Pre-Game Talk: 2014 NHL Entry Draft Part 1

[Nathan MacKinnon]

Roland McKeown is a good puck moving defenseman. Can really rush the puck up the ice well and has a good shot. I think he will be rising up from where Craig Button has him at 23 by the end of next season

 

[Hansen]

I would be surprised if Ehlers is there at 20. I think he's a better prospect than Jensen at the same age.

I don't think you can compare Ho-Sang with Shinkaruk. Shinkaruk was ranked around 10-ish at the draft. Ho-Sang is already being ranked at the end of the first.

Oh man, I was remembering 2011 when people thought he was a top 5 talent..


I've spent too much time here, my minds addled because I started University today, other excuses that don't really work

 

[jigsaw99]

Is this draft stronger or weaker than the 2013 one?

It appears to be weaker...
Because I have heard that Reinhart would only be...
About a top 5 in last year's draft.

weaker. 2013 is suppose to be one of the most stacked since 2003. Yes i know they say that every year... but guys like Zykov and Nic Petin was available in the 2nd round.

 

[nameless1]

weaker. 2013 is suppose to be one of the most stacked since 2003. Yes i know they say that every year... but guys like Zykov and Nic Petin was available in the 2nd round.

How much weaker though?
Is it still a strong class...
Or was it akin to the 2012 class?

 

[QuietContrarian]

I would agree that Ehlers is missing.. But it wont be long before NA get a taste of him and what's to come

Also, I think Vrana is missing.. Why is he not considered 1st round talent? Too me he could even be top 10.

 

[Bleach Clean]

Not a big fan of Ho-Sang, the game is very minor hockeyish (do it all himself). Talented to be sure, but not sure he's a player.

All I know, is I'm extremely impressed with the Ontario 1996 birth year + the 95's available (Clark, Mistele, Goldobin) are also top end prospects.

I've said it for months, I think our first pick will be from Ontario. I'd love it to be a forward too.

Agreed. I somewhat expected Ho-Sang to be hyped, and recognize why he's on the bubble and perhaps dropping on these early mocks. There's too much that can cause a player like him to drop.

Watch as the 2way guys and bigger guys have production hikes in their draft year. The first types to suffer by comparison are the Ho-Sang types.

9 OHL players in Button's top30. 14 from the CoppernBlue list. Good odds that VAN goes to the OHL again here. That said, if they draft late, anything could happen. Most of the better OHL forwards could be gone at that point. Tough to call. Still, I do think they will take a forward regardless...

 

[Bleach Clean]

Need to go through a good chunk of the season to see how our new prospects are progressing and what sort of needs there may be on the big club. Who knows, if the current kids perform as advertised, I may even be open to a D man.

One thing the 2013 draft hammered home for me was just how much of a factor teams’ needs, or perceived needs 2 years down the road, influence 1st round selections, even very early on (e.g. Barkov). Elsewhere:

Philly draft board – outrageously overvaluing anyBODY with a “D†next to position

Winnipeg – reaching for the most talented LH D available and size being no issue given current D make up

Old Adams division – size arms race in full swing (Ristolainen, Zadorov, Gauthier, McCarron) with everybody furiously beefing up to deal with Boston

Calgary – passing on Shinkaruk, likely on account of already having a good crop of highly skilled, smallish left wingers (Bartchii, Gudreau?) in the system

Nucks – snagging Shink, having had their fill of size the last 2 years and taking a 211 pounder with the 9th.

Speaks to the importance of understanding our, and especially others, needs when gaging sliders and making prognostications.

Is 211lbs "big"? I can't be sure anymore.

I felt there would have been more questions about the drafting had the Canucks not taken advantage of their position to draft Shinkaruk. Size or not, he was the right choice there.

Need affected some teams for sure. PHI being an example. Still, I was more interested in how methodology stayed true for some. CGY and CLB valued forwards and chose them throughout. DET drafts the skilled forward, CHI goes high compete with theirs, and OTT continues to impress with their recent drafts. All told, I was most impressed with what WPG and BUF did.

Is this draft stronger or weaker than the 2013 one?

It appears to be weaker...
Because I have heard that Reinhart would only be...
About a top 5 in last year's draft.

First impressions is that it is weaker, but it's difficult to judge given how early it is.

 

[arsmaster*]

Agreed. I somewhat expected Ho-Sang to be hyped, and recognize why he's on the bubble and perhaps dropping on these early mocks. There's too much that can cause a player like him to drop.

Watch as the 2way guys and bigger guys have production hikes in their draft year. The first types to suffer by comparison are the Ho-Sang types.

9 OHL players in Button's top30. 14 from the CoppernBlue list. Good odds that VAN goes to the OHL again here. That said, if they draft late, anything could happen. Most of the better OHL forwards could be gone at that point. Tough to call. Still, I do think they will take a forward regardless...

Jared McCann will be this years Horvat. Polished two way kid who can score (prolific down the stretch last year) with leadership abilities.

Right now, I'd say these are my favourite 10 prospects:

Dal Colle, Virtanen, McCann, Draisatl, Bennett, Fabbri, Fleury, McKeown, Middleton, and Hicketts (outside the big 3).

Lots of other guys I'd like to get more familiar with too.

Obviously they aren't all 1st rounders, but they have games that I like. Excited to follow this class, especially the Ontario lads, I don't think I'd be upset getting any of them at this point.

I don't see any of the dmen being better than the forwards for where I think we'll end up picking (22ish).

 

[Vankiller Whale]

I would agree that Ehlers is missing.. But it wont be long before NA get a taste of him and what's to come

Also, I think Vrana is missing.. Why is he not considered 1st round talent? Too me he could even be top 10.

IIRC sometimes he excludes players from the list that he hasn't seen yet. That's probably it, as I've heard great things from Vrana.

 

[Jevo]

IIRC sometimes he excludes players from the list that he hasn't seen yet. That's probably it, as I've heard great things from Vrana.

As it should be. Would be very unprofessional of him to include players he haven't watched.

 

[DominicT]

OHL season about to begin so thought I'd give you guys an early look at the top player rankings from the OHL

http://ohlwriters.com/articles/ohl-s-draft-eligible-rankings-pre-season

2013 wasn't a strong draft year from the OHL but 2014 is looking once again to be OHL heavy. Will be doing extensive player profiles this season as well as some interviews with players/coaches/GM's .

Hope you enjoy

 

[Tomas W]

Pastrnak is going to be a first rounder.

 

[arsmaster*]

Pastrnak is going to be a first rounder.

Can you tell us about him? Will you be following Sodertalje all season?

If you can and have access, it would be great to have a Swedish poster who is seeing these guys give us their opinions. After reading your post I went and looked him up, 1 game, 1 goal so far in this 17 year old in his first game in Sweden (Allsvenskan).

Found a highlight too:

http://www.hockeyallsvenskan.se/nyheter/yx4nz8zzt2

His goal at 1:10ish, nothing flashy, good net drive and conversion on the rebound.

 

[arsmaster*]

Haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but HockeyProspect.com is offering a free little pre-season newsletter (it's free if you like or share on social media).

Has team canada Hlinka camp scouting reports, a preseason top 40 for the NHL draft, some 2014 OHL draft stuff.

http://www.hockeyprospect.com/free-pre-season-nhl-draft-newsletter/

Looks like a cool little product.

 

[PhilMick]

Haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but HockeyProspect.com is offering a free little pre-season newsletter (it's free if you like or share on social media).

Has team canada Hlinka camp scouting reports, a preseason top 40 for the NHL draft, some 2014 OHL draft stuff.

http://www.hockeyprospect.com/free-pre-season-nhl-draft-newsletter/

Looks like a cool little product.

Nifty! Good thing I have a twitter account set up for just such a thing.

 

[arsmaster*]

Nifty! Good thing I have a twitter account set up for just such a thing.

Must mean I'm old school, still just a like on facebook for me.

 

[arsmaster*]

September ISS rankings:

http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=9755

1. SAM REINHART C 6'1 186 R 11/6/95 Kootenay WHL
2. AARON EKBLAD D 6'4 216 R 2/7/96 Barrie OHL
3. WILLIE NYLANDER F 5'11 169 R 5/1/95 Rogle SweAI
4. JAKE VIRTANEN LW 6'1 213 R 8/17/96 Calgary WHL
5. ANTON KARLSSON LW 6'1 187 L 8/3/96 Frolunda SweJE
6. MICHAEL DAL COLLE F 6'2 184 L 6/20/96 Oshawa OHL
7. OSKAR LINDBLOM RW 6'1 191 L 8/15/96 Brynas SweJE
8. BLAKE CLARKE F 6'1 197 L 1/24/96 North Bay OHL
9. KASPAR KAPANEN RW 5'11 172 R 7/23/96 Kuopio FinE
10. ROLAND MCKEOWN F 6'1 192 R 1/20/96 Kingston OHL
11. IVAN BARBASHEV F 6'0 181 L 12/14/95 Moncton QMJHL
12. SAM BENNETT LW 6'0 178 L 6/20/96 Kingston OHL
13. NICK RITCHIE F 6'2 218 L 12/5/95 Peterborough OHL
14. LEON DRAISAITL C 6'1 199 L 10/27/95 Prince Albert WHL
15. JARED MCCANN C 6'0 179 L 5/31/96 S.S. Marie OHL
16. JAKUB VRANA RW 6'0 183 L 2/28/96 Linkoping SweJE
17. JACOB MIDDLETON D 6'3 208 L 1/2/96 Ottawa OHL
18. BRYCEN MARTIN D 6'2 184 L 5/9/96 Swift Current WHL
19. ARKHIP NEKOLENKO LW 6'1 170 L 3/11/96 Spartak RusJr
20. ADRIAN KEMPE C 6'2 187 L 9/13/96 Modo SweJE
21. HAYDN FLEURY D 6'3 207 L 7/8/96 Red Deer WHL
22. JACK GLOVER D 6'3 173 R 5/7/96 USA Under-18 NTDP
23. NICK SCHMALTZ RW 6'0 170 R 2/23/96 Green Bay USHL
24. SONNY MILANO LW 5'10 159 L 5/12/96 USA Under-18 NTDP
25. WALTTERI HOPPONEN LW 6'2 190 L 2/4/96 Everett WHL
26. JOSH HO-SANG RW 5'11 160 R 1/22/96 Windsor OHL
27. CONNER BLEACKLEY C/RW 6'0 196 R 10/7/95 Red Deer WHL
28. NIKOLAI GOLDOBIN RW 5'11 165 L 10/7/95 Sarnia OHL
29. EMIL JOHANSSON RW 5'11 165 L 5/6/96 HV 71 Swe18
30. JACK DOUGHERTY D 6'1 194 R 5/25/96 USA Under-18 NTDP

 

[PhilMick]

September ISS rankings:

http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=9755

1. SAM REINHART C 6'1 186 R 11/6/95 Kootenay WHL
2. AARON EKBLAD D 6'4 216 R 2/7/96 Barrie OHL
3. WILLIE NYLANDER F 5'11 169 R 5/1/95 Rogle SweAI
4. JAKE VIRTANEN LW 6'1 213 R 8/17/96 Calgary WHL
5. ANTON KARLSSON LW 6'1 187 L 8/3/96 Frolunda SweJE
6. MICHAEL DAL COLLE F 6'2 184 L 6/20/96 Oshawa OHL
7. OSKAR LINDBLOM RW 6'1 191 L 8/15/96 Brynas SweJE
<snip for brevity>
26. JOSH HO-SANG RW 5'11 160 R 1/22/96 Windsor OHL
27. CONNER BLEACKLEY C/RW 6'0 196 R 10/7/95 Red Deer WHL
28. NIKOLAI GOLDOBIN RW 5'11 165 L 10/7/95 Sarnia OHL
29. EMIL JOHANSSON RW 5'11 165 L 5/6/96 HV 71 Swe18
30. JACK DOUGHERTY D 6'1 194 R 5/25/96 USA Under-18 NTDP

And here I thought Virtanen was falling in everyone's rankings.

 

[The Iron Goalie]

Bob's list just came out and Leon is 4th.....darn I wanted us to have a chance at him D:
No Deutschland dangles for use....

 

[How Ya Drouin]

Bob's list just came out and Leon is 4th.....darn I wanted us to have a chance at him D:
No Deutschland dangles for use....

I love him. I want him. TRADE UP FOR HIM GILLIS!

 

[The Iron Goalie]

I love him. I want him. TRADE UP FOR HIM GILLIS!

Ya that won't happen..you know it won't ....but I wish it would....Goodbye....German Gretzky.....Goodbye....

 

[tc 23]

Bob's list if you guys are interested:

1. Sam Reinhart
1. Aaron Ekblad
3. William Nylander
4. Leon Draisaitl
5. Sam Bennett
6. Jake Virtanen
6. Nick Ritchie
8. Kasperi Kapanen
9. Michael Dal Colle
10. Jakub Vrana
11. Anton Karlsson
11. Haydn Fleury
13. Nick Schmaltz
14. Ivan Barbashev
15. Roland McKeown

http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=31165

 

[How Ya Drouin]

Ya that won't happen..you know it won't ....but I wish it would....Goodbye....German Gretzky.....Goodbye....

To have the Dutch Gretzky and the German Gretzky would make us invincible!

 

[The Iron Goalie]

To have the Dutch Gretzky and the German Gretzky would make us invincible!

But alas twas nit ment to be

Maybe he'll fall for no reason like Shinkaruk? One can only hope....

 

[Pip]

Bob's list just came out and Leon is 4th.....darn I wanted us to have a chance at him D:
No Deutschland dangles for use....

Lack steals job from Luongo, trade Lack for a pick. Take him.

BOOM