Skip to content

Everything you need to know about the NHL Entry Draft

Bill Smith / National Hockey League / Getty

2017 NHL Entry Draft
When:
Friday, June 23, 7 p.m. ET; Saturday, June 24, 10 a.m. ET
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: Sportsnet, NBCSN (Friday); Sportsnet, NHL Network (Saturday)

Draft day.

The next crop of NHLers are set to have their immediate and long-term futures decided Friday night and Saturday morning.

Below is everything you need to know about the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Prospect Rankings

Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick, the consensus top two picks, jockeyed for position on prospect rankings lists all season long. Consider it a coin toss. Here are NHL Central Scouting's top 10 prospects from North America and Europe:

North American Skaters

Rank Prospect Height Weight (lbs) Nationality
1 Nolan Patrick (C) 6-2 199 Canadian
2 Nico Hischier (C) 6-2 179 Swiss
3 Casey Mittelstadt (C) 6-0 199 American
4 Gabriel Vilardi (C) 6-3 203 Canadian
5 Michael Rasmussen (C) 6-6 221 Canadian
6 Cody Glass (C) 6-2 178 Canadian
7 Owen Tippett (RW) 6-0 203 Canadian
8 Eeli Tolvanen (RW) 5-10 189 Finnish
9 Cale Makar (D) 5-11 187 Canadian
10 Nick Suzuki (C) 5-11 183 Canadian

European Skaters

Rank Prospect Height Weight (lbs) Nationality
1 Klim Kostin  (C/LW) 6-2 207 Russian
2 Elias Pettersson (C) 6-2 165 Swedish
3 Lias Andersson (C) 5-11 201 Swedish
4 Miro Heiskanen (D) 6-1 172 Finnish
5 Martin Necas (C) 6-1 178 Czech
6 Timothy Liljegren (D) 6-0 188 Swedish
7 Kristian Vesalainen (LW/RW) 6-4 209 Finnish
8 Urho Vaakanainen (D) 6-1 188 Finnish
9 Erik Brannstrom (D) 5-9 179 Swedish
10 Jesper Boqvist (C) 5-11 165 Swedish

Here are final prospect rankings, most 100 deep, from a number of different outlets:

Mock Drafts

Hischier? Or Patrick?

Check out mock first-round selections from a number of different media outlets:

Scouting Combine

The NHL Scouting Combine was held in early June in Buffalo, and here's how Hischier and Patrick fared, head to head:

Hischier Test Patrick
105.75 inches Standing long jump 99.75 inches
7 Bench press (70% of body weight) 12
4.75 seconds Pro agility test left 4.76 seconds
4.53 seconds Pro agility test right 4.75 seconds
19.37 inches Vertical jump 19.49 inches
13 Pullups 11

You can view top 25 results for each fitness test on the Central Scouting website.

Draft Order

The New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers will be landing one of Hischier and Patrick after ping-pong balls bounced their way in the draft lottery.

Here's the draft order through the first round:

Pick Team
1 Devils
2 Flyers
3 Stars
4 Avalanche
5 Canucks
6 Golden Knights
7 Rangers (from Coyotes)
8 Sabres
9 Red Wings
10 Panthers
11 Kings
12 Hurricanes
13 Golden Knights (from Jets)
14 Lightning
15 Golden Knights (from Islanders)
16 Flames
17 Maple Leafs
18 Bruins
19 Sharks
20 Blues
21 Rangers
22 Oilers
23 Coyotes (from Wild)
24 Jets (from Blue Jackets via Golden Knights)
25 Canadiens
26 Blackhawks
27 Blues
28 Senators
29 Stars (from Ducks)
30 Predators
31 Penguins

Draft Picks

Here are the picks each team has in the coming draft (in alphabetical order):

Team Round 1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Total
Anaheim 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 5
Arizona 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 6
Boston 1 1 0 1 0 1 2 6
Buffalo 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 6
Calgary 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 5
Carolina 1 2 2 1 0 1 1 8
Chicago 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 10
Colorado 1 1 0 2 1 1 1 7
Columbus 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 5
Dallas 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
Detroit 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 11
Edmonton 1 0 2 1 2 1 1 8
Florida 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 5
Los Angeles 1 1 1 2 2 1 0 8
Minnesota 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 6
Montreal 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 6
Nashville 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 6
New Jersey 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 10
New York Islanders 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 4
New York Rangers 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 6
Ottawa 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 4
Philadelphia 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 11
Pittsburgh 1 0 1 0 2 1 1 6
San Jose 1 1 0 1 0 2 3 8
St. Louis 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 7
Tampa Bay 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 6
Toronto 1 1 0 2 1 1 1 7
Vancouver 1 2 1 2 0 0 1 7
Vegas 3 3 1 1 2 2 1 13
Washington 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 4
Winnipeg 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 8

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox