nfident about being here and if there was a need for me, lets put me

In an NHL season of wild momentum swings and dramatic finishes -- see Game 7 of Toronto-Boston and Game 6 of Chicago-Boston -- perhaps we shouldnt be surprised the race for No. 1 in the NHL Draft has been a wild ride of its own, with a series of entertaining twists and turns. Halifax Moosehead centre Nathan MacKinnon started the 2012-13 season as TSNs consensus top prospect and that is precisely where hell finish it -- as No. 1 on TSNs Final Top 75 2013 NHL Draft Rankings. Last September, in a TSN pre-season survey of 10 NHL scouts, it was unanimous, all 10 ranking the Cole Harbour, N.S., native as No. 1. And when the same 10 scouts were surveyed by TSN more than 10 months later, in the last week as a matter of fact, eight had the dynamic goal-scoring pivot as No. 1 on their list. If you didnt know better, one might assume it was a comfortable wire-to-wire win for MacKinnon. But it was anything but, with the scouts changing their minds on multiple occasions and MacKinnon losing that mantle for a significant portion of the season. Even in September, when MacKinnons No. 1 status was unanimous, the scouts acknowledged that Portland Winterhawk defenceman Seth Jones was a legitimate challenger to MacKinnon, just a wisp behind him in their rankings. Just prior to the World Junior Championship in December, Jones play in the WHL had convinced three of the 10 scouts that he, not MacKinnon, was the No. 1 prospect. A month later, after brilliant performances at the WJC and CHL Prospects game, Jones was declared the new No. 1 on TSNs mid-season draft rankings, with seven of the 10 scouts choosing Jones over MacKinnon. And what was initially billed as a two-horse race between MacKinnon and Jones became a three-horse affair with the emergence of first year QMJHLer Jonathan Drouin, who just happened to be MacKinnons linemate on the Mooseheads. Drouin played so well at the WJC and was so dominant in a month of the QMJHL regular season when MacKinnon was sidelined with a knee injury that the dynamic Quebecois moved into the No. 1 conversation for some. When the scouts were surveyed in late April for TSNs Draft Lottery edition rankings, eight pegged Jones at No. 1, with MacKinnon and Drouin getting only one first-place vote apiece. And four of those 10 scouts ranked Drouin ahead of MacKinnon on their list. But then came the QMJHL playoffs, notably the Memorial Cup, and MacKinnon, fully healed from his knee injury, went on an incredible tear that culminated with a pair of Memorial Cup hat tricks, including one to lead Halifax to the championship in the title game. MacKinnon started the 2012-13 scouting season with a hat trick to lead Canada to victory in the gold-medal game of the Ivan Hlinka U-18 tourney last August and bookended it in the final game of the season at the Memorial Cup. And in the span of about one month -- from late April to late May -- MacKinnon went from having one first-place vote from scouts surveyed by TSN to getting eight of 10. By any and all draft ranking standards, it was a remarkable turnaround in a relative short time span. "Theres usually not that much movement at the top of the draft over the course of a season," one scout told TSN. "But what you have to understand is its always been really close between the top three or four guys. They all have their attributes and theyre all really different in terms of their skill sets. Its a really good draft, for both high-end players and depth, too." Indeed. MacKinnon is a shoot-first, goal-scoring centre with dynamic speed and power and a tenacious puck hound whose strengths should translate well at the NHL level. Jones, who is No. 2 on TSNs Top 75, is a big, athletic specimen whose skating is elite level, possessing a capacity to take over games offensively and more than enough defensive awareness to hold the promise of a complete package blueliner. Drouin, No. 3, is a sub-6 foot winger with dynamic puck and stick skills whose vision, playmaking and ability to dominate games offensively is second to none. Finnish centre Aleksander Barkov, No. 4 on TSNs list, was a man amongst men in the Finnish Elite League this season, playing a strong two-way game and putting up better offensive numbers than many last fall thought he was capable of producing. Barkov is ranked by some NHL teams as no lower than No. 2 overall. "Theres something for everyone at the top of this draft," another scout said. TSNs Top 10 rankings for 2013 also include the following: 5. Swedish centre Elias Lindholm. He is one of the most complete players in the draft, a savvy two-way pivot with offensive skills and hockey sense who makes all the right moves with and without the puck. 6. Russian forward Valeri Nichushkin. The hulking right shot winger from Chelyabinsk can play a pure power game when he drives the net and now that hes free of KHL commitments and able to play in the NHL next season he may be less of a draft-day wild card. 7. Ottawa 67s centre Sean Monahan. The late 94 birthdate, 3rd-year OHLer is a skilled forward who put up good offensive numbers but plays a strong all-around game that may have suffered at times this season because the 67s had a poor season and traded away some key veterans. 8. Finnish defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen. The 6-foot-4 blueliner owns what may be the hardest slapshot of any 2013 draftee and he plays a hard, straight line physical two-way game. 9. Soo Greyhound defenceman Darnell Nurse. At a shade under 6-4 and still filling out, the son of former CFLer Richard Nurse has the frame, aggressive mindset and tremendous mobility to be a hard-to-play against two-way or shutdown defenceman. 10. London Knight forward Max Domi. The son of former NHL tough guy Tie Domi is only 5-9 but at a playing weight in the 190s and with his quickness, power and mad puck skills, Domi can score or make plays with the best of them. NHL scouts seem genuinely excited by not only the quality and depth of this years prospects throughout the first round but the diversity of the different types of players available. There are some notable trends in this years TSN Top 30 draft rankings: -- Its a great year for the Quebec League, with 8 prospects in TSNs top 30, including the No. 1 ranked MacKinnon and No. 3 ranked Drouin. Thats one more than the seven prospects for each of the Ontario and Western Leagues. -- Its a great year for the province of Quebec in terms of home-grown talent. Even when you factor out one QMJHL Maritimer (MacKinnon), one American (No. 20 ranked Adam Erne) and one Russian (No. 25 ranked Valentin Zykov), there are five Quebec based prospects still in the top 30. -- There is only one goalie ranked in TSNs Top 30 -- Halifax netminder Zach Fucale at No. 19. He is also one of the eight QMJHLers and five province of Quebec prospects. -- There are a lot of highly-touted big defencemen. Each of the top-six rated blueliners on TSNs list -- No. 2 Jones, No. 8 Ristolainen, No. 9 Nurse, No. 11 Nikita Zadorov, No. 16 Mirco Mueller and No. 17 Sam Morin -- are bigger than 6-foot-3. -- The majority (16) of TSNs Top 30 are Canadians. There are five Swedes, three Americans, three Russians, two Finns and one Swiss player rounding it out. -- There are no U.S. high school or college players in TSNs Top 30. One final note on how TSN arrives at the rankings: We survey 10 NHL scouts to get a numerical ranking of where they would slot prospects according to their individual preferences. Based on compilation of those 10 surveys, we arrive at a consensus ranking of at what point in the draft a prospect is most likely to be selected. Which teams are picking in which slot has no bearing or influence on the process. It is not a mock draft or an assigning of players to specific teams as much as it is a projection of when a prospect is likely to be taken. The draft is this Sunday in at 3 pm ET in Newark, N.J., and TSN will be on air for the entirety of the draft. Nike Air Max Plus Australia . Vaives lawyer Trevor Whiffen claims the former 50-goal man wasnt provided with a copy of the claim beforehand and that he would not have agreed to the allegations made against the NHL had he been asked to review its contents. Air Max 720 Saturn Australia . JOHNS, N. http://www.outletairmaxaustralia.com/air-max-97-buy-australia/max-97-womens.html . Booth picked up 65 caps after making her national team debut in 2002 at the age of 17. She most recently played for Sky Blue FC of the National Womens Soccer League. "It just felt like it was my time to move on," she said in a phone interview from her hometown of Burlington, Ont. Air Max 97 Australia . But the quarterback hopes to stay involved in football after officially calling it quits Tuesday. "Id love to look at those opportunities as they arise," Pierce said in an interview from his Winnipeg eatery. Nike Just Do It Shoes Australia . Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers right-hander Brandon McCarthy is schedule to make his season debut Sunday when he starts against the Colorado Rockies, helping out a Los Angeles pitching staff riddled by injuries.McCarthy last pitched in a major league game on April 25, 2015 -- his fourth start with the Dodgers -- before having surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow five days later.His recovery from Tommy John surgery culminated with four minor league rehab starts. On Monday night, he threw five innings for Class A Rancho Cucamonga, allowing four runs on seven hits.This is right where I want to be, McCarthy said Saturday. I was the one who said `lets go. I felt Id gotten to a place with my stuff feeling-wise that I felt confident about being here and if there was a need for me, lets put me in, and they decided to go for it.McCarthy was 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA in four rehab starts -- three with Rancho Cucamonga and one with Triple-A Oklahoma City.I need big league hitters to tell me what Im throwing right now and what Im doing, he saaid.ddddddddddddYou need Nolan Arenado to let you know like, `Hey, your sinker (stinks) right now. Or, `No, your stuff is where it is right now. It feels hard to say that, but I realize its good enough to compete, but I need to find out what I need to refine, what needs to be tinkered with.The Dodgers have had 19 players, including six starting pitchers, on the disabled list, the most of any team in the majors, according to STATS LLC. They even put ace Clayton Kershaw on the DL earlier this week and traded for right-hander Bud Norris to plug the hole in their rotation.I dont want to be anything different than just another start, McCarthy said. Im trying not to put any mental importance on it, just like every other step of the program. Once I start focusing on anything more than getting Rockies out, its going to be too much.McCarthy signed a $48 million, four-year free agent deal with Los Angeles prior to the 2015 season. ' ' '