Final Draft Rankings Prove It’s Been ‘Business As Usual’ For NHL Central Scouting

With the NHL season on pause for almost a month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the league provided a reminder that there’s still major business going on Wednesday, when it revealed its Central Scouting Service final rankings for the 2020 NHL Draft.

The draft, originally scheduled for June 26-27 in Montreal, has been postponed. But at least there’s a little light at the end of the tunnel provided by knowing which prospects CSS believes are the cream of the crop.

In fact, the release of the final rankings in the face of social distancing and travel restrictions caused by the pandemic showed the ingenuity of CSS and its scouts.

“Our list always comes up during this time, during the first round of NHL playoffs and before the draft lottery,” NHL director of central scouting Dan Marr said during a video conference. “We missed about 10 days, and most of our ranking is based on regular-season play, it gives us a balanced assessment. And as far as our meetings, we just moved it to an online format. We were able to get back to a business-as-usual approach, it’s just we were minus the personal interaction that you get when you have breaks and dinners. But we were certainly able to make the best of our situation and get our list back.”

As expected, left wing Alexis Lafreniere of Rimouski (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) was the top-ranked North American skater. The 6-foot-1, 193-pound forward was also the top-ranked skater in the midterm rankings.

Although the NHL draft order and the lottery will have to wait until the league determines the fate of its 2019-20 season, some team will be getting one heck of a player if it chooses to tab the CSS No. 1 with the top pick in the draft.

“Every game that I saw him play, he makes plays that we don’t even think that those plays are possible, and he still makes them,” said J-F Damphousse of NHL Central Scouting. “But I think what separates him from the pack is his compete level. He’s willing to play physical, he battles every game, and anytime that the game is on the line you want him on the ice. He makes big plays in games and he responds under pressure.”

The top picks should be easy to make once the draft is scheduled and held, probably in a virtual manner while large gatherings are still prohibited because of the pandemic. It’ll be the lower rounds that will make it difficult for teams to make choices without having seen players perform in their leagues’ postseasons or the IIHF Under-18 tournament, which was also cancelled.

Heck, the teams won’t even have the benefit of the NHL Scouting Combine. But Marr explained how the NHL and its teams can make up for the lack of combine results. He addressed all three parts of the combine experience.

“NHL clubs are allowed to do interviews with the players basically all season long. And at this point now, it’s just moved to an online format by whatever technical means they have. …

“On the testing side, we’re proceeding on our medical collection side, as far as getting the players to provide a medical questionnaire,” he said. “And any medical information, that gets posted to our clubs’ trainers and doctors.

“And on the testing side, there are no fitness results that are going to be obtained. But we have an arrangement in place at our prospect games where we do get some on-ice test results done. So the teams do have on-ice test results of 75 of the top 100 prospects for this draft.”

Here’s hoping the NHL and its teams are able to put this information to use soon.