Prospect Info: 2018 NHL Draft - Shall We Begin?

[Psuhockey]

Anyone have a scouting report on Nils Lundkvist? He’s a right handed defenseman from the SHL that is #19 on hockey prospects but can’t find a mention of him anywhere else let alone a player profile.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

McKenzie said there’s 5 teams not sending scouts to the U18’s this year. It’s in Russia & one of the host cities is Magnitogorsk which apparently there’s health concerns due to possible radiation.

 

[Magua]

McKenzie said there’s 5 teams not sending scouts to the U18’s this year. It’s in Russia & one of the host cities is Magnitogorsk which apparently there’s health concerns due to possible radiation.

Evgeni Malkin is from Magnitogorsk. He turned out okay, definitely not a radiation mutant or anything.



Suck it up, Ken Hoodikoff. If teenagers can go play there, you can scout there.

 

[RANKKA]

havent looked at this alot until now who do we like for STL pick, Bouchard ?

 

[kudymen]

Evgeni Malkin is from Magnitogorsk. He turned out okay, definitely not a radiation mutant or anything.



Suck it up, Ken Hoodikoff. If teenagers can go play there, you can scout there.

Yeah looks perfectly fine

 

[Hakroach]

Suck it up, Ken Hoodikoff. If teenagers can go play there, you can scout there.

Hoodikoff has scouted Russia for years. He is already radiated so much that some Magnitogorsk rays shouldn't even give him a tan.

 

[BigToe]

havent looked at this alot until now who do we like for STL pick, Bouchard ?

He’ll be long gone before the STL pick.

 

[RANKKA]

He’ll be long gone before the STL pick.

yea i would say that too but they dont Elite Prospects - NHL Draft Center

 

[BigToe]

yea i would say that too but they dont Elite Prospects - NHL Draft Center

If there’s any list you should base where players will actually go it’s Mckenzies.

 

[Magua]

havent looked at this alot until now who do we like for STL pick, Bouchard ?

I fully expect he goes before the Blues pick, top 10 even. At the moment I'm more circling names like Farabee, Kotkaniemi, Smith, Kaut.

And there's a couple guys I need better reads on, all Europeans. Like Kravtsov, Bokk, Lundestrom, Kupari. It's hard for me to get watches on some of those guys. But they may be more around our pick than the Blues pick, with the possible exception of Kupari, who did leave me mixed at Hlinka. At least I'll get to see him at the u18s next month, unlike the others.

That said, I've seen Bouchard plenty, and I'm not as high on him as consensus. Wrote this a few weeks ago.

Evan Bouchard (RD) has been a big riser of late on London, and he’s gobbling up the points (and hasn’t stopped), taking a ton of shots, has solid size, and is their everything on their blue line. Bouchard is going to be someone I’m off from consensus on. I simply don’t see him being a top 10 caliber pick. Not that I don’t think he has positive attributes or isn’t a fine player, but he’s missing something for me.

He’s nowhere near as dynamic as that scoring indicates, skating or puck skills. I know even his fans knock his skating. I think it’s very average overall (and for a d-man, that doesn't thrill me). Sometimes it looks alright, other times you see more how it could hurt him in tighter checking games at the next level. In full stride he can get up ice OK (the empty NZ in juniors helps), and his top gear is fairly above average. It’s more his lack of quickness and short stride. He can skate/stand too upright and wait around flat footed too much, even up at the point, which doesn’t help his quickness either.

He takes a lot of shots, but as any Flyers fan knows, that can sometimes be irritating depending on quality. Now, he does have a good shot when he gets in closer, and his slapper is hard, but he takes too many poor long distance shots without attempting another read to create a better chance. They’re not good shots, and he’d be better off working the cycle to create chances. Stands flat-footed, catches, and shoots the vast majority of the time rather than pass, though it’s not like he can’t make plays. Even with space, he generally prefers to just do a slow windup slapper. Classic London usage gets a big mention; he plays half the game minimum and often full PPs.

Off the puck in his own zone, he’s competent and can handle himself along the boards; generally in fine position. Certainly is reliable enough there. He is one of the older players in the draft and not far from physical maturity. But his defense can shade towards conservative/safe, and he’s way too quick to retreat back behind his blue line off the rush. He’s almost always well behind it as soon as the opposition skates through the NZ, and he’s not really a pincher either, as he hangs pretty high up at the blue line and then backs up. He’s a good puck mover though in transition and is very patient and has the vision and poise to make a nice first pass. That stands out. He’ll join the rush as a trailer a lot, lead it his fair share too. Certainly has the green light to do whatever.

But I can’t shake the impression there’s an air of reliable vanilla-ness to his game. I think he reads the play “fine” (that’s a word I’d use a lot to describe him), but I also don't feel that he’s high end in the hockey IQ department. I don’t know what he projectably excels at is my general issue. I see he’s being put alongside Dobson, who is definitely a safe prospect and rather shoot first too, except I think Dobson is better at most everything — skating, smarts, size — while being far more aggressive in all 3 zones.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Bouchard has a 5 o'clock shadow all the time. That bothers me.

 

[Magua]

If there's one thing I've learned scouting guys, it's never trust a 17 year old who can grow a beard.

UNLESS they're a French-Canadian center.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Aaron Ekblad at 16.

 

[Magua]

Gadjovich comes to mind too.

I prefer my prospects' facial hair growing abilities like this. Means he's got upside! :

 

[BigToe]

Aaron Ekblad at 16.

That’s just not right.

 

[Captain Dave Poulin]

Aaron Ekblad at 16.

He's a Lycan. I wonder if he transforms when he sees Weise.

 

[Richards18Forever]

Hopefully stl pick falls 11-13 and we can trade up to 6-9.

 

[BigToe]

Hopefully stl pick falls 11-13 and we can trade up to 6-9.

Why?

 

[Flyerfan13]

Any goalies stand out in this draft for those of u who watch jrs.?

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Any goalies stand out in this draft for those of u who watch jrs.?

It doesn’t appear to be a good year for the goalies at least on the surface now. No one is really getting any hype.

 

[IronMarshal]

As much as I'd like to make the playoffs this year, a really successful year would be us just missing the playoffs and winning a top three lottery spot, plus the Blues finishing in 11-12 spot. We would land 1 of Dahlin, Svechnikoff, Zadina or Tkachuk, plus we could possibly make a deal with the Blues pick and some additional asset(s) to move up to grab Dobson. Fantasy yes, but within the realm of possibility.
In the (likely) event it doesn't happen like that, we should still be able to get a quality forward with the Blues pick and a good defensive prospect with our own.

 

[Stizzle]

A lot of buzz on this guy. A bit of a mystery because of very limited international experience. People are starting to say he's a top 20 or higher pick.

 

[FLYguy3911]

Second time I saw Ben Scrivens this week.

 

[Magua]

A lot of buzz on this guy. A bit of a mystery because of very limited international experience. People are starting to say he's a top 20 or higher pick.

One of the guys I wish I could watch. There's several Euros I have no real read on other than highlights and scoring stats, and I hate hate HATE that. Like I got to watch Martin Kaut (CZE) and think he's very underrated and have become a big fan of him with one of our picks. If I didn't watch him, I wouldn't have known how much I liked his game. Then there are others who are putting up numbers and nice highlight reels who I don't like. So it goes. Kravtsov certainly looks like someone intriguing from afar.

No one has him higher than #24 (HP) right now. Don't think anyone else has a 1st round grade on him, even if he likely will be a riser. How much is hard to say though. Maybe he's still more a target for our pick than the Blues pick, for example. But he can't play u18s given his age and didn't play last year, and he didn't play at the WJC. KHL is the KHL though, so the Russian home-based scouts, like Human Geiger Counter Ken Hoody, will know him well. But it bugs me, especially when trying to rank guys, that I won't.

 

[RonHextall27]

Nice move but that defenseman should be on the next train to Siberia for biting on that. That's a playoff game right? Bury that kid!