2018 Draft – Early Top 5 update

Just like many prospects for the 2017 draft, some Europeans eligible for the 2018 draft are already leaving for North America and starting their official season overseas. This update is meant to see where we stand right before guys like A.Svechnikov leave Europe and our rankings as a result.

After the Hlinka, not much has changed for us. Our appointed top 3 prospects only confirmed they deserve to remain up there and we don’t feel like someone else has really challenged their position so far. With two seasons to go before their NHL draft there is plenty of time for that to happen, but it might not be that easy to catch defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and contend for his #1 spot. In fact, at this time we believe the 16 years old Swede to be the most promising prospect in Europe for the next two NHL drafts.

To finish off our top 5 we still have Skarek and Alexeyev there, as the Czech goalie backstopped his national team to their first win at the home tournament and the Russian defenseman was a solid presence on the blue line for his country before leaving for the WHL. They mark the only change to our early August list as they flip the last two positions.

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

RELEASE: twitter.com/draftin_europe  –  September 23rd 2016