Instant Reaction: NHL Central Scouting Releases Final 2024 Draft Rankings

Macklin Celebrini. Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau has released its final 2024 draft rankings, so I had to weigh in on them, right? Central’s rankings are always helpful to teams and fans alike thanks to their breadth, even if the list being divided into four can be inconvenient: How does the best defenseman in North America stack up against the best international blueliner, for instance?

But the parameters are the parameters and we use Central as one of many tools when breaking down the draft each year.

This season, the top North American skater was obvious: Macklin Celebrini of Boston University is head and shoulders above everyone else. Fellow NCAA freshman Artyom Levshunov of Michigan State ranks second and reflects a deep blueline pool: Other defensemen such as Denver’ Zeev Buium, Saginaw’s Zayne Parekh or London’s Sam Dickinson could go ahead of Levshunov and no one would bat an eye – but if the big Belarussian is the first North American defenseman off the board, that wouldn’t be surprising, either.

In terms of forwards, USHL Chicago’s Michael Hage made a big leap from the mid-terms, going from 19th to 10th amongst North American skaters. WHL Kelowna’s Tij Iginla got a bit of a bump too, putting both of them ahead of the NTDP’s Cole Eiserman, who came into the season as a potential top-three selection. Eiserman, who has been chasing Cole Caufield’s all-time goals record at ‘The Program’ all season, has fallen in the eyes of most scouts who are worried about his game when he doesn’t have the puck. I’m still pretty bullish on Eiserman, but I also understand the trepidation. Central knocked him down from No. 8 in the mid-terms to 12th now.

Internationally, Anton Silayev is your new No. 1. The towering KHL Torpedo defenseman has a lot of Victor Hedman in his game and at 6-foot-7, his mobility is impressive. One Russian who actually slid a couple of spots was Loko’s Yegor Surin, which is surprising to me because his playoff run in the Russian junior circuit has been electrifying. I know team scouts like him, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out on draft day.

Meanwhile, in terms of goalies, North America’s rankings are now ruled by USHL Omaha’s Mikhail Yegorov, who played on the worst team in the league. Nonetheless, team scouts love his size and skill in the crease and in a year with a lot of uncertainty at the position, I like the call by Central.