With the NHL season paused until after Christmas, we figured this was the perfect time to release our initial 2022 NHL draft-eligible prospect rankings. We are hoping this brings a little bit of hockey-related entertainment to you all. This is more of just a ratings dump for now, and we will follow up in the coming weeks and months with additional content to provide more context and analysis to you all.
Below you will find the aggregate site and individual ranks from Drew Way, George Obremski and Rich Coyle. As always, we organize players into tiers, and we stress that the tiers are far more important than the individual ranks. Our tier methodology is simple: all players on a tier are more or less interchangeable in terms of their exact ordering. Yes, we have slight preferences between the players that go into the individual rankings, but we would not argue against any ordering of players within a tier.
For now, we are starting with just our first-round rankings. The next rankings we release, which will likely be in March or early April, will be expanded to include two-rounds worth of players.
One over-arching takeaway we have at this point in the season is that Shane Wright is on a tier of his own at the top of the list, and then you can make a legit argument for just about 10 other players who who should go #2 come the draft. In this group there is a good mix in terms of position, size and skillset, which could wind up being a large factor come draft day, depending on what team has the second overall selection.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback about our rankings or any of the 2022 draft prospects, PLEASE feel free to reach out to any of us on Twitter, and we’d be happy to answer your questions or field your feedback.
All prospect profile data is courtesy of eliteprospects, unless otherwise stated.
Blueshirts Breakaway Aggregate Rankings
Drew Way
I was hoping to have more time to do some more thorough analysis of this draft class to release in this article. Unfortunately, work and personal life commitments have gotten in the way, so this will be more brief than I originally intended. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter or within the Blueshirts Breakaway Discord (you need to be a Patreon subscriber to access this), and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.
For now, I at least wanted to leave you with a list of some early front-runners for the fifth annual Ty Smith Memorial Trophy, which you all know is the single most prestigious award any NHL prospect can win:
- Brad Lambert – Much in the vein of Anton Lundell a few years back, Brad Lambert is a prospect that everyone agrees is very, very good (or, almost everyone at least), but I still get the sense that people are sleeping on him. Similar to Aatu Räty last season, Lambert is an uber-talented prospect with a track record of incredible success that dates back to his early teenage days. However, similar to Räty, he is not putting up the eye-popping box score stats that some were hoping he would in his draft year, causing the shine to wear off him a bit. In my opinion, Lambert possesses a fantastic blend of dynamic skill, great skating and high-end offensive instincts, and if I were an NHL GM with the #2 overall pick this year, he’d strongly, strongly be in consideration for me at that spot.
- Frank Nazar – Logan Cooley is the USNTDP prospect that everyone is talking about, but in my opinion Frank Nazar is every bit as deserving of that praise. He is an elite transitional player with high-end offensive skill and an underrated two-way game. Thanks to his combination of skating, hands and a super quick release, few players can generate chances off the rush the way Nazar can. He also quite frankly is just an absolute joy to watch, and I highly encourage everyone check him out as soon as they have a chance. In my opinion, Nazar has the skill, IQ and motor to warrant a top-10 pick, and possibly push for top-5.
- Filip Mešár – Filip is a player that was going under-the-radar for a while in this draft class, but seems to have picked up some major buzz of late. His 9 points in his first 20 games in the Slovakia pro league are fantastic for his age, and he has the skill set to back up these numbers and hopefully sustain them throughout the season. Like Nazar, Mešár is an elite transitional player that possesses fantastic skating abilities and tremendous puck skills. He has good offensive instincts and possesses a plus shot. He does obviously have some areas for improvement, hence not being a sure-fire lottery player, but the positives far outweigh the growth opportunities in my opinion.
- Ty Nelson – He’s a short(ish), offensively gifted defenseman with the first name of Ty. Do I really need to say more?
- David Goyette – Currently all over the place in the rankings I’ve seen. I’ve seen Goyette as high as the middle of the first round to as late as the third round on public lists that have been released. I have him ranked in the bank-end of the first round currently, despite his relatively lackluster box score stats. He’s a tremendous skater with good hands who, most importantly, can effortlessly stickhandle at top speeds. He has a high-motor and strong overall skillset, and has good offensive instincts and playmaking ability. He’s the kind of player that when you watch, he really pops (relative to his box score stats at least), and I believe his production will begin to match the talent better as the year progresses.
- Lane Hutson – A very undersized but fantastically gifted defenseman, whose currently measurables are 5′ 8” tall (and that is probably generous) and 148lbs. I know players this small, particularly defenseman, don’t have the best track record at the NHL level, but Lane Hutson is a truly spectacular talent. He is one of the best skaters in this class, has tremendous vision and is a terrific playmaker. I challenge you to watch a USNTDP game and not come away impressed with what you see from Hutson.
- Luca Del Bel Belluz – Luca is a player that was not the highest of picks in the OHL draft (51 overall), did not have a good freshman season in the OHL and then lost out on his entire last season due to the pandemic, so he wasn’t firmly on the radar of many at the start of the season. However, he is a talented, well-rounded player that has had a fantastic start to this season–currently has 14 goals and 17 assists in 26 games with Mississauga–and has been steadily climbing up the public draft lists. He is an intelligent, creative and hard-working player with a strong 200-foot game and a diverse offensive skillset. Similar to many of the top prospects from last year’s class, skating is the main concern, and how much he can improve there may dictate how well he translates to the higher levels of play. I’m betting on him though, and he is easily one of my favorite players in this class.
- Luke Woodworth – Thanks to my friend Sam Stern pumping this kid’s tires for a couple years now, I’ve been closely watching him all season. He’s a player that currently is not ranked by many, and currently slotted to be a mid- to later round pick. He’s undersized at 5′ 9” and 154lbs, and due to this will like transition from C to the wing as he rises up the hockey ranks. However, he is a very gifted offensive player that possesses strong playmaking ability and has a plus shot. He has a high motor and is a willing forechecker, and has an active stick in his defensive zone. His main knock from what I’ve seen is that at times he relies too much on his motor, and tends to try to work hard instead of smart at times, leading to some poor decisions, particularly over-commitments on plays. That said, he is a player that I think has the skill and work ethic to allow him to steadily rise up the ranks this year. Do not be surprised if you see him start to get ranked in the top-75 of many public lists as the year goes on.
George Obremski
Rich Coyle
