The 2010 NHL draft is in the books. With that, we turn our attention to 2011. Here's the early look at our top 10 for next year's NHL draft class.
D Adam Larsson, Skelleftea (Sweden)
Scouts say Larsson is well ahead of Victor Hedman at the same stage of his career. At a little over 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, Larsson's not as physically formidable as Hedman, but his puck skills and reading of the game are better than 2009's No. 2-overall pick. With a late-1992 birthday, Larsson has already played as a double underager at the world juniors. His skills will be in full view at the 2011 under-20s in Buffalo this winter.
LW Sean Couturier, Drummondville (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League)
Pro-sized at 6-4 and almost 200 pounds, Couturier dominated play in the Quebec league, tying for the league lead in scoring with 96 points. His 41 goals as an underager would have been a great number for a first-rounder in this year's draft. The son of Acadie-Bathurst GM Sylvain Couturier, Sean played at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, before coming over to the Q. He won gold on the Canadian team (led by this year's No. 2 draft pick Tyler Seguin) at the 2009 Ivan Hlinka under-18s and is in line for the Canadian team at the 2011 under-20s. His first test is Hockey Canada's summer evaluation camp in August.
C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Red Deer (Western Hockey League)
Nugent-Hopkins has average size at 6-feet, and he's not going to overpower anybody at 160 pounds. It's phenomenal vision and puck skills that set him apart. His 24 goals and 41 assists last season only hint at his potential. He'd be the player most likely to be next year's Tyler Seguin in terms of dramatic improvement except RN-H is a lot closer to the top of the board than Seguin was last summer.
RW Matt Puempel, Peterborough (Ontario Hockey League)
This guy is a pure scorer. That's the first word on any scouting report on Puempel. At this stage he works best in one direction, but if you're going to master one end of the rink, it's the way to go. Puempel patterns his game after Jarome Iginla and that might be a useful comparison. The OHL's leading rookie scorer, he closed the season fast, winning the Canadian Hockey League player of the week award with four goals and four assists in two games.
RW Gabriel Landeskog, Kitchener (OHL)
A rarity: A Scandinavian-born player who goes into an NHL draft with two full seasons of North American experience. He was an incredibly quick study when it came to the game on the smaller rink, and Landeskog played a lot of hockey in his rookie year in the OHL. He, Carolina first-rounder Jeff Skinner and Chicago prospect Jeremy Morin led Kitchener to three straight wins to open its conference final against Taylor Hall and the defending Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires. After those W's, they ran out of gas and dropped the next four, but Kitchener is a good bet to go deep in the postseason this year.
LW/C Brandon Saad, Saginaw (OHL)
Saginaw had to wait for the native of Gibsonia, Pa. Saad was the Spirit's first-round pick in the 2008 OHL draft, and he ended up with the U.S. development program in Ann Arbor, Mich., to keep his college eligibility. But he is going the major junior route this year. At 6-2 and 195 pounds, he projects to be a power forward at the next level. He was second in scoring for the U.S. U-18 team last season with 23 goal and 25 assists in 54 games, picking up three goals and three assists in six games for the U.S. team that won the world U-18s in Belarus last spring.
D Adam Clendening, Boston College (NCAA)
A freshman at BU this fall, Clendening is an offensively-skilled defenseman who played for USDT teams that won the last two world under-18 tournaments. In fact his numbers last season (10 G, 25 A in 56 games) were ahead of NHL draft choices Derek Forbort, Jarred Tinordi, Jonathon Merrill and Stephen Johns. Clendening grew up in the Buffalo, N.Y., area but moved to Toronto to play for the St. Mike's Buzzers in Junior A before joining the USDT.
C Victor Rask, Leksand (Sweden)
Rask has a well-rounded game; his puck skills and vision are first rate. Some wonder about his skating, but he goes to the net aggressively. He is tall enough at 6-2 but is on the thin side. It's easy to project his game growing (and his skating improving) when he fills out and grows stronger. He probably needs one breakout performance to jump into the top six of the draft.
LW Lucas Lessio, St. Mike's Buzzers
Lessio committed to the University of Michigan for 2011 and played for the St. Mike's Buzzers in Junior A last season, racking up prodigious numbers: 30 goals and 42 assists in 41 games. Niagara (OHL) drafted Lessio in 2009 but figured he was going the college route. It might be that after playing in the world Junior A challenge for Canada East and the Ontario team at the world under-17s, he doesn't like the idea of waiting another year for a step up in class. Niagara traded his rights to Oshawa, and he was last seen skating with the Generals in offseason practices. Windsor is supposed to be knocking on the door, looking to trade for Lessio if he'll sign on for the 2010-11 season, and Waterloo selected him in the first round of the USHL draft. You only have a tug-of-war over a big, skilled talent like Lessio.
C Vladislav Namestnikov, Khimik Voskresensk (Russia)
The London Knights traded up in the CHL Import draft Tuesday to acquire the rights to Namestnikov, a late-1992 birthday who had eight goals in five games at the 2009 under-17s and was a leading scorer for Russia in under-18 play last season. He's a waterbug at a listed 156 pounds, but so was Barrie's Alexander Burmsitrov, Atlanta's first rounder at the 2010 draft. London GM Mark Hunter said the team was only 50-50 to land Namestnikov for next season but the season after looks a lot more likely.