NHL Entry Draft 2017 Draft Talk

[SixthSens]

Surprised to not be able to find a thread on this already, so I thought I would fire up a 2017 Draft Talk thread.

I would love to land Martin Necas with our 1st, but we might not suck enough to reach him. Other intriguing options that might fall within our range include Nicholas Hague, Callan Foote, Lias Andersson and Kristian Vesalainen (assuming we pick somewhere between 10 and 20).

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[J0sh]

Who do you think will be available at 30th overall?

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Doesn't seem to be any hype or excitement for this group of kids at all.

 

[JonnyMacSen]

This is a good year to trade our 1st for something, but if not so far I like (that is in the Sens range) Anderson, Vesalainen, Strome.

Also Jacob Paquette on Kingston and Greg Meireles on Kitchener seem to be the two top Ottawa born players in the draft this year, always good to keep an eye on them based on draft history.

 

[Sens]

This draft is looking pretty weak in all honesty... id trade the first for an established middle six forward with team control

 

[NyQuil]

If we trade our #1 pick it's the end of civilization as we know it.

And we can blame Ottawa's brass again for their terrible mismanagement.

Keep in mind that if the draft is poor, we're not the only team that has figured this out.

 

[Proust*]

Keep in mind that if the draft is poor, we're not the only team that has figured this out.

Yes, I love the logic behind: "This draft sucks! Let's flip our first to some team for a top-6 forward!!"

 

[Sens]

I'd take a good third liner for the first... this team could use some decent depth

 

[Hale The Villain]

Not excited at all by this draft.

If we select in the 10-17 range we could still get a potential top 6 F/top 4 D, but beyond that range I'm not so sure.

If there's a year to move a 1st, it's probably this one.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

I agree that we should look to deal our 1st this year. We're already set with top prospects in Chabot, White and Brown. After that you got Chlapik, Perron, Paul, Dahlen. Trade the 1st + a small add for an improvement in the top-6. We can't expect Bobby Ryan and Brassard to do anything in the post season with their current play.

 

[dumbdick]

Let's go the other way. Buy up high picks on the cheap and stock the cupboards with high-skill high-risk type picks.

 

[PatrickEaves]

Until proved otherwise, I'm going to assume we're drafting Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Until proved otherwise, I'm going to assume we're drafting Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick.

Why not both?

 

[saskriders]

Why not both?

And as mentioned above with the 30th, and I guess therefore the 90th, picks.

 

[Six Assets]

Who do you think will be available at 30th overall?

you mean at 31 overall?

 

[aragorn]

There are always good players to be had in every draft & we hope that our scouts are able to find that Mark Stone somewhere. With our first there are plenty of choices that could be around where Ottawa might be drafting from & my guess would be anywhere from 10th to 25th at this point. Another thing to keep in mind with this draft is that a good number of these players seem to be all over the place, one site might have a guy in the top 10 while another site might have the same guy in the twenties. They will either have a guy in mind that they will move up to get if need be or maybe a guy they like falls to them or they pick from where they are because like every draft they had the guy much higher & there he was.

So far, I think Ottawa could have a shot at a few guys I like in Glass, Foote, Strome, Poehling, Valimiki, Tippett, Matheos & Kotkansalo depending where they draft from. I also like Vilardi, Rasmussen, Vesalainen, Comtois & Kostin but I'm not so sure any of them will be available when Ottawa picks. A few mock drafts I have seen has Ottawa picking Ryan Poehling at between 15 & 20 who is almost 6'3" & 185 left shot centre from St Cloud State. He is playing with his two older twin brothers who are both forwards, wouldn't that be interesting to have all three on one line. Just noticed that Button has him at #7 which is the highest I have seen him. He's a big skilled two way power forward with a nose for the net, probably projects as a 2nd line centre with #1 centre potential. Not a bad pick.

 

[Back in Black]

We get last pick this year, since we're winning the cup....

 

[Tuna99]

We get last pick this year, since we're winning the cup....

Big downside to having Boucher as a coach.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Sportsnet January rankings.
Not that I would put too much stalk in any list at this point (maybe especially this one) The number in brackets is their previous rank position.
1. (1) Nolan Patrick, C, Brandon (WHL)
2. (2) Timothy Liljegren, D, Timra (Allsvenskan)
3. (3) Nico Hischier, C, Halifax (QMJHL)
4. (4) Eeli Tolvanen, LW, Sioux City (USHL)
5. (5) Gabriel Vilardi, C, Windsor (OHL)
6. (9) Owen Tippett, RW, Mississauga (OHL)
7. (6) Klim Kostin, Balashikha (MHL)
8. (7) Casey Mittelstadt, C, Eden Prarie (Minnesota HS)
9. (15) Nic Hague, D, Mississauga (OHL)
10. (17) Martin Necas, C, HC Kometa Brno (Extraliga)
11. (10) Michael Rasmussen, C, Tri-City (WHL)
12. (NR) Cale Makar, D, Brooks Bandits (AJHL)
13. (11) Jusso Valimaki, D, Tri-City (WHL)
14. (23) Lias Andersson, C, HV71 (SHL)
15. (12) Maxime Comtois, LW, Victoriaville (QMJHL)
16. (25) Cody Glass, C, Portland (WHL)
17. (8) Kristian Vesalainen, RW, Frolunda (SHL)
18. (24) Miro Heiskanen, D, HIFK (Liiga)
19. (22) Cal Foote, D, Kelowna (WHL)
20. (14) Erik Brannstrom, D, HV71 U-20 (SuperElit)
21. (13) Urho Vaakanainen, D, JYP (Liiga)
22. (16) Kailer Yamamoto, RW, Spokane (WHL)
23. (21) Ryan Poeling, C, St. Cloud State (NCAA)
24. (19) Shane Bowers, C, Waterloo (USHL)
25. (26) Nick Suzuki, C, Owen Sound (OHL)
26. (NR) Robert Thomas, C, London (OHL)
27. (28) Matthew Strome, LW, Hamilton (OHL)
28. (NR) Alex Formenton, LW, London (OHL)
29. (20) Nikita Popugaev, LW, Prince George (WHL)
30. (30) Elias Pettersson, C, Timra (SuperElite) << pretty low.
31. (31) Jake Oettinger, G, Boston University (NCAA)

According only to this list these guys could be in our target zone.

They are all pretty decent choices IMO.

 

[Tuna99]

I'm for trading this years 1st, one to give Dorion a tool to help restructure the team/payroll/assets (ie include this 1st for the top 6, include in a Ryan trade to not eat huge salary)

Also I think Boucher is the best asset the team has and so I'd like to see Dorion invest in him by putting our future assets (this 1st round pick, maybe White or Brown, Lazar, etc) into getting him players that he can grow with and help the team grow into a playoff contender.

 

[tony d]

Comtois is a guy I like, seems like he'll be available at the pick we currently have in Round 1.

 

[starling]

Hockeyprospect has Petersson ranked at #3.

 

[TrueGrit]

Comtois is a guy I like, seems like he'll be available at the pick we currently have in Round 1.

Comtois seems to be struggling this season after a great year last year, any of our QMJHL posters that can chime in?

 

[starling]

Watched Regina-Moose Jaw game about a month ago and Nikita Popugayev was all over the ice. He's a giant. Fun name too.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

All i care about this draft is us selecting 15th or higher. Anything less means we didnt make playoffs.