2018 NHL Entry Draft Thread

[TT1]

Lol who would you have taken Gruden over? Gruden is nothing special. He forechecks hard and smart. Ohhhh.

Is he better than Wahlstrom? Nope.
Sandin? Nope.
McLaughlin? Absolutely not.
Hillis? Nope. Hillis has more skill in his playmaking than Gruden does in his entire body.
Morozov? Nope. Great two way center. Does great things all over the ice and has skills.
Iskhakov? That's a gamble because of size but as far as pure talent goes. Gruden couldn't even lick his skate socks.

Better than McLaughlin, absolutely. I'd only pick Wahlstrom and Sandin over him. Rest of your other picks are Russians you've never seen play lmao, sorry but no one cares about eliteprospects stats watching.

 

[Mrb1p]

Its Grant level know-it-allness and with the smug wink faces.

**** out of here.

To be honest, youre kinda good at it too

You just make more sense because you do it for high skill guys instead of weird ones like Miller and Gruden and Noel and ....

 

[WeThreeKings]

Better than McLaughlin, absolutely. I'd only pick Wahlstrom and Sandin over him. Rest of your other picks are Russians you've never seen play lmao, sorry but no one cares about eliteprospects stats watching.

Yeah, it's impossible to watch the Hlinka or the Five Nations.. the WJAC challenge. I closed my eyes every time I saw them. MHL games aren't available on YouTube.

You can take Gruden and you can take Kral and the Samuelssons. You will have an elite team of guys who can't get anything done without the help of players who actually have skill.

 

[Mrb1p]

Better than McLaughlin, absolutely. I'd only pick Wahlstrom and Sandin over him. Rest of your other picks are Russians you've never seen play lmao, sorry but no one cares about eliteprospects stats watching.

Didnt you watch the russians this morning? The russians are actually easier to watch than NCAA/ USHL players.

 

[Mrb1p]

Yeah, it's impossible to watch the Hlinka or the Five Nations.. the WJAC challenge. I closed my eyes every time I saw them.

You can take Gruden and you can take Kral and the Samuelssons. You will have an elite team of guys who can't get anything done without the help of players who actually have skill.

Ah Kral was the other one yes... lol...

 

[The Great Weal]

Anyways, that Lafreniere kid looks aight

 

[Habs Icing]

And there you see why Noel will go high in the draft. He is toolsy but whether he puts it all together.. that remains to be seen.

From my I've seen so far if he can improve his skating he'll be a steal.

 

[Mrb1p]

From my I've seen so far if he can improve his skating he'll be a steal.

Like McCarron... yeah, no. Both are toolsy, both are too slow both in the head and on the ice.

Mccarron flashed some nice skills too in his draft year, heavy shot, soft hands when he had times, knack for the net when he had time or he could bulldoze a 5'1 D...

 

[Andrei79]

Veleno has similar tools and drawbacks.

Kupari also has much better tools.

I dont think its as black and white.

Plus theres that Berggren kid, that I probably like more than any center not named Kotkaniemi.

I think at this point there's an implicit understand almost nothing discussed here is clear cut. Taking a stance on those players however, is the whole point of it. I'm not a Veleno fan, neither do I believe they have similar drawbacks, as my main knocks on Veleno include a whole bunch of things (goal scoring, production from lower level plays, difficulty creating and using open space compared to the usual top center prospects among other things, his smarts are overstated) that I'm not worried about with Thomas. Thomas is a bit like Plekanec was way back, so I can see why he's not everyones cup of tea, that's fine.

But, is Berggren a center ? I see him as a winger. Since I don't follow SuperElit, I've only seen him there in highlights, where that's where he seemed to play. I haven't seen him anywhere other than wing internationally, however.

 

[Mrb1p]

I think at this point there's an implicit understand almost nothing discussed here is clear cut. Taking a stance on those players however, is the whole point of it. I'm not a Veleno fan, neither do I believe they have similar drawbacks, as my main knocks on Veleno include a whole bunch of things (goal scoring, production from lower level plays, difficulty creating and using open space compared to the usual top center prospects among other things, his smarts are overstated) that I'm not worried about with Thomas. Thomas is a bit like Plekanec was way back, so I can see why he's not everyones cup of tea, that's fine.

But, is Berggren a center ? I see him as a winger. Since I don't follow SuperElit, I've only seen him there in highlights, where that's where he seemed to play. I haven't seen him anywhere other than wing internationally, however.

Played both but im pretty sure he mainly played W, still, theres little doubt in my mind that this kid is the perfect C.

 

[Andrei79]

Played both but im pretty sure he mainly played W, still, theres little doubt in my mind that this kid is the perfect C.

If I knew he'd make the switch permanently, he'd shoot up my rankings. He's my favorite swedish forward this year.

 

[The Great Weal]

The way I see it, when someone gratuitously trashes my favorites, it's hilarious. One of the reasons I like this thread so much.

f*** Dahlin, kid only gets 20 points against kids...

 

[WeThreeKings]

The way I see it, when someone gratuitously trashes my favorites, it's hilarious. One of the reasons I like this thread so much.

I like it when people challenge my views on someone. Then I go look at them again with their criticisms in mind and sometimes I see things that I didn't before and other times I don't agree.

A lot of the players I like haven't planned out. Very few that I didn't like have panned out. That's scouting. More often than not a guy doesn't make it. There's a limited number of spots and when you like talent, there's a limited number of top 6 spots.

 

[Draft]

Veleno doing some nice thongs and some VERY bad things.

Is it for speed or comfort?

 

[Janne Niinimaa]

Is it for speed or comfort?

Always in good position, using his speed well. But trying to do a little too much with his stick handling and cross ice passes.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Foudy has been quiet as has Fonstad.

 

[ProspectsSTC]

Merkley is undoubtedly better at the right point position on the powerplay than Thomas is, but if that's the case put Thomas on the 2nd unit instead of parking him in front of the net lmao

 

[WeThreeKings]

Oh Hai Foudy

 

[Andrei79]

Noel would be the one big "potential" guy I'd take a chance on. Miller as well, to a lesser extent, but I don't like his reaction speed and he'll need to improve his edges quite a bit to be an NHLer.

 

[Habs Icing]

Stylistic - not ceiling - Veleno reminds me of Ron Francis.

 

[le_sean]

Well I don’t know how Timmins can be at this tournament and not come out with Wahlstrom as his target. I don’t see anything that shows me he can be converted to centre, but it doesn’t matter. There’s no one as dangerous as him when the puck touches his stick in the offensive zone. If he saw something in Pacioretty, he needs to see it in Wahlstrom.

 

[LastWordArmy]

Our latest

K'Andre Miller Scouting Report: 2018 NHL Draft #24

 

[Yoshidas Island]

What are everyone's tiers of prospects as of right now?
This is mine as of right now

1 - Dahlin

2 - Svechnikov

3 - Wahlstrom | Zadina

4 - Smith | Hughes | Dobson

5 - Tkachuk | Boqvist | Kravtsov

6 - Bouchard | Kotkaniemi | Kaut | Veleno | Wilde

7 - Lundestrom | Farabee | Hayton | Kupari | Dellandrea | Lundqvist

etc

 

[TT1]

On that note, Noel is a ND for WTK because he's big.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Hillis is a beauty.