Prospect Info: 2015 NHL Draft #30 - Nick Merkley C/RW

[Matias Maccete]

Coyotes' scouts see him as a RW, not a center, at the pro level.

Fine by me, gives him more opportunity to throw big hits.

 

[XX]

Coyotes' scouts had him at 13th overall according to McConnell.

[NHL]832033[/NHL]

 

[ScottsdaleYote]

Coyotes' scouts had him at 13th overall according to McConnell.

[NHL]832033[/NHL]

Which begs the question what were they "arguing" about right before taking Merkley? It seemed like a no-brainer to all of us, and right now he's looking like a major steal.

 

[IPreferPi]

Coyotes' scouts see him as a RW, not a center, at the pro level.

RW just went from an organizational weakness to possibly a strength after one draft (Hank, Merkley, Fischer, maybe Looke and Garland)

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

Which begs the question what were they "arguing" about right before taking Merkley? It seemed like a no-brainer to all of us, and right now he's looking like a major steal.

Maybe they also really liked Jeremy Roy and Don wanted a D-man. In the end they went with BPA though which is good

 

[_Del_]

Maybe Don wanted to trade the pick and the scouts wanted to make it

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

They could have also been fielding offers for the pick, there were quite a few guys still on the board that other teams would/could have wanted.

Anyway, I'm glad and extremely surprised we got Merkley at #30. The last 28-30th 1st rounders have all been complete crap for us:

Ross, Visentin (close enough to 28th), Summers & Tikhonov

 

[Grvmnd]

They could have also been fielding offers for the pick, there were quite a few guys still on the board that other teams would/could have wanted.

Anyway, I'm glad and extremely surprised we got Merkley at #30. The last 28-30th 1st rounders have all been complete crap for us:

Ross, Visentin (close enough to 28th), Summers & Tikhonov

I'll bet tikh gets somewhere between 16-20 goals next year. 45 pts. Hell be the new saad

 

[DesertDawg]

I'll bet tikh gets somewhere between 16-20 goals next year. 45 pts. Hell be the new saad

More likely he'll only get ~30-35 points. No way he'll be the new "Saad", he'll just be sad.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I'll bet tikh gets somewhere between 16-20 goals next year. 45 pts. Hell be the new saad

I'll take that bet.

 

[Jakey53]

I'll take that bet.

But you have to give odds.

 

[ctseaton]

Nothing said about the lack of a high D draft

I'm looking for confirmation about this, and its just a theory at this point but no one said anything of it here. Coyotes coverage in Nova Scotia is garbage.

Obviously barring not drafting Noah Hanifin I thought meant that DM was going to use the pick to draft a potential top/2nd line defenceman in Larsson or Carlsson taken at 27 and 29 respectively. But reading the draft updates online, I was pissed to see Columbus swoop in when they traded up for the 29th pick.

Is there any thought that Carlsson was on the books for Arizona and Columbus didn't want to lose the chance on him? or was it an errant move by CBJ and Merkley was a gift at that point anyways? or I read about the apparent heated discussions before the actual pick for Merkley? I'm sure you get what I'm saying - anything to clarify what actually happened here?

 

[hbk]

I'm looking for confirmation about this, and its just a theory at this point but no one said anything of it here. Coyotes coverage in Nova Scotia is garbage.

Obviously barring not drafting Noah Hanifin I thought meant that DM was going to use the pick to draft a potential top/2nd line defenceman in Larsson or Carlsson taken at 27 and 29 respectively. But reading the draft updates online, I was pissed to see Columbus swoop in when they traded up for the 29th pick.

Is there any thought that Carlsson was on the books for Arizona and Columbus didn't want to lose the chance on him? or was it an errant move by CBJ and Merkley was a gift at that point anyways? or I read about the apparent heated discussions before the actual pick for Merkley? I'm sure you get what I'm saying - anything to clarify what actually happened here?

The heated debate was delaying of taking Christian Fisher on Day 2 versus Day 1 where they had planned on taking him.

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

I'm looking for confirmation about this, and its just a theory at this point but no one said anything of it here. Coyotes coverage in Nova Scotia is garbage.

Obviously barring not drafting Noah Hanifin I thought meant that DM was going to use the pick to draft a potential top/2nd line defenceman in Larsson or Carlsson taken at 27 and 29 respectively. But reading the draft updates online, I was pissed to see Columbus swoop in when they traded up for the 29th pick.

Is there any thought that Carlsson was on the books for Arizona and Columbus didn't want to lose the chance on him? or was it an errant move by CBJ and Merkley was a gift at that point anyways? or I read about the apparent heated discussions before the actual pick for Merkley? I'm sure you get what I'm saying - anything to clarify what actually happened here?

Obviously nobody knows, I'm guessing they had offers for the pick, either for a player or combination of picks that DM liked, but in the end the scouting staff convinced him to pick the guy they had pegged as the 13th best prospect.

DM let Bernhardt make the call on the stand, I'm guessing that was him saying, "Alright Tim, this is your pick here."

edit : hbk pls you're making me look bad

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

The heated debate was delaying of taking Christian Fisher on Day 2 versus Day 1 where they had planned on taking him.

Really? When did that get said? Not doubting you, I just haven't heard that

 

[hbk]

Really? When did that get said? Not doubting you, I just haven't heard that

NHL networks day 2 draft coverage after AZ selected Fisher.

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

NHL networks day 2 draft coverage after AZ selected Fisher.

Ahh, that makes sense, I wasn't able to catch day 2. They must have been really high on Fisher then

 

[hbk]

Ahh, that makes sense, I wasn't able to catch day 2. They must have been really high on Fisher then

Yes they were. They still are. merkley was a gift.

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

Yes they were. They still are. merkley was a gift.

I wonder if they originally wanted to use our second rounder to draft a D-man

 

[Kaibur]

Yes they were. They still are. merkley was a gift.

For me, Fischer's the one worth watching in this draft class. Merkley was a gift, so it's understandable that they snagged him with the Chicago 1st. After that, I would have snagged Brandon Carlo at 32 and then hoped Fischer fell to 60. Then too, I wouldn't have traded down from 60 and I just would have taken Kylington.

It seems like either the scouts weren't really interested in the D in that range or they were just too tempted by some of the forwards. Leaves a pretty shallow D pool in a couple of years.

 

[Matias Maccete]

For me, Fischer's the one worth watching in this draft class. Merkley was a gift, so it's understandable that they snagged him with the Chicago 1st. After that, I would have snagged Brandon Carlo at 32 and then hoped Fischer fell to 60. Then too, I wouldn't have traded down from 60 and I just would have taken Kylington.

It seems like either the scouts weren't really interested in the D in that range or they were just too tempted by some of the forwards. Leaves a pretty shallow D pool in a couple of years.

I wonder if they weren't impressed with this year's dmen in that range. Iirc maloney said something about this being the year of the 6 foot defenseman, so maybe he's holding out for next year where there may be bigger guys. There were two big dmen available when we picked Fischer though so who knows.

 

[Heldig]

Fischer seemed like a reach to me though doubt he would have been available in the next round. Guess they took a guy they really liked. After getting Merkley as a gift I thought they would draft a Dman - Kylington (lots of red flags there) or Carlo or...

 

[CoyoteCool]

Fischer seemed like a reach to me though doubt he would have been available in the next round. Guess they took a guy they really liked. After getting Merkley as a gift I thought they would draft a Dman - Kylington (lots of red flags there) or Carlo or...

The last "reach" we made was Dvorak last year. Let's hope for some of the same result with Fischer.

 

[SR]

Fischer seemed like a reach to me though doubt he would have been available in the next round. Guess they took a guy they really liked. After getting Merkley as a gift I thought they would draft a Dman - Kylington (lots of red flags there) or Carlo or...

If we came away with kylington or Carlo, on top of Fischer and merkly, we would have absolutely won the draft.

I think we could have spared looke amd hill for Carlo or kylington.

 

[Flyotes]

Flyers were going to take him with their 2nd 1st rounder, but traded up once Konecny fell to a spot they couldn't resist. The Flyers don't mess around with 1st round picks -- happy to see Merkley land here. Flyers are great at scouting 1st round talent so this is just another piece of optimism.