"This draft class has kind of expanded to where the top two North American players or the top two International players, depending on how the NHL Draft Lottery goes (on May 10), could be taken at the number one spot," Marr said on the latest edition of the "NHL Draft Class" podcast. "You'd have to go back to the Aleksander Barkov draft (No. 2, 2013 NHL Draft) where you had a similar situation."
Marr joined the show after NHL Central Scouting revealed its final list of the top North American skaters and goalies, and the top International skaters and goalies on Thursday.
The two top North American skaters are centers Shane Wright of Kingston in the Ontario Hockey League, and Logan Cooley of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. The top two international skaters are left wing Juraj Slafkovsky of TPS of Liiga, Finland's top professional league, and right wing Joakim Kemell of JYP in Liiga.
"I don't think anything is etched in stone but all I know is those are four really good players at the top of the draft class and anybody's going to be lucky to get them," Marr said.
Slafkovsky, who moved to No. 1 from No. 2 in the midterm ranking, was named the most valuable player at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. At 17 years old (he turned 18 on March 30), Slafkovsky scored a tournament-best seven goals in seven games to help Slovakia win the bronze medal, its first men's Olympic hockey medal.
"Scouts don't use the word 'impressive' very often when they talk about players and you can see him, game by game at the Olympics, just figure things out," Marr said. "Every game he got a little better, and he found the way to utilize all his assets, which includes a mature physical frame (6-foot-4, 218 pounds).
"I'm not a fan of using the word 'NHL ready' with 18- and 19-year-olds, but physically, he might be the player that's closest to competing for an NHL job next year."
Marr also discussed several players who stood out at the recently concluded 2022 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Germany and provided a few players from the NTDP U-18 team who aren't receiving the proper attention.
"NHL Draft Class" co-hosts Adam Kimelman and Mike G. Morreale discussed many of the players and changes made in the final rankings, in addition to who might be selected No. 1 in the 2022 draft.
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Listen: New episode of NHL Draft Class
