Early look at Europe’s best for the 2018 NHL Draft

Some promising 2018 eligible players will also get their season underway at the upcoming 2016 Hlinka Memorial. Below we list our five favourite prospects playing in Europe two seasons away from their draft. Based on what we’ve seen last season, the top 3 was pretty easily done.

Rasmus Dahlin is an all-around Swedish defenseman whose name we believe will become much more popular once Rasmus gets more international exposure, and that might start to happen as soon as next week.

Andrei Svechnikov is instead an already well hyped name, thanks to his ability to score in bunches against his peers.

Filip Zadina is a late ’99 born winger who plays at a very advanced level for his age, so much so that he already dressed for a couple of Extraliga games.

Speaking of playing at an advanced level, his countryman Jakub Skarek is a goalie who already enjoyed some success playing against men last season. Him and steady defenseman Alexander Alexeyev round out our early top 5, edging out a number of other interesting prospects.

RankPlayerPositionNation
1.Rasmus DahlinDSWE
2.Andrei SvechnikovRWRUS
3.Filip Zadina LWCZE
4.Jakub Skarek GCZE
5.Alexander AlexeyevDRUS

RELEASE: twitter.com/draftin_europe  –  August 6th 2016