First I want to shout out EliteProspects. Without EliteProspects all of the work I do would not be possible. I would highly recommend a premium subscription to EliteProspects, I’ve had one for years now. All of the statistics and data that I use is directly from EliteProspects. The best hockey database in the world. Check it out if you haven't already! 

Its important to understand how I create my NHL Draft Board. Over the course of the last two seasons I have compiled data, scouting reports, and watched endless game tape on hundreds of players. I am able to attend and watch in person for most games within the New England region. 

The rest of the players I watched through FloHockey which lets you access SHL, OHL, QMJHL, and USHL games with a paid subscription. In addition to that, I watch individual isolation shift by shift for all players. 

The Hlinka Gretzky Cup starts my scouting season in the summer giving me a sneak preview of some of the top prospects in the next year's draft. From there when the regular season begins I start watching games non stop. 

The halfway mark in my scouting season is the World Junior Championship. While very few top end draft eligible players may play in the tournament, it gives a nice breaking point within the season to evaluate how a player is performing. It also pauses watching NCAA games for me as my focus shifts to the World Junior stage for those couple of weeks. 

From there on its grind time. Watching tape, re-watching tape, reading scouting reports from NHL scouts, looking at statistical data for each prospect, and formulating my analysis. 

I rank players where I would select them. Evaluating where I see the players' ceiling and how likely it is for them to achieve that in the NHL. Over the years, I have seen which players tend to succeed and which players tend to be only junior level producers. Each player has a specific archetype that can help translate how they may project to the NHL level.

For example, last year a player like Marcus Nordmark is a bit of an outlier. There aren't many NHLers with a similar style of game to Nordmark. This makes it a lot harder to project him at the NHL level. Typically players of his type don’t pan out to be full time NHLers, rather lifetime AHLers or European Pro’s. Although this doesn't mean I wouldn't take a shot on the player. Rather, it's about where I would select him. Reaching on a boom or bust player is a risk reward scenario. When creating my draft board I take this into consideration. There becomes a certain time where you have to take a shot on the skillset available given the other talent on the board still. If it was solely based on either possible upside or solely on NHL project-ability then my board would look much different. Instead I prefer to use a hybrid of the two. 

There are certain players I would not want on my team when constructing a Stanley Cup Champion, along with guys I would swing on earlier based on how I believe they will contribute in a team first environment. It is rare that I will completely write DND (do not draft) - typically these are the players that are lower on my board. 

Enjoy :)