The Edmonton Oilers hopped over the Columbus Blue Jackets to win the NHL Draft lottery for the third consecutive year. The consensus No. 1 pick is Nail Yakupov, the Russian-born, dynamic Sarnia Sting forward.
Barring an Oilers trade, he will likely join the past two No. 1 overall picks, Ryan-Nugent Hopkins and Taylor Hall, and young star Joran Eberle, in Edmonton.
The Wild, which had a 4.7 percent chance of winning the lottery and jumping up to No. 3 overall, instead retains the No. 7 overall pick. This draft is defenseman-heavy, and with so many young forwards about to be infused into the organization (Mikael Granlund, Brett Bulmer, Charlie Coyle, Johan Larsson, Jason Zucker and Zack Phillips), there's a chance the Wild goes this route in a draft that is considered defenseman-heavy in the top-10.
That doesn't mean at all it's a definite. The Wild will always take the best player available, so if a stud like Alex Galchenyuk fell to them, I'd think they'd go forward in a heartbeat.
Here is the top-11 North American skaters according to Central Scouting Service
RANK PLAYER TEAM LEAGUE HEIGHT WEIGHT POSITION 1 YAKUPOV, NAIL SARNIA OHL 5' 10.5" 189 RW 2 MURRAY, RYAN EVERETT WHL 6' 0.5" 195 D 3 GRIGORENKO, MIKHAIL QUEBEC QMJHL 6' 3.0" 200 C 4 GALCHENYUK, ALEX SARNIA OHL 6' 0.5" 198 C 5 RIELLY, MORGAN MOOSE JAW WHL 5' 11.5" 190 D 6 CECI, CODY OTTAWA OHL 6' 2.5" 207 D 7 FAKSA, RADEK KITCHENER OHL 6' 2.5" 203 C 8 MAATTA, OLLI LONDON OHL 6' 1.5" 202 D 9 TROUBA, JACOB USA U-18 USHL 6' 2.0" 193 D 10 REINHART, GRIFFIN EDMONTON WHL 6' 3.75" 197 D 11 DUMBA, MATHEW RED DEER WHL 5' 11.75" 173 D Here's the top-12 European skaters according to Central Scouting Service
RANK PLAYER TEAM LEAGUE HEIGHT WEIGHT POSITION 1 FORSBERG, FILIP LEKSAND SWEDEN-2 6' 2.0" 181 C 2 TERAVAINEN, TEUVO JOKERIT FINLAND 5' 11.0" 165 LW 3 COLLBERG, SEBASTIAN FROLUNDA SWEDEN 5' 11.0" 176 RW 4 LINDHOLM, HAMPUS ROGLE JR. SWE-JR. 6' 2.5" 196 D 5 HERTL, TOMAS SLAVIA CZREP 6' 2.0" 198 C 6 ABERG, PONTUS DJURGARDEN SWEDEN 5' 11.0" 194 LW 7 POKKA, VILLE KARPAT FINLAND 6' 0.0" 196 D 8 BYSTROM, LUDWIG MODO JR. SWE-JR. 6' 0.75" 208 D 9 PROKHORKIN, NIKOLAY CSKA 2 RUSSIA-JR. 6' 2.5" 191 LW 10 SLEPYSHEV, ANTON NOVOKUZNETSK RUSSIA 6' 2.0" 187 LW 11 VAINONEN, MIKKO HIFK JR. FINLAND-JR. 6' 3.0" 205 D 12 LINDELL, ESA JOKERIT JR. FINLAND-JR. 6' 3.0" 194 D Rielly is considered the best offensive defenseman. Trouba, Reinhart and Dumba are all considered high-end. TSN analyst Craig Button had the Wild taking Reinhart in his mock draft.
