Tyler Benson shut down for the remainder of the year, Top 3 Draft prospects and a couple of Prospects signed multi-year contract deals…

Big news out of the WHL, 2016 draft eligible Tyler Benson has been shut down for the remainder of his season. Benson is projected to be a first round draft pick, Benson played two games in February after returning from an injury that had him out all of January, but ended up having to end his season early. He finishes the season with nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points in 30 games played. This was reported by Vancouver's NEWS 1130 Sports twitter account, see below.  

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Groin injury bothering him all season. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WHLGiants?src=hash">#WHLGiants</a> have shut down Benson for rest of season.</p>&mdash; NEWS 1130 Sports (@NEWS1130Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/NEWS1130Sports/status/702926116953034753">February 25, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Benson: &quot;The decision to shut it down for the rest of the season was mine.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WHLGiants?src=hash">#WHLGiants</a></p>&mdash; NEWS 1130 Sports (@NEWS1130Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/NEWS1130Sports/status/702946094444122113">February 25, 2016</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

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Checking in with the Top NHL Draft Prospects for 2016, the top three ranked players are right at a point per game for the season. Auston Matthews sits in eleventh in scoring with 24 goals and 18 assists for 42 points in 42 games played (1.0 pts/GP). Jesse Puljujarvi has 11-14-25 in 25 games played (1.0). Patrik Laine is further up the Liiga points leaders at 25^th overall with 16-16-32 in 32 games played. (1.0)

Not much has changed in scouts draft rankings, you will see some have Puljujarvi over Laine or Laine over Puljujarvi, but the clear cut number one is Matthews.

As for eligible North American skaters, Matthew Tkachuk has scored 22-64-86 in 45 games played (1.9) for sixth overall in OHL scoring. Alex Nylander is sitting in 17^th on OHL scoring with 28-42-70 in 50 games played (1.4). Pierre-Luc Dubois is sixth in QMJHL scoring with 35-47-82 in 55 games played (1.5).

Couple of players who are lower in pre-draft rankings, Vitali Abramov is third in QMJHL scoring with 36-51-87 in 58 games played (1.5).Alex DeBrincat is ninth in OHL scoring with 42-38-80 in 48 games played (1.7). Noah Gregor is second in WHL scoring with 25-28-63 in 61 games played (1.0).

As for a couple of American-born USNTDP skaters, Clayton Keller is first in scoring with 28-52-80 in 44 games played (1.8) and Kieffer Bellows is second with 36-24-60 in 45 games played (1.3)

This year’s draft there is a lot of talent in the top three, but it seems to be a very deep, high end talent draft class. If you want a closer look and a rankings list based solely on fantasy hockey, check out the rankings Peter Harling put together with the help of a number of expert writers and scouts. The top 30 consensus ranking list can be found here.

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As for players who are already drafted and playing in the AHL. Seth Griffith (BOS) is currently sitting tied for first in scoring with Chris Bourque (WSH) at 57 points. Griffith has 18 goals and 39 assist in 52 games played (1.1) this year for the Providence Bruins, in the month of February he has 4-7-11 in eight games played, with a five point (2-3) game last weekend.

Mike Sislo (NJ) is currently on an eight game point streak with 9-5-14. Sislo is now fourth in AHL scoring with 48 points in 49 games played (1.0).

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The Calder Trophy race is starting to be debated, it is a tough situation with Artemi Panarin (CHI) leading all rookies in scoring with 57 points, 16 points more than the next highest scorer Jack Eichel (BUF). Some debate could be made for Connor McDavid (EDM) who is leading all rookies in points per games played at 1.17, but is currently eighth in rookie scoring with 28 points. Also some stock has been put on Shayne Gostisbehere (PHI) who just had a 15 game point streak snapped, scoring five goals and 13 assists for 18 points during that streak. Gostisbehere has moved himself into the top five in rookie scoring with almost a dozen fewer games than the guys around him.

It really depends on if you see the scoring rate to be a better measuring stick or total points scored. If McDavid can keep up his scoring rate he would be on pace for 51 points, which is still six points back from Panarin’s total right now. Panarin is on pace for 75 points. It’s hard to argue against Panarin at this time.

Check out Dobber’s Profile pages to get all the latest information on every single player in the NHL. Artemi Panarin and Connor McDavid are linked to their respective profiles above. There is a lot of information on PDO, 5on5 SH%, line combinations and production, on pace numbers and much more. Make sure to cruise around on those profile pages.

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Couple of prospects who just signed contracts; Colton Sissons (NSH) signed a three year, $2.725 million contract with the Nashville Predators and Chris Wideman (OTT) signed a two year contract, $1.6 million contract with the Ottawa Senators.

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Feel free to leave comments, questions or concerns below, have fun playing the game of Fantasy Hockey.

Paul Zwambag
@zwambag