2024 NHL Draft ranking: Top 64 prospects led by Celebrini, Eiserman, Levshunov

Welcome to my preliminary ranking of the top 64 prospects eligible for the 2024 NHL Draft.

This is my third of what will be seven rankings for the upcoming draft, presented this season with an all-new design and user interface (which has allowed me to do full scouting reports on all 64 prospects for the first time ever this early in a season). It follows my preseason top 32 and way-too-early top 24, and will be followed by my midseason top 64 (released at the end of January), a March top 64, an updated top 32 post-U18 worlds (released in May), and my final top 100 (released in June).

Though the class of 2024, made up predominantly of 2006-born players, is led by three very different star forward prospects, it will be defined by both its high quantity and quality of defensemen. An incredible 10 of the top 20 prospects on this list are defensemen (for reference, there were only ever four defensemen from the 2023 NHL Draft who were even in consideration for last year’s top 20).

The ranking, now completely sortable, is also broken down into tiers to give you a better sense of the fluidity within groupings and the drop-offs between them. This ranking is divided into six tiers. They are: 1, 2-4, 5-8, 9-27, 28-55, and 56-64+. Also included are 35 honorable mentions (sorted alphabetically).

Note that while I consult scouts, coaches, general managers, team staff and agents in building my draft rankings, the following evaluations are strictly my own.