2014 NHL Draft: Leafs currently picking 19th./20th. and rising(worse pick).

[Ace88*]

He's a good bit better than all that hype he's not getting.

Im not sure if this is serious because he's really not getting all that much hype. He's the kind of player who should be able to make an easy transition because he'll be playing with guys who will actually be able to receive his passes on a more consistent basis instead of looking like shocked baboons and fumble it. The way he thinks the game is just so obviously a cut above junior hockey that i think he'll be able to contribute almost immediately--although if he winds up in Buffalo, he's gonna have a rough time. Anywhere else that actually has skill on the wings and defense will see him most likely stick in the NHL next year.

 

[7even]

Im not sure if this is serious because he's really not getting all that much hype. He's the kind of player who should be able to make an easy transition because he'll be playing with guys who will actually be able to receive his passes on a more consistent basis instead of looking like shocked baboons and fumble it. The way he thinks the game is just so obviously a cut above junior hockey that i think he'll be able to contribute almost immediately--although if he winds up in Buffalo, he's gonna have a rough time. Anywhere else that actually has skill on the wings and defense will see him most likely stick in the NHL next year.

That's what I was going for. He's a better player than his lack of hype would indicate.

 

[Mikeyg]

I swear, if we pick another low ceiling prospect with our 1st im going to punt a baby lemming

 

[DD03]

I swear, if we pick another low ceiling prospect with our 1st im going to punt a baby lemming

Where exactly would you find a baby lemming?

 

[HEAVY DUTY]

Where exactly would you find a baby lemming?

duh at a baby lemming habitat

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

I swear, if we pick another low ceiling prospect with our 1st im going to punt a baby lemming

I wouldn't go to such extremes but I'd be disappointed. I'd like to take a skilled player with our pick. Not necessarily a high risk high reward guy, but someone not of the Biggs/Gauthier mold. We've got plenty of potential 3rd-4th line prospects. Need to start drafting and grooming top 6ers for the future.

 

[Mikeyg]

Where exactly would you find a baby lemming?

who knows? near a cliff I suppose

 

[Mikeyg]

I wouldn't go to such extremes but I'd be disappointed. I'd like to take a skilled player with our pick. Not necessarily a high risk high reward guy, but someone not of the Biggs/Gauthier mold. We've got plenty of potential 3rd-4th line prospects. Need to start drafting and grooming top 6ers for the future.

Dont worry, the baby lemmings are safe, for now
barring trade, once our current top 6 is past their prime in like 6-7 years, theres really nothing to fill that void, they say it takes 3-4 years from draft day to get into the nhl for most prospects so there really is only 1-3 years to start drafting these types of players

 

[Mikeyg]

duh at a baby lemming habitat

jeez u guys rly like the lemmings eh... I always get a good kick out of them when I watch them suicide jump off cliffs on the discovery channel, we can relate to the lemmings all so well with our 18 wheeler showings

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

barring trade, once our current top 6 is past their prime in like 6-7 years, theres really nothing to fill that void, they say it takes 3-4 years from draft day to get into the nhl for most prospects so there really is only 1-3 years to start drafting these types of players

Yeah I'm thinking 4-5 years before we see a hypothetical top 6 prospect do anything, given our probable draft position and the state of our top 6 now.

 

[pooleboy]

Yeah I'm thinking 4-5 years before we see a hypothetical top 6 prospect do anything, given our probable draft position and the state of our top 6 now.

IMO bleackley, McCann, mckweon, kempe nylander fully all have decent potential around 15-20 and goldobin hosang if we get back father 22-30.

IMO we can snag bleackley we are looking pretty good, him and kempe would be nice IMO, 2 larger prospects from this draft with potential I'd like

 

[The Magic Man]

My favorite mock draft site is messed up! Dang. Anyone know anything about mynhldraft.com?

 

[pooleboy]

My favorite mock draft site is messed up! Dang. Anyone know anything about mynhldraft.com?

It was working the other day?

 

[Johny Drama]

Whoever gets Reinhart is getting the best forward to come out of the dub in years.

Whats the Nhl comparison? Toews?

 

[theIceWookie]

I agree Reinhart is absolutely getting nowhere near the hype he deserves. He might just be one of the smartest players to come out of the draft in a while. His IQ is SPECIAL.

But for my money, my favorite player in this draft is Jake Virtanen. He's tied for 5th in the entire WHL for goals, and he's one of the youngest players in teh draft. He's a power forward in the vein of Evander Kane. He's going to be a top line winger in the NHL one day.

 

[theIceWookie]

Othe Hype trains I'm on.

Joe Hicketts - He may be small in stature but he's hardly small by on ice impact. He's been injured most of the year but he's a beaut. He's also pretty stocky at 186 (for 5 foot 8? that's impressive). Credit goes to Bitz (I think...) for pointing him out. He's a fantastic PMD, almost reminds me of Krug.

Eric Cornel - Nick Ritchie's centerman. Reminds me a lot of Verghaeghe's situation. Nice height and good all around game.

Sonny Milano - He's small, and he's got Eichel as his center (in addition to Tuch as his winger) but he's so smart it's not funny. He's got one of the best offensive minds in this draft.

Julein Nantel - Late birthday (missed the cut for 2015 by like a week), good two way forward, in his rookie season in the Q. He doesn't do any one thing exeptionally, but he does a lot of things well.

Adam Olas Mattsson - Huge defender in SuperElit. He's 6 foot 4, 210 pounds, moves the puck well, plays a simply but effective game.

 

[7even]

I agree Reinhart is absolutely getting nowhere near the hype he deserves. He might just be one of the smartest players to come out of the draft in a while. His IQ is SPECIAL.

But for my money, my favorite player in this draft is Jake Virtanen. He's tied for 5th in the entire WHL for goals, and he's one of the youngest players in teh draft. He's a power forward in the vein of Evander Kane. He's going to be a top line winger in the NHL one day.

I'd very much be on board with Virtanen, even though he's not really my usual kind of prospect. He can skate like the wind, has a bullet of a shot, and regularly runs people over while he has the puck.

Unfortunately, he's everything every GM loves, even to the point of "overvaluing" (no slight to Jake), so I think he goes a good bit higher than we pick. I can see him going top 10 no sweat.

Joe Hicketts - He may be small in stature but he's hardly small by on ice impact. He's been injured most of the year but he's a beaut. He's also pretty stocky at 186 (for 5 foot 8? that's impressive). Credit goes to Bitz (I think...) for pointing him out. He's a fantastic PMD, almost reminds me of Krug.

Eric Cornel - Nick Ritchie's centerman. Reminds me a lot of Verghaeghe's situation. Nice height and good all around game.

Sonny Milano - He's small, and he's got Eichel as his center (in addition to Tuch as his winger) but he's so smart it's not funny. He's got one of the best offensive minds in this draft.

Julein Nantel - Late birthday (missed the cut for 2015 by like a week), good two way forward, in his rookie season in the Q. He doesn't do any one thing exeptionally, but he does a lot of things well.

Adam Olas Mattsson - Huge defender in SuperElit. He's 6 foot 4, 210 pounds, moves the puck well, plays a simply but effective game.

Cornel has some serious wheels, too. I'm nothing if not a sucker for good skaters.

 

[Bluejaysfan*]

I feel like Bleackley will be a center that everyone will wonder why he did not get picked earlier in the draft years from now. With all the talk of Kesler, that is exactly who he reminds me of. Figure that if you give him a year or two in the WHL with a pivotal role in the WJC along with a year in the AHL and he will be amazing.

 

[nuck]

Robby Fabbri I hope.

 

[theIceWookie]

I'd very much be on board with Virtanen, even though he's not really my usual kind of prospect. He can skate like the wind, has a bullet of a shot, and regularly runs people over while he has the puck.

Unfortunately, he's everything every GM loves, even to the point of "overvaluing" (no slight to Jake), so I think he goes a good bit higher than we pick. I can see him going top 10 no sweat.





Cornel has some serious wheels, too. I'm nothing if not a sucker for good skaters.

Virtanen was a possibility earlier in the season with his slower start. But he's been pretty damn fantastic in 2014 and pretty much killed any hope of him falling out of the top 15 now lol. He's at 40 goals now and will probably hit around 45, with a small outside shot at 50.

I'm the same way, love me a prospect who has good wheels. Especially when they have size too. I guess you can get fooled by it sometimes and end up with an MPS, but when it works you have a very good player.

I think if things worked out perfectly, I'd grab one of Virtanen or Ritchie. As it stands I just don't think we'll be in a spot to pick either of them. Would be nice though. A guy can dream right? Haha

 

[SarcazemKadri]

Ho-sang, please.

 

[Silver91]

Does anyone actually think Bleakley will be available at 19-23? I mean, he's the one I want most right now, and it "seems" he's going under the radar, but you have to think someone's going to go off the board and snag him earlier at like 14-16.

If we stay in the range we are and pick 19-23 and both he and Kempe are gone, I wouldn't mind making a deal with a team like St. Louis for their 1st and Edmonton's 2nd, and pick up a guy like McKeown and/or Hosang. I actually really like McKeown and think he'd be another great addition to our future blueline, especially with our lack of high-end RHD.

 

[BertCorbeau]

I agree Reinhart is absolutely getting nowhere near the hype he deserves. He might just be one of the smartest players to come out of the draft in a while. His IQ is SPECIAL.

But for my money, my favorite player in this draft is Jake Virtanen. He's tied for 5th in the entire WHL for goals, and he's one of the youngest players in teh draft. He's a power forward in the vein of Evander Kane. He's going to be a top line winger in the NHL one day.

I'm putting my money on Calgary taking Reinhart personally

 

[theIceWookie]

I'm putting my money on Calgary taking Reinhart personally

If they get into a position to draft him. Depends how things really shake out. Having Reinhart/Monahan as a one/two would be something else, but I'm not sure they get into a position where it happens. I suspect that Buffalo has him locked up.

 

[theIceWookie]

Does anyone actually think Bleakley will be available at 19-23? I mean, he's the one I want most right now, and it "seems" he's going under the radar, but you have to think someone's going to go off the board and snag him earlier at like 14-16.

If we stay in the range we are and pick 19-23 and both he and Kempe are gone, I wouldn't mind making a deal with a team like St. Louis for their 1st and Edmonton's 2nd, and pick up a guy like McKeown and/or Hosang. I actually really like McKeown and think he'd be another great addition to our future blueline, especially with our lack of high-end RHD.

I'm not really sure. Bleackley sometimes appears in the top 20, sometimes only in the top 30. He's a little under the radar compared to a guy like McCann.

Considering the Leafs targeted two centers with their first two picks last year, it's probably not unlikely they target another center this year. Dylan Larkin might be an interesting under the radar guy, and would be available around our pick. Kempe would fit and his combination of size, speed, and willingness to go anywhere is enticing (although I'm not really sure where to peg his upside at, might not be super high), but we haven't really picked a non-North American in the top 2 rounds since Tlusty and Kulemin were selected with our first two picks in 2006. Nick Schmaltz might be an interesting guy, less two-way but pretty good puck possession guy and has some of that higher end skill some of us would like to add to the system.

It's just such a weird draft this year. People talk about how it's supposedly the weakest in a while but I'm not sure I agree. I see a draft with a lot of talented players that fit one role really well, but not so much in other roles. Lots of undersized scorers on forward and defense, like Ho-Sang, Goldobin, Schmaltz, Honka, DeAngelo, Kapanen, Nylander, Ehlers (even Pastrnak) etc, lots of defensive dman (smooth skating ones like Fleury and McKeown, and more physical ones like some of the USHL guys), lots of power forwards who might not be the best defensively, lots of two-way centers who might not have the highest upside.

It's a draft where we could add a single element to our system, but not so much the well rounded do everything real well player. I have no issue with that personally.