A pair of players, one of them with the strength of an ox and shoulders broad enough to carry a franchise, the other can attack with stealth and lethality, arrived to this point as two of the best players the 2017 NHL Draft will offer. Nolan Patrick (Ranked No. 1), the heart-and-soul leader of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, and Swiss phenom Nico Hischier (Ranked No. 3) of the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, could very easily be the first two players chosen when the draft takes place next June in Chicago. At least that seems to be the popular opinion. But with all due respect to Mssr. Hischier, his impressive resume is still not enough to bump Minnesota high school phenom Casey Mittelstadt (Ranked No. 2) from the second spot he held in our early-season rankings.

The injuries that shelved Patrick — the preseason consensus top pick — can be looked at as a sort of blessing, as he was forced to bypass the gauntlet of pre-draft exhibitions and tournaments that can attrit a high-ranking prospect into a lower echelon. Playing under a round-the-clock microscope is a byproduct of being both good and popular, but it can also give bored talent evaluators reasons to nitpick an area of the game that most would otherwise consider unimportant. In other words, the fully-healed Patrick has done nothing to hurt his draft stock and remains our favorite to go first overall, even after Hischier took advantage of the spotlight with a fantastic performance at the under-20 world junior championship over Christmas break.

From the statistics made available to us, a strong case can be made that either player is worthy of the historic privilege of being the top pick of a draft. Patrick, whose combination of skill and power makes him the prototypical North American player, is producing at a 1.65 points per game clip, while Hischier has a slight edge at 1.69 PPG. Their production since Patrick’s return on January 13th has been close to equal as well, with Patrick notching eight goals and 21 points in 13 games, Hischier eight and 18 in 11. Hischier, however, has collected an impressive 21 primary assists in 45 games (0.56), while Patrick (seven in 17 games) averages only 0.41 primary assists per contest.

The question is whether Hischier’s dominance as a rookie European in North America is enough to overtake Patrick’s seamless post-injury transition. We don’t think it is, and feel a healthy Patrick remains the draft prospect with the highest upside and shortest path to NHL stardom.

Mittelstadt has not been given the widespread attention he deserves, so we’ll add to his case. He was the United States Hockey League’s leading scorer when he chose to return to Eden Prairie High School for his senior year, so we won’t punish him for possessing the burning desire to win the state championhip that narrowly escaped him a year ago. Make no mistake — Mittelstadt is a winner and a clutch player with leadership qualities to support a lethal skill set centered on creativity and timeliness.

So why rank Mittelstadt a head of Hischier rather than the other way around? For starters, he was just as good, if not better, than Hischier when they competed as 16-year-olds at the 2015 U18 Ivan Hlinka Tournament, where he finished tied for second in overall scoring. Additionally, it was Mittelstadt who had the stronger 2016 U18 world championship in Grand Forks, albeit on a better team. Hischier leading CHL rookies in scoring as a European import is not rare (Vitalii Abramov did it last year while playing for Gatineau), but Mittelstadt topping the USHL in points in a pre-draft season is in our minds the bigger accomplishment.

Remember, it goes beyond stats. When the number are equal or close to it, relying on the intangibles and assessing how skills translate at higher levels of play is equally as important. Mittelstadt’s advantages in versatility and size, plus a penchant for big game production are what solidifies him as the second best prospect for the 2017 draft.