FanHouse is previewing the prospects of the top players and teams with high picks in Friday's NHL Draft. This is the fifth post in a six part series.As the draft is only hours away, we'll finish up our preview series with the 18-year- old that has been on the tip of everyone's tongue all year. In 2007 he broke Wayne Gretzky's OHL scoring record and since then has been projected to be the first overall pick in 2009. The majority of scouting services and experts project one John Tavares to be the best player available in this year's draft, but will the Islanders take him?
What He Is
Tavares is the best forward available and is a scorer, plain and simple. Scouts have described the 18-year-old as a dynamic scorer capable of multiple 40-goal seasons. If you can find a team that is offensively impotent and willing to pass on someone like this then they're probably crazy and love torturing their fans. Or they're the Islanders.
This kid is the next big scorer in the NHL. He's not Evgeni Malkin and certainly isn't Alex Ovechkin, but he should be in the vicinity. His competitive drive should help to fulfill the prophecy with whichever team he is selected by.
What He Isn't
A two-way forward. That's the major difference between Matt Duchene and John Tavares. Duchene is a two-way center, responsible in his own zone. That's not Tavares. Tavares is the dynamic scorer that doesn't play a ton of defense, but there is a catch. The catch is that Tavares was never asked to play a lot of defense in the OHL. A few years in the NHL and you can be sure that will be asked of him and he likely won't shy away from it.
For the Stat Geeks
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Your Obligatory Ridiculous Goal Highlight
