2017 NHL Draft | 4:00 PM | United Center | NBCSN

[Super Cake]

Vegas essentially is the 3rd last team, so Vancouver of this year. Can win 1/2, win 3 to keep their spot, or drop to 4/5/6 depending on who else wins the lottery spots.

If they hypothetically made the playoffs, would they still be able to be placed into the lottery for the top 3 spots?

 

[BattleBorn]

If they hypothetically made the playoffs, would they still be able to be placed into the lottery for the top 3 spots?

This is for the 2017 draft, so there's no chance we make the playoffs since we don't play. This is next year's draft.

 

[Terry Yake]

i have a feeling they'll select either 1st or 2nd

patrick at #1 would be one hell of a start

 

[airbus220]

I would draft the best forward available. D is not to worry about for years since many D we draft in the expansion would be young and still have potential to develop further. All picks I would use for forwards and try to move up in the draft to get better quality, we definitely don't need quantity.

 

[derriko]

You could win the cup all three years and still get pick 1-6.

 

[BattleBorn]

You could win the cup all three years and still get pick 1-6.

As much as I want for that to be true, I think that idea was killed by the NHL's press release after the announcement which was provided by Fugu here:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2094209

It doesn't specifically mention drafts after 2017, and I think it would if that was the case. As far as I can tell, we're left up to our own devices and will be slotted by the season points total like every other team after the 2017 season.

I remember seeing stories about the guaranteed lottery spot prior to the announcement, but I don't know that I've seen anything since. Did I miss it?

 

[HanSolo]

Daly did say any lottery rules only apply to 2017 for the Vegas team

 

[flpanthers10]

Hoping we win the lottery and pick up Nolan Patrick or the best center available if we pick 6th overall. The D picks should be saved for the later rounds and wouldn't mind picking up another forward in the second round.

 

[HanSolo]

Given that we could potentially draft outside of the top 3, (1st overall is onlu a 10.3% chance and top 3 is only a 30.7% chance) and given McPhee's statements that the most important source of elite talent is the draft I wonder what the chances of him trading up would be in a scenario where we're forced to draft 5th or 6th.

Doesn't seem to me like there's a lot of top tier talent outside the top 3 or so. I mean things will change as the next season unfolds, but I'm concerned about our chance to make a big splash at getting a potential franchise player if the lottery doesn't go in our favor.

 

[Primakov!]

When the franchise is just starting out they should just grab whoever they can from whatever position they might play as long as they are deemed to have the highest talent level among the available prospects.

The focus should be on raising the talent level of the club as high as they can afford to push it with every draft pick, NCAA free agent, undrafted CHL prospect, trade, and free agent acquisition. They can worry about reshuffling and filling positional weaknesses once a surplus or organizational depth has been established to be dealing from.

Just because you end up with a lot of defenseman does not mean you stop taking one in order to get a less talented forward or goalie just to have one. You can always trade that good position player that you have a lot of and make a deal with another team -- e.g. Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen

 

[HanSolo]

That's true. I guess my hope is the Vegas team can their Paul Kariya from this draft and not a Patrik Stefan

 

[HanSolo]

Looks promising

Then of course there's

 

[HanSolo]

Highlights of the top ranked defenseman



There was this other good Swedish defenseman by the name of Hampus Lindholm that played for Rogle. Just saying.

Just an idea of what might be out there. All this could change in a matter of months tbh.

This is my top 35 early on.

1. Timothy Liljegren
2. Nolan Patrick
3. Gabriel Vilardi
4. Maxime Comtois
5. Urho Vaakanainen
6. Casey Mittelstadt
7. Cal Foote
8. Erik Brannstrom
9. Eeli Tolvanen
10. Kailer Yamamoto
11. Elias Pettersson
11. Owen Tippett
12. Klim Kostin
13. Kristian Vesalainen
14. Lias Andersson
15. Nico Hischier
16. Scott Reedy
17. Rickard Hugg
18. Juuso Valimaki
19. Kirill Slepets
20. Nicholas Hague
21. Mark Rubinchik
22. Luke Martin
23. Nikita A. Popugayev
24. Antoine Morand
25. Jake Oettinger
26. Dmitri Samorukov
27. Stelio Mattheos
28. Scott Reedy
29. Matt Strome
30. Michael Rasmussen
31. Adam Ruzicka
32. Stuart Skinner
33. Max Gildon
34. Mike Dipietro
35. Jacob Paquette

I like this draft, I just don't think the forwards near the top of the draft are what you'd want if you have a top 5 pick and need a forward. The best of them early on are Patrick, Vilardi, Comtois, Mittelstadt, Tolvanen and Yamamoto. The top end of defenseman could be really good. I'm a really big fan of Liljegren. He could be the best defenseman since Ekblad. The defensive depth is good with all types of different defenseman. Vaakanaien, Foote, Brannstrom, Hague, Valimaki, Rubinchik, Martin, Samorukov, Gildon. The goalies of this draft could be really good. Oettinger might be the best goalie from the NTDP in many years, Skinner and Dipietro could be two of the better goalies out of the CHL recently. The depth of the first few rounds of this draft should be better than 2016, but the top end will probably be worse, if none of the forwards can elevate their games to the elite tier in the next year.

Take this all with a pinch of salt though since its so early on, and I'm no scout. Its just what I've observed so far. Some of these players I haven't even seen play, and am just going off what I've read.

 

[CrazyCanuck89]

question for everyone, I was watching the draft this year and a lot of kids were being drafted out of HS. Is that normal? Seems risky drafting someone that young and not knowing if they will pan out or not. Would seem better if they put in a rule like the NFL where they need a few years of college hockey before being drafted.

Yes all players are drafted at 18 and 19 years old, sometimes you will see the odd 20 year old. Only a small percentage play in the NHL as teenagers, the major are sent back to juniors or Europe for a year or two. After that they may spend a year or two in AHL, which is a minor league for the NHL. In the end most will make it at 22 or 23 years old, which is around the age of an NFL player coming out of college.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Just wanted to stop by and say hey. I'm an Avs fan but love having a new team out west so I'll be keeping an eye on how Vegas builds through this expansion process. In particular I enjoy prospects so it will be fun to see who y'all choose as your first draft selection. If you don't win one of the first 2 selections I think the big centers Vilardi and Comtois are guys to keep an eye on, of course things will change but they look like possible top 5 picks now and would be good to start a franchise with.

 

[HanSolo]

Vilardi definitely looks like a potential stud.

 

[jrmysell]

question for everyone, I was watching the draft this year and a lot of kids were being drafted out of HS. Is that normal? Seems risky drafting someone that young and not knowing if they will pan out or not. Would seem better if they put in a rule like the NFL where they need a few years of college hockey before being drafted.

Coming from high school they are the same age as the players coming from the CHL or overseas. They are all around 18. Most of the players drafted continue playing with their CHL teams for a couple years anyway, so not really any different of drafting a high school kid and him going to college. The big difference is if they play in college for 4 years they become UFAs (like Vessey this year)
Looks like CrazyCanucks beat me to it

 

[xxxx]

Patrick is gonna be awesome player. Interesting what Button said about him: "Two years ago, I said the next three drafts are gonna produce four #1 centers. Four #1 centers. And they were Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Nolan Patrick. I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm NOT gonna be wrong on that." ... "if there's a better player than Nolan Patrcik at next year's draft, I haven't seen him yet."

It seems that getting him will be huge for any team, let alone Las Vegas, that would be really cool. It somehow tells something that he's coming from the WHL, the toughest league to score in imo, if we consider junior leagues.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

These Finnish winger prospect are both ranked to go TOP10 in 2017 draft

1 Eeli Tolvanen Sioux City Musketeers USHL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8LLRzCME78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVFbLXevTV0

2 Kristian Vesalainen Frölunda Göteborg SHL ( Top ranked European skater by NHL central Scouting)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCIahzDSHCA

 

[flpanthers10]

Tolvanen has such an accurate shot. I see that he has committed to playing at Boston College next year and will definitely keep an eye on him.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

Tolvanen has such an accurate shot. I see that he has committed to playing at Boston College next year and will definitely keep an eye on him.

Tolvanen has got serious knack for scoring but he isn't biggest guy on the ice.
If / when Tolvanen tears it apart in world juniors he might go TOP5 but at the moment he's ranked TOP10.

Tolvanen is 5'10 tall so he has a lot job to do with his physicality.
Yes he's committed to Boston College but it's not sure does he go there.

Oshawa Generals drafted him 17th overall in 2016 CHL import draft so he might go to OHL season 2017-2018.
But that ( reporting to Oshawa Generals) depends a lot which NHL team drafts him.

 

[HanSolo]

Well there's always 2-3 guys that are huge risers

 

[derriko]

Yeah pre-draft ranking seem rather pointless to me. Before HS was banned it gave me a good list of names to watch early on though.

The only sure thing is Patrick going in the top 3 picks or so imo.

Also, never seen Vilardi play a game, but from that highlight reel he seems like a Bobby Ryan type player. Pretty big guy, not a great skater, but has a good wrister and solid hand eye coordination.

 

[HanSolo]

Yeah pre-draft ranking seem rather pointless to me. Before HS was banned it gave me a good list of names to watch early on though.

The only sure thing is Patrick going in the top 3 picks or so imo.

Also, never seen Vilardi play a game, but from that highlight reel he seems like a Bobby Ryan type player. Pretty big guy, not a great skater, but has a good wrister and solid hand eye coordination.

In the limited stuff I saw he seemed to have good vision too. I mean that's a little tougher to gauge but that's the sensation I got.

And yeah pre draft stuff is not the best source. Even Patrick could (but probably won't) end up going lower than first. If the reports about Liljergren are true he could come up Ekblad style and go first. Then again it seems like every year there's a defenseman that gets touted as the next Doughty and only Ekblad really seems like it so far.

But just from my own personal experience I remember in Alex Forsberg's draft year his name stood out to me) so I thought I'd keep my eye on him. Saw that Las Vegas local Zach Pochiro who used to play in an age group under me at the same rink had made it onto the same junior team. Forsberg was consistently ranked high in preliminary rankings and Pochiro was considered an outside shot to even get drafted. Come draft day Pochiro went 4th round to St Louis (would be cool if Vegas could add him to the pipeline) and I'm pretty sure Forsberg went undrafted. Any list out right now is going to he wildly different next year.

Edit: apparently Pochiro is from Missouri so he wasn't technically a Vegas born. Just played here.

 

[airbus220]

Tolvanen has got serious knack for scoring but he isn't biggest guy on the ice. Tolvanen is 5'10 tall so he has a lot job to do with his physicality

Since Foley likes physical play we don't need to watch smurfs and lightweights. Easy to sort many guys out, many teams do this, that's why smurfs fall in the draft.
I like this and it saves much time.
Also, small guys are small because growing is already stopping while taller guys might still grow 1-2 inches.