Tavares tops final Central Scouting Draft Rankings
John Tavares hasn’t had a lot of time to think about the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
The London Knights’ star has had a busy season. After helping Canada win its fifth straight gold medal at the World Junior Championships, Tavares returned to the OHL and played in the Home Hardware CHL Top Prospects Game and the Subway OHL All-Star Classic. Along the way, he moved to London and has helped the Knights advance to the conference finals in the OHL playoffs.
All that work has given NHL scouts plenty of opportunity to watch Tavares perform in different situations and they obviously like what they see. Tavares is the top rated prospect for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft according to the final rankings released by NHL Central Scouting on Tuesday.
“He’s a pure scorer who’s going to be an asset to teams for years to come,” NHL Central Scouting Director E.J. McGuire told NHL.com. “His numbers statistically speak for themselves. He is going to be, we predict, an All-Star calibre player for many years in the NHL.”
Tavares is looking to become the third straight player from the Ontario Hockey League to be selected first overall following Patrick Kane from the Knights, who was the first overall pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007 and Steven Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting, the top pick in last year’s draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Last year at the draft in Ottawa, the first four players selected all came from the OHL and the first five were all from the Canadian Hockey League.
Matt Duchene of the Brampton Battalion, Evander Kane of the Vancouver Giants and Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings were the top four rated players. Scott Glennie of the Wheat Kings (7th), Simon Després of the Saint John Sea Dogs (8th), Jared Cowan of the Spokane Chiefs (9th) and Zack Kassian of the Peterborough Petes (10th) were also rated in the top 10 among North American prospects.
Cody Eakin of the Swift Current Broncos was the Team Orr player of the game in the Home Hardware Top Prospects Game in January and he saw his ranking jump from no. 52 to no. 29 since the mid-term rankings.
“A lot of people say the Top Prospects game is only one game, but he grabbed people’s attention in January at that game and forced scouts to go watch him in the regular season, and he didn’t disappoint,” McGuire said. “Cody Eakin took that Most Valuable Player for his team at the Top Prospects and built on it to the point where we predict he’ll be a No. 1-round choice.”
Kassian was one of the biggest movers since the mid-term rankings came out in January. He jumped from 24th to 10th for the final rankings.
“I think the only question when it comes to Zack Kassian is depending when you went in to see him; there are nights when he wasn’t jumping off the ice as far as his talents and abilities,” said McGuire. “On the nights when he was jumping into it and playing his full game, people will say, ‘Why isn’t he No. 2 or 3?’ What Zack has to learn, and we’re confident he will, is to bring that top-level talent to the fore on a more consistent basis.”
Photo credit – Aaron Bell/CHL