2016 NHL Draft: Matthews, Laine finish atop final ISS rankings

Photo: Forwards Auston Matthews of the ZSC Lions and Patrik Laine of Tappara Tampere are the top two prospects for the 2016 NHL Draft according to ISS Hockey (courtesy of John Crouch/Icon Sportswire and Melanie Duchene/EQ Images/Icon Sportswire)

The first round of the 2016 NHL Draft is now just a couple of days away, with the remainder of the draft taking place on Saturday at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, NY.

Earlier this month, ISS Hockey released their final top 30 for this year’s draft, along with their 2016 draft guide. The order in June barely changed from the list presented in May, but there was some minor shuffling within the top 10.

There was no change at the top, however, as Auston Matthews went wire-to-wire as the top prospect for 2016 in the ISS rankings. The Scottsdale, AZ native did not look out of place playing against men in Switzerland’s National League A over the course of the 2015-16 campaign, nor did he shrink away from the higher level of competition at the IIHF World Championship in May. Matthews passed all the tests in eyes of the ISS scouts.

Matthews closest rival for first overall through the season’s second half, Finnish winger Patrik Laine, actually had to move up one spot to secure his only second placement in the ISS rankings for the season. Fellow countryman Jesse Puljujarvi held the second slot in 2016 until the June rankings where he and Laine flipped places to rank second and third.

Being an overtime hero in a championship game paid off in the rankings for London Knights winger Matthew Tkachuk. Another Scottsdale, AZ native, Tkachuk netted the Memorial Cup-winning goal in overtime on the final weekend of May, capping a strong postseason showing in which he produced 40 points in 18 games. That performance was enough to move Tkachuk from the sixth slot up to #4 in the final rankings.

Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles remained in fifth place, a position he has held since the April rankings. Dropping to the sixth slot is Mississauga Steelheads winger Alexander Nylander, who was displaced by Tkachuk in the final list.

From that point on, the rankings remain unchanged from the May list, not surprising since virtually none of the final 24 prospects competed in the month of May. Rounding out the top 10 are center Logan Brown (#7) of the Windsor Spitfires; defenseman Jakob Chychrun (#8) of the Sarnia Sting; winger Tyson Jost (#9) of the Penticton Vees; and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (#10) of the Windsor Spitfires.

There was no change for the top goaltender in this draft according to ISS Hockey, with Sherbrooke Phoenix goalie Evan Fitzpatrick holding the top spot in June, as he did in May. Supplanting May’s second-ranked goaltender, the U.S. NTDP’s Joseph Woll, is Lulea netminder Filip Gustavsson.

Below is ISS Hockey’s final top-30 ranking for the 2016 NHL Draft.

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