With the junior evaluation camps in Lake Placid, New York, and Montreal in the rearview mirror, it's time to roll out my initial top 100 drafted prospects rankings for 2014-15.
The 2014 draft class shows very well in these rankings, which is not a huge surprise given the number of new No. 1 prospects around the league.
Changes in my ranking philosophy from previous lists include more emphasis on upside, and a little less on older players who are closer to the NHL and have AHL experience. I also value defensive defenders a little more, thus a player like Scott Harrington makes the list in a significant spot after being previously omitted.
The criteria for a player to be no longer eligible for this list are: more than 25 regular-season games played in any one regular season or 50 career NHL regular-season games. For example, Mikhail Grigorenko is eligible, but Beau Bennett and Brett Connolly are not.
As part of this package, we will also have the organization pipeline ranks, and will have the top 10 prospects by team running next week.
Here are my top 100 NHL prospects for the 2014-15 season in list form: