I had planned to see Phillip Danault in Quebec City on a Friday night a few weeks back, but for the second time this season I went to see a top QMJHL prospect who was sitting in the press box. Danault, the captain of Victoriaville who we projected to go No. 15 to the New York Rangers in our latest mock draft, was handed a one-game suspension by the team. Danault's suspension was no big deal -- late for practice or skipping a class, something along those lines. I suppose the coach made an example of him as a way of getting a message to his team (and Victoriaville did upset Quebec that night). No one should read a character issue into Danault's suspension.

I had heard a lot of good things about Danault even if he was trending down on Central Scouting's rankings (midterm list No. 23 among North American skaters, No. 27 on the final list). Based on my conversations with scouts, they would have kept him at the higher ranking and maybe given him a bit of a bounce up. As I've noted before, an assessment of Danault is a challenge for scouts because he has been a lead player on a very weak team -- he would have been in the middle of a lot of dog games. But when I've spoken to scouts, those who have seen him the most like him the most -- and scouting directors have adjusted travel plans to scope him out, based on their Q-league scouts' recommendations. That's to say, he seems like a bit more of a priority than a No. 27.

The dope from one Quebec-based scout who has seen him 10 times over the course of the season: "He's a pretty slight kid and you wonder how much he's going to grow. If he's 170 [pounds] now, you'd imagine that he'll get to 185 pretty easily, but not much more than that. If he were a little bigger, then you could see him breaking in as a third- or fourth-liner, but that's not what he has physically and it's really not his game either.

"He's a skilled kid who has great hockey sense. He's more of a playmaker than a finisher but that's okay. He can go back and forth between [left] wing and center. I like him more as a center but that just shows how he has a good feel for the game. And he has great wheels. He is just a great-looking skater, like they try to teach kids. He should be able to play on skating alone but there's a lot more there. He made the best of a bad situation in Victo'.

"What would he look like if he was in Saint John? He'd be higher up the list for sure. I know Central has Zach Phillips above Danault on their list but I like Danault over him."

Side notes from Mock Draft 2.0

• Some folks in the comments section wondered about Brandon Saad's drop. One scout's take: "I get the impression that he might be a kid who matured early physically and he had that advantage on his way up to his draft year. The comparable would be John McFarland [the Florida Panthers' draft pick last year] -- a disappointment in his draft year because a lot of kids caught up to him in size and strength. What he [Saad] had advantages in before are just sort of equalized at [age] 18."

That's one explanation. The other might be that he played with an injury. Either way, Saad, a top-10 player in mid-winter is out of the top 10 and probably the top 15 at this point.

• A few readers are pointing out the defensemen tend to rank lower and forwards higher on my list. That's a fair comment but it's not an accident. More teams are coming around to the thinking that Ds, unless they're first-pair potential Ds like Adam Larsson or special packages like Ryan Murphy, aren't going to pay dividends on drafting for several seasons and that you do as well trading for veteran blueliners or signing UFAs for your second pair. Thus, you could again see a lot of guys who aren't clear-cut first-pairing material drop down the first round a little ways.