1.
Patrik Laine, LW, Tampere (Liiga) DOB: 4/19/98 | Ht: 6-4 | Wt: 206 GP: 46 | G: 17 | A: 16
Laine is everything you want in a high-skill power forward. First, he's built like a truck at 6-foot-4, 206 pounds, with broad shoulders and great core strength. It's a joy to watch film of Laine shrugging off checks left and right, and easily winning loose puck battles. He's equally adept at being a playmaker as he is being a goal scorer. Laine's offensive IQ is high-end, bordering on elite. He's a very creative puck handler who anticipates pressure well, and knows how to create space for himself. He moves the puck quickly with few errors.
Off the puck, he finds the open seams well, and can launch a scoring chance from almost anywhere on the ice, having probably the best shot in this class. Laine's skating is his one notable flaw, although he's gotten a little quicker from last season. He's average in that area, and I don't think he's going to jet past NHL defensemen. Overall, he's a special forward, someone who could be an elite scoring power winger in the NHL for the next decade.
Ranking explanation: We're gonna need more than a paragraph on this one. Click here to read my case for Laine over Auston Matthews.
2.
Auston Matthews, C, Zug (NLA) DOB: 9/17/97 | Ht: 6-2 | Wt: 210 GP: 36 | G: 24 | A: 22
Teams dream about getting a legit No. 1 center like Matthews when picking at the top of the draft. A 6-foot-2, 210-pound pivot with a skill level that is off the charts, he's also got professional experience to boot, and he's been making Swiss cheese out of his opponents in the NLA. Matthews is a magician with the puck; not one of those pretend magicians you'll find in Las Vegas, but like the ones you read about in fiction novels. He is so coordinated and creative that it's nearly impossible to strip him of the puck. Combining that with an incredible touch that can have him effortlessly saucer pass across the rink onto the blade, or place it on a shot wherever he wants to, and he's a nightmare for teams to defend. He's a very good skater, and while he's not among the very top tier of the class in terms of speed, he can explode down the ice with anyone.
Matthews isn't perfect. His real weakness is when the offense isn't flowing through him. He's not a really physical player who will grind for pucks along the wall, nor is he some sort of defensive stalwart. Matthews still uses his big frame to win pucks and competes well on the ice in every zone, but the team drafting him must be realistic about what he's going to be in terms of the gritty areas of the game.
Ranking explanation: Jesse Puljujarvi is a fantastic prospect, one of the best under-18 players to ever don the Finland jersey. His 16- and 17-year-old performances at the IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC) are among the all-time greats. He's big, skilled, fast and advanced in his play. He's just not at the same level as Matthews and Laine. I can't think of one attribute he's substantially better at than Matthews, except for possibly his physical play; he's quicker than Laine and a little better defensively. They have him beat in every other area, either marginally or notably.
