About DraftResearch.com
We assembled the record,
and the tools to flex it.
Built by NHL team analysts with coaching and analysis roots in the WHL and IIHF. Behind it is a single dataset (62 NHL draft classes, assembled by hand across 47 feeder leagues) that tracks what every drafted player actually became. Every number here comes from that data, not opinion.
Principles
01
Data only. No opinions.
Every claim is a fact from the dataset. We report what comparable players historically became. We do not speculate beyond it.
02
Scouts, Players, and Staff, are people, not targets.
In our analysis, they get historical record and recognition, not criticism.
03
Built to use, not just read.
The same dataset that powers our consulting work is yours to explore directly.
The Model
Three questions, one framework.
Every player is scored on percentile performance, normalized within position and era, so a top-ten-percent season counts the same in 1985 or 2025. Skaters are measured on production, goalies on save performance. Each score lands on a tier ladder: six tiers for forwards, five for defencemen, six for goalies, Elite down to Depth.
Explore CarProd TablesCarPeak · PeakSave
What is the ceiling?
Best seasons, extended to a games-played floor so one hot year cannot define a player. CarPeak measures it for skaters, PeakSave for goalies.
CarProd · CarSave
What did they sustain?
Every qualifying season, games-weighted. It rewards the player who was good for a decade over the one who was great for two years. CarProd for skaters, CarSave for goalies.
CarProj
What will a prospect become?
A forward-looking tier and a probability, built from who comparable players actually became.
The Probability Score
How we project a prospect.
A prospect's score is the share of historically comparable players who became NHL regulars. Built in four steps.
See Prospect ProbabilitiesStep 01
League strength
Each feeder league carries its own historical conversion rate. We normalize within a league before comparing across them.
Step 02
Age-adjusted production
Production is scored against same-age peers. A seventeen-year-old producing like a nineteen-year-old rates higher than the raw line.
Step 03
Comparables
We find every historical player with a similar league, age-adjusted score, and position, and measure how many made it.
Step 04
Position and class calibration
Centres and defencemen convert differently than wingers. Deeper draft classes mean more competition. Both are factored in.
Note
What a score is not
Not a ranking. The score is a Make %: 33% means that, historically, roughly one in three players with this profile became NHL regulars. Plenty of careers started there.