What follows is my attempt to rank the top 30 NHL draft prospects of the past five years, evaluated based on perspectives when these players were draft-eligible and ignoring what has transpired since.

I realize players such as Michael Dal Colle, Sean Monahan and Morgan Rielly are not listed. That's a combination of this being a "best of the best" list and my reservations about them, relative to the elite players I had ranked at the very top at the time of their draft.