Ola's Top 31 For the 2018 Draft

[Ola]

Great write-up, thank you. I disagree on a number of points, but I also concede that you've clearly seen these guys play a lot more than I have. Thank you for all the effort you put into this enjoyable ranking and breakdown.

Thanks!

 

[Halla]

Bode wilde wont be better than hughes or bouchard and certaintly wont go 13 picks before them

 

[JAS 39 Gripen]

Evan Bouchard at 22?

You lost me there. Kid is going to go in the top 10

Considering that he "had you" til the #22 pick, I'd say you quite liked that list, no?

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

I wanted to ask you about some of the comments you made in the original post. I'm not here to rake you over the coals or anything, but some of them are a little confusing.

He is not the most skilled offensive defender out there.

This is what you wrote about Ryan Merkley. I don't know if I'm misinterpreting you, but it comes across like you're saying Ryan Merkley is not a particularly skilled player. I find this a little weird, because Ryan Merkley is tremendously skilled. He's very good with the puck, an excellent passer, and he has very good vision. What did you mean by this?

imagine if he can grow a inch or even two more. Add another gear to his skating.

This is what you said about Quinn Hughes. Do you really think Hughes can add another gear to his skating? Whenever I've seen him, he's been a fantastic skater. Granted, I'm not a fantastic skater, so maybe I don't know this kind of thing.

Comparison: Wade Redden

This was Evan Bouchard. I have to admit I don't have a great memory, but I don't remember Wade Redden as a PP QB type. Maybe I'm wrong, but this strikes me as a strange comparison. I remember Wade Redden as more of a two-way guy who didn't have the greatest offensive game. Certainly one of the greatest AHL stars of all time, though.

Ramus Kupari is a slick Finnish right handed playmaker

I've only seen Kupari a couple of times internationally, but he never struck me as a playmaker. And then going into this season, I really thought the big criticism of Kupari was that he doesn't have the passing, playmaking, or vision to play center. What makes you view Kupari as a playmaker? Not saying you're wrong, but I did not see this when I watched him play.

 

[Ola]

Preliminary results
Given my limited resources I have to say that I am pretty proud of this ranking made on 28 April as the 'preliminary results' are in. I didn't intend to do a mock draft, most certainly not, but its of course of some interest to see how my ranking matched up against the NHL team's respective dito. It will be fun to look back at this say in 6 months/a year/two years and so forth.

One more thing, I made this list before the final weekend of the U18. At that time there was no fresh rankings available, as far as I know, nobody had Kotkaniemi even top 15 at that time -- and so forth. I really tried as hard as possible to make my own ranking and not look at others, but having Kotkaniemi 5th is one of the rankings I am most proud of, that was totally of the board at the time. Samt with Kravtsov, as far as I know nobody had him top 20 at that time, I loved him when I saw him in the KHL POs and he also went were I ranked him at 9.

One write-up that I had that was questioned a bit was the one on Wahlström, I ranked him 3 spots higher than he went. But I think my write-up reflects him better than my ranking of him.

I am listing my top 28 vs the 1st round. I only looked at the players I ranked, more or less. I expressely excluded Bokk, Hayton, Denisenko and co because I was not able to catch them enough and get a grip of what I thought of them. Foudy, OBrien, Johansson, JBD, and Beaduin wasn't ranked either, I haven't had time to watch these guys. The last 3 guys I ranked got in without much competition, hence I exclude them and only go with my top 31.

Variations vs draft picks
Here is the variations I got:

	Ola's top 31	Variation (+/-)
1	Dahlin	0
2	Zadina	4
3	Svechnikov	1
4	Tkachuk	0
5	Boqvist	3
6	Kotkaniemi	3
7	Wilde	34
8	Wahlstrom	3
9	Kravtsov	0
10	Miller	12
11	Dobson	1
12	Merkley	9
13	Berggren	20
14	Dostal	71
15	Farabee	1
16	Kaut	0
17	Velano	13
18	Lundeström	5
19	Ginning	31
20	Hughes	13
21	Sandin	8
22	Bouchard	12
23	Kupari	3
24	Samuelsson	8
25	Dellandrea	12
26	Noel	8
27	Smith	10
28	Lundkvist	0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Comments
Some of my rankings are off the board. Many of them don't worry me at all. Berggren? I am not surprised at all about him being picked late, but I feel perfectly confident with my chances of being able to defend that ranking in 5-10 years. Dostal? It was a gamble, but somewhat the same.

One guy who I feel the whole community more or less disagreed with me on -- i.e. just not looking and valuing different abilities differently so to speak, just not envisioning a certain skill set to play out differently in the NHL -- is Bode Wilde. I noted when I ranked him that he is dividing the scouting community the most, but that I believed in his skating and wasn't concerned with the mistakes. But -- the scouting community obviously don't buy that his mobility is good enough. This irks me the most of all my rankings. I think I got something wrong that I am usually good at to pin down. Somewhat pissed about that one.

Most had Bouchard/Dobson top 5 or at least top 10, I didn't and I note that none of them was picked top 10 either.

With that said, I am more confident being able to defend Bouchard at 22 in 10 years than I am with Q Hughes at 20. But I don't know, we will see. I made my rankings for a reason and shouldn't backtrack from them just because he was drafted were he was.

I would love to hear you guy's thoughts!

 

[Ola]

I wanted to ask you about some of the comments you made in the original post. I'm not here to rake you over the coals or anything, but some of them are a little confusing.

This is what you wrote about Ryan Merkley. I don't know if I'm misinterpreting you, but it comes across like you're saying Ryan Merkley is not a particularly skilled player. I find this a little weird, because Ryan Merkley is tremendously skilled. He's very good with the puck, an excellent passer, and he has very good vision. What did you mean by this?

This is what you said about Quinn Hughes. Do you really think Hughes can add another gear to his skating? Whenever I've seen him, he's been a fantastic skater. Granted, I'm not a fantastic skater, so maybe I don't know this kind of thing.

This was Evan Bouchard. I have to admit I don't have a great memory, but I don't remember Wade Redden as a PP QB type. Maybe I'm wrong, but this strikes me as a strange comparison. I remember Wade Redden as more of a two-way guy who didn't have the greatest offensive game. Certainly one of the greatest AHL stars of all time, though.

I've only seen Kupari a couple of times internationally, but he never struck me as a playmaker. And then going into this season, I really thought the big criticism of Kupari was that he doesn't have the passing, playmaking, or vision to play center. What makes you view Kupari as a playmaker? Not saying you're wrong, but I did not see this when I watched him play.

Sorry Fire Ken, I completely missed your questions!

1. Poorly written on Merkley, I don't think he is top 3 offensively at least, but it sounds like I say that he isn't skilled. 2. More like, I think Quinn Hughes is skilled, but not like McDavid skilled. There is always room for growth. 3. Wade Redden was definitely a PPQB/top D when he peaked. He was 9th in the Norris voting in 03 and so forth. 4. Don't think Kupari is a play-maker like say Bäckström. I meant more like, good at creating plays, creating offense. Creative.

Hope it helps!

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

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[Ola]

close

Yeah, I heard that scouting had improved, but I am a little surprised the teams didn’t do better than this!

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Yeah, I heard that scouting had improved, but I am a little surprised the teams didn’t do better than this!