2018 HF Team Boards Mock Draft -- Pick #29

[mcpw]

Every year there's a mock draft done by the team boards of HF -- here are the results of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Rules are easy: just pick the player you want your team to draft based on who is still available; "trade the pick" is not an option

2018 Mock Draft
1 BUF --- D Rasmus Dahlin 117/126 (93%)
2 CAR --- F Andrei Svechnikov 69/74 (93%)
3 MTL --- F Filip Zadina 56/71 (79%)
4 OTT --- F Brady Tkachuk 38/71 (54%)
5 ARI --- F Oliver Wahlstrom 34/49 (69%)
6 DET --- D Adam Boqvist 41/93 (44%)
7 VAN --- D Quinton Hughes 34/64 (53%)
8 CHI --- D Evan Bouchard 28/39 (72%)
9 NYR --- D Noah Dobson 61/132 (46%)
10 EDM --- F Jesperi Kotkaniemi 41/65 (63%)
11 NYI --- F Joseph Veleno 52/68 (76%)
12 NYI* --- D Ty Smith 44/68 (65%)
13 DAL --- F Joel Farabee 10/30 (33%)
14 PHI* --- F Vitali Kravtsov 30/67 (45%)
15 FLA --- F Grigori Denisenko 5/18 (28%)
16 COL --- F Barrett Hayton 15/47 (32%)
17 NJD --- D Bode Wilde 23/63 (37%) (Tiebreaker)
18 CBJ --- F Rasmus Kupari 9/27 (33%)
19 PHI --- F Jonatan Berggren 38/55 (69%)
20 LAK --- F Dominik Bokk 8/25 (32%)
21 SJS --- D Ryan Merkley 12/42 (29%)
22 OTT* --- F Martin Kaut 15/37 (41%)
23 ANA --- F Akil Thomas 15/30 (50%)
24 MIN --- F Ryan McLeod 6/28 (21%)
25 TOR --- F Isac Lundeström 20/84 (24%)
26 NYR* --- D Calen Addison 18/74 (24%)
27 CHI* --- D K'Andre Miller 10/32 (31%)
28 NYR* --- F Jake Wise 19/83 (23%) (Tiebreaker)
29 STL* ---
30 DET* ---
31 WSH ---​

Click to read more...

 

[Bluesnatic27]

If those are the options, can we pick for “trade the pick”?

In all seriousness, it’s between Olofsson and Hallander for me. I like what I see from Hallander more, even if he’s not as certain to become a center in the NHL.

 

[stl76]

Dellandrea all day.

 

[simon IC]

I went with Samuelsson. Good Defensive D with enough offensive skills to build on. Skates well too. I was a big fan of his dad.

 

[Ranksu]

Niklas Nordgren at eliteprospects.com

Nordgren is DeBrincat 2.0, short forward which has affect his ranking.

He was impressive at wjc and I really liked his gamespeed. Ofc he's Finnish so all this hype isn't relevant.

 

[kimzey59]

Serron Noel's upside is very intriguing, but there's no way I can pass on Dellandrea if he's there. Perfect long term replacement for Steen.

 

[Spektre]

For the record I don’t think the Blues keep the pick. If I’m forced to make a selection I can’t pass up Mattias Samuelsson.

 

[Majorityof1]

A lot of good choices, but no stand-out for me. I think the Blues would pick Noel and he isn't a bad pick. I think the board will pick Dellandrea, and he is also a good pick, but a bit safe. I'd be fine with a few others mentioned. I'm going with Ylonen. He is a bit like Kyrou with his speed, play-making and vision. I like his shot better though. I have the same concerns about defense and board battles. But it gives us another player in that mold, and we can hope one can put together their complete game.

 

[EastonBlues22]

There's a lot of interesting players in this range. Olofsson, Dellandrea, Foudy, Groulx, Hallander, O'Brien, Ylonen, etc. Noel if you like big, fast, and raw. Sandin is good value if you want defense.

Berggen is another interesting name that should, IMO, be on the poll at this point. I'm going to give it a bit of thought before I vote.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

There's a lot of interesting players in this range. Olofsson, Dellandrea, Foudy, Groulx, Hallander, O'Brien, Ylonen, etc. Noel if you like big, fast, and raw. Sandin is good value if you want defense.

Berggen is another interesting name that should, IMO, be on the poll at this point. I'm going to give it a bit of thought before I vote.

Berggren was picked at 19th by the Flyers.

 

[EastonBlues22]

Berggren was picked at 19th by the Flyers.

Oh, wow, so he was.

I just assumed he hadn't been drafted yet.

 

[Spektre]

I went with Samuelsson. Good Defensive D with enough offensive skills to build on. Skates well too. I was a big fan of his dad.

It only shows my vote with Samuelsson. You must not have clicked submit or maybe hit another by mistake??

 

[Blueston]

I picked Dellandrea but would be thrilled with Samuelsson too (or K'andre Murray who was picked right ahead of us in mock).

 

[Daley Tarasenkshow]

Samuelsson for me. Tychonick a close second. I like Samuelsson and his size. I'm not the biggest fan of Noel.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

i went McIsaac.

 

[stl76]

Given B. Armstrong's history of drafting great dmen in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, I don't think it would be a wise use of assets to draft a defensive dman with the 1st round pick unless he is by FAR the best player available.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

Given B. Armstrong's history of drafting great dmen in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, I don't think it would be a wise use of assets to draft a defensive dman with the 1st round pick unless he is by FAR the best player available.

I get your point, but it’s practically a 2nd and I don’t think you box yourself in with anything artificial. Value is value, and you go off your read on talent along with your information/feel for how far down your guys will slide, regardless of position. If you get a great dman in the 1st and find another useful one in the 4th, 5th, 6th, you can later leverage that depth in a trade, or in extension negotiations.

Not later rounds, but Nashville uses depth in defense. Trading Seth Jones. Trading Girard. Maybe trading Fabbro. Maybe leveraging possibility of Fabbro in a negotiation for a deal with Ellis, before trading Fabbro, or freeing up a trade for an established dman, etc.

Edit- I now see the significance of the word “defensive”, in “defensive dmen”, so I am probably splitting hairs a little more than I realized at first, but I still think if that’s a strength, it’s ok to stack it up in your system and deal with excess later.

 

[Oberyn]

Went with Jay O'Brien, was between him and Dellandrea for me. Admittedly, I haven't been paying much attention to the Euro prospects this year so I didn't really consider any of them in my thought process.

 

[simon IC]

It only shows my vote with Samuelsson. You must not have clicked submit or maybe hit another by mistake??

Good call! I just voted correctly.

 

[Celtic Note]

It seems this is a landslide. I haven’t followed this draft, so I won’t vote. However, despite my draft knowledge, I am surprised that there is such consensus here. Are people voting on name recognition or because they actually think Dellandrea is that good? If so, why wasn’t he drafted sooner? Thanks for any insight.

 

[EastonBlues22]

It seems this is a landslide. I haven’t followed this draft, so I won’t vote. However, despite my draft knowledge, I am surprised that there is such consensus here. Are people voting on name recognition or because they actually think Dellandrea is that good? If so, why wasn’t he drafted sooner? Thanks for any insight.

Could be a bit of both, truthfully.

Brock Otten thinks really highly of him, as he ranked Dellandrea as the 4th best prospect in the OHL. That's always a good sign. Brock knows his stuff.

Analytics likes him, too.







There's a lot of interesting prospects in this draft in the 20-45 range, so who goes where is more a function of what you're looking for than clear talent breaks. There will probably be guys going in the mid-second that I think have a chance of going in the first.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

It seems this is a landslide. I haven’t followed this draft, so I won’t vote. However, despite my draft knowledge, I am surprised that there is such consensus here. Are people voting on name recognition or because they actually think Dellandrea is that good? If so, why wasn’t he drafted sooner? Thanks for any insight.

I think he drops that far because he plays for Flint, plain and simple. Put him on London or Sault St Marie and he’d easily be top 15. Watching his highlights and games, he’s dangerous in so many ways. He can beat you off the rush or off the boards to the middle of the ice with his speed and skating. He’s tough, so he doesn’t seem to lose many board battles and he can check you off the puck as well. He plays a 200 foot game, and is reliable in all 3 zones. He can beat the goalie in a number of ways: from distance with a good (not Tolvanen good, but good) wrister, in close on rebounds, and, most appealing to me, he is really good at tipping in pucks from point shots. I would say that despite all of that, he falls to the late 1st because of the perception that he’s a “safe” pick, and there seem to be questions about his ceiling. Those might be fair questions, they may not be, but that seems to be the prevailing sentiment among scouting services and other prognosticators. But man, give me a big right-shot Center with speed, skill, and grit any day of the week. I really liked his game in the WJCs, he seemed to do his job just fine against the top competition in his age group. I don’t think he’s the “1C” that Robert Thomas could be, but I could easily see him being a top-6 center in the vein of David Backes

 

[WeWentBlues]

It seems this is a landslide. I haven’t followed this draft, so I won’t vote. However, despite my draft knowledge, I am surprised that there is such consensus here. Are people voting on name recognition or because they actually think Dellandrea is that good? If so, why wasn’t he drafted sooner? Thanks for any insight.

Mostly guilty as charged. I don't have the in-depth knowledge of these prospects that some of you do. However, the bit and pieces I've read of Dellandrea sound good to me.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

I mean, just look at how many ways, and in how many places he scores here. And not only scoring, but playmaking too. Off the rush, from behind the net, in close, from the half wall... he’s everywhere

 

[WeWentBlues]

Out of curiosity, I cross-referenced the poll options to Pronman's Top 74 prospects.

FWIW, Dellandrea is the third highest ranked player (29). He has Ylonen (14) and Iskhakov (16) higher. The rest range from 30-70 or are unranked.