TSN’s mid-season rankings for the 2022 draft have come out and though Shane Wright remains at the top, it’s a tenuous position. Bob McKenzie, who compiles the list based on a poll of active scouts, writes that the Kingston Frontenacs captain has been underwhelming in the few of many this season after missing all of 2020-21 because of the OHL’s COVID-19 shutdown.
Wright had been a unanimous selection from those scouts in the pre-season ranking but was now listed first by only nine of ten with Russian forward Ivan Miroshnichenko getting the other top vote. In 25 games for Kingston this season, the 18-year-old center has 12 goals and 31 points after scoring 39 goals and 66 points as an exceptional status player in 2019-20.
- Dylan Holloway, the 14th overall pick in 2020 and a member of the Edmonton Oilers, has yet to play in a professional game since signing out of the University of Wisconsin. That will soon change as Holloway has reached a point in his injury recovery that he will soon report to the Bakersfield Condors for game action. A brilliant sophomore campaign with Wisconsin led to an entry-level contract last April for Holloway, one that will see the first year burned whether he plays in the NHL or not this season. Multiple wrist surgeries (and a stint in the COVID protocol) have kept him out so far, but Hollway is now medically cleared for action.
- Scott Wheeler of The Athletic continued his prospect pool rankings with the Vegas Golden Knights at No 22, but noted that this is the first team in what he would call the third tier, closer to the middle third of the league than the bottom. With no Peyton Krebs to take the top spot after he was sent to Buffalo in the Jack Eichel deal, Brendan Brisson of the University of Michigan sits first for the Golden Knights. Brisson is one of several Wolverines that will be suiting up for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, an impressive accomplishment for a player that nearly slipped out of the first round two years ago. In 2020, Brisson was selected 29th overall by the Golden Knights and has followed that draft with two very strong college seasons.