NHL Mock Draft 2016: Order of Selections and 1st-Round Predictions

The next crop of hockey's superstars will start their careers when the 2016 NHL draft begins Friday in Buffalo.

The draft marks the first stage of roster overhaul in the NHL offseason before free agency kicks off on July 1. With a deep class of prospects, and trades always being imminent, the choices teams make during these two days will greatly impact the trajectory of their respective franchises.

Without further ado, here is a look at projections for each first-round selection as the order stands now. This mock draft takes into account the players' abilities combined with team need:

Pick	Team	Player	Position	Club/School
1	Toronto Maple Leafs	Auston Matthews	C	Zurich (SUI)
2	Winnipeg Jets	Patrik Laine	W	Tappara (FIN)
3	Columbus Blue Jackets	Jesse Puljujarvi	W	Karpat (FIN)
4	Edmonton Oilers	Jakob Chychrun	D	Sarnia (OHL)
5	Vancouver Canucks	Pierre-Luc Dubois	C/W	Cape Breton (QMJHL)
6	Calgary Flames	Matthew Tkachuk	W	London (OHL)
7	Arizona Coyotes	Mikhail Sergachev	D	Windsor (OHL)
8	Buffalo Sabres	Alexander Nylander	W	Mississauga (OHL)
9	Montreal Canadiens	Olli Juolevi	D	London (OHL)
10	Colorado Avalanche	Logan Brown	C	Windsor (OHL)
11	New Jersey Devils	Clayton Keller	C/W	US NTDP (USHL)
12	Ottawa Senators	Jake Bean	D	Calgary (WHL)
13	Carolina Hurricanes	Tyson Jost	C	Penticton (BCHL)
14	Boston Bruins	Dante Fabbro	D	Penticton (BCHL)
15	Minnesota Wild	Luke Kunin	C	Wisconsin (NCAA)
16	Detroit Red Wings	Kieffer Bellows	W	US NTDP (USHL)
17	Nashville Predators	Julien Gauthier	W	Val-d'OR (QMJHL)
18	Philadelphia Flyers	Alex DeBrincat	W	Erie (OHL)
19	New York Islanders	Charlie McAvoy	D	Boston (NCAA)
20	Arizona Coyotes (From NY Rangers)	Michael McLeod	C	Mississauga (OHL)
21	Carolina Hurricanes (From Los Angeles)	Logan Stanley	D	Windsor (OHL)
22	Winnipeg Jets (From Chicago)	Markus Niemeläinen	D	Saginaw (OHL)
23	Florida Panthers	Riley Tufte	W	Fargo (USHL)
24	Anaheim Ducks	Vitali Abramov	W	Gatineau (QMJHL)
25	Dallas Stars	Max Jones	W	London (OHL)
26	Washington Capitals	Sameul Girard	D	Shawnigan (QMJHL)
27	Tampa Bay Lightning	German Rubtsov	C	Vityaz Podolsk HC (RUS)
28	St. Louis Blues	Boris Katchouk	W	Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
29	Boston Bruins (From San Jose)	Tyler Benson	W	Vancouver (WHL)
30	Toronto Maple Leafs (From Pittsburgh)	Tage Thompson	W	UCONN (NCAA)

Three Players Stand Atop the Class

The 2016 draft class is deep, but three players stand out as top talents who could make an impact in the NHL next season.

Auston Matthews has been the consensus No. 1 pick for nearly a year, having gone wire-to-wire as NHL Central Scouting's top-ranked European skater.

He earned this for good reason. After dominating with the U.S. National Development U-18 team as a 17-year-old, with 48 points in 28 games, Matthews skipped out on college hockey or Canadian junior. He instead played professionally with Zurich in Switzerland, where he was even more impressive, with 46 points in 36 games.

Marc Crawford, his head coach at Zurich, said Matthews quickly became on the best players in the league at just 18 years old, per NHL.com's Tim Wharnsby.

"By the second or third game he was the team's top guy, and by his seventh or eighth game he was the class of the league," Crawford said.

In most other years, Finland sniper Patrik Laine would be the draft's top prospect. At 6'4" and 206 pounds, the second-ranked European skater is a pure goal scorer with the physical skating ability that compares to Alex Ovechkin.

In the 2016 World Junior Championships, Laine notched seven goals and six assists in 13 games playing on a line with Jesse Puljujarvi to lead Finland to a gold medal, per Central Scouting. Playing professionally in Finland this past season, Laine racked up 33 points in 46 games.

Laine does not possess the raw speed of Ovechkin, or the Russian's ability to create offense by himself. Yet, Laine has an NHL-caliber shot right now that will only improve over time.

Puljujarvi is the third player in this group. He led the World Juniors in points with 17 and won MVP of the tournament. However, he failed to match Laine's production in Finland, finishing with 28 points in 50 games.

Puljujarvi has elite skills, but his playmaking ability is a tad below Matthews', as is his scoring ability compared to that of Laine. Still, he has the size at 6'4" and 203 pounds to withstand the physicality of the NHL, and he has experience playing professionally. Expect him to stay next season with a rebuilding Columbus team that needs some spark offensively with Ryan Johansen now in Nashville.

Plenty of Depth Throughout First Round

While the three players mentioned above may be slightly more-touted than the rest of the class, this draft is extremely deep, and teams will find impact players at any point in the first round.

Notable players who could fall to the edge of the top-10 and become stars are Clayton Keller and Alexander Nylander.

Keller is small at 5'10," 168 pounds, but he has the hands and explosive playmaking ability that match any prospect in this draft. Last season, he recorded an astounding 107 points in 62 games for the U.S. National Development U-18 team. He is also committed to play at Boston University next year. 

SportsNet's Jeff Simmons gave Keller a favorable comparison.

"Similar to [Mitch] Marner or Patrick Kane, Keller isn’t built like a Joe Thornton or Evgeni Malkin," Simmons wrote. "That hasn’t deterred him as he has learned to protect the puck against bigger players and has shown an innate ability to create offence in tight areas of the ice. He is also one of the best passers in the draft class."

Here is a brief look at Keller's skills, courtesy of The Draft Analyst:

He would be an excellent fit with a New Jersey Devils team that finished 28th in the league in goals per game last season.

Nylander is another electric scorer, but he is bigger at 6'0" and 180 pounds. 

As a rookie for Mississauga last season, Nylander tore it up with 75 points in 57 games thanks to a phenomenal shot and finishing ability.

His older brother, William Nylander, was a top pick for Toronto in 2014, and Alexander could also become as touted of a prospect, per the Hockey News' Ryan Kennedy (via Mike Halford of NBC Sports).

“Alex is slightly bigger than his brother, but has just as many jaw-dropping moves," Kennedy wrote. "His passing vision is sublime,"

He will fit in perfectly with Buffalo alongside Jack Eichel. Last year's No. 2 pick is a tremendous possession player and a budding offensive talent, and Nylander would benefit greatly from the attention he would draw from opposing defenses.

Scouting rankings and statistics are courtesy of NHL.com.