Our favorite scouting resource, The Scouting Report, has released their top 100 prospects for the 2011 NHL Draft in an excellent four-part series loaded with details about this year's prospect pool. It's an outstanding series, full of stats and reference material for any draft junkie or casual fan who may want to read up before June. The Scouting Report has helped us previously with profiles on a number of Edmonton prospects. After the jump, I'll look at a couple of interesting possibilities for the Oilers in the top 100.
Part 1 details skaters 100 through 76, and with Edmonton picking at the top of the fourth round, pay special attention to the 88th-ranked skater left wing Joachim Nermark, interviewed by Johan in November; 90th-ranked Brendan Kichton, a high-scoring WHL defenseman from Spokane and 92nd-ranked Zach Yuen, a stay-at-home defenseman from Tri-City of the WHL.
Part 2 profiles prospects number 75 through 50, a grouping especially intriguing given the fact that the Oilers have a pair of picks in that range and the Devils had to surrender their own pick.
Thanks to Darryl Sutter's genius, and by genius, I mean giving away anything for Steve Staios, the Oilers get the Flames 3rd-round pick, currently number 74, but with the Devils forfeiting a pick for their Ilya Kovalchuk shenanigans, the pick is actually number 73. Players to keep an eye on include 73rd-ranked Vincent Trochek, Saginaw's solid all-around center, and 75th-ranked Logan Shaw, a huge winger from Cape Breton in the QMJHL.
With the first overall pick in the third round, Edmonton might target Miikka Salomaki a Finnish wing playing for Karpat in the SM-Liiga, ranked 58th. Also in the range is Markus Granlund, Mikael's little brother, ranked 64th. In between the two Finns at number 63 is Andrei Pedan, a big Russian defenseman who played in Guelph in the OHL this season.
Part 3 checks in on numbers 50-26, which includes the skaters who should be available at number 31, the Oilers second overall pick. There are a number of interesting prospects in the range of the 31st selection, including Scott Mayfield, an enormous defenseman with Youngstown of the USHL, ranked 28th; Alexander Khokhlachev, another Russian who came to the OHL and became an even strength point machine for Windsor, ranked 29th, Ty Rattie, a proven goal-scorer in the WHL for Portland, profiled by our own SumOil, ranked 30th; and Connor Murphy, another in a long line of big and mean defensemen from the U.S. National Team, ranked 31st.
Part 4 goes into great detail about the 25 players who should be sure-fire first round selections. There are some excellent profiles in there and with the Oilers selecting twice in the top 20, Edmonton fans will be well-versed in this grouping of players. Some potential targets for the 19th overall pick acquired in the Dustin Penner trade include Oscar Klefbom, a big, mobile defenseman playing in the SEL for Farjestad, ranked 19th; J.T. Miller, a gritty center from the U.S. National Team, ranked 20th; and Nicklas Jensen, a Dane with blazing speed who found a home in the OHL last season with Oshawa, ranked 21st.
As for the first overall pick, TSR opts for the forward, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (can someone draft him already so we can move on to calling him simply "Ryan Hopkins"?) over the defender, Adam Larsson.