(UPDATED: June 22; First published: June 19)



Last week, The Athletic’s staff of NHL writers posted our collective mock draft. Today, I do my own projection of how I think the first round of the 2018 NHL draft will play out in a few days.



Mock drafts are harder to do in hockey than other sports like football (where positional need is a big factor) and baseball (where signability is important and agents leak info). I end up relying on second-hand sources, which can lead to me projecting Cale Makar to be the first overall pick (which was embarrassing in hindsight but reporting I still stand by and what happened is a story for another day).



With this method, I feel roughly confident in my reporting on the top 10, of course, one blunder and the whole thing will be ruined. The rest of the draft is more educated guesswork based on what I think teams value, how the players are valued in the NHL scouting industry and any hunches I have.



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