StevenToddIves
Registered User
Hey, guys. Sorry I've been AWOL. I'm not dead, as some of my friends have worried. With my NYC bartending career, um... "on hold", I decided to use the pandemic to write a 300-page novel. Which amounted to about 12-14 hours of writing per day for three months, which led to you guys being sorely neglected during Draft Season. My apologies. But hopefully it will lead to a reasonable pay day, since I don't think I'll be able to make Brooklyn rent working in bars for the next year or two. Covid really kicked us in the nuts.
Of course, I watched the lottery last night, over beers and pizza with a good buddy of mine who is a huge Detroit fan. I was not upset about falling from #6 to #7. I wish I could say the same about my friend. He was less than pleased with the Wings plummet from #1 to #4. I felt sad for him.
I'll try to get out a full mock after the order is set, and I'll of course have a full top 62 or 93 ranking out by draft day. And you guys can (as always) email me ([email protected]) if you want me to get on here and answer any questions. So, here goes:
1) ??? LW Alex Lafreniere the lottery sure made things interesting, right? Can you imagine surefire franchise stud Lafreniere lining up alongside Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby or Auston Matthews next year? Well, it could happen. All I can say is: please don't be #@$%ing Arizona.
2)LA C Quinton Byfield in my mind, the Kings possess the best prospect pool in the NHL -- and the lottery luck just made it a whooooole lot better. The idea of being able to ice a top line in three years of Byfield-Turcotte- Kaliyev is simply disgusting. Though Byfield is younger than Lafreniere and far less polished, his inimitable combination of size/speed/athleticism/shot/hands gives him the highest upside in this entire draft. You're talking a Jack Eichel-type talent here.
3)OTT C/LW Tim Stutzle otherworldly combination of skating and hands and vision, a la a kid named Hughes in the 2019 draft. As questionable as Senators management has been in the past half-decade, they still draft well. Stutzle gives them the sublime offensive talent to build around.
4)DET C Marco Rossi I think this choice comes down to Rossi or Perfetti. No one values hockey sense in their draft philosophy so much as Wings GM Steve Yzerman. I'm going to go with two-way force Rossi here, since he has the upside of an even more dynamic Brayden Point, whom Yzerman hit a grand slam with while running Tampa Bay a few drafts back.
5)OTT RD Jamie Drysdale the Senators have a stud young LD in Thomas Chabot, and two very good RD prospects in Bernard-Docker and Lassi Thomson. Although I can also see them going for a scoring winger like Alex Holtz here, I think they would have a tough time passing up on a potential Makar-clone in Drysdale to give them future #1-type D on both the left and right side.
6)ANH LD Jake Sanderson the most (bizarrely) criticized player among draft pundits in the 2020 class, Sanderson has unwittingly become a lightning rod for the scouting vs. analytics set. To me, he's Ryan Suter 2.0 with better wheels, and NHL GMs drool over kids like this. He's going far higher than his consensus ranking, and the Ducks have the two elements -- need for D prospects and "old-school" GM -- which will put him near the top of their draft list.
7)DEVILS LW/C Cole Perfetti if the draft shakes up the way I imagine it, this NJ choice would come down to the pure sniper (Holtz) vs. Perfetti -- an ice-in-his-veins scoring monster with hockey sense as good as we've seen in years. Were Perfetti two inches taller or a tick faster, he'd be a top three pick; his hands and vision are that good. He has eyes not just in the back of his head, but pretty much all around his head. I know that's a lot of eyes. I also know that the Devils may want some more size and pure shooting skill on the wing alongside Nico and Hughes, which could sway them towards Holtz. But I'm leaning towards the Devils taking Perfetti here, and then using a later first-round pick (Arizona, Vancouver) on a sniping RW like Jack Quinn, Dawson Mercer or Jacob Perreault.
8)BUF RW Alexander Holtz the Sabres have a new GM and a desperate need to surround Jack Eichel with some talented top-line wingers -- or risk losing their franchise player. Holtz is closer to the NHL than Raymond and more of a pure scorer. He also has good size, skates and an admirably polished all-around game. He's exactly what they need in Buffalo.
9)??? W Lucas Raymond it's tough not to fall in love with this kids's upside -- Raymond is an unbelievable skater with high-end vision, passing and scoring skills. He's good two ways and not soft despite being undersized. But, the writers who have ranked him in their top 4 have banked more on potential than performance after a decidedly underwhelming draft-eligible season. Raymond is likely two to three years away from the NHL, further than most of the kids in an extremely gifted 2020 top 10. I think he goes top 10, but I can't see him being taken over more polished/proven commodities like Perfetti and Rossi.
Of course, I watched the lottery last night, over beers and pizza with a good buddy of mine who is a huge Detroit fan. I was not upset about falling from #6 to #7. I wish I could say the same about my friend. He was less than pleased with the Wings plummet from #1 to #4. I felt sad for him.
I'll try to get out a full mock after the order is set, and I'll of course have a full top 62 or 93 ranking out by draft day. And you guys can (as always) email me ([email protected]) if you want me to get on here and answer any questions. So, here goes:
1) ??? LW Alex Lafreniere the lottery sure made things interesting, right? Can you imagine surefire franchise stud Lafreniere lining up alongside Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby or Auston Matthews next year? Well, it could happen. All I can say is: please don't be #@$%ing Arizona.
2)LA C Quinton Byfield in my mind, the Kings possess the best prospect pool in the NHL -- and the lottery luck just made it a whooooole lot better. The idea of being able to ice a top line in three years of Byfield-Turcotte- Kaliyev is simply disgusting. Though Byfield is younger than Lafreniere and far less polished, his inimitable combination of size/speed/athleticism/shot/hands gives him the highest upside in this entire draft. You're talking a Jack Eichel-type talent here.
3)OTT C/LW Tim Stutzle otherworldly combination of skating and hands and vision, a la a kid named Hughes in the 2019 draft. As questionable as Senators management has been in the past half-decade, they still draft well. Stutzle gives them the sublime offensive talent to build around.
4)DET C Marco Rossi I think this choice comes down to Rossi or Perfetti. No one values hockey sense in their draft philosophy so much as Wings GM Steve Yzerman. I'm going to go with two-way force Rossi here, since he has the upside of an even more dynamic Brayden Point, whom Yzerman hit a grand slam with while running Tampa Bay a few drafts back.
5)OTT RD Jamie Drysdale the Senators have a stud young LD in Thomas Chabot, and two very good RD prospects in Bernard-Docker and Lassi Thomson. Although I can also see them going for a scoring winger like Alex Holtz here, I think they would have a tough time passing up on a potential Makar-clone in Drysdale to give them future #1-type D on both the left and right side.
6)ANH LD Jake Sanderson the most (bizarrely) criticized player among draft pundits in the 2020 class, Sanderson has unwittingly become a lightning rod for the scouting vs. analytics set. To me, he's Ryan Suter 2.0 with better wheels, and NHL GMs drool over kids like this. He's going far higher than his consensus ranking, and the Ducks have the two elements -- need for D prospects and "old-school" GM -- which will put him near the top of their draft list.
7)DEVILS LW/C Cole Perfetti if the draft shakes up the way I imagine it, this NJ choice would come down to the pure sniper (Holtz) vs. Perfetti -- an ice-in-his-veins scoring monster with hockey sense as good as we've seen in years. Were Perfetti two inches taller or a tick faster, he'd be a top three pick; his hands and vision are that good. He has eyes not just in the back of his head, but pretty much all around his head. I know that's a lot of eyes. I also know that the Devils may want some more size and pure shooting skill on the wing alongside Nico and Hughes, which could sway them towards Holtz. But I'm leaning towards the Devils taking Perfetti here, and then using a later first-round pick (Arizona, Vancouver) on a sniping RW like Jack Quinn, Dawson Mercer or Jacob Perreault.
8)BUF RW Alexander Holtz the Sabres have a new GM and a desperate need to surround Jack Eichel with some talented top-line wingers -- or risk losing their franchise player. Holtz is closer to the NHL than Raymond and more of a pure scorer. He also has good size, skates and an admirably polished all-around game. He's exactly what they need in Buffalo.
9)??? W Lucas Raymond it's tough not to fall in love with this kids's upside -- Raymond is an unbelievable skater with high-end vision, passing and scoring skills. He's good two ways and not soft despite being undersized. But, the writers who have ranked him in their top 4 have banked more on potential than performance after a decidedly underwhelming draft-eligible season. Raymond is likely two to three years away from the NHL, further than most of the kids in an extremely gifted 2020 top 10. I think he goes top 10, but I can't see him being taken over more polished/proven commodities like Perfetti and Rossi.
