We made a 3 round mock draft on the Habs board...30 users had one team each and here's the results...many surprising picks, which is kind of cool. DRAFT FIRST ROUND St-Louis 1-ERIK JOHNSON After toying with the idea of drafting a more flashy forward, the Blues decide that they can't pass up a defenseman of Johnson's calibre. With visions of Chris Pronger still fresh in their minds the Blues take the necessary steps in filling the gaping hole left with the departure of Pronger. 2-Pittsburgh JONATHAN TOEWS With the depht at the CENTRE position, the pinguins are set for the next 5 to 10 years with crosby and malkin. The team was looking for an All-around Offensive Forward who can play on the wings and who can settle the game for crosby on the 1st line. With all his PLAYMAKING abilities and his dekes that bring your jaw to the floor 3-Chicago PHIL KESSEL The Hawks never expected Kessel to be available to them and had their sights set on Jordan Staal. After the somewhat surprising Toews to Pittsburgh selection, the Hawks were offered the chance to draft an exciting American born (From nearby Wisconsin on top of it!) offensive dynamo with great speed, a wicked shot, solid playmaking skills and great moves. Kessel could be the man who helps bring back the fans at the United Center to watch the Hawks play with his spectacular style of play and American roots. The Hawks hope Kessel will be ready for the NHL within a year or two, just in time for the Seabrook-Barker-Keith-Vandermeer led young defence to be hitting its stride and young offensive players like Ruutu, Bell, Calder and Bourque to have a few seasons of experience. Other young forwards like Skille, Bolland, Bertram and Blunden should also be ready by then. Watch out for the Hawks in 2008 or 2009! 4-Washington NIKLAS BACKSTROM The Caps have many prospect one the blue line, 2 fast sniper in Semin and Ovechkin, but lack a centre to set them up so that's why they take Backstrom, a player who is already pretty close from the NHL. Staal and Brassard are still on the board but they feel that Niklas is there man because of his overall game. They now hope to have a Alfredsson like player in their hands... 5-Boston JORDAN STAAL We are extremely happy to see Jordan fall down to us and we really feel like he's the best player in the draft. Bergeron and Staal are going to be a duo to fear going down the road. He’s an imposing physical specimen at 6’3 and 200 pounds with room to fill out. Look for him and his brother Eric to be on many of All Star teams together. 6-Columbus MICHAEL FROLIK Frolik was originally touted as being a potential #1 overall pick. We feel that his talents are still there, and that he just had an off season, and will bloom into the superstar we feel that he can be. With the lack of right wing prospects in our organization, we feel that Michael will find his place at home on the Bluejackets. 7-NY Islanders JAMES SHEPPARD Our team is really short on Left Wing presently, only Jason Blake is a natural LW on the pro roster. Robert Nilsson and Jeff Tambellini could get the call-up eventually but Sheppard is the kind of player that we want to build around. 8-Phoenix PETER MUELLER After much discussion at the draft table on whether to go with Mueller or one of the other possible forwards, The Coyotes decide on Peter Mueller considered on of the drafts elite forwards he was one of his teams top scorers in the playoffs while also enjoying a good regular season. Listed at 6-2, 204 pounds, Mueller already possesses great hand/eye coordination. He's said to be quite impressive with the puck, and is a natural finisher. Described by some as gritty, the Coyotes are more interested in his offensive flair. The knock on Mueller is so-so skating ability.Mueller is not considered one of the better skaters available for selection in 2006. However Gretzky remembers a certain center from years gone by who was said to be a below average skater. 9-Minnesota BRIAN LITTLE It may be a little early to pick him but we feel that he's exactly the kind of player we are looking for...Brian is always working hard every shift to make things happens...He is definitively an offensive threat who will become a fan favourite for years to come!!! 10-Florida DERICK BRASSARD After much discussions we felt that Derick will help our developpement at the center position, with the veterans that we have at canter(Joe Nieuwendyk) that it could help Derick's developpement and with Oli Jokinen already in, we could have a great one two center punch. 11-Los Angeles JIRI TLUSTY After many discussions with our scouts, who thought Frolik would be available at this point, we agreed to one thing: our team does not need centers. Brian Boyle, Anze Kopitar and Michael Cammaleri are enough even if Cammaleri can play wing. Then we thought about our defense but then again, it would be a thrown out pick to choose a defenseman here because the best available is Sanguinetti and he is pretty much alike our outher defensemen. With Demitra, Tukkonen, Pushkarev and Kanko, we are pretty stucked on the RW too. So we had to choose between a goalie and a left winger. Our pick is Jiri Tlusty, we think that the goalies available are not as good as Jiri. Also, Tlusty will be NHL-ready within a year or two, which will be very useful for us with our great crop of prospects. Tlusty-Kopitar-Tukkonen in 2-3 years, it will be just great to see our prospect developp and Tlusty is no exception as we put bug hopes on him. 12-Atlanta BOBBY SANGUINETTI Bobby is the offensive defenseman we need to get our team to the next level. While many decry his defensive shortcomings we believe that we can help him develop this side of his game, while his offensive upside is perhaps best of any defenseman in this draft. His speed, offensive instincts and vision are all attributes we were looking for, and we're happy we were able to pick him in the 12th position. 13-Toronto KYLE OKPOSO Rated in the top 7 by some scouting services, Okposo has been a major force in the USHL as a 17-year-old, and his physical maturity and skillset are evident and much coveted in our sad-sack organization. 14-Vancouver CHRIS STEWART hes a solid scorer who can make Canucks fan forgot Bertuzzi quickly. A future power foward and a safe pick. Though to choose between him and Grabner though. 15-Tampa Bay JONATHAN BERNIER The top-rated goalie in the draft, Bernier gives the Lightning a bright young netminding prospect for the first time in the team's history. Bernier has all the tools to become a solid NHL starter some day. 16-Montreal IVAN VISHNEVSKY Vishnevsky is an offensive minded blue-liner with a great shot. He can also skate very well. He can play a physical game which will be welcomed in Montreal. He likes to get involved and can run the powerplay. 17-Minnesota BEN MAXWELL We took the best player available...We've been extremely impressed by his play at U-18...He got all the skills to become an elite player in the NHL... 18-Colorado TY WISHART We did feel like he offered a sub-par performance at the last U-18 but not only has he shown that he was a terrific defensive defenceman throughout the year but has showed some great agility, he's quite mobile, can skate fluidly and has a good shot. Makes a great first pass out of the zone but he just keeps it simple offensively. Was very impressive this season playing for the Prince George Cougars and shined at the CHL top prospects game. So it's not one tournament that will shadowed his entire performance throughout the year. And we have Theodore in net, we must have great defensive d-men for years to come...We need d-men we can rely on, those bonehead mistakes need to stop, the Brisebois era is officially over.... 19-Anaheim CLAUDE GIROUX Some will say the Ducks needed to fill a need for a good young blueliner as Smid is one of the few bright spots on an otherwise thin prospect pool on D. I'm also aware that Anaheim is pretty much stacked with offensive talent. However, Brian Burke has been saying many times (on the air after the Bobby Ryan pick) that he personally likes to opt for the BPA on every pick, no matter what the guy's position is. In that very case, Anaheim feels that little offensive wizard Claude Giroux is the best player available. His exceptional vision of the play, his shiftiness, his ability to feed his linemates perfectly and the fact that he stepped up big time for Gatineau in the playoffs are things that have the Ducks scouting staff convinced of Giroux's potential to be a special player. 20-San Jose NIGEL WILLIAMS After we made the trade to acquire Joe Thonton, we felt the spot left vacant by the depatue of Brad Stuart to be our biggest weakness and have addressed the matter with a big 6'4" 205lbs defenceman off the US Jr. team. Williams has offensive upside too, notching 6 goals and 9 assists in 48 games. 21-NY Rangers MICHAEL GRABNER With Nigel Williams dropping all the way to the 20th spot, they actually had to think about him but the Sharks did a fine job and with that big D been gone, the choice was all clear for the Rangers Staff. At 6'1", 183 pounds, he's no small guy. His body is however build for speed and he sure can scores, seems like a perfect fit for the new nhl and he's the best player available at this point with a decent consideration for Berglund. 22-Philadelphia PATRICK BERGLUND He's not the biggest need but I go with the best player available and now the flyers are set for the next decade at center with amazing depht, skills and size at the most important forward position with Carter,Richard,Umberger and now Berlund. 23-Washington RIKU HELENIUS With Backstrom as a sure-fire NHLer and many prospects on defence and on foward position, the Capitals feels that there's no real prospect in front of the net to be good enough to fill Kolzig shoes and to make this team succesfull enough to win the cup, so that's why they draft arguably the best goaltender of the draft. There was still many interesting prospects on the board, but the Caps were not ready to take the chance to lose Helenius before their second round picks. 24-Buffalo DAVID FISHER I think david fisher is the best player at this moment. He coud become one of the best defenseman in the draft. Plus buffalo need prospect in defence. Fischer have an amazing puck poise ,great vision,great first pass anda very good skater. 25-New Jersey CORY EMMERTON We are extremely happy as we feel this will be a steal.We had Cory gone in the first 20 picks so too see that he was still available is really great for our organisation 26-Calgary NICK FOLIGNO Nick is exactly what we are looking for. He is a good playmaker, with fairly good offensive upsides. He is a Sutter-type player, with an excellent work ethic and a strong two-way games. He is listed at 6 feet tall & 180 lbs, but he obviously plays bigger than his size. 27-St-Louis MICHAEL FORNEY We see Michael as being a player that can do everything well. Has good vision as well as presence on the ice. We feel he can play in every situation. He is a good skater who will only get better as he adds some muscle and lower body strength. The high risk tag that he has been labeled with does not phase the Blues scouting staff. 28-Dallas LELAND IRVING The Stars try to get the BPA in a perspective of long-term needs. We have a lack of prospects between the pipes. We are certain that our pick will give us more latitude at the G positions in the upcoming years. 29-Ottawa JAMIE MCGINN Performing really well with his team as well as at the U-18's and the CHL Top Prospects game, Jamie plays a game we want to implement in the future with his hard working play, type of power forward without the size but with a nice shot. McGinn gives his 100% all the time, he never quits, has a great character, immense work ethic, future captain material right there. His combination of speed, skill and strength will make him a valuable two-way player. Moves the puck well and is an underrated play maker that also happen to have a mean streak. Love hitting the opposition hard, and do that on a regular basis very consistently. We believe this is a perfect exemple of the player of the future, his combination of skills with definately translates very well in the NHL. Playing in our backyard, we had time to evaluate him properly and we decide it's time to bring people who will have the desire to finally bring the Sens to the next level. 30-Detroit CHRIS SUMMERS With our defence not getting any younger, Summers was a need at the same time of being the BPA. We strongly believe that under the right development, Chris has the potential to be the best defenceman in the draft with he exception of Johnson. A big physsical in your face type defenceman that plays high energy hockey. Summers is a very mobile defenceman with solid size, a good acurate first pass and his also looking for the big crushing hit. He has great vison and I would not hesitate to call him a complete package. Overlook too much in the draft. SECOND ROUND 31. St. Louis: Trevor Lewis 32. Pittsburgh: Alexander Vasyunov 33. Chicago: Codey Burki 34. Washington: Brian Strait 35. Washington [Bos]: Yuri Alexandrov 36. Columbus: Jamie McBAIN 37. Anaheim [NYI]: Denis Persson 38. Philadelphia [Pho]: Kryoptix Ryan White 39. Minnesota: Mark Mitera 40. Phoenix [Fla]: Ondrej Fiala 41. Philadelphia [LA]: Ben Shruton 42. Atlanta: Artem Asinimov 43. Toronto: Cal Clutterbuck 44. Buffalo [Van]: Jesse Joenssu 45. Phoenix [TB]: Mike Weber 46. Montreal: Joe Ryan 47. Boston [Edm]: Simon Danis Pepin 48. Colorado: Jhonas Enroth 49. Washington [Ana]: Francois Bouchard 50. San Jose: Blake Geoffrion 51. New York (R): Tomas Marcinko 52. Philadelphia: Carl Sneep 53. New Jersey: Tyson Dowzak 54. Calgary: Mathieu Carle 55. Nashville: Oskar Osala 56. Buffalo: David Ruzicka 57. Carolina: Thomas Kana 58. New York (I) [Dal]: Andrei Popov 59. Chicago [Ott]: Tony Lagerström 60. Detroit: Jan Michael Juutilainen THIRD ROUND 61. St. Louis: Derrick Lapoint 62. Pittsburgh: Andreas Nodl 63. Philadelphia [Chi]: Bobby Hughes 64. New Jersey [Was]: Matt Belesky 65. Boston: Ryan Hillier 66. Columbus: Vladimir Zharkov 67. New York (I): Bryce Swan 68. New York (I) [Pho]: Christoph Gawlik 69. Minnesota: Brad Marchand 70. Florida: Luke Lynes 71. Los Angeles: Kevin Montgomery 72. Atlanta: Jonas Junland 73. Toronto: Jonas Ahnelov 74. Vancouver: David Kveton 75. Tampa Bay: Semen Varlamov 76. Montreal: John Armstrong 77. Edmonton: Robin Figren 78. Colorado: Nikolai Kulemin 79. St. Louis [Van/Ana]: Riley Holzapfel 80. Anaheim [SJ]: Robert Nyholm 81. New York (R): James DeLory 82. Philadelphia: Eric Gryba 83. New York (I) [NJ]: John DeGray 84. Calgary: Alexandre Picard-Hooper 85. Los Angeles [Nas]: Jeff Zatkoff 86. Calgary [Buf]: Rhett Rakhshani 87. Carolina: Kirill Tulupov 88. Dallas: Timo Seppanen 89. Ottawa: Alec Richards 90. Detroit: Joe Palmer
I like the Pens picks, although I would have liked to see a defensemen more in the second, like Alexandrov, Persson, or Sneep. Overall good work.
Say what? Robert Nilsson and Sean Bergenheim are both left wingers and going to be on the top 2 lines on the NHL team next season. Whoever came up with this is way off base. I wouldn't be terribly dissapointed to see Sheppard drafted, but the reasoning (that Jason Blake is the only left winger on our team now (which is not true) so we should draft somebody who could help in 3 years) is mind bogglingly faulty.
If that's how the draft went for the Blues in the first 3 rounds, I know a lot of Blues fans who'd be absolutely thrilled.
O_O As a leaf fan and that happened on Draft day, I would be absolutely thrilled. Opkoso, Clutterbuck and Ahnelov, not bad at all.
I like that Penguins' second rounder I've been craving that for months now. If not Vasyunov in the second, I'd like Zharkov in the 3rd as a Pens fan, but what do I know? Great mock... I like the idea of getting an angle from each team.
Bruins receive the 37th pick overall as compensation for never signing former first rounder Lars Jonsson!
We, Habs fans, don't like the Bruins, so we didn't gave you the pick Not but seriously, we knew that after the beginning of the draft...sorry
Wow! As a Caps fan i'd jump for joy of they managed to draft this well come next week. A lot of good picks.
Thanks I was picking for the Caps and I'm now pretty proud of my draft... If it was to remake, I think I would have draft Persson instead of one of Strait and Alexandrov... The second round is so hard to predict this year!!!
I think the second round will be looking amazing when we look back in afew years. If I were picking I probably wouldn't have picked Strait because we have a stable of D prospects in his mold already further in development, but I really like him nonetheless. Alexandrov was a great pick then I think. We need more skilled forwards, that's the only reason I would have only picked one of them. I probably would have gone with Nodl or Joenssu, or maybe Asinimov - but the idea of drafting two Russians in the 2nd makes me a little nervous because of the new CBA. Oh well! My 2 cents.
I like the Rangers picks. I might have taken Berglund over Grabner. Marcinko is a good pick in round 2. I'd like to see them get Sauer in round 3.
Good choise .. but I think that Claude Giroux and Brassard and Bernier will drop in the draft because of a lack of scout in Quebec .. Look at Guillaume Latendresse last year ..
uhm...of course, with Stephan signed there only Kilpelainen and McGann left as unsigned prospects....but with Turco, Smith, Ellis, Stephan +X, there's no need for a early-goalie-drafting this year and next year (or only if Helenius is still there, but i don't think so) so just go with the BPA for skaters...
I kind of agree with the choice of whoever made the pick. Dallas has a couple pf decent goaltender prospect, but IMO, there are not to the level of Leland...but I could be wrong. I'm not sure that I would have made that choice, but it's not a bad idea at all. And maybe Irving will be the BPA for every position on the draft day
As a Sens fan I don't like it. I've seen a lot of McGinn and don't think he will ever that good in the NHL. Especially when there are some much better guys still on the board. But whatever. Interesting turn out for a mock.
