from Bob McKenzie of TSN,

It is by no means an absolute lock - there’s a whole race still to be run and it hasn’t even started yet - but it is fair to declare Macklin Celebrini as the obvious morning line favourite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

Nine out of 10 NHL scouts surveyed to determine TSN’s Pre-Season Top 16 Rankings slotted the 17-year-old Boston University freshman from Vancouver at the top of their respective lists.

The only prospect other than Celebrini to garner a No. 1 vote was American goal-scoring winger Cole Eiserman, who is No. 2 on TSN’s Pre-Season list. In addition to his lone first-place vote, the USNTDP forward received five second-place votes and four third-place votes.

Russian forward Ivan Demidov of SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL is third on the TSN list, picking up four second-place votes (just one fewer than Eiserman), three third-place votes and three others outside of the top three.

This Canadian-American-Russian trio is effectively the unofficial Big Three going into the 2023-24 season for the 2024 draft that will be held in late June at an as yet undisclosed location.

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