* USAToday only publishes Redline's top-10 so I do not have an official top-15 list. Luckily for me they publish the Redline top-10 every month. The extra 5 players listed have shown up on more recent Redline listings at one point in time or another.

** CSS does not aggregate their European and North American lists. So I did it. Given the weakness of the Old World's offerings this year I started the highest CSS ranked Euro two spots behind and followed on from there.

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Have a great evening everyone. New post tomorrow.