Top prospects Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky debate who should go 1st overall in upcoming NHL draft

Shane Wright landed a steak dinner with the Montreal Canadiens at the NHL's pre-draft combine this week. Juraj Slafkovsky brought the sizzle.

Whatever attributes separate the two players considered to be the top-ranked prospects, a lack of self-confidence isn't among them.

"I'm competitive. I always want to be first. I always want to be best," Wright said Friday, when reminded of telling Canada's TSN earlier in the week that he believed he "deserved to be the No. 1 pick."

"I was about to order and I mentioned, `Hey, I was looking at the steak but it's pretty expensive, $60 or something,"' Wright said. "And they were like, `Ah, go ahead and have it.' So I made sure it was all right before."

None of that troubled Slafkovsky, Central Scouting's top-ranked international skater.

"That's what he thinks," Slafkovsky said, referring to Wright's comments. "I think something else."

Slafkovsky, from Slovakia, then broke into a beaming smile when asked how his interview went with the Canadiens by saying: "I didn't have the dinner, but I think the talk we had was maybe, like to me, tasted better."

Dinner aside, the Canadiens aren't tipping their hand on which player they favour in preparing to host the two-day NHL draft July 7-8.

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What's become evident in recent weeks is the gap might well be closing between Wright, the Ontario Junior League player who has long been considered the favourite, and Slafkovsky, a forward who turned heads in being named the Beijing Winter Games tournament MVP for helping Slovakia win a bronze medal — the nation's first in Olympic competition.

And don't discount the possibility of Logan Cooley entering the conversation. At