What follows is my attempt to rank the very best NHL draft prospects of the past five years, evaluated from the perspective of when these players were draft-eligible, ignoring what has transpired since then.



This is a fun exercise to see where players stack up over the years, but also gives readers perspective on the value of the top prospects in the 2018 draft class.



What’s important to emphasize is these are my evaluations AT THE TIME of the draft, not now. So jumping to conclusions like, “both Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick are better than Leon Draisaitl” or “how in the world do you think Sam Bennett is better than Mitch Marner” are incorrect, unless discussing them in past tenses. Obviously, there will be egg on my face in several instances and my rankings of nearly every one of these draft classes would be substantially different as we’ve gotten new information on these players.



While I try my absolute best to view...