NHL Draft 2016: Breaking Down Top Prospects in Draft Class

While 16 teams will vie for the chance to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup in the coming weeks, the rest of the NHL's 30 teams eagerly await the 2016 NHL draft lottery, which will determine who will get a shot at the class's elite prospects.

The 2015 draft featured a pair of generational talents in Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Buffalo Sabres stud Jack Eichel, and although it is unclear if anyone in the 2016 class will reach that level, there are plenty of players worth getting excited about.

As the draft process starts to pick up steam, here is a closer look at some of the top prospects that promise to come off the board early in the 2016 NHL draft at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York.

Auston Matthews

Although the combine and interview process could shake things up a bit before draft night, every indication is that U.S.-born forward Auston Matthews is the heavy favorite to be selected with the No. 1 overall pick.

The United States National Team Development Program product took an interesting route to the draft by passing on both college hockey and Canadian juniors in favor of playing professionally for Zurich of the Swiss NLA during the 2015-16 campaign.

The 18-year-old native of Scottsdale, Arizona, didn't disappoint as he registered 24 goals and 46 points in 36 games to go along with three points in four playoff contests.

Matthews was extremely productive against much older and more experienced competition, and his head coach with Zurich, Marc Crawford, believes he will be a star in the NHL, according to NHL.com's Mike Morreale:

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[Matthews] has seen a lot of different experiences [in NLA]. He's had a great season, but there have been a lot of ups and downs. He made the All-Star team and finished second in MVP voting. On the other hand, there was the World Junior loss and the disappointment of our playoffs. You learn a lot from adversity. He's much more worldly. He hung around with an older crowd like [former NHL players] Ryan Shannon and Marc-Andre Bergeron. He was around an older group. When I was 18, I was, well, 18. But Auston comes across as a young adult. A real worldly 23, 24-year-old, not an 18-year-old. There's still lots more for him to learn. But I know he'll be a complete player in the NHL. A great player.

"

While Matthews almost certainly would have found himself in the NHL immediately regardless of what route he took, he figures to be well prepared to produce right away after his stint in Switzerland.

The adjustment from college or juniors to the NHL can be a difficult one; however, Matthews doesn't have as dramatic of a transition to make, which should make him the top Calder Trophy contender in 2016-17 before turning in many more highly productive campaigns for years to come.

Jesse Puljujarvi

Markku Ulander/Associated Press

Size and skill tend to rule the day in the NHL, and it can be argued that no player in the 2016 draft has a better such combination than Finnish winger Jesse Puljujarvi.

At 6'3" and upwards of 200 pounds, Puljujarvi is great at shielding the puck and remaining strong on his skates, but he also has incredible hands, which helped him post 17 points at the World Junior Championships en route to winning the MVP award.

Puljujarvi spent the 2015-16 season with Karpat of SM-Liiga in Finland and posted 13 goals and 28 points in 50 games.

While that may seem like somewhat modest production on the surface, the Finnish league is among the best in the world outside of the NHL, and it tends to be defensive in nature, which can make things difficult on a 17-year-old player.

Even so, Puljujarvi put up some points, and he proved in the WJC that he is among the elite players in his age group.

Puljujarvi may not quite possess the same all-around skill set as Matthews, but he is a supreme offensive talent with top-line potential at the NHL level.

A few players can stake claim to the No. 2 spot behind Matthews, and while the likes of Patrik Laine, Matthew Tkachuk and Jakob Chychrun all have a chance to ascend to that position, Puljujarvi is the likely leader because of his performance on the biggest stage in junior hockey.

Patrik Laine

Roni Rekomaa/Associated Press

Finland is a hotbed for top-end talent at the forward position in the 2016 draft, as Laine has established himself as one of the best available prospects—much like his countryman in Puljujarvi.

While Puljujarvi was the better player in the World Junior Championships, the 6'3", 200-plus-pound Laine actually enjoyed a more productive regular season in SM-Liiga. As one of Tappara Tampere's top contributors, Laine netted 17 goals and totaled 33 points in 46 contests.

As pointed out by Derek Neumeier of TheHockeyWriters.com, Laine has all the tools needed by a player to be a big-time point producer in the NHL:

There is little separating himself from Puljujarvi, so the manner in which they perform at the combine could decide which of them ends up getting selecting No. 2 overall behind Matthews.

Both Finns have superstar potential, and the team that ends up with the third-overall pick isn't likely to be broken up about having to settle for one of them.

In terms of pure excitement and dynamism, Laine may be tops in the draft class, which could make him the ideal selection for a team that needs to energize its fanbase in 2016-17 and beyond.

Player stats courtesy of eliteprospects.com, unless otherwise note.

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