By Chris Shea, staff writer
It’s June 26, 2015 in Sunrise, Fla. With the first overall selection in the 2015 NHL entry draft, the Edmonton Oilers will select… Well that’s just it; the 2015 draft is loaded with talent, so it’s very hard to see who will be selected first.
Actually, it’s not that hard to imagine, it’s between two forwards: Canada’s Connor McDavid and the United States’ Jack Eichel.
The prospects are expected to be the top picks at the draft and it’s easy to see why. Both of them have been tearing up their respective leagues, which is why many NHL teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes, Arizona Coyotes, and Buffalo Sabres had such disastrous seasons. For a chance to land one of these two.
With the way the draft lottery system is, the team that sat last in the standings (Buffalo) had a 20 percent chance of landing the first overall pick, but they were at least guaranteed the second overall pick if they didn’t win the lottery. Isn’t that a nice consolation prize?
So what have these forwards accomplished that makes a team willing to tank in the standings for them?
Connor McDavid, a center for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters, has 115 points in 45 games played. That means that he’s managing about 2.54 points per game. These numbers haven’t been seen since the likes of Sidney Crosby, the first overall pick in the 2005 draft, when he put up 2.71 points per game in his final season of junior hockey. Crosby is now considered the best player in the world and has a Stanley Cup to his credit.
This season, McDavid has hit every benchmark and managed to surpass some along his path to the draft. Just imagine if McDavid was able to play all 68 games of the OHL season.
University Terriers of the NCAA, is one of the reasons that BU won the Beanpot, the annual tournament held amongst the NCAA teams around the Boston area; as well as the fact that BU was able to reach the National Championship game.
Eichel is only a freshman at BU; in fact, he is possibly the best freshman hockey player since Paul Kariya laced up for the Maine Black Bears back in 1992 and managed to put up 100 points. Eichel has 70 points in 39 games played, putting him at 1.79 points per game. Eichel is
also the recipient of the NCAA’s Hobey Baker award for best collegiate player. The only other freshman to win that award was Kariya back in ‘93.
The fact that one player plays junior hockey while the other plays college hockey adds just a bit more spice to the race for the No.1 spot.
So who is most likely to be selected first? Well if you look at the stats, McDavid is clearly the top choice to go first overall.
But since the Oilers need a franchise defenseman or goaltender rather than another forward (they are loaded with offensive prospects), anything can happen by draft day.
The Oilers can trade their pick, McDavid can pull an Eric Lindros and refuse to join the Oilers organization, they can keep McDavid and trade some of their forwards for a young defenseman, the Oilers can even surprise everyone and draft Noah Hanifin, the top ranked defensive prospect, over McDavid or Eichel. Now this is all speculation, but crazier things have happened by draft day.
These players are the cornerstones that any franchise who’s in a rebuild would love to build around to become a future Stanley Cup contender.
So for those teams that did bad this season, it will feel so good come the draft. Any team would be lucky to get NHL ready talent so early on. These talented players only come around once in a generation.