{allcanada} With deep draft, 'it's a good year to be bad' in NHL

The 2015 NHL draft crop is so impressive that success and failure will both have their rewards when this season is over.

"It's a good year to be bad," St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said.

While 16 teams compete in the NHL playoffs, the other 14 will be sizing up what is expected to be a draft that will yield a high number of difference-makers.

"The top 10 kids are going to be pretty good at the NHL level," said Dan Marr, the NHL's director of scouting.

Next June's draft already has received plenty of attention because the top two centers, Connor McDavid (Erie Otters, Ontario Hockey League) and Jack Eichel (Boston University) are considered generational players.

The McDavid/Eichel sweepstakes might be overshadowing a prized second layer of prospects.

Among them: smooth 6-3 Boston University defenseman Noah Hanifin; center Dylan Strome, brother of New York Islanders player Ryan Strome; and OHL standout Mitch Marner, a smallish winger with a Patrick Kane-like vibe to him.

Former NHL team executive Craig Button, now an analyst for TSN.ca, says he sees McDavid and Eichel by themselves, followed by six highly impressive players.

Hanifin is the consensus No. 3 prospect and top defenseman.

"He will be in the NHL sooner rather than later," Marr said.

Marr said in his conversations with NHL general managers, scouting directors and scouts, there is no dissent on Hanifin's place among the league's top prospects.

"He understands the position so well," Marr said. "His composure, his ability to transition from defense to offense, (scouts) are just kind of wowed by the game he is playing as a college freshman."

There appears to be no consensus after the top three, but Strome is high on team lists. At 6-3, he's bigger than his brother.

"What I call (Dylan) is an industrious center," Button said. "Those kind of centers go early. Dylan Strome might be like (Columbus Blue Jackets center) Ryan Johansen."

Dylan is not as dynamic as his brother, but he is good using his size down low. "The thing (the Stromes) have in common is neither of them like anyone to get the better of him," Marr said.

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