Intangir
Registered User
Let me begin this post by saying that I've built this list by trying to consider both the player's value in a vacuum, how higly I regard their current playing ability and potential, and looking for the best fits for each team given their needs, prospect depth and the ranking slot they ended up at after I checked the rankings in points percentage and did some computer RNG generation.
On a personal note, I am often wrong and readily admit so. As an example of that plain wrongness, feel free to peruse my past mock drafts and enjoy my failures, or about how I once thought Artyom Minulin, from limited viewings (where he looked dangerous and active each time, defended well, got multiple points or something of the like) could actually be a good NHL defenseman, even a mid-season first-round pick. Yeah, I know, that was a massive mistake, and it won't be the last.
The reason I raise this point, outside of me being a bit too honest (or masochistic more like) and willful in owning up to my mistakes, is that I will still make many oversights or just plain errors of judgement, but I want you to know that I have watched each prospect on this list multiple times and that what I say is backed by those viewings. There's also the fact that I am sincerely confident that, while not a professional scout myself by any stretch of the imagination, I am a reasonably knowledgeable hockey-nut, an experienced-enough watcher of the game to recognize talent when I see it, basically that I've learned from those mistakes, put more weight on attitude and skating now, and that my insightful, on-point input more than outweighs the bad, brainfarts and the ugly of those lists I conceive (or at least it should).
As for my footage, how I watch some of those prospects, well, suffice to say that I have a bit of a triangular relationship going on with fellow draft junkies; one russian, the other finnish. Simply put, we each trade our own nations' games to each other to ensure we can watch the prospects we're interested in no matter the time or place. Over time we've gotten better at it and this has come to work really well for all of us. Even though I have never seen any of the other two guys in real-life, they are honest and dependable, and that deal allows me to watch Liiga and SHL games, some minor league games from Finland and Sweden, as well as KHL, VHL and MHL games, all of which are normally hard to get in meaningful number. In exchange, they have access to my all-NCAA pass and all the CHL games they can withstand. It's not cheap paying for those yearly subscriptions, but they are worth it as they allow me more games to judge prospects (not that it makes me a better talent evaluator or anything, but I try).
I should say beforehand that I followed the draft ideas put forward by Bill Daly regarding the lottery and draft seeding, and those could be subject to changes as I'm making this list, so bear with me on this. To ensure fairness, I used a RNG with the appropriate values and ran it once to determine which pick got bumped up four spots in the draft (another contentious point, but again, I'm using Daly's set of rules). You'll very quickly see that I, being a Montreal Canadiens fan and quite averse to Ottawa, didn't get lucky at all with my draw. Ottawa fans should hope this particular scenario ends up happening for them.
Of note, all comparisons I make between players and NHL comparables are only there to illustrate the type of game the prospects play, not their ultimate ceiling. To add, I only put in comparisons when the draftees' games reminded me strongly of how current or past pros played. Lastly on that front, a prospect likened to a lesser pro than another might actually have better upside overall, it isn't linear like that and in fact only reflects their approaches to the game and stylisitc differences.
Without any further ado, here's the list, with lengthy write-ups for each pick courtesy of boredom, joblessness and coronavirus. Enjoy and feel free to critique. That will give me something to read and perhaps reply to.
I guess I'll have to post this list in several smaller increments because of how monstrously massive it is.
On a personal note, I am often wrong and readily admit so. As an example of that plain wrongness, feel free to peruse my past mock drafts and enjoy my failures, or about how I once thought Artyom Minulin, from limited viewings (where he looked dangerous and active each time, defended well, got multiple points or something of the like) could actually be a good NHL defenseman, even a mid-season first-round pick. Yeah, I know, that was a massive mistake, and it won't be the last.
The reason I raise this point, outside of me being a bit too honest (or masochistic more like) and willful in owning up to my mistakes, is that I will still make many oversights or just plain errors of judgement, but I want you to know that I have watched each prospect on this list multiple times and that what I say is backed by those viewings. There's also the fact that I am sincerely confident that, while not a professional scout myself by any stretch of the imagination, I am a reasonably knowledgeable hockey-nut, an experienced-enough watcher of the game to recognize talent when I see it, basically that I've learned from those mistakes, put more weight on attitude and skating now, and that my insightful, on-point input more than outweighs the bad, brainfarts and the ugly of those lists I conceive (or at least it should).
As for my footage, how I watch some of those prospects, well, suffice to say that I have a bit of a triangular relationship going on with fellow draft junkies; one russian, the other finnish. Simply put, we each trade our own nations' games to each other to ensure we can watch the prospects we're interested in no matter the time or place. Over time we've gotten better at it and this has come to work really well for all of us. Even though I have never seen any of the other two guys in real-life, they are honest and dependable, and that deal allows me to watch Liiga and SHL games, some minor league games from Finland and Sweden, as well as KHL, VHL and MHL games, all of which are normally hard to get in meaningful number. In exchange, they have access to my all-NCAA pass and all the CHL games they can withstand. It's not cheap paying for those yearly subscriptions, but they are worth it as they allow me more games to judge prospects (not that it makes me a better talent evaluator or anything, but I try).
I should say beforehand that I followed the draft ideas put forward by Bill Daly regarding the lottery and draft seeding, and those could be subject to changes as I'm making this list, so bear with me on this. To ensure fairness, I used a RNG with the appropriate values and ran it once to determine which pick got bumped up four spots in the draft (another contentious point, but again, I'm using Daly's set of rules). You'll very quickly see that I, being a Montreal Canadiens fan and quite averse to Ottawa, didn't get lucky at all with my draw. Ottawa fans should hope this particular scenario ends up happening for them.
Of note, all comparisons I make between players and NHL comparables are only there to illustrate the type of game the prospects play, not their ultimate ceiling. To add, I only put in comparisons when the draftees' games reminded me strongly of how current or past pros played. Lastly on that front, a prospect likened to a lesser pro than another might actually have better upside overall, it isn't linear like that and in fact only reflects their approaches to the game and stylisitc differences.
Without any further ado, here's the list, with lengthy write-ups for each pick courtesy of boredom, joblessness and coronavirus. Enjoy and feel free to critique. That will give me something to read and perhaps reply to.
I guess I'll have to post this list in several smaller increments because of how monstrously massive it is.