Back in October, and right after the 2020 NHL Draft, I wrote a piece looking at an early list of 2021 draft prospects that public scouts had included on their early rankings. The theme back then is still true now: the lack of playing time for most of North American prospects is going to turn the focus more on Europeans, and this seems like a good draft for defensemen.
The other theme that I’ve seen emerge is that this draft is not as deep as last year’s. Where I saw several writers last year say that it was very deep from the 20th pick into the 40’s, this year each tier is shorter — at least so far.