"Zegras brings the skill, as skilled as anyone in the draft," Kelley said. "Caufield shoots the puck and scores as good as anyone in the draft. Turcotte, the two-way game….
"When we're looking at the U.S. players you go back and see how they did because at times it looked like certain players, like Jack and Cole were always together, we saw Boldy and Turcotte a lot together. And then at times you saw them mixed up, Jack was out for a while, Turcotte was hurt. We went back and looked at what happened. But it's a really good team, lot of depth there."
Caufield, at 5-foot-7, 163 pounds, has been compared to Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat, who has flourished in his two NHL seasons, including 41 goals this season, while standing 5-7, 165.
"He gets to a spot, he opens up and he shoots the puck, a lot like Alex," Kelley said of Caufield, who set the single-season NTDP record with 72 goals this season. "For Cole Caufield, I think Alex opened a door for him. People in my business say fool me once, (but) fool me twice, good luck."
Other options at No. 3 could be centers Kirby Dach of Saskatoon and Dylan Cozens of Lethbridge in the Western Hockey League, forward Vasili Podkolzin of Neva St. Petersburg in Russia's second division and defenseman Bowen Byram of Vancouver in the WHL.
Kelley said there would be more meetings, including input learned from the fitness testing at the NHL Scouting Combine and analyzed by strength and conditioning coach Paul Goodman, and then a decision would be made.
"I don't think it's going to be difficult," Kelley said. "What we want to do is get all the information so when we do make the decision we're very comfortable with it."