Very Early Redraft

[LeafChief]

Well, someone has to stand up for Heiskanen. If it weren't for us Finns and a handful of Dallas fans, would anyone even remember him?

Oh no!

Imagine what would happen to him if people didn't discuss him on an internet forum. Thank god for you white knights!

 

[King Weber]

In my completely non-biased opinion, I think the redraft of the 1st round would look something like this;

1. Tolvanen
2. Mismash
3. Farrance
4. Vomacka
5. Koltygin
6. Paquette
7. Hischier
8. Heiskanen
9. Mittelstadt
10. Patrick

11. Makar
12. Kostin
13. Andersson
14. Chytil
15. Pettersson
16. Yamamoto
17. Brännström
18. Liljegren
19. Glass
20. Necas

21. Tippett
22. Välimäki
21. Joseph
22. Foote
23. Thomas
24. Vaakanainen
25. Ramsussen
26. Vilardi
27. Heponiemi
28. Oettinger
29. Poehling
30. Suzuki
31. Hague

 

[nickdawg95]

Interesting. So let's take Aleksi Heponiemi here. What has Mittelstadt done to be considered ahead of him? 1 PPG in NCAA as a u20 player seriously isn't that amazing. Heponiemi's playing in a tougher league and has 2.5 PPG and +22.

WHL a tougher league ??? what world do you live in ?

 

[nickdawg95]

Who will he overtake?

glass and makar

 

[DesmondDekker]

Liljegren 1st overall please.

 

[NJ DevLolz]

1. Hischier- Has done nothing but impress in his first few games as an 18 year old. 10 pts in 13 games with 2 s/g is extremely impressive, along with a mature game.

2. Petterson- Tearing up the Swedish league in his draft +1 year is awesome. Look out when he bulks up a bit. I could see him being a strong candidate to usurp Nico as best in the draft.

3. Heiskanen- Great numbers as a dman in the Finnish league. Great all around game, too.

4. Tolvanen- His KHL start is absurd. No idea how he fell to where he did considering his USHL production.

5) Mittelstadt- Love how dynamic he is. If his ES production is real, look out.

6) Patrick- I actually don't like having him this high because he of his injury concerns (a major concussion two weeks into the season does not do anything to quell them). I also question whether his skating will give him the ability to separate from dmen. He looked overmatched in his brief stint. But his predraft pedigree is too strong to not have him top 10.

7) Chytil- AHL numbers are great for a young 18 year old. Probably another instance of Euro leagues being underscouted.

8) Glass- Picking up where he left off in Portland.

9) Liljegren- Looks to be playing very well in the AHL.

10) Necas- Love the speed and two-way ability.

 

[Brock Radunske]

#1 Hischier
#2 Tolvanen
#3 Heiskanen
#4 Patrick
#5 Pettersson
#6 Glass
#7 Makar
#8 Andersson
#9 Rasmussen
#10 Mittelstadt
#11 Tippett
#12 Suzuki
#13 Necas
#14 Foote
#15 Vilardi
#16 Chytil
#17 Brännström
#18 Välimäki
#19 Liljegren
#20 Vaakanainen
#21 Thomas
#22 Yamamoto
#23 Kostin
#24 Norris
#25 Heponiemi
#26 Joseph
#27 Vesalainen
#28 Batherson
#29 Frost
#30 Ruzicka
#31 Jokiharju

This is a bad list and you should feel bad.

 

[Albatros]

This is a bad list and you should feel bad.

Great argumentation.

 

[93LEAFS]

1. Hischier- Has done nothing but impress in his first few games as an 18 year old. 10 pts in 13 games with 2 s/g is extremely impressive, along with a mature game.

2. Petterson- Tearing up the Swedish league in his draft +1 year is awesome. Look out when he bulks up a bit. I could see him being a strong candidate to usurp Nico as best in the draft.

3. Heiskanen- Great numbers as a dman in the Finnish league. Great all around game, too.

4. Tolvanen- His KHL start is absurd. No idea how he fell to where he did considering his USHL production.

5) Mittelstadt- Love how dynamic he is. If his ES production is real, look out.

6) Patrick- I actually don't like having him this high because he of his injury concerns (a major concussion two weeks into the season does not do anything to quell them). I also question whether his skating will give him the ability to separate from dmen. He looked overmatched in his brief stint. But his predraft pedigree is too strong to not have him top 10.

7) Chytil- AHL numbers are great for a young 18 year old. Probably another instance of Euro leagues being underscouted.

8) Glass- Picking up where he left off in Portland.

9) Liljegren- Looks to be playing very well in the AHL.

10) Necas- Love the speed and two-way ability.

Patrick is back on the ice (in non-contract drills), I wouldn't call that a major concussion. In a less cautious era he's probably back on the ice, let's not act like he's Clarke MacArthur.

Outside of the case of Tolvanen, I don't think enough has really transpired yet to dramatically change how you viewed the draft back in June. I had the draft as

1: Hischier (Finally switched)
2: Patrick
3: Vilardi
4: Heiskanen
5: Pettersson
6: Glass
7: Makar
8: Mittelstadt
9: Necas
10: Liljegren
11: Foote
12: Suzuki
13: Lias Anderssen
14: Valimaki
15: Poehling
16: Branstrom
17: Vaakanianen
18: Klim Kostin
19: Ratcliffe
20: Tolvanen
21: Tippett
22: Yamamoto
23: Robertson
24: PO Joseph
25: Dylan Samberg
26: Rasmussen
27: Robert Thomas
28: Kole Lind
29: Bowers
30: Chytil
31: Boqvist

As of now, the only major change would be putting Tolvanen somewhere in my top 10. I'd knock Villardi back a bit, as the injury concerns are adding up. Might bump Yamamoto up a bit, and the same with Chytil. But outside of that, I can't really think of anything that has happened to make me dramatically alter how I viewed the draft 5 months ago. I'd probably drop Ratcliffe For most of these guys all we've added is a summer showcase tournament and 20 or so regular season games. The only person who has so exceeded where I had them in June, that I feel they've earned a significant bump is Tolvanen. Outside of Vilardi, who has been injured, pretty much all the top 15 are performing how I'd expect them to. Some are doing slightly better or slightly worse, but over 15 games its hard to tell if that is just random variation or longstanding changes.

 

[Hockeyisl1fe]

Interesting. So let's take Aleksi Heponiemi here. What has Mittelstadt done to be considered ahead of him? 1 PPG in NCAA as a u20 player seriously isn't that amazing. Heponiemi's playing in a tougher league and has 2.5 PPG and +22.

NCAA is several tiers above the WHL... you will lose all your credibility by posting nonsense like this.

 

[Snippit]

Interesting. So let's take Aleksi Heponiemi here. What has Mittelstadt done to be considered ahead of him? 1 PPG in NCAA as a u20 player seriously isn't that amazing. Heponiemi's playing in a tougher league and has 2.5 PPG and +22.

Why do you even post if you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about?

Everyone knows the NCAA is much tougher than the CHL.

 

[Breakers]

I have seen Mittlestadt play twice against North Dakota as they showed the games on the Big Ten Network.

He was very good.
But he takes a lot of shifts off. Probably still adjusting to the size difference.
And he has to get used to the top pairing D-man on each team taking runs at him.

 

[Breakers]

Interesting. So let's take Aleksi Heponiemi here. What has Mittelstadt done to be considered ahead of him? 1 PPG in NCAA as a u20 player seriously isn't that amazing. Heponiemi's playing in a tougher league and has 2.5 PPG and +22.

You literally have no idea about College hockey.

 

[Tryamkin]

NCAA is several tiers above the WHL... you will lose all your credibility by posting nonsense like this.

What credibility

 

[Albatros]

NCAA is several tiers above the WHL

I wouldn't put it this way, for talent-wise it is not. The players just are about three years older.

 

[Scorcho]

In my completely non-biased opinion, I think the redraft of the 1st round would look something like this;

1. Tolvanen
2. Mismash
3. Farrance
4. Vomacka
5. Koltygin
6. Paquette
7. Hischier
8. Heiskanen
9. Mittelstadt
10. Patrick

11. Makar
12. Kostin
13. Andersson
14. Chytil
15. Pettersson
16. Yamamoto
17. Brännström
18. Liljegren
19. Glass
20. Necas

21. Tippett
22. Välimäki
21. Joseph
22. Foote
23. Thomas
24. Vaakanainen
25. Ramsussen
26. Vilardi
27. Heponiemi
28. Oettinger
29. Poehling
30. Suzuki
31. Hague

wot...

 

[BB88]

I’m not sure I see Heiskanen’s 10 in 10 as being all that “historic”. Juolevi is slightly behind him at 6 in 9 and he was terrible at camp this fall and put up back to back seasons of 42 pts in the OHL. I mean it’s neat that Karlsson didn’t dominate Liiga during the lockout but I don’t think Juoelvi’s 6 in 9 makes him the next great offensive Dman so I’m not sure Heiskanen’s 10 in 10 should either.

But that’s the problem with 10 and 9 game samples. It’s hard to put too much stock in either.

I recommend watching some of the games.
1 of them is dominating all 3 zones and playing 24mins per night, that 1 got invited to Karjala tourney at 18y and potentially plays at the Olympics tis year.
Can't say any of those things for the other.

 

[93LEAFS]

I wouldn't put it this way, for talent-wise it is not. The players just are about three years older.

Except in this case, the original poster was using it to compare scoring rates among two similarly aged players. The Big 10 may be the weakest conference or at least behind Hockey East and NCHC, but its damn sure harder to score in it than the WHL. The odds of Heponiemi putting up 2.5 ppg in any Division 1 NCAA hockey conference over 20 games is almost non-existent. It'd be the best U-20 season since Kariya.

 

[blindpass]

wot...

All the players at the top are Preds picks, for those who don't get the "joke". Great contribution, everyone else should do the same with their favorite team.

 

[TheFinnishTrap]

Oh no!

Imagine what would happen to him if people didn't discuss him on an internet forum. Thank god for you white knights!

Why are you so condescending? You also seem to have deconstructed an argument I never made. I didn't imply that discussing a prospect on an internet forum would in any way affect that prospect, or have some inherent value. I simply noted that Heiskanen isn't followed by many outside Finns and the few Dallas fans that come here, and that in my opinion he deserves to be brought up in a discussion about his draft (after you nicely summed up that discussion with "Finns be angry"). But hey, you seem to be in this thread just to troll, so I won't waste more of your time.

 

[LeafChief]

Why are you so condescending? You also seem to have deconstructed an argument I never made. I didn't imply that discussing a prospect on an internet forum would in any way affect that prospect, or have some inherent value. I simply noted that Heiskanen isn't followed by many outside Finns and the few Dallas fans that come here, and that in my opinion he deserves to be brought up in a discussion about his draft (after you nicely summed up that discussion with "Finns be angry"). But hey, you seem to be in this thread just to troll, so I won't waste more of your time.

Just because I disagreed with you does not mean I'm here to troll.

There is also no need for a certain group of posters to blindly idolize players simply based off of their nationality.

 

[Tryamkin]

1. Hischier- Has done nothing but impress in his first few games as an 18 year old. 10 pts in 13 games with 2 s/g is extremely impressive, along with a mature game.

2. Petterson- Tearing up the Swedish league in his draft +1 year is awesome. Look out when he bulks up a bit. I could see him being a strong candidate to usurp Nico as best in the draft.

3. Heiskanen- Great numbers as a dman in the Finnish league. Great all around game, too.

4. Tolvanen- His KHL start is absurd. No idea how he fell to where he did considering his USHL production.

5) Mittelstadt- Love how dynamic he is. If his ES production is real, look out.

6) Patrick- I actually don't like having him this high because he of his injury concerns (a major concussion two weeks into the season does not do anything to quell them). I also question whether his skating will give him the ability to separate from dmen. He looked overmatched in his brief stint. But his predraft pedigree is too strong to not have him top 10.

7) Chytil- AHL numbers are great for a young 18 year old. Probably another instance of Euro leagues being underscouted.

8) Glass- Picking up where he left off in Portland.

9) Liljegren- Looks to be playing very well in the AHL.

10) Necas- Love the speed and two-way ability.

Really like this list. I think Liljegren is a little high, but other than that this is the best I’ve seen.

 

[ijuka]

Just because I disagreed with you does not mean I'm here to troll.

There is also no need for a certain group of posters to blindly idolize players simply based off of their nationality.

It's not solely based off the nationality. In fact, a large reason would be actually seeing him play in multiple full Liiga games(unlike many of the other posters here, I'd imagine) and also understanding what kind of players have actually managed to show the level of gameplay he has.

 

[TheFinnishTrap]

Just because I disagreed with you does not mean I'm here to troll.

There is also no need for a certain group of posters to blindly idolize players simply based off of their nationality.

What do you disagree with? That Heiskanen should be in this discussion? I think trying to agitate a certain group of posters by calling them "angry" and "white knights" because they give arguments for a prospect they follow is textbook trolling. You add nothing to the discussion, you are only fishing for a reaction.

Also, yeah? There are homers on HFBoards. If you want, you can ignore them, or troll them directly rather than insulting the whole group.

 

[kelsier]

What do you disagree with? That Heiskanen should be in this discussion? I think trying to agitate a certain group of posters by calling them "angry" and "white knights" because they give arguments for a prospect they follow is textbook trolling. You add nothing to the discussion, you are only fishing for a reaction.

Also, yeah? There are homers on HFBoards. If you want, you can ignore them, or troll them directly rather than insulting the whole group.

You should let it go. He seems to not care much about the actual content or it's relevance to the topic, but instead just rather connects the dots between a poster, player and the nationality. For a third overall pick to show this level of dominance in a professional league there should be no reasons whatsoever to exclude him from the conversation. If anything, he's just demonstrating why he was picked where he was and then some. I would be hesitant to pick anyone ahead of him at this point, even Hischier. When a D-man who's been touted for his rock solid defensive game absolutely robs the bank in the first ten games and dominates all aspects of the game, it's rather unbelievable. Wasn't it Pronman who touted him the best since Doughty (or Karlsson) after the WJHC? If so, wonder what he thinks right now.