Mitch Brown’s Top 82 Skaters for the 2020 NHL Draft

We’re less than two weeks away from the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which means it’s time for yet another draft ranking.

After the EliteProspects team published their final ranking and benevolent dictator J.D. Burke published his own, I decided to take a shot at a draft ranking.

I’m mostly looking for upside in at least one dimension — offence, transition, and defence. NHL probability is mostly a futile task, unless it’s obvious that a player won’t make it. Most of the 200-plus players selected every year have some sort of NHL-quality tool, whether that’s skating, passing, shooting, thinking, etc. What separates the few prospects who make from the majority who don’t – I believe – is the ability to layers skills and string one skill into another.

For example, most prospects shoot the puck hard en