GDT: 2018 NHL Draft Weekend

[thethinglonger]

Eetu Pakkila

 

[Devilsfan92]

Teams can start their pitches tomorrow, correct? It's a 1 week window?

If so, I hope Shero is getting ready to talk with Tavares

 

[RememberTheName]

Teams can start their pitches tomorrow, correct? It's a 1 week window?

If so, I hope Shero is getting ready to talk with Tavares

Tavares is supposedly meeting with 5 teams so we have to hope that we are one of them

 

[thethinglonger]

I guess my post was deleted?

Anyways, this is such a deep dive of a European winger pick. I like it if they are just swinging for the fences here in terms of potential upside. I'll be honest, I don't really know much about him. Here's a brief blurb from FinnProspects

Päkkilä is a relatively good skater, and he seems to have good offensive senses. His shot is also above-average. Sometimes Päkkilä is a little bit too eager to go on a rush.
He has a lot of room for improvement when the other team has the puck, and he should also improve his defensive game quite a bit.
Päkkilä is a winger who is constantly moving. His skating looks bit heavy, but it is really powerful and he is very quick and agile. His positioning off the puck is above average and thanks to his excellent skating and good positioning, he is really efficient in checking game as he stole the puck and broke the pass several times in the game. However I think he is bit lazy at the own end and that part of his game requires improvement.
The forward has decent but not excellent puck handling skills. He is able to perform effective dangle from time to time but those are successful mostly thanks to his skating. Päkkilä also needs to become more versatile offensively. Carrying the puck seemed to be his only option in even strength, even though he showed that he can play quick passing play in power play. Päkkilä is still very lightweight but physical side should improve when he matures and when it does, he should become even more dangerous player.

 

[thethinglonger]

From FinnProspects

Päkkilä is a relatively good skater, and he seems to have good offensive senses. His shot is also above-average. Sometimes Päkkilä is a little bit too eager to go on a rush.
He has a lot of room for improvement when the other team has the puck, and he should also improve his defensive game quite a bit.

 

[Darkauron]

Nando goes undrafted. Interesting, must be something to that.

 

[R8Devs]

I like how the caps have built up theirs goalie pipeline. Hopefully at some point the devils goaltending system can even get a bit close to that level

 

[njdevils1982]

rags draft lundkvist and leafs draft sandin….theyre gonna sell some jerseys like mad!…….all ray could get us was some smith guy, and really, who wants to wear a smith jersey?

 

[Devils Dominion]

@StevenToddIves

Your honest assessment of our picks today?

 

[JrFischer54]

Speaking of last year draft. What’s up with that super tall 6’6 Russian kid. Is he planning out

 

[glenwo2]

I don’t feel as happy as I did last year when we drafted 1st overall....

Yeah. It's a real letdown.

But what are you gonna do?

At least we wound up with Ty "AGENT" Smith.

(right, Mis-ter..Anndersson..?)

 

[glenwo2]

Agreed. Pretty meh draft after Ty, and I still feel we had better options there. Last year I was buzzing after the draft. Don’t feel any way in particular after this one.

Pretty much this.

This draft would've been very "blah" if Smith didn't fall into the Devils laps like that.

 

[Spoiled Bratt]

Apparently Tavares received the 1st formal offer from the Islanders... 8 years @ 10M$ per

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I’m personally hyped that we grabbed one of the best defensive prospects in the whole draft at 17, maybe that’s just me. No, we didn’t have as many picks as other teams, but who cares? We added an elite center in the draft last year and an elite defensive prospect this year. Shero is building a winner here.

 

[bobilly45]

Don’t get why jt would limit himself to 5 teams. Listen to everyone

Could be that his wife or fiancee is only interested in moving to specific states. Happy wife happy life.
Or
He wants to see what other teams will offer him, this way he can get more $$ from the isles.

 

[AfroThunder396]

I agree with Steve, Smith would be #1 and Anderson should be ahead of McLeod at this point.

 

[glenwo2]

rags draft lundkvist and leafs draft sandin….theyre gonna sell some jerseys like mad!…….all ray could get us was some smith guy, and really, who wants to wear a smith jersey?

Who indeed?

 

[SeidoN]

Smith B+
Pretty much everyone else, MEH

classic DD

 

[Brodeur]

Don’t get why jt would limit himself to 5 teams. Listen to everyone

I'm sure he and his agents have been thinking about this for awhile. Money won't be the deciding factor as much as the situation and I'm sure they've done their homework to narrow down the teams. And you respectfully don't want to waste anybody's time if you don't have serious interest.

 

[bobilly45]

Apparently Tavares received the 1st formal offer from the Islanders... 8 years @ 10M$ per

Its 8 years 88 million. Or 11 mil per yr

 

[JrFischer54]

Don’t get why jt would limit himself to 5 teams. Listen to everyone

 

[Spoiled Bratt]

We landed someone that was projected to go way higher than #17, we filled an immediate need with the BPA and we didn't have to give up any assets to draft Ty Smith.

That's the perfect trifecta IMO, so I don't know how some are suggesting that we didn't nail it out of the park?

 

[jkrdevil]

I'm sure he and his agents have been thinking about this for awhile. Money won't be the deciding factor as much as the situation and I'm sure they've done their homework to narrow down the teams. And you respectfully don't want to waste anybody's time if you don't have serious interest.

Pretty much. I’m sure his agents backchannel know who the most interested teams will be and who his client is most interested in. Allows the player to focus.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

IDK how anyone can go below an A- grade with Smith.

Great skater? Check
Great hockey IQ? Check
Good passer? Check
Puck mover? Check
Can play good defense? Check
Can play in all situations? Check
Can produce at 5on5? Check
Shot? Not really great, but that can always be worked on, and we don't need him to blast bullets from the blue line. We just need him to get the puck through and on the net, which is what he does.
Size? Nah, a bit small, but that doesn't matter when he skates as well as he does and has the hockey IQ like he does. If Butcher can produce and play well while not having Smith's skating ability, then Smith will be fine.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Smith is actually the best draft eligible even strength point producer to come out of the WHL going back to 2002, and he plays good defense. I really don't know why everyone isn't ecstatic about that pick aside from being a contrarian.

 

[ScottyK]

Nothing from Shero today, our writers are jokes.

 

[Bleedred]

Boo

Bad pick

View attachment 126588
MISS ME YET?!

 

[Devil X]

We didn’t have a second and third. So our course we aren’t going to be as happy as last year. This draft class will be based on Smith. If he is good it’s a win, anyone else is a Bratt surprise.

 

[glenwo2]

And Mrazek BLOWS.

I wonder.....

What BLOWS more?

Mrazek or this website as it currently is at the moment?

Good grief....can somebody over there FIX THIS DAMN SITE SO IT'S WORKING PROPERLY AGAIN?!?!

 

[zharkenby]

I'm a bit disappointed cause we seemed to go safe with our picks. No home run swings. Guys with high floors but low ceilings

In that boat, but all the guys I had in mind for home run picks slid immensely or didn’t get picked at all. So meh

 

[The Wumpus]

Watching the draft again because it's on and I'm lazy. Interesting moment: during the Senator's pick of Johnny Tychonick, the overhead camera shows a woman at the Sens table flipping through a pile of jersey nameplates looking for the Tychonick one. Might be interesting for someone to blow it up and see what names they could see.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Did anyone draft Nando?

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Nope he went undrafted

Sounds like we need to sign him.

 

[MadDevil]

If I upgrade my account does it help pay for a site that actually functions properly?

 

[Cheddabombs]

I'm a bit disappointed cause we seemed to go safe with our picks. No home run swings. Guys with high floors but low ceilings

Smith may never be a true #1 defenseman but at that point in the draft, and in this point in time, I don't know who we could have picked otherwise that would have that potential. But he's been a big-time point producer in junior, skates very well and is good defensively. Seems like a pretty high-ish ceiling to me? Then we had a bunch of later round picks which are very difficult to project right out of the gate anyway.

 

[glenwo2]

If I upgrade my account does it help pay for a site that actually functions properly?

Maybe that's the answer :

We all become sponsors and help pay to get them a new goddamn server that friggin' works..

 

[MadDevil]

Shero and Castron have some nerve after I spent all that time working on my “he is the eggman” memes.

Today's sandwich special: The Eggenberger, a delicious burger with a fried egg on top.

 

[tr83]

Refreshing to not see plugs with no NHL future NOT being selected in the middle rounds. Swing for the fences on boom or bust guys, not guys who have an absolute ceiling of 4th line for a season.

When Lou drafted Connor Chatham and Brandon Baddock, I was like WTF??!! I'm just glad none of these guys drafted over the last 3 years sound like him

 

[StevenToddIves]

@StevenToddIves

Your honest assessment of our picks today?

I'll put up a thread if I can get the time this week. Short version for now:
1. Smith -- incredible that he fell to us at 17 and an incredible pick. Will be a lightning-fast, ultra-competitive two-way #1 D for many years on the Devils.
4. Bernard -- just a terrific pick. The only reason I did not have him on my sleeper list or fourth round wishlist is that I thought for sure he'd be gone by the early 3rd round. A very slick-skating and smart defensive defenseman with size, which is exactly what the Devils will need behind two smaller LD in Smith and Butcher.
5. Schmid -- I am the first to admit that evaluating goalies is my weakest point as a prospect evaluator, but everyone I spoke with said he was a very intriguing prospect, far more than our 2017 pick (which I disliked) Gilles Senn. Schmid is apparently huge and athletic and the best Swiss goalie prospect in some time, so I will give Shero a solid B+ here.
5. Sharangovich -- what's not to like about spending a 5th rounder on an overage, very big and fast bottom-6 C who should be NHL ready by 2019-20? Nice pick.
6. Hoelscher -- I like the upside in Hoelscher, but I don't think he has the size/strength/defense to stay at C and the last thing the Devils needed was another undersized, skill LW. Still, when you get a kid who experts are consistently pegging as a sleeper with middle-6 upside in the 6th round, you have to think back to a home run pick of Jesper Bratt. So, I will hold out my judgement until we see Hoelscher handle a full season with a scoring line role in Ottawa next year.
7. Pakkila -- I really wanted Zavgorodniy here, but he went five picks earlier to Calgary. But I did not like the idea of drafting yet another undersized skill LW. Still, I'm not in the business of bitching too hard about 7th round picks, so I will trust the scouts here. I personally would have rather rolled the dice on another goaltender, because picking a goalie in the 7th every year you just might get lucky.

Would I rank out draft as one of the best in the league, as I have the past two years? Of course not -- not with just one pick in the top 110. Had we gotten, say, Akil Thomas in the 2nd and Ty Emberson in the third in addition to Smith and Bernard -- well, I'd be jumping over the moon right now. But I also understand that Shero had a responsibility to his players and fans to do what he could to get them into the postseason, and the unfortunate cost was those picks.

So I would say we had a very good but not superlative draft. Most notably, going into this off-season we were an absolute disaster at LD beyond Will Butcher and an aging Andy Greene. Now, after adding Yakovlev, hitting the lottery with Smith, and then catching a nice steal in Bernard? The Devils have a nice future at the position and can afford to concentrate on other areas of need.

 

[Darkauron]

Nope he went undrafted

 

[JrFischer54]

Thought you were going to mention the girl wearing a dress that wasn’t wearing underwear when the habs first pick came down the stairs. Makes the flasher at the cup game proud.

 

[My3Sons]

Shero and Castron have some nerve after I spent all that time working on my “he is the eggman” memes.

 

[Nubmer6]

Posts are disappearing, posts are reappearing, posts are reordering. I might be coming off of 3 days of fever delirium, but I know things are being weird the last few hours.

In technical terms, I think they have multiple servers and a load balancer which sends web requests to the least busy server. One of those servers is out of sync with the other, so it's almost like they split into separate alternate realities a few hours ago. I keep refreshing till I hit the server everyone's posting on.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Wasn’t Eggman projected for the 4th or 5tg round? What happened?

 

[BurntToast]

The Devils didn’t draft Wilde, McLeod, or Miller. Therefore I am pleased. If you include the free agent signing before the draft, the Devils picked up 3 solid Defensive prospects. They drafted 2 centers with upside. They drafted a goalie because Schneider sucks. Honestly, it’s hard to gauge prospects outside of NA. 100 points in junior still seems sexier than 2G 5A in 30 games for a European team you never heard of. Youtube has made the struggle a little easier because I can now analyze the one highlight goal of said prospect over and over to establish best possible outcome.

 

[JrFischer54]

Everyone hating the draft be happy you aren’t a ranger fan. Brutal pick at 9 then they blew the second 2nd to get Miller which is a hefty price (see the blues). Then they take a goalie in the second?

 

[Devils Dominion]

The two players @StevenToddIves liked the most got picked by the Rags

 

[StevenToddIves]

The two players @StevenToddIves liked the most got picked by the Rags

The two players I liked the most were Svechnikov and Dahlin.

 

[Japam]

wtf did some posts get deleted?

Posts are disappearing, posts are reappearing, posts are reordering. I might be coming off of 3 days of fever delirium, but I know things are being weird the last few hours.

 

[Ripshot 43]

I'll put up a thread if I can get the time this week. Short version for now:
1. Smith -- incredible that he fell to us at 17 and an incredible pick. Will be a lightning-fast, ultra-competitive two-way #1 D for many years on the Devils.
4. Bernard -- just a terrific pick. The only reason I did not have him on my sleeper list or fourth round wishlist is that I thought for sure he'd be gone by the early 3rd round. A very slick-skating and smart defensive defenseman with size, which is exactly what the Devils will need behind two smaller LD in Smith and Butcher.
5. Schmid -- I am the first to admit that evaluating goalies is my weakest point as a prospect evaluator, but everyone I spoke with said he was a very intriguing prospect, far more than our 2017 pick (which I disliked) Gilles Senn. Schmid is apparently huge and athletic and the best Swiss goalie prospect in some time, so I will give Shero a solid B+ here.
5. Sharangovich -- what's not to like about spending a 5th rounder on an overage, very big and fast bottom-6 C who should be NHL ready by 2019-20? Nice pick.
6. Hoelscher -- I like the upside in Hoelscher, but I don't think he has the size/strength/defense to stay at C and the last thing the Devils needed was another undersized, skill LW. Still, when you get a kid who experts are consistently pegging as a sleeper with middle-6 upside in the 6th round, you have to think back to a home run pick of Jesper Bratt. So, I will hold out my judgement until we see Hoelscher handle a full season with a scoring line role in Ottawa next year.
7. Pakkila -- I really wanted Zavgorodniy here, but he went five picks earlier to Calgary. But I did not like the idea of drafting yet another undersized skill LW. Still, I'm not in the business of *****ing too hard about 7th round picks, so I will trust the scouts here. I personally would have rather rolled the dice on another goaltender, because picking a goalie in the 7th every year you just might get lucky.

Would I rank out draft as one of the best in the league, as I have the past two years? Of course not -- not with just one pick in the top 110. Had we gotten, say, Akil Thomas in the 2nd and Ty Emberson in the third in addition to Smith and Bernard -- well, I'd be jumping over the moon right now. But I also understand that Shero had a responsibility to his players and fans to do what he could to get them into the postseason, and the unfortunate cost was those picks.

So I would say we had a very good but not superlative draft. Most notably, going into this off-season we were an absolute disaster at LD beyond Will Butcher and an aging Andy Greene. Now, after adding Yakovlev, hitting the lottery with Smith, and then catching a nice steal in Bernard? The Devils have a nice future at the position and can afford to concentrate on other areas of need.

I think while doing this years draft, it is important to rank it based on how well or not our team drafted rather than ranking us head to head with other teams. Missing 2 of our top 3 picks and having a handful of teams with multiple 1st rounders, there isn’t a day 1 fair playing field for determining who came away with the best haul of prospects.

 

[Darkauron]

Posts are disappearing, posts are reappearing, posts are reordering. I might be coming off of 3 days of fever delirium, but I know things are being weird the last few hours.

Yeah it is driving me more insane than i already am!

 

[Devils Dominion]

The two players I liked the most were Svechnikov and Dahlin.

The two you liked for us at 17.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Nothing to hate. We got a top D prospect on the side we desperately needed.

 

[Devils Dominion]

I'm waiting for Castron's recap of each pick.

He seemed very sedated when talking about Smith.
Lack of sleep hopefully

 

[nugg]

I'm waiting for Castron's recap of each pick.

He seemed very sedated when talking about Smith.
Lack of sleep hopefully

Did he recap last year's picks? I'd love to read that too.

 

[OmNomNom]

Rags picks weren't bad, but bad for where they were picked. Kravtsov prob couldve been had a bit later, and same with Miller. Solid prospects (though Miller is a bit of a gamble imo) but preemptive picks by Sather