While the top of the International Scouting Services 2013 NHL Draft rankings stayed the same in November, the competition amongst the top-10 may just be heating up.
The scouting agency – which just released another set of its monthly rankings of the top draft eligible prospects – held firm to the top three prospects from its October list.
Halifax Mooseheads centre Nathan MacKinnon remained the number one prospect after racking up 18 goals and 32 points in just 20 games so far this season.
Seth Jones – a big defender for the WHL's Portland Winterhawks – remained in second while Finnish dynamo Aleksandr Barkov held on to the number three spot.
From there, however, the deck got shuffled.
MacKinnon's Mooseheads teammate Jonathan Drouin jumped the queue in the top 10, going from his 10th-overall ranking in October to the fourth spot this month.
Said one scout of Drouin: “Can not say enough good things about this player... with added size and grit he would challenge Nathan for Number One overall.”
His big surge moved a pair of centres – the Ottawa 67s' Sean Monahan and Edmonton Oil Kings' Curtis Lazar – down to fifth and sixth respectively.
Medicine Hat pivot Hunter Shinkaruk moved up a spot to seventh, jumping Finnish blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen - who dropped to eighth – and Russian winger Andre Burakowsky who dropped to 11th.
Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds defender Darnell Nurse jumped into the top 10 from the 16th spot in October's list, landing at ninth with Swedish centre Elias Lindholm rounding out the top-10, dropping one spot from last month.
Jason Dickinson enjoyed the greatest jump within the projected first round, jumping 12 spots to number 14, while US National team defender Keaton Thompson, Swedish centre Viktor Crus-Rydberg and Seattle blueliner Shea Theodore were amongst the month's debutants.
Check out the full rankings on TSN.ca's DraftCentre page.
