In my opinion, Ladislav Smid is probably the safest bet for a defensive defenseman. He's not the physical defenseman that you're looking for, but Smid is very sound in his positioning and uses his stick well to break up plays. He's a very cerebral defenseman as well, which bodes well for him playing well into his late thirties with effectiveness. For a modern day comparison, i'd say he reminds me a lot of Glen Wesley around the time he was scoring quite a bit of points in this league with the Boston Bruins. His game evolved with him instead of against him, and that's the type of defenseman that I think Ladislav Smid could be. He's bigger in stature than Wesley, but he has that same lanky frame that Glen had coming into the league. Also, Smid is very quick on his feet and has a nice first step with acceleration.
The points aren't going to come to Smid in bunches due to the fact that his offensive game is very raw and his instincts aren't as sharp as they need to be yet, but he's going to make his niche as a very sound positional defenseman with a great shot and can be fairly productive on the powerplay. The one concern for me with Ladislav is the fact that he's so hesitant to shoot, and that problem is going to have to be remedied if he's going to play a significant amount of time on the point. Especially considering how effective his shot can be when he's using it right. I've heard talks that Smid has the best point shot of the defenseman in the draft with the possible exception of Barker.
The major area that I see that Smid needs work on is his shot selection. That can be coached though, so that's why I consider him to be a safe prospect. The area of his game that i'm most amazed with is his puck confidence *poise, if posters around here could handle that*. He works great through moderate to heavy traffic and always keeps his wits about him when making the outlet pass and is very deliberate with his passes, which is good for a young defenseman. Often times you see with skilled defenseman the tendancy to overplay the position and force the pace of the game and make ill-advised turnovers and passes that shouldn't have been made. Smid is a lot more poised than his age would suggest, and that is what makes him valuable to a lot of teams that covet safety in a young defenseman. These factors are what lead me to believe that Smid is the most NHL ready defenseman out of the major names that are being thrown around. He won't be prouductive in a sense that he'll score points, but he'll be a solid contributer on defense for his first couple of years until he can establish a comfort level in the NHL. Once that plateau is reached, he will be free to hone his offensive game into an elite level scorer. However, i'm not sure if he'll ever be a 50-60 point defenseman. 30-40 on an annual basis seems to be a more reasonable level of production considering his offensive upside and fantastic defensive zone play.
