Prospect Info: 2020 NHL Draft

[Goose of Reason]

The more I think on it the more I just can't see us passing on Barron if he's still there at 31. 6'2 right shot, great skater, and we love taking guys that were fairly touted going into their draft seasons but didnt have crazy strong years. Steel, Jones, Comtois, Groulx, Mahura, and you could argue Morand all fit that description.

 

[cheesymc]

I highly recommend watching videos from Draft Dynasty on Youtube. Definitely the best reports and footage coverage out there. If anyone else has any recommendations, I'd like to check them out too. There is only so much time this one guy on Draft Dynasty can cover. He should definitely get into scouting, maybe the footage scouting coordinator.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Ahhh, but there is a slim chance we pick lower than 31st in case a certain team chokes in the first round of the playoffs. Gotta give ourselves a lil' daylight. ha! With that said, I'm hoping for Helge Grans with that second 1st rounder.

I want Helge Grans too with that 31st pick, but i bet its gonna be like Hoglander where they pass on him twice.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

I highly recommend watching videos from Draft Dynasty on Youtube. Definitely the best reports and footage coverage out there. If anyone else has any recommendations, I'd like to check them out too. There is only so much time this one guy on Draft Dynasty can cover. He should definitely get into scouting, maybe the footage scouting coordinator.

I wasn't expecting to be this impressed by a prospect I'd never heard of, very interesting-

 

[cheesymc]

I wasn't expecting to be this impressed by a prospect I'd never heard of, very interesting-

Yeah, it helps that it was all positive highlights. He sort of looks like a Brayden Tracey with his size and hands, and average skating abilities. I wouldnt mind the ducks picking up this overager with a mid round pick if they see the potential. I do like how he looks off the defense and has great awareness and creativity to help drive a line. He looked pretty crafty and was really offensively carrying his entire team. Its difficult to say in the footage because the level of competition is probably weaker than Canadian and Swedish junior leagues.

 

[sasha barkov]

A realistic scenario for our top 2 picks could be

5/6/7 : Holtz

31 : Barron

obviously it’s specific but seems like 2 players the ducks would absolutely pick and a poster above also made a very compelling point for Barron.

I also feel that Grans might be a player we drool over and be that “NHL” ready d-man. He also used to play forward I believe. It just makes too much sense: a 6’3 RHD defenseman w offensive upside , a good skater , and good defensively. Not to mention he’s Swedish. Literally everything we want in a Dman is him. If there wasn’t so much elite offensive talent up front, i would make a solid bet we would take him in the top 10 without hesitation. I can almost gauranyee he will go early teens/ potentially even 8-10 depending on the team. He also played in the pro league this year in Sweden in Allsvenskan I believe.

 

[Paul4587]

If we walk away with Holtz at 5 or 6 I would be pretty disappointed. He’s a good prospect but the other guys in that range have much better upside and are all more play driving type players.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I highly recommend watching videos from Draft Dynasty on Youtube. Definitely the best reports and footage coverage out there. If anyone else has any recommendations, I'd like to check them out too. There is only so much time this one guy on Draft Dynasty can cover. He should definitely get into scouting, maybe the footage scouting coordinator.

He's the reason why I'm sold on Drysdale. ha! When Draft Dynasty identified how often he picks up the slack on his defensive partner shows how cerebral and team player he is to make up for his partner's deficiency. I like that way of thinking very much!

 

[cheesymc]

If we walk away with Holtz at 5 or 6 I would be pretty disappointed. He’s a good prospect but the other guys in that range have much better upside and are all more play driving type players.

I know we really need a goal scorer but I like a player that has other elements... like speed, grit, tenacity. He seems like he could be a 25-30 goal scorer but look at guys like Laine who’s often talked about being on the block. I want a leader and a player.

 

[cheesymc]

A realistic scenario for our top 2 picks could be

5/6/7 : Holtz

31 : Barron

obviously it’s specific but seems like 2 players the ducks would absolutely pick and a poster above also made a very compelling point for Barron.

I also feel that Grans might be a player we drool over and be that “NHL” ready d-man. He also used to play forward I believe. It just makes too much sense: a 6’3 RHD defenseman w offensive upside , a good skater , and good defensively. Not to mention he’s Swedish. Literally everything we want in a Dman is him. If there wasn’t so much elite offensive talent up front, i would make a solid bet we would take him in the top 10 without hesitation. I can almost gauranyee he will go early teens/ potentially even 8-10 depending on the team. He also played in the pro league this year in Sweden in Allsvenskan I believe.

I’d be disappointed in that outcome and would prefer we traded down both spots if that’s who are ranked as the next best available player. Baron looks like a tweener and has injury history. Grans is looking like he could be picked 15-45, but I have a feeling he will go top 20 due to the lack of defensive depth in this draft. Hes a boom-bust guy who some think might be a #1 power play guy with size to match up and eat up minutes. Other dmen don’t appear to have Gran’s combination. Schneider, Guhle, Wallinder, Jurmo, Orourke don’t have the natural offensive instincts even if some are faster, better defensively, more physical, or skate better. Andrae, Poirier, and Cormier have offensive upside but they either have skating, size, or more defensive shortcomings. Grans had a decent stint in a mens league, so he’s shown to be able to do well at the next level.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Jack Finley looks enticing. They even compared him to Getzlaf stylewise, although I don't really think Getzlaf as two-way centereven though he has gotten better playing defence through his years. Wouldn't mind taking him after 2nd round.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Jack Finley looks enticing. They even compared him to Getzlaf stylewise, although I don't really think Getzlaf as two-way centereven though he has gotten better playing defence through his years. Wouldn't mind taking him after 2nd round.

I feel like a WHL center with his size and numbers would usually be getting a lot more attention.

 

[Opak]

Potential hidden gem in the later rounds: Matias Rajaniemi (LHD).

Pelicans Lahti was a terrible team this past season (finished 14th out of 15 teams), so when they started selling to try and cut payroll, they picked up Rajaniemi from their U20 team to fill in a vacant roster spot. To everyone's surprise, the 17-year-old surpassed all expectations in his 12-game debut, as the 6'4'', 200+ lbs teenager was already able to keep up with the elite league pace.

In 8 games last February, Rajaniemi logged an average of 21:13 TOI per game, with his peak being a whopping 27:52. In 4 games in March before the Liiga shutdown, he was already logging an average of 24:07 TOI per game. FWIW, his fancy stats were horribad, which is to be expected under the circumstances.

Skating is definitely an area that he needs to develop, but then again we're talking about a kid who's barely draft eligible, with proper guidance he has more than enough time to develop. In addition to getting more experienced, if he improves his skating (and if he, God forbid, somehow keeps growing), he could become an absolute monster of a blueliner.

It was difficult to find clips of his play, but here we have a couple (#28 in white):
Primary assist in 15:15 of the 1st period
Secondary assist in 38:28 of the 2nd period

 

[Opak]

If we walk away with Holtz at 5 or 6 I would be pretty disappointed. He’s a good prospect but the other guys in that range have much better upside and are all more play driving type players.

Still not convinced that there's that dramatic a difference between Holtz and Quinn. Quinn might even be the better of the two.

Here's an idea: if we're picking 6 or 7 and ALL of Lafreniere, Byfield, Stützle, Drysdale and Rossi are off the board, what are the chances of us NOT drafting Sanderson with our 1st? He has to be one of the 4 USHL kids they ranked in the first round, right..?

 

[JabbaJabba]

I feel like a WHL center with his size and numbers would usually be getting a lot more attention.

Exactly. If we can't get Byfield, let's get this guy.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Still not convinced that there's that dramatic a difference between Holtz and Quinn. Quinn might even be the better of the two.

Here's an idea: if we're picking 6 or 7 and ALL of Lafreniere, Byfield, Stützle, Drysdale and Rossi are off the board, what are the chances of us NOT drafting Sanderson with our 1st? He has to be one of the 4 USHL kids they ranked in the first round, right..?

I would probably still want Raymond over Sanderson, but if the draft lottery doesn't favor the Ducks and they fall and all those guys you mentioned plus Raymond are taken, then I guess Sanderson is fine. I definitely agree that Sanderson is on Ducks' radar, but I wouldn't take him in the top 5 and I don't think he has the offensive potential to be a true number one defender like Drysdale has. This is why I prefer a lot of forwards over him 'cos I see top line and even star potential in them. Sanderson is going to be a work horse, but I don't see a similar star potential.

 

[DuckRogers10]

Dorion isn’t a bad GM. Not the best but far from the worst. It’s Melnyk that’s the problem there. Not only is he the worst owner in the NHL but he’s an absolute piece of shit too.

Why is he a piece of shit?

 

[cheesymc]

Potential hidden gem in the later rounds: Matias Rajaniemi (LHD).

Pelicans Lahti was a terrible team this past season (finished 14th out of 15 teams), so when they started selling to try and cut payroll, they picked up from their U20 team to fill in a vacant roster spot. To everyone's surprise, the 17-year-old surpassed all expectations in his 12-game debut, as the 6'4'', 200+ lbs teenager was already able to keep up with the elite league pace.

In 8 games last February, Rajaniemi logged an average of 21:13 TOI per game, with his peak being a whopping 27:52. In 4 games in March before the Liiga shutdown, he was already logging an average of 24:07 TOI per game. FWIW, his fancy stats were horribad, which is to be expected under the circumstances.

Skating is definitely an area that he needs to develop, but then again we're talking about a kid who's barely draft eligible, with proper guidance he has more than enough time to develop. In addition to getting more experienced, if he improves his skating (and if he, God forbid, somehow keeps growing), he could become an absolute monster of a blueliner.

It was difficult to find clips of his play, but here we have a couple (#28 in white):
Primary assist in 15:15 of the 1st period
Secondary assist in 38:28 of the 2nd period

I was making a list of potential big physical defensemen who would be someone we targeted, and this guy might be the only Finish one. Couldn’t find much footage on him, but seems like he has Hakanpaa size. We love guys who are late birthdays so maybe he might be one we like. We haven’t drafted pure tough guys, and Madden normally leans towards guys with more skills.

USA Kleven
FIN Rajaniemi
CAN Bauer
CAN Mcnelly
CZE Kubicek
NOR Holm
RUS Nikishin

Shorter guys who are physical
CAN Orourke
FIN Rafkin
SWE Loof

 

[Opak]

I was making a list of potential big physical defensemen who would be someone we targeted, and this guy might be the only Finish one. Couldn’t find much footage on him, but seems like he has Hakanpaa size. We love guys who are late birthdays so maybe he might be one we like. We haven’t drafted pure tough guys, and Madden normally leans towards guys with more skills.

USA Kleven
FIN Rajaniemi
CAN Bauer
CAN Mcnelly
CZE Kubicek
NOR Holm
RUS Nikishin

Shorter guys who are physical
CAN Orourke
FIN Rafkin
SWE Loof

I will admit that I haven't seen that much of Rajaniemi either, but to me the bolded parts aren't a good description for his game. He could develop such traits later, sure, but IMO he's more of an all-around defender "in training". Also discovered that, although he is left handed, he plays on the right side.

I thought about this later, but IMO Rajaniemi could be a prime candidate to get import drafted to the CHL this summer. Even though Rajaniemi did very well in the role he was put into, I'm not sure Pelicans is ready to give him a top-4 spot next season, which could make the CHL route more enticing for his development...

EDIT: Some fancy stats below:

• Out of the 172 dmen to play in Liiga last season, Rajaniemi ranks 5th in TOI per game and 15th in distance skated per game. In-game top speed 32.68 km/h.
  
• He spent about 1 min per game on the PP, while playing just over 3.5 minutes per game on the PK.
• CF 5vs5 33.5% (Close 35%)
  
• Ratio of OZ/DZ starts 34.4%

 

[GermanRocket7]

Potential hidden gem in the later rounds: Matias Rajaniemi (LHD).

Pelicans Lahti was a terrible team this past season (finished 14th out of 15 teams), so when they started selling to try and cut payroll, they picked up Rajaniemi from their U20 team to fill in a vacant roster spot. To everyone's surprise, the 17-year-old surpassed all expectations in his 12-game debut, as the 6'4'', 200+ lbs teenager was already able to keep up with the elite league pace.

In 8 games last February, Rajaniemi logged an average of 21:13 TOI per game, with his peak being a whopping 27:52. In 4 games in March before the Liiga shutdown, he was already logging an average of 24:07 TOI per game. FWIW, his fancy stats were horribad, which is to be expected under the circumstances.

Skating is definitely an area that he needs to develop, but then again we're talking about a kid who's barely draft eligible, with proper guidance he has more than enough time to develop. In addition to getting more experienced, if he improves his skating (and if he, God forbid, somehow keeps growing), he could become an absolute monster of a blueliner.

It was difficult to find clips of his play, but here we have a couple (#28 in white):
Primary assist in 15:15 of the 1st period
Secondary assist in 38:28 of the 2nd period

I actually like this idea a lot, especially since skating definitely is one of the few assets one can always learn and improve significantly in even at later ages. Just look at Draisaitl's skating in his draft year and how he improved to now.

 

[JabbaJabba]

Draft prospects hockey's draft simulator is a great tool to play with. Did the lottery and got the 2nd overall pick. My selections ended up being Stutzle, Reichel, Grans, Novak, Finley and Glotzl. Very German heavy by chance.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

We haven’t drafted pure tough guys, and Madden normally leans towards guys with more skills.

But Madden does draft "tough guys" with skill. See Lindholm, Manson, and Henry Thrun, who was drafted in 2019. Manson and Thrun are more dramatic with their toughness compared to Lindholm.

 

[cheesymc]

Draft prospects hockey's draft simulator is a great tool to play with. Did the lottery and got the 2nd overall pick. My selections ended up being Stutzle, Reichel, Grans, Novak, Finley and Glotzl. Very German heavy by chance.

Thanks the one I’ve used. I wonder if they will have one final calibration and do an aggregate ranking. I don’t think Grans would be rated in the 40s right now.

 

[Opak]

Draft prospects hockey's draft simulator is a great tool to play with. Did the lottery and got the 2nd overall pick. My selections ended up being Stutzle, Reichel, Grans, Novak, Finley and Glotzl. Very German heavy by chance.

Ran the lotto once with default settings, got pick #8 for my efforts...

#8 - I have Perfetti, Holtz, Quinn as the top-3 on "my board". I took Perfetti for the upside.
#31 - I see Perreault, Peterka, Reichel on the board, both Barron and Grans are available as well. Took Peterka, while hoping that one of the Dmen is still there at #36.
#36 - Somehow Reichel, Barron, Grans are all still there. Jurmo as well. Ended up picking Grans.
#67 - The board says my top-3 is Vierling, Wiesblatt, Benning. Was tempted to grab Stranges here.
#109 - Faber, Nickl, Suni is my top-3. Ended up taking Rafkin from Windsor.
#160 - Picked Tanus from the FEL.

Also noticed that one of our picks (#129) is missing from this draft simulator. For whatever reason, it's listed that the Blues would own that pick. They took Halliday with that pick, so I guess we got him too..?

 

[Gliff]

The problem with that draft sim is that they base it off of one ranking list. It would be awesome if they took like 10 rankings from different publications and programmed it so teams were assigned one of the lists at random. It would be a little more realistic. Because Grans being at 40 is not out of the question, for some teams. But all it takes is for 1 team to have him at 20 and he is gone.

I had the 5th pick and got Stutzle, Reichel, Grans. I don't see that happening.