Bob McKenzie has released his midseason rankings for this summer’s 2023 NHL Draft. Without hesitation, he made sure it was clear that it’s Connor Bedard’s draft and no one behind him is close. The race to the bottom is going to be fierce.
The other thing, more pertinent to the Leafs, that Bob mentioned was that this year is very light on defenseman, but strong in forwards and goalies in the first round. This tells me that once the top forward talent gets picked in the top half of the first round, we’re going to see teams reach for defenders a lot earlier than they should be, as well as possibly goalies, leading to lots of talent slipping through to the later rounds.