Slotting in at No. 23, Ivan Ryabkin is one of the most divisive players in this entire draft class, as a skilled Russian center that’s experienced quite the fall in his draft projection from the start of this cycle to now.
In most draft years, there is one or two guys that either experience dramatic rises or dramatic falls during the course of the draft year, and Ryabkin is unfortunately on the negative side of that. The case of Ryabkin harkens back to last year’s big drop of the draft, where former top-2024 Draft defenseman Aron Kiviharju fell all the way down to the Minnesota Wild at No.