Prospect Info: 2020 Draft Thread

[MortiestOfMortys]

Well it’s almost February, so I figured it was time to start up a draft thread for the 2020 draft class. As of right now (and all of this could change before June), the Blues have the following draft picks:

• 1st
• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th
• 5th (CAR)
• 5th

I haven’t followed / tracked the prospects as closely as I have in years past (my beloved tracking spreadsheet has gone dormant for the time being), but the people that have caught my eye so far are (in no particular order):

• Oliver Okuliar (F, WHL) OA
• Carson Bantle (F, USHL)
• Ryan O’Rourke (D, OHL)
• Kaiden Guhle (D, WHL)
• Nick Malik (G, Czech)
• Jakub Dobes (G, USHL) OA
• Jaromir Pytlik (C, OHL)
• Jake Sanderson (D, USNDP)
• Samuel Hlavaj (G, QMJHL) OA
• Pavel Yelizarov (D, MHL) OA
• Tag Bertuzzi (C, OHL) OA
• Ilya Solovyov (D, OHL) OA
• Jack Thompson (D, OHL)
• Joni Jurmo (D, Jr A SM-Liiga)
• Jack Finley (C, WHL)

As always, I’m more interested in the second day of the draft, since I trust a Barmstrong to hold down Day 1, and it’s an open question (today at least) whether we’ll still have a 1st rounder at the draft, or where it might fall.

Either way, feel free to use this thread for your 2020 draft class thoughts / questions / links. Time to re-stock the farm a bit!

Click to read more...

 

[jbron]

Ryan O'Rourke and Jake Sanderson look like Blue pick's. Lot of hockey to be played before the draft. Always good to start a draft thread
and appreciate your post.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Buffalo must be excited for 2 chances at Lafreniere seeing as they have our unprotected 1st... Oh wait

 

[bleedblue1223]

Crazy how Ottawa lost out on Byram because of that bad Duchene trade, but they are essentially going to get that back because of the Sharks collapse.

That 2020 Sharks pick had a bizarre condition, that Ottawa would get it if the Sharks made the 2019 playoffs. The Sharks making or missing the 2019 playoffs has 0 impact on the draft position of the 2020 pick.​

 

[execwrite1]

The thread that dreams are made of - thanks for starting us up Morty

My focus is on big defensemen - here's a target list. Another name to watch - Jack Finley, big centre man from WHL (son of Jeff)


Trying to stick with players who could be available when Blues pick. A couple are probably gone before then.

Yan Kuznetsov LHD 6’3’ 201
Simon Kubicek RHD 6’2’ 194
William Wallinder LHD 6’4’ 192
Kaiden Guhle LHD 6’3’ 187
Helge Grans RHD 6’3’ 192
Alexander Nishikin LHD 6’2’ 196
Tyler Kleven LHD 6’4’ 201
Ryan O’Rourke LHD 6’2’ 183
Jake Ratzlaff RHD 6’3’ 205
Luke Prokop RHD 6’4’ 202

 

[bleedblue1223]

We really need to go for best player available, and target high upside guys. I know many were disappionted that we didn't go for DeBrincat in 2016, but we are going to need to target guys like that more. Although, Kryou is looking like a solid enough pick.

I think for the most part, we do this though. Even if Thompson and Bokk miss as picks, they still lead to O'Reilly and Faulk.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

We really need to go for best player available, and target high upside guys. I know many were disappionted that we didn't go for DeBrincat in 2016, but we are going to need to target guys like that more. Although, Kryou is looking like a solid enough pick.

I think for the most part, we do this though. Even if Thompson and Bokk miss as picks, they still lead to O'Reilly and Faulk.

Agreed, it's always nice to see value extracted from impending busts, especially after watching Schmaltz and Rattie fizzle into nothingness

 

[Beauterham]

Some options from the OHL + Lapierre

First / second round:
Jacob Perreault - C - Sarnia
Ryan O'Rourke - D - SOO
Tyson Foerster - C - Barrie
Luke Evangelista - RW - London
Jack Thompson - D - Sudbury
Hendrix Lapierre - C - Chicoutimi *

Late round (4th/5th):
James Hardie - LW - Mississauga
Evan Vierling - C - Barrie **
Isaak Phillips - D - Sudbury
Tucker Tynan - G - Niagara ***


Valuepicks:
* Lapierre is injured and he *might* drop at the draft due to this.
** Vierling held out at Flint to force a trade. GM's might be weary to draft him early due to this and he could be available late in the draft. Got drafted 2nd in the OHL-selection draft. Better player then his statistics show. Wouldn't mind a Flyer on him late in the draft. He's a project though.
*** good goalie prospect, with a serious injury. Is expected to recover fully, but will not play any more games this season. If he's still available in the 7th, I wouldn't mind trading a pick to get him. He would really go a lot earlier if he wasn't injured.

 

[tfriede2]

Crazy how Ottawa lost out on Byram because of that bad Duchene trade, but they are essentially going to get that back because of the Sharks collapse.

That 2020 Sharks pick had a bizarre condition, that Ottawa would get it if the Sharks made the 2019 playoffs. The Sharks making or missing the 2019 playoffs has 0 impact on the draft position of the 2020 pick.​

Ah, nevermind. I see what you're saying.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Ah, nevermind. I see what you're saying.

Yeah, it was a bizarre condition because they already traded away their 2019 pick on a conditional basis in the Kane deal. Ottawa received the 2020 pick because the Sharks made the playoffs in 2019, so the season that actually impacted the 2020 pick played no part in the condition.

 

[Ranksu]

There was couple players in Finland u20 WJC tournament who impressed me most. Hopefully Blues amateur scouts will give good look in to these players.


Kristian Tanus at eliteprospects.com

Joonas Oden at eliteprospects.com

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

There was couple players in Finland u20 WJC tournament who impressed me most. Hopefully Blues amateur scouts will give good look in to these players.


Kristian Tanus at eliteprospects.com

Joonas Oden at eliteprospects.com

I liked Oden quite a bit too. He seems like he would fit in pretty well here.

 

[Ranksu]

I liked Oden quite a bit too. He seems like he would fit in pretty well here.

Quite interesting story behind Oden's single mother how 110% he was committed his child(s) can play ice hockey.

Its in finnish, but usen google translate IF interested.

Suomen sankariksi nousseen Joonas Odenin äiti paljasti, mitä pojalleen tekstasi: "Kirjoitan melkein aina saman viestin"

 

[Bluesnatic27]

This is the year to play some 5 dimensional chess and draft Carter Savoie so as to convince Mathew to only want to play for St. Louis.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

Ryan O'Rourke and Jake Sanderson look like Blue pick's. Lot of hockey to be played before the draft. Always good to start a draft thread
and appreciate your post.

I really like both O'Rourke and Sanderson, but I'm resigned to the thought that they are both gone by pick 18.

If either are available, I'd jump all over them.

 

[simon IC]

Jack Finley is the guy I have my eyes on right now. He has been predicted to go in the 2nd round, but I doubt he'll be on the board by the time we pick. I know it's early, but I think I would take a flyer on him with our 1st.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

This is the year to play some 5 dimensional chess and draft Carter Savoie so as to convince Mathew to only want to play for St. Louis.

I initially thought you were implying Matthew Tkachuk
But I definitely support this line of thinking

It'll be interesting to see what picks we ultimately end up with. If we end up still having our 1st and 2nd after the TDL, I'd be interested in seeing if Allen+our 2nd would net us an early 2nd and end up with 2 picks in the top 40. Would be nice to give BA a couple shots at getting us some top6F/top4D prospects for the cupboard.

 

[Reality Czech]

Crazy how Ottawa lost out on Byram because of that bad Duchene trade, but they are essentially going to get that back because of the Sharks collapse.

That 2020 Sharks pick had a bizarre condition, that Ottawa would get it if the Sharks made the 2019 playoffs. The Sharks making or missing the 2019 playoffs has 0 impact on the draft position of the 2020 pick.​

Looks like they made that condition one year too early.

 

[Em etah Eh]

Crazy how Ottawa lost out on Byram because of that bad Duchene trade, but they are essentially going to get that back because of the Sharks collapse.

That 2020 Sharks pick had a bizarre condition, that Ottawa would get it if the Sharks made the 2019 playoffs. The Sharks making or missing the 2019 playoffs has 0 impact on the draft position of the 2020 pick.​

I believe if the sharks made the 2019 playoffs the pick was going to BUF for Evander Kane. If they missed, the Kane pick was protected and would roll to 2020. It was basically saying that whichever first was available out of the two, would go to OTT. So had the sharks somehow collapsed and missed last year, the Sens would have gotten that pick.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I believe if the sharks made the 2019 playoffs the pick was going to BUF for Evander Kane. If they missed, the Kane pick was protected and would roll to 2020. It was basically saying that whichever first was available out of the two, would go to OTT. So had the sharks somehow collapsed and missed last year, the Sens would have gotten that pick.

That makes more sense. The Ottawa condition was conditional on another condition lol.

 

[Dbrownss]

Crazy how Ottawa lost out on Byram because of that bad Duchene trade, but they are essentially going to get that back because of the Sharks collapse.

That 2020 Sharks pick had a bizarre condition, that Ottawa would get it if the Sharks made the 2019 playoffs. The Sharks making or missing the 2019 playoffs has 0 impact on the draft position of the 2020 pick.​

I really hope it's a top 3 pick. Watching the Sharks board completely implode will be almost as good as punting them out of the playoffs

 

[execwrite1]

Some options from the OHL + Lapierre

First / second round:
Jacob Perreault - C - Sarnia
Ryan O'Rourke - D - SOO
Tyson Foerster - C - Barrie
Luke Evangelista - RW - London
Jack Thompson - D - Sudbury
Hendrix Lapierre - C - Chicoutimi *

Late round (4th/5th):
James Hardie - LW - Mississauga

James Hardie is an interesting name. Here's a scouting report.
Undersized at 5'11'' 161


“I think you if look in his draft class, I think that only five guys in our league have scored more than him,” Richmond said. “So I think he’s really unnoticed for some reason. Because last year he had the same number of goals as Owen Tippett did in his first year. He’s off to a good start this year. He’s a great kid. He’s working hard at his game. Scouts are always going to find certain things that players need to work on. But he’s a goal scorer and he’s going to score a lot of goals for us this year.”
He is someone I will be watching closely. My knock on him is his skating, but that can easily improve as we move along. But if he can show a knack for scoring goals, he will be noticed in no time. He’s on a 40-goal pace in the early going. Can he keep it up?

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I really hope it's a top 3 pick. Watching the Sharks board completely implode will be almost as good as punting them out of the playoffs

For Ottawa fans’ sake I hope they win the lottery. The ire of Sharks fans is just to add flavor.

 

[542365]

Army walks up to the podium, says thanks to the crowd and the city for the hospitality, and then says, "the St. Louis Blues will forfeit the 31st pick in an effort to give the rest of the league a chance to catch up." And then just walks away.

 

[DatDude44]

Around where we should be picking, I wonder if we go with a guy like Jake Neighbours. He’s has skill and scoring ability. But what I really like about him is his combination of “Hockey smarts”, physicality and compete level.

Seems like a guy that would be a perfect fit in the blues Middle 6 in 3-5 years.

definitely going to be watching him more.