World Juniors: Top 10 2012 NHL Draft Eligible Prospect Performances Part 2: Overagers | The Hockey Writers

World Juniors: Top 10 2012 NHL Draft Eligible Prospect Performances Part 2: Overagers | The Hockey Writers

It is no secret the World Junior Hockey Championships provides an outstanding opportunity for scouts to evaluate prospects – both drafted and undrafted.

Part 1 of this series highlighted the top 10 performances (with a bonus prospect and a couple of sleepers) by first-year 2012 draft eligible prospects.
Part 2 focuses on the top 10 over-agers that have been previously passed over in the draft at least one year.
*Please note that this is not a ranking of the prospects for the 2012 NHL draft, but simply rating their performance at the World Juniors.

2012 NHL Draft Overagers

(Prospects who have passed through at least one draft undrafted)
1. Tanner Pearson: Forward, Canada (OHL)
Pearson’s meteorological rise this season has taken him atop the OHL scoring lead and he has yet to give it up despite joining Team Canada for the World Juniors. His 2.09 PPG is the best in the league by quite a margin. Pearson is the classic late bloomer and is a case in point that hockey scouting is far from an exact science. He has been passed over twice already in the NHL draft, but don’t expect that to occur a third time. He had 6 points in 6 games for Canada putting his very good hockey sense on fine display.
Draft Stock: Unchanged to slightly elevated
Projected Round Drafted: 2nd to 3rd round with an outside chance of landing in the first round.

2. Nikita Gusev: Forward, Russia
As I stated in my article coining him “Picasso” – a hockey artist.

Team Russia’s #8 is an extremely crafty and savvy forward who is equally adept at scoring or playmaking. He is very elusive and exhibits laser-like precision shooting and passing.

Size and the Russian Roulette Factor are his biggest obstacles should he want to cross the pond to tackle the NHL. He finished tied for 6th in scoring at the World Juniors.
Draft Stock: Elevated
Projected Round Drafted: 2nd to 5th round
3. Andrei Makarov: Goalie, Russia
Makarov’s gold medal game exploits against Sweden are well documented. He was the somewhat surprise starter for that game – named by Coach Bragin after Makarov came in for the yanked phenom Andrei Vasilevski to hold off Canada and the miracle comeback attempt with 5 minutes left to play in the semi-final game. He is a cool, calm and collected netminder who reminds some of Evgeny Nabokov.
Draft Stock: Skyrocketed
Projected Round Drafted: 2nd to 4th round
4. Tomas Hyka: Forward, Czech Republic
While he didn’t necessarily have a stand-out World Juniors per se, Hyka is on the radar of many NHL scouts. Hyka was involved in some offseason hockey intrigue as the Flyers seemingly mistakenly thought they could simply sign him as a free agent after a strong training camp rather than drafting him.
Broad Street Hockey reported in September, 2011:

Flyers knew Hyka was on the board in the seventh round of the 2011 draft, they thought about drafting him, and then decided to take big goon Derek Mathers instead.

Draft Stock: Unchanged
Projected Round Drafted: 4th to 7th round


5. Tanner Richard: Forward, Switzerland
Richard led Switzerland in shots with 25 and chipped in 2 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. He’s also averaging well over a PPG for the Guelph Storm of the OHL.
Draft Stock: Elevated
Projected Round Drafted: 4th to 6th round
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Read full article at THW:
http://thehockeywriters.com/world-juniors-top-10-2012-nhl-draft-eligible-prospect-performances-part-2-overagers/