CBJ Defenseman Draft Targets: Oliver Kylington

I’ve been very high on Oliver Kylington this season.  In my draft rankings in December I had him as high as pick #3 and in March I suggested the Blue Jackets take Kylington as he fills a dire need for this team. Both articles got some pushback as Kylington has been the biggest faller of any player this season. Here’s where Kylington is being ranked among some the mainstream prospect rankings.

• Ranked #29 by Hockeyprospect.com
• Ranked #28 by Future Considerations
• Ranked #24 by Bob McKenzie
• Ranked #47 by Craig Button
• Ranked #6 by NHL Central Scouting (EU Skaters)
• Not ranked in the Top 30 by ISS or McKeen’s Hockey

In spite of these rankings I’m still very high and Kylington and think he would be an excellent pick at 8 and an absolute steal if he fell to pick 34. The reason I am so high on him is that I think he has the chance to become one of the best defencemen to come out of Sweden in recent memory.

The comparison I made in my post was to that of Erik Karlsson. When I used that comp I don’t mean to imply that Kylington will be as good as Karlsson but rather they play a very similar style of hockey. Here is Kylingtons scouting report from his eliteprospects page:

“A smart two-way defenseman, who has tremendous feeling for the game and reads the plays well. Oliver Kylington is only average sized, but lets you forget the missing inches with his hockey sense, his strong vision and remarkable skating abilities. Owns a good shot from the blue-line and combined with this very good puck- and passing-skills, he can guide a power-play and the team’s offensive game to success.” (By Rafik Soliman, April 2015)

I don’t know about you but that sounds a lot like Erik Karlsson to me.

Since the 2004-05 lockout there have been 10 Swedish defencemen picked in the first round. I thought I would take a look how they performed in both their draft minus 1 season (or age 16 season) and their draft season (age 17 season) to see where Kylington stacks up.

Age 16 season (age as of September 15^th)

League and stats are from the team in which the most games were played.

*late birthday

I included both leagues Kylington played in to make easier comparisons.

The only players who even played in the SHL their draft minus 1 season were Adam Larsson and Victor Hedman. Both of whom are late birthdays and thus a year older. Even then only Larsson had a better season than Kylington. Looking at Kylington’s SuperElit stats, he blows everyone out of the water. His 1.0 point per game rate is better than every player on the list outside of Karlsson who only played 10 games.

Draft Season

*late birthday

The rumour going around is that Kylington himself asked to be demoted to the Allsvenskan to get more playing time. This makes sense as the SHL is a pro league where the teams are trying to win, not develop young players.  Still Kylington’s point per game rate of 0.28 was on par with Larsson (0.24), Rundblad (0.22) and topped only by Hedman (0.49). His Allsevenskan ppg rate is also very good at 0.41, very comparable to Ekman-Larsson (0.44).

It is interesting to note that Karlsson was only in the SuperElit league at this age. While he succeeded in that league, Kylington, as showed in the first chart, did equally as well, but at a younger age.

I think it’s fair to say after looking at these lists Kylington is a better player at this stage than everyone outside of Victor Hedman. That’s remarkable considering the players on the list. Having played 50 games in the SHL before your 18th birthday is very rare. It shows the faith Kylington’s coaches had in him as they trusted him to play at that level.

His game is similar to that of Erik Karlsson. While it’s crazy to project any player to be as good as Karlsson I think it’s fair to say Kylington is a better player at the same age. Isn’t that a player worth taking a chance on at 8?

All stats from eliteprospects.com

You can find me on twitter @PaulBerthelot