2014 Defence Draft Rankings

As promised here are my defencemen rankings for the 2014 draft. Keep in mind I am only covering the North American leagues that I covered in the Counting Cards at the Draft Series.  I have sorted the players into tiers. The order in the tier is not too important, so feel free to move a guy up or down if you feel he is too low or high in a particular tier. I have based these rankings on the likelihood of future NHL success using the data I gathered from the Counting Cards at the Draft series.

Tier 1  

- Aaron Ekblad (CHL)

Ekblad gets his own tier as he is the cream of the crop among defencemen this year and has a chance of being the #1 overall selection in Philadelphia. He combines good scoring (0.91ppg) with great work in his own end to be the total package.

Tier 2

-Anthony Deangelo (CHL)

-Julius Honka  (CHL)

This tier consists of the small offensive defencemen. DeAngelo and Honka both measure in at 5’11, per HockeyDB’s database. They are both great with the puck as shown by their ability to put up points at the junior level. DeAngelo had a season for the ages putting up 71 points in 51 games, while Honka put up a very good 56 points in 62 games. The knock on DeAngelo is clearly his attitude and make-up. He has had numerous suspensions for verbally abusing officials and teammates. Personally I don’t see this being an issue long term because we have to remember these kids are 17 and 18 years old, there is bound to be some growing up left to do. The talent there is too much to pass up.   

Tier 3

-Haydn Fleury (CHL)

-Roland McKeown (CHL)

 -John-Claude Brassard  (USHS)

-Luc Snuggerud (USHS)

-Matthew Berkovitz (USHS)

-Mark Friedman (USHL)

The players in this tier also showed an ability to score this season. What put them in this tier rather than the above tier is the fact that no one here had the gaudy totals of DeAngelo or Honka. Brassard had the highest point per game total among high school players at 1.59ppg. Fleury is highly regarded for his defensive play and put a solid 46 points in 70 games.   

Tier 4

-Gavin Bayreuther* (NCAA)

-Brandon Montour * (USHL)

-Scott Savage*  (NCAA)

These three players scored above the rate that predicted NHL success. They are a tier lower because they are older and not in their first draft eligible season. Montour and Bayreuther are in their third season of draft eligibility. Savage is only in his second draft eligible season. Bayreuther was almost a point per game player as a freshman at St Lawrence, with 36 points in 38 games. All three players should be drafted just slightly lower than what their stat line would suggest.   

Tier 5

- Alexis Vanier (CHL)

-Olivier Leblanc (CHL)

-Cody Donaghey (CHL)

-Dysin Mayo (CHL)

-Riley Stadel (CHL)

-Tyler Nanne (USHL)

-Jonathan Barry (USHS)

-Brycen Martin (CHL)

-Blake Siebenaler (CHL)

This tier has the players who just missed the cut-off scoring rate. These players are worth taking a chance on as they have shown flashes of offensive potential. The goal here would be to find that player who is going to have a breakout season next year.  

Tier 6

-Jack Glover (US-U18)

-Jack Dougherty (US-U18)

-Michael Lee (USHS)

-Billy Sweezey (USHS)

-Louis Belpedio (US-U18)

-Stefan Leblanc (CHL)

-Kyle Jenkins (CHL)

-Aaron Irving (CHL)

-Travis Sanheim (CHL)

-Ben Thomas (CHL)

-Matthew Murphy* (CHL)

-Daniel Walcott* (CHL)

-Rinat Valiev* (CHL)

These players are similar to the last group in that they have shown a bit off offence; however it was lower than the players in the previous tier. These players all carry significant risk as a breakout season is needed to have any hope of making the NHL. Sanheim, Dougherty and Glover stand out here as they have been getting a lot of buzz as potentially top 45 picks.  I would avoid those players that high and let another team take on the risk.

Tier 7

-Joshua Jacobs (USHL)

-Neil Pionk (USHL)

-Miles Gendron (USHS) 

-Nick Wolff (USHS)

-Alexey Sleptsov (CHL)

-Yannick Rathgeb (CHL)

-Kyle Wood (CHL)

-Jacob Middleton (CHL)

-Daniel De Sousa (CHL)

-Alex Lintuniemi (CHL)

-Frank Hora (CHL)

-Brett Lernout (CHL)

-Santino Centorame (CHL)

-Brandon Prophet (CHL)

Players in this tier have showed minimal ability to score and it is not enough to be considered for this draft.

Tier 8

-Ryan Rehill (CHL)

-Phil Baltisberger (CHL)

-Aaron Haydon (CHL)

-Sam Ruopp (CHL)

-Alexander Mikulovich (CHL)

-Johnathan Macleod (US-U18)

-Colton Bobyk (CHL)

-Dallas Valentine (CHL)

-Kevin Laliberte (CHL)

-Stephen Desrocher (CHL)

-Alex Peters (CHL)

-Sergei Boikov (CHL)

-Kayle Doetzel * (CHL)

-Nelson Nogier (CHL)

-Josh Wesley (CHL)

-Edson Harlacher (CHL)

-Patrick Sanvido (CHL)

-Ryan Collins (US-U18)

-Josh Thrower (CHL)

-Ryan Mantha (USHL)

-Hunter Warner (USHL)

-Parker Reno* (NCAA)

-Tanner Faith (CHL)

*indicates not first time draft eligible

I would avoid all players in this tier completely as they haven’t shown much of any offensive ability at all.