Speculation: 2nd round. Who you want?

[G0bias]

Kaut outside the top 60?

 

[Harpo]

As long as we don't draft goalies, I'm all in for BPA.

Goalies are losers.

 

[Runner77]

I'll cherry pick some players, with my own rankings next to them, based on who could maybe be available in the late 1st/2nd

16. Filip Hallander LW Allsvenskan
17. Jacob Olofsson C Allsvenskan
18. Rasmus Sandin D OHL
19. Alexander Alexeyev D WHL
20. Nils Lundkvist D SHL
21. Bulat Shaffigullin F KHL
28. Ruslan Iskhakov F MHL
29. Jonathan Berggren C/RW SHL
30. Ty Dellandrea C OHL
31. Blake McLaughlin C USHL
32. Johnny Tychonick D BCHL
34. Jett Woo D WHL
36. Alexander Khovanov C QMJHL
37. Dominik Bokk RW SEL
38. Philipp Kurashev C QMJHL
39. Cole Fonstad C WHL
40. Cameron Hillis C OHL
41. Ivan Morozov C MHL
42. Danila Zhuravlyov D MHL
43. Semyon Der-Arguchintsev C OHL
44. Jake Wise C USHL
45. Calen Addison D WHL
47. Jacob Ragnarsson D Allsvenskan
48. Jesse Ylonen RW FEL
49. Liam Foudy C OHL
50. Jacob Bernard-Docker D BCHL
51. Stanislav Demin D BCHL
52. Albin Eriksson LW SHL
53. Jan Jenik F Cze
54. Milos Roman C WHL
55. Axel Andersson D SuperElit
56. Niklas Nordgren RW FEL
57. David Gustafsson C SHL
58. Matej Pekar C USHL
59. Jack Drury C USHL
60. Tyler Madden C USHL
61. Eric Florchuk C WHL
62. Alexander Steeves RW/C USHL

The rest are pretty much 3rd round grades.

Thanks, bud.

I'd like to read more on each of these. What sites do you suggest?

Also, why can't we get a definite position attributed to certain Russian players? How can it be with so many media sources that we don't know if your 28th ranked Iskhakov is a center or not? For instance, in this tweet, forward Shaffigullin is referred to as a "LW" by Steve Kournianos:



Isn't Kournianos someone we can trust?

Second, at what point do you stop going for a BPA? Would you go full out targeting centers in the 2nd round as there you're ranking a ton of them there.

Third, within your rankings' depth, we own the 35th, 38th, 56th and 59th overall picks.

Noticing that from your suggested player no. 29 (maybe even from player no. 28 if we can get confirmation on the player's position) up to and including player no. 44, there are 10 centers that you rank as potential targets. And again, when we see your rankings from player no. 54 up to and including player no. 62, you've got 7 centers ranked in that bracket. Overall, 15 out of the 31 players you rank for the 2nd round, are centers. What's the best strategy when so many are ranked or expected to go within this round?

Finally, which players are your dark horses -- your high reward types? Your personal favorites?

Thanks in advance, always enjoy your input.

 

[Andrei79]

Thanks, bud.

I'd like to read more on each of these. What sites do you suggest?

Also, why can't we get a definite position attributed to certain Russian players? How can it be with so many media sources that we don't know if your 28th ranked Iskhakov is a center or not? For instance, in this tweet, forward Shaffigullin is referred to as a "LW" by Steve Kournianos:



Isn't Kournianos someone we can trust?

Second, at what point do you stop going for a BPA? Would you go full out targeting centers in the 2nd round as there you're ranking a ton of them there.

Third, within your rankings' depth, we own the 35th, 38th, 56th and 59th overall picks.

Noticing that from your suggested player no. 29 (maybe even from player no. 28 if we can get confirmation on the player's position) up to and including player no. 44, there are 10 centers that you rank as potential targets. And again, when we see your rankings from player no. 54 up to and including player no. 62, you've got 7 centers ranked in that bracket. Overall, 15 out of the 31 players you rank for the 2nd round, are centers. What's the best strategy when so many are ranked or expected to go within this round?

Finally, which players are your dark horses -- your high reward types? Your personal favorites?

Thanks in advance, always enjoy your input.

Both Shafigulin and Iskhakov are right wingers in the MHL.

At least, that's where they played the games I saw. Iskhakov played RW at the 5 nations.

 

[Runner77]

Both Shafigulin and Iskhakov are right wingers in the MHL.

At least, that's where they played the games I saw. Iskhakov played RW at the 5 nations.

Thanks, much appreciated. Can't someone from the leagues they are playing in, make an effort to designate their positions? It's like, basic info.

Look at how the guy from the Draft Analyst, who should know better, tabbed Shafigulin as a LW. What gives?

 

[G0bias]

Thanks, much appreciated. Can't someone from the leagues they are playing in, make an effort to designate their positions? It's like, basic info.

Look at how the guy from the Draft Analyst, who should know better, tabbed Shafigulin as a LW. What gives?

I give Kournianos credit for covering so many players, ranked 500+ prospects ealier this year. But I take what he says with a grain of salt - he has Dahlin 2nd overall.

He's a good follow for any prospect news and insider stuff though.

 

[1909]

What about C Benoit Olivier Groulx and Beaudin, the d-man ?

 

[Runner77]

I give Kournianos credit for covering so many players, ranked 500+ prospects ealier this year. But I take what he says with a grain of salt - he has Dahlin 2nd overall.

Are we going to have to wait for BMac's final list in June? We're counting on these guys for their supposed expertise. Of course, it's an inexact science, however, he must be the first to have placed Dahlin second. Is he trying to get noticed?

 

[G0bias]

Are we going to have to wait for BMac's final list in June? We're counting on these guys for their supposed expertise. Of course, it's an inexact science, however, he must be the first to have placed Dahlin second. Is he trying to get noticed?

There's probably a bit of that. He'll sometimes have a wildly contested ranking for most of the year until he changes it late in the year (Chychrun over Laine in 16' up till April).

Mark Edwards over at HockeyProspect is a pretty good listen, they have their weekly prospect podcasts. (Expect more coverage closer to the draft.)
Dennis Schellenberg from FutureConsiderations and Jokke Nevalainen from DobberProspects are also good follows for Euro-related prospects.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Thanks, bud.

I'd like to read more on each of these. What sites do you suggest?

Also, why can't we get a definite position attributed to certain Russian players? How can it be with so many media sources that we don't know if your 28th ranked Iskhakov is a center or not? For instance, in this tweet, forward Shaffigullin is referred to as a "LW" by Steve Kournianos:



Isn't Kournianos someone we can trust?

Second, at what point do you stop going for a BPA? Would you go full out targeting centers in the 2nd round as there you're ranking a ton of them there.

Third, within your rankings' depth, we own the 35th, 38th, 56th and 59th overall picks.

Noticing that from your suggested player no. 29 (maybe even from player no. 28 if we can get confirmation on the player's position) up to and including player no. 44, there are 10 centers that you rank as potential targets. And again, when we see your rankings from player no. 54 up to and including player no. 62, you've got 7 centers ranked in that bracket. Overall, 15 out of the 31 players you rank for the 2nd round, are centers. What's the best strategy when so many are ranked or expected to go within this round?

Finally, which players are your dark horses -- your high reward types? Your personal favorites?

Thanks in advance, always enjoy your input.

There's a lot of information on the players if you simply google their name and "hfboards", most will have their own prospect forum pages and people will post Youtube clips, Twitter commentary. There's the main scouting services such as Red Line Report (used to have articles in USA Today but they haven't been around this year), ISS (size lovers), NHL CSS, but mainly what I do if I want more information is google that player and 'scouting report', you will get some fluff articles from their teams pages, wanna-be scout sites, but some legit scout sites, I almost always have 3-5 viewings of a prospect before I really read those reports so if it's a site I haven't been to before, I can tell if they are an idiot. For example, if someone questions Kupari's skating, I know their scouting report is garbage because I've seen him enough to know that he's one of the best skaters in the draft.

As far as Russians positions are concerned, the Russians will play in multiple leagues.. there's the junior league MHL, there's the VHL, there's the KHL, and then of course there are nation tournaments. So Iskhakov plays in some of those events as a C and others he plays as a W, so some services or sites will just list them lazily as a F. I wouldn't get too hung up on the label of a player's position since for most junior leagues, the best players are C's, it's more about evaluating their skill set. So if we use Iskhakov as a comparison.. Skill wise, he's absolutely a C, but he's very, very small and in today's NHL, there's not too many sub 5'11 C's, so chances are, he's going to play W at the next level. If you're evaluating a player for whether or not they are a C, you're going to want to see someone who has good skating, will play all 200 ft of the ice, controls the puck well, passes the puck to players in good positions, gains the zone with authority, things like that.

I don't ever stop going for BPA. I pretty much rank players in terms of what I believe their ultimate upside to be, but I will take off points in my rankings for things like size because it still matters to a degree. If I went on pure offensive skills, Ruslan Iskhakov may actually be one of the top players in the draft, but he's just soooo tiny, you have to penalize him for that, then you add in the Russian factor and he's going to drop lower than his overall talent level will indicate. A lot of players I list as C's, like I said in the earlier paragraph, will never line up at C when they graduate from juniors. So I just take the most talented forwards or defense as I rank them and go from there.

There's really no strategy, you make your list according to who you like the best, who you feel projects the best at the next level and who has the most skills to work with. I don't believe in selecting the Pezzeta's in the world. I can find them as junior/NCAA free agents, I can pick them up for cheap at the trade deadline and I can sign them off free agency. Most of the time, a talented junior player who had offensive upside, if they don't pan out, have the size, skating and smarts to translate into a bottom line player anyways. I've never seen a complete piece of shit suddenly learn how to score or read offensive situations with high IQ, the players who are steals are usually under-exposed, they hit a growth spurt, find their man strength, gain their confidence after a year or two in the league, or are buried on good teams and don't get enough time to show what they have.

My personal favorites in the draft outside of the top two (Dahlin, Svech)
Adam Boqvist
Oliver Wahlstrom

Akil Thomas
Ty Smith

Filip Hallander
Jacob Olofsson
Rasmus Sandin
Alexander Alexeyev

Nils Lundkvist
Bulat Shafigullin (Darkhorse)
Ruslan Iskhakov (darkhorse)

Jonatan Berggren
Ty Dellandrea
Blake McLaughlin

Cameron Hillis
Ivan Morozov
Danila Zhuravlyov
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev

Jacob Ragnarsson
Jan Jenik
Axel Andersson

Niklas Nordgren
Matej Pekar
Alexander Steeves
Pavel Gogolev

Vladislav Yeryomenko
Yegor Sharangovich

Jesper Myrenberg
Chase Wouters
Brendan Budy
Angus Crookshank
Bogdan Zhilyakov
Karel Plasek
Alexander Romanov
Carl Wassenius
Samuel Ersson
Jack Lagerstrom
Chase Hartje

There's a few more but I haven't solidified the entire back half of my list yet, so more work for me to do.

 

[The Great Weal]

There's a few more but I haven't solidified the entire back half of my list yet, so more work for me to do.

Or you just don't want people stealing your prospects for the mock

 

[WeThreeKings]

Or you just don't want people stealing your prospects for the mock

I already pwned the early bird mock with the Habs.. the next one is just candy, bruh

 

[The Great Weal]

I already pwned the early bird mock with the Habs.. the next one is just candy, bruh

Just don't steal that Sweede that I took. Can't really brag about it in the future if you do.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Just don't steal that Sweede that I took. Can't really brag about it in the future if you do.

I might. I didn't think anybody else knew about him. If he can improve his bad skating, he may become something.

 

[c3z4r]

Can we get some Europeans that will have most of their post-junior development done overseas? I don't trust this regime to develop anybody in the AHL anymore.

 

[gillyguzzler]

I'd be willing to bet decent coin that Bergevin will trade two seconds for second pairing left defenceman.

 

[montreal]

I think he goes late 1st, probably to one of the Rangers picks. I've seen him ranked as high as 12. He could go anywhere really.

so who do you like better,

Brook last season or Woo this season?

I didn't see Brook last year, but based off his play this year I was surprised he wasn't a late 1st round pick. Granted I don't follow the draft anywhere near what I used to.

 

[Stive Morgan]

so who do you like better,

Brook last season or Woo this season?

I didn't see Brook last year, but based off his play this year I was surprised he wasn't a late 1st round pick. Granted I don't follow the draft anywhere near what I used to.

Woo this season by a little bit. I think Brook should've been taken in the 23-29 range. I would take Woo as early as 15 personally.

 

[montreal]

Woo this season by a little bit. I think Brook should've been taken in the 23-29 range. I would take Woo as early as 15 personally.

wow you really like him, do you expect his offensive game to develop a good bit more?

 

[Video Coach]

Jack McBain is another interesting player. Huge guy, raw skills, stalled development, but he is tantalizing with that size and scoring ability. Some think playing 2 years in Junior A hurt him but he's going to Boston College next year so he'd have 2-4 years in college playing against top competition that you'd have to think would be really good for him.

 

[Stive Morgan]

wow you really like him, do you expect his offensive game to develop a good bit more?

Not really, I don't expect him to be much of a point producer at the NHL level. More of a Tanev/Vlasic/Hjalmarsson type. 20-30 point player, maybe, but rock solid defensively.

 

[montreal]

Not really, I don't expect him to be much of a point producer at the NHL level. More of a Tanev/Vlasic/Hjalmarsson type. 20-30 point player, maybe, but rock solid defensively.

so I guess you see him as more of a 2nd pairing guy?

How much better do you think his defensive game is then Brook's?

 

[Stive Morgan]

so I guess you see him as more of a 2nd pairing guy?

How much better do you think his defensive game is then Brook's?

Much better. Brook is good at both offense and defense. Woo is great at defense. Brook isn't bad but Woo has him beat defensively. Brook is more of a two-way while Woo has sort of been shifting to a shutdown defenseman, but he still has respectable offensive abilities. I see both being spectacular 2nd pairing guys or weak top pairing (Woo might be an elite 2D)

 

[montreal]

Much better. Brook is good at both offense and defense. Woo is great at defense. Brook isn't bad but Woo has him beat defensively. Brook is more of a two-way while Woo has sort of been shifting to a shutdown defenseman, but he still has respectable offensive abilities. I see both being spectacular 2nd pairing guys or weak top pairing (Woo might be an elite 2D)

just to be clear I was talking about Brook's defensive game last year since I didn't see it. To me Brook has a very good defensive game this year. Woo I didn't get to see as much of and didn't pay a lot of attention to since he's not a Hab prospect but do like him just not that high. I'd rather hope he falls to late 2nd early 3rd. I'd rather have Topping then Woo but that's more for need.

 

[Stive Morgan]

just to be clear I was talking about Brook's defensive game last year since I didn't see it. To me Brook has a very good defensive game this year. Woo I didn't get to see as much of and didn't pay a lot of attention to since he's not a Hab prospect but do like him just not that high. I'd rather hope he falls to late 2nd early 3rd. I'd rather have Topping then Woo but that's more for need.

Last year Brook's defense was fantastic. He's pretty much on the same level defensively this year, maybe a bit better. But Woo is even better in my view. I think Brook's role in the NHL level will be more offensive.

I'd be absolutely thrilled with Topping too. We desperately need a player like him.