Prospect Info: The 2018 Draft Thread

[McDNicks17]

Whether or not he's as talented as Matt. The fact is if Tkachuk is there at 10 you take him unless Hughes, Dobson, Svechnikov, or Zadina are on the board.

I think my list would probably be about double that.

I don't mind him, but I don't really consider a guy who will be a complimentary top6 winger at best(IMO) enough of a slam dunk to disregard quite a few players in that area.

 

[Zaddy]

It's because of his age and the fact that he doesn't look to be improving as much as the other dmen over the year. It's looking like he wont have the skills to be a top flight NHL dman, and still has several holes in his game. Compare that to Hughes who looks polished as a 18 year old playing against men, and who looked better at last years tournament then Boqvist did this year. Or Dobson who's helped his team to the QMJHL final and may play in the memorial cup. Boqvist is going to take time, and is most likely a 2nd pair dman who puts up points. The other two I look at as top pairing guys. What's frustrating is you can see the skill is there, but he just hasn't worked hard enough to progress which is why he consistently fell down the rankings through the year. At the beginning of the year I think people looked at his age and where he was at, and said if this kid keeps progressing he's going to be one hell of a dman. Which is why he was in the top 3. Problem is he's not quite stagnated, but hasn't improved as much as expected throughout the year.

Ok first of all you are using Boqvist young age against him? That's...weird. If anything it shows that he has the most room for improvement. You say Hughes looks polished against men, well yeah he's a year older, as is Bouchard. Dobson is 6'3. This is the NHL draft. You're not looking for finished products. You are looking at who'll be the best player 5 years from now, not next year or even the year after that. Weird to penalize Boqvist for that.

I also think it's unfair to say that he didn't improve over the year or whatever. Yeah he started off explosively at the Hlinka and didn't quite reach that level in subsequent international tournaments. So what? He was still very good in international play and he dominated his junior league and went from scoring 4 goals last year to scoring 14 goals this year. In 25 games. That's a GPG of 0,56. That's a lot. The only thing is that he was stuck in a less-than-ideal spot developmentally because his SHL team already had like 8 defensemen under contract which made it impossible for him to get a legit chance to play.

What is he supposed to do in that situation? What more do you want from him? I mean it's not like Liljegren last year where he actually legit struggled in juniors. There we can talk about stagnation.

Put Dobson in SHL this year and I think he looks a hell of a lot more like Adam Ginning than a top ranked prospect. Some people just don't understand how the system works here in Sweden or how to evaluate prospects from over here it seems. It's way different from CHL.

 

[BarDownBobo]

I think my list would probably be about double that.

I don't mind him, but I don't really consider a guy who will be a complimentary top6 winger at best(IMO) enough of a slam dunk to disregard quite a few players in that area.

Agreed. I'd pick Dobson, Boqvist, Hughes, Bouchard and Wahlstrom ahead of Tkachuk personally. I'd also have to think hard about Tkachuk vs Kotkaniemi, who to me has joined that third "tier" of players and extended it to the 4-10 range.

 

[Canovin]

Ok first of all you are using Boqvist young age against him? That's...weird. If anything it shows that he has the most room for improvement. You say Hughes looks polished against men, well yeah he's a year older, as is Bouchard. Dobson is 6'3. This is the NHL draft. You're not looking for finished products. You are looking at who'll be the best player 5 years from now, not next year or even the year after that. Weird to penalize Boqvist for that.

I also think it's unfair to say that he didn't improve over the year or whatever. Yeah he started off explosively at the Hlinka and didn't quite reach that level in subsequent international tournaments. So what? He was still very good in international play and he dominated his junior league and went from scoring 4 goals last year to scoring 14 goals this year. In 25 games. That's a GPG of 0,56. That's a lot. The only thing is that he was stuck in a less-than-ideal spot developmentally because his SHL team already had like 8 defensemen under contract which made it impossible for him to get a legit chance to play.

What is he supposed to do in that situation? What more do you want from him? I mean it's not like Liljegren last year where he actually legit struggled in juniors. There we can talk about stagnation.

Put Dobson in SHL this year and I think he looks a hell of a lot more like Adam Ginning than a top ranked prospect. Some people just don't understand how the system works here in Sweden or how to evaluate prospects from over here it seems. It's way different from CHL.

No need to wait 5 years. Boqvist will help this team in 2 years tops

 

[McDNicks17]

Agreed. I'd pick Dobson, Boqvist, Hughes, Bouchard and Wahlstrom ahead of Tkachuk personally. I'd also have to think hard about Tkachuk vs Kotkaniemi, who to me has joined that third "tier" of players and extended it to the 4-10 range.

Yup. They seem to have fairly similar skill sets and upsides. Why not pick the center?

I'd actually have to think about taking Hayton over him too, but I think I believe in his offensive upside more than most. Both he and Kotkaniemi are guys who could be #2Cs and easily slide up to a top line wing spot in a complementary role, to me.

I don't see the puck-carrying or shooting ability from Tkachuk to be an impact forward in the NHL. He just screams high floor, low ceiling to me.

 

[Raab]

Ok first of all you are using Boqvist young age against him? That's...weird. If anything it shows that he has the most room for improvement. You say Hughes looks polished against men, well yeah he's a year older, as is Bouchard. Dobson is 6'3. This is the NHL draft. You're not looking for finished products. You are looking at who'll be the best player 5 years from now, not next year or even the year after that. Weird to penalize Boqvist for that.

I also think it's unfair to say that he didn't improve over the year or whatever. Yeah he started off explosively at the Hlinka and didn't quite reach that level in subsequent international tournaments. So what? He was still very good in international play and he dominated his junior league and went from scoring 4 goals last year to scoring 14 goals this year. In 25 games. That's a GPG of 0,56. That's a lot. The only thing is that he was stuck in a less-than-ideal spot developmentally because his SHL team already had like 8 defensemen under contract which made it impossible for him to get a legit chance to play.

What is he supposed to do in that situation? What more do you want from him? I mean it's not like Liljegren last year where he actually legit struggled in juniors. There we can talk about stagnation.

Put Dobson in SHL this year and I think he looks a hell of a lot more like Adam Ginning than a top ranked prospect. Some people just don't understand how the system works here in Sweden or how to evaluate prospects from over here it seems. It's way different from CHL.

Im not using his age against him, Im saying he didn't progress over the year like expected which is why he's ranked lower. And his age only matters if he continues to improve at a good rate. He simply didn't improve enough over the year to justify being a top 5 pick and is questionable in the top 10 IMO. He has the skill, but I'm not seeing enough progression from what Ive seen of him. That's whats scary about taking these guys at 18. Boqvist can have all the skill but if he can't improve his game it wont matter. Hughes is ready for the NHL and ahead of Boqvist easily, Dobson is probably a year or two away but still plays a more polished game. Then we have Boqvist who has a great shot but is lacking defensively. I look at it like who would I rather have if these guys keep progressing at the same rate they have over this year. Dobson and Hughes come out far ahead of Boqvist in that category.

 

[Raab]

I think my list would probably be about double that.

I don't mind him, but I don't really consider a guy who will be a complimentary top6 winger at best(IMO) enough of a slam dunk to disregard quite a few players in that area.

6'3" 200lbs, can skate, and goes to the net. He'll go high, he's NHL ready and most likely a top 6 player. Whether he's the best player in 5 years I dunno. But he's ready to play now which should be worth something to teams.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Kotkaniemi >>Tkachuk

Kotkaniemi is top tier in this draft. If he goes outside the top 9 I'd be shocked and honestly if he goes outside the top 5 I'll even be surprised.

 

[Aerrol]

I don't remember if I wrote here or on the mains but compare Boqvist numbers to other high picks. He didn't need to dominate the tournament to be a great NHLer in the future. Hischier, a forward, had 1 goal and 6 points in 5 games in the tournament last year. He went on to score 20 goals and 52 points in the NHL the following year and looks like he's going to be a star in this league. And this is a guy who went 1st overall 2 months after said tournament.

If that's good enough for Hischier, why isn't it for Boqvist? Why does he have to be more dominant? He's a defenseman and scored more goals and as many points and Hischier albeit in 1 more game. Elias Pettersson had 1 goal and 8 points in 7 games when he played the U18's. Didn't stop him from having a historic season in the SHL as a 19 year old.

Erik Karlsson had 0 goals and 7 points in 6 games in the U18's. Drew Doughty 5 points in 6 games. Hedman 4 points in 4 games.

I just don't get why everyone is holding Boqvist to a way higher standard than any other prospect. It's like every other prospect performance starts at 0 whereas Boqvist starts from -5 and he has to make that gap up by being way more dominant than the other guys to be on their level or something. It makes absolutely no sense to me. If it were Dahlin we were talking about it would at least make a little sense, but Boqvist? Why?

I completely agree about the double standard, but frankly at this point I'm kind of glad to see the negative talk around him. Means it's more likely he'll drop to us . I still think Detroit or Vancouver take him though.

edit: I actually see a lot of similarities with Filip Forsberg in his draft year. Forsberg dropped way further than I expected that year, and I didn't agree very much with a lot of the knocks against him, which from a quick google appear mostly to be that he wasn't producing as much as expected in his draft year.

 

[Skolman]

Kotkaniemi >>Tkachuk

Kotkaniemi is top tier in this draft. If he goes outside the top 9 I'd be shocked and honestly if he goes outside the top 5 I'll even be surprised.

Hmm....

 

[Zaddy]

Im not using his age against him, Im saying he didn't progress over the year like expected which is why he's ranked lower. And his age only matters if he continues to improve at a good rate. He simply didn't improve enough over the year to justify being a top 5 pick and is questionable in the top 10 IMO. He has the skill, but I'm not seeing enough progression from what Ive seen of him. That's whats scary about taking these guys at 18. Boqvist can have all the skill but if he can't improve his game it wont matter. Hughes is ready for the NHL and ahead of Boqvist easily, Dobson is probably a year or two away but still plays a more polished game. Then we have Boqvist who has a great shot but is lacking defensively. I look at it like who would I rather have if these guys keep progressing at the same rate they have over this year. Dobson and Hughes come out far ahead of Boqvist in that category.

Boqvist lacking defensively is a myth. He has a fantastic, if not elite, stick, plays the body when he needs to, is very strong positionally and makes great plays and reads under pressure. What more do you want from him?

It's getting tiresome repeating that last sentence over and over again. It's like there are these insane targets that Boqvist needs to meet in order to be considered a good prospect that doesn't apply to anyone else.

Dobson is not nearly as dynamic as Boqvist offensively, I doubt he's as smart as Boqvist (even if Dobson has above-average hockey IQ), his shot isn't as good and his hands aren't even close. Yeah he's bigger and defends well in juniors, so what? How does that make him a better prospect?

 

[Raab]

Boqvist lacking defensively is a myth. He has a fantastic, if not elite, stick, plays the body when he needs to, is very strong positionally and makes great plays and reads under pressure. What more do you want from him?

It's getting tiresome repeating that last sentence over and over again. It's like there are these insane targets that Boqvist needs to meet in order to be considered a good prospect that doesn't apply to anyone else.

Dobson is not nearly as dynamic as Boqvist offensively, I doubt he's as smart as Boqvist (even if Dobson has above-average hockey IQ), his shot isn't as good and his hands aren't even close. Yeah he's bigger and defends well in juniors, so what? How does that make him a better prospect?

Dobson is an all around great dman. That's what makes im so valuable, very few flaws in his game and keeps improving. Ive watched Boqvist, he's lacking defensively. Will need to clean his game up a ton if he wants to make the NHL. Missed your question asking what I want from Boqvist defensively. I want to see him get to the right places on the ice, and to be moving the puck quicker.

 

[Zaddy]

Ive watched Boqvist, he's lacking defensively. Will need to clean his game up a ton if he wants to make the NHL. Missed your question asking what I want from Boqvist defensively. I want to see him get to the right places on the ice, and to be moving the puck quicker.

It's like we're watching different players. Well I think we'll just have to agree to disagree then.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Lets say the consensus top 9 are gone (Boqvist,Bouchard,Hughes,Tkachuck,ect), would everybody be really pissed if they reached for Merkley? Guys got a elite puck moving skill.

 

[MessierII]

Lets say the consensus top 9 are gone (Boqvist,Bouchard,Hughes,Tkachuck,ect), would everybody be really pissed if they reached for Merkley? Guys got a elite puck moving skill.

Yes. Ty Smith over Merkley all day every day.

 

[McKappa]

I think my list would probably be about double that.

I don't mind him, but I don't really consider a guy who will be a complimentary top6 winger at best(IMO) enough of a slam dunk to disregard quite a few players in that area.

Yet you like Barrett Hayton lmao

 

[McDNicks17]

Yet you like Barrett Hayton lmao

It's a lot harder to find a second line center than a second line winger.

 

[snipes]

Lets say the consensus top 9 are gone (Boqvist,Bouchard,Hughes,Tkachuck,ect), would everybody be really pissed if they reached for Merkley? Guys got a elite puck moving skill.

Ultimate boom or bust pick.

Could be a home run pick or be a headcase that is his own worst enemy impeding his success.

Sometimes you see what he can do in the offensive zone and it's leaves you in awe only to be followed up by a complete and utter lack of willingness to defend moments later.

He's a no brainer in the 2nd if he's there.

 

[Skolman]

Merkley at #10 would be stupid.

Merkley at #20 is still a reach

 

[nexttothemoon]

I have Merkley as a top 5 talent in this draft. It certainly wouldn't be a "reach" imo to pick him at #10... but obviously he has specific (well discussed) issues which makes him a "riskier pick"... but that also goes without saying for many 17 year old offensively gifted dmen.

I also have Kotkaniemi in the top 5 (maybe just outside top 5 at a push) as well so that's an alternative "safer" pick for the Oilers at #10.

A player that's getting WAY too little attention is Nordgren as well. This guy has piles of talent but is a little on the smallish side which is why I assume most are overlooking him. I have him in the top 10 as well.

Kravtsov is yet another possible good choice at #10.. plays in a men's league and is doing very well there.. left shot but plays RW. He'll likely be chosen higher than most think he will after that playoff performance he had.

Addison is getting way too little attention as well. RHD with plenty of skill. Again a little on the small side and some people don't like his defense but again that's something that can be worked on and developed (just like most if not all other prospects will have to do at the NHL level to succeed)... but his offensive skills are high end and on a par with many other top dmen in this draft.

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

Boqvist lacking defensively is a myth. He has a fantastic, if not elite, stick, plays the body when he needs to, is very strong positionally and makes great plays and reads under pressure. What more do you want from him?

It's getting tiresome repeating that last sentence over and over again. It's like there are these insane targets that Boqvist needs to meet in order to be considered a good prospect that doesn't apply to anyone else.

Dobson is not nearly as dynamic as Boqvist offensively, I doubt he's as smart as Boqvist (even if Dobson has above-average hockey IQ), his shot isn't as good and his hands aren't even close. Yeah he's bigger and defends well in juniors, so what? How does that make him a better prospect?

All the hate Boqvist has been getting lately is completely unwarranted. Skill >>>>>> Size

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Im not aure why no one likea bouchard. Too nikitineaque? I see a poor mans pietrangelo. Gentle yet effective.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Im not aure why no one likea bouchard. Too nikitineaque? I see a poor mans pietrangelo. Gentle yet effective.

Bouchard is my top pick of all the dmen who might be available to draft at that #10 spot... but the chance he's available at #10 is tiny if not zero.

 

[McNuge]

Lets say the consensus top 9 are gone (Boqvist,Bouchard,Hughes,Tkachuck,ect), would everybody be really pissed if they reached for Merkley? Guys got a elite puck moving skill.

If we take Merkley at 10 I will lose my mind. He screams Ryan Murphy, with less offensive skill at the OHL level, and less defensively responsible. Which is saying a lot considering Murphy can't play in his own zone to save his life.

If he is there in the second then sure, but no way in hell at 10

 

[McFlash97]

Im not using his age against him, Im saying he didn't progress over the year like expected which is why he's ranked lower. And his age only matters if he continues to improve at a good rate. He simply didn't improve enough over the year to justify being a top 5 pick and is questionable in the top 10 IMO. He has the skill, but I'm not seeing enough progression from what Ive seen of him. That's whats scary about taking these guys at 18. Boqvist can have all the skill but if he can't improve his game it wont matter. Hughes is ready for the NHL and ahead of Boqvist easily, Dobson is probably a year or two away but still plays a more polished game. Then we have Boqvist who has a great shot but is lacking defensively. I look at it like who would I rather have if these guys keep progressing at the same rate they have over this year. Dobson and Hughes come out far ahead of Boqvist in that category.

Hey get real. Your hate on for Boqvist is getting hilarious. Nurse was a great defensive defenseman in the CHL too. Doesnt stop him from making 2 boneheaded plays per game defensively in the NHL. It's all between your eyes in the NHL. If you have the skill and IQ...your game translates well in the NHL. Oilers dont need to be looking for the "safe" pick. They need to be looking for the best available player on defense at 10.