HFNHL Capitals 2020 NHL Entry Draft Review

[Vagrant]

Washington, devoid of a 1st round pick as a result of the Turcotte trade, had 6 picks in the 5th round or later. We had a pretty clear focus regarding a few players that were drafted last year in the NHL that didn't get picked in our league. Media coverage dramatically drops once a player passes their draft season and we feel like as a result, some of the players that got through the cracks last year may have solidified themselves to a degree in their d1 seasons and perhaps evade notice yet again. Plus, we like the concept of a player having vested NHL interest in their development as that creates a greater opportunity for their professional hopes. With that in mind, we drafted 3 players with those 6 picks that already have NHL affiliation from being drafted previously.

5th Round, Pick 132 - D Axel Bergkvist - Kitchener Rangers (OHL)

taken with the 200th overall pick in the '19 draft by the Coyotes, washington was impressed with reports of Bergkvist's adjustment as the season went along to junior hockey. as a 19 year old last season taking an unusual path he reported to the rangers. we feel it was somewhat a lack of exposure that saw him fall to the 7th round last year. he started the season pretty cold, but his play the last few months of the season saw him draw rave reviews in the offensive end of the ice with strong vision and a great push off the wall on the powerplay to get his deceptive wrist shots to the net in a hurry. he's undersized at 5'9" but carries 200 lbs. after a start of the season that saw him struggle and produce only 2A in his first 13 games under defensive minded mckee, bergkvist exploded once mackenzie stepped behind the bench to finish the year with 50 points in the final 48 games. bergkvist will return to professional hockey in sweden next season to continue his development. bergkvist has a lot to sort out defensively, but gets high marks for his poise with the puck.

5th Round, pick 150 - G Carter Gylander - Sherwood Park Crusaders (AJHL)

picked in the 7th round by steve yzerman and the detroit red wings in '19, gylander is a raw goaltender with monster size at 6'5" despite only 180 lbs. in his draft plus one, he demolished the albert junior hockey league after posting a strong 2.43 goals against and .915 save percentage the previous season to improve to a 34-5 record as a starter with a 2.04 goals against and .924 save percentage. this goaltender will take his yzerman endorsement to colgate next season to work on his smile. this pick is a way way far off dart at the randomness of goaltenders, but his 18 to 19 development proved he's ready for the collegiate challenge. you can never have enough large goaltenders in your pipeline

5th Round, pick 155 - RW Ivan Didkovsky - MHK Dynamo (MHL)

the reports on didkovsky are all over the map, which isn't entirely surprising for an underscouted mhl player. some would argue that didkovsky is the most electric first year eligible player in the mhl and his 20 goals in 37 games would do little to discourage that opinion. ranked 125 by mckeen's and 77th EU from CSB, the window for him appears to be anywhere from the end of the 2nd round to perhaps the 6th. i don't think very many scouts had an opportunity to see him as much as they would have liked, but a u18 making their vhl debut prior to being draft eligible is usually a good sign. good/great speed, a fantastic shot, and a plus stick handler. if that reads a lot like most russian wingers it's not a coincidence. ideally we can see didkovsky get some khl time next season to see how far along he is in the process. mhk dynamo likes all three members of his line that performed so well at the gretzky hlinka to win gold there.

7th Round, pick 201 - W Semyon Demidov - RVC (MHL)

demidov is an entirely projection based pick in that his birthdate is so close to the cutoff that he missed it by a matter of days as a september '02. i would even consider it highly unlikely he gets drafted this season at all for that reason and how frequently teams like to defer on players around the cutoff if they're euro talents. there are various levels of enthusiasm for demidov, but most of the concerns are centered around his skating being not quite as good as you'd like, which as a player this young he should have time to improve upon. he gets high marks for his hockey iq and his passing vision, but played on a really bad team in the mhl last season and was only able to produce a limited amount of tangible production.

7th Round, pick 211 - F Danil Aimurzin - Topar UFA (MHL)

washington goes back to the well of mysteriousness deep inside russia for this not so fleet footed sniper. topar ufa dominated league play and subsequently aimurzin was one of the top point producers for first time eligibles, but there remain large unanswered questions regarding his ability to translate anything more than his elite shot to the higher levels. he has a good sized frame for a player of his playstyle, but the skating will have to improve if he's going to make a serious run at becoming a player in the long term. with that said, we like his shot and some scouts have said that it ranks up there with the very best in the class. you can see how unfortunate the rest of the package might be that he ends up being available here, but we reserved our late round picks this year for dart throwing at mother russia. hitting infrequently not being as much of a concern as hitting hard. we shall see.

7th Round, pick 212 - F Kirill Tyutyayev (MHL/VHL)

we once again raid the 2019 draft for a 7th round pick from yzerman's wings. tyutyayev (easy typing) is a playmaking forward that has shown very well in his d2 season by producing 20 points in 27 games in russian 2nd tier professional hockey. at only 5'9", size will always be a limitation but the pure skill is not in question here. rumor has it that this player was a direct recommendation from pavel datsyuk, who shares a hometown with this young man and plays in the senior team of the vhl squad kirill spent the past few years on. does that mean anything? probably not. but it makes for a more compelling backstory for a long shot prospect.

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[Ohio Jones]

It's seldom a bad idea to spend a late pick on a guy you know an NHL team has already made an investment in. Volume is the key - for a comparatively low cost you can get a number of lottery tickets with slightly higher odds of panning out. Nicely done.

 

[Hossa]

One of the remarkable things about our draft this year is just how many re-entries were selected, and yet still there were a couple worth a selection that passed through. It creates an interesting cycle - if we use 40 picks on re-entries from the last NHL draft, we're essentially making 40 picks fewer in our draft each year than its corollary NHL draft, thereby creating probably an ever growing pool of re-entries to pluck from. Where does it end?

Bergkvist and Gylander I had on my list, although I didn't feel like I had a good grasp on Bergkvist. Gylander was right there with Brady for me as a goalie option, but I hesitated in Gylander given he still has proven little outside the AJHL. But they're goalies, who knows.

Of the four Russians, I think I only looked properly at Didkovsky, although it was interesting this year, with a bit more time on my hands due to COVID, to dig more into the MHL and VHL. And I have to admit, I still don't know how to value MHL production. It seems like a league with quite a wide range of quality in teams, so the context of where you play is important, but whether that's any more true than in the OHL where third liners from the London Knights can go in the first round I don't know. I will say that I ultimately backed off some of the D+1 and D+2 MHL scorers after seeing Mikhail Shalagin struggle to score even in the ECHL, but then again guys like Denisenko never even approached a point per game in that league. So who knows, good bets to place late.

 

[Ohio Jones]

It ends with me: I'm one of the GMs who just aren't organized enough to be able to sort out, keep track of and prioritize re-entries - it's all I can do to try and make sense of the current draft year. So it means I inevitably miss out on talent.

 

[Vagrant]

Of the four Russians, I think I only looked properly at Didkovsky, although it was interesting this year, with a bit more time on my hands due to COVID, to dig more into the MHL and VHL. And I have to admit, I still don't know how to value MHL production. It seems like a league with quite a wide range of quality in teams, so the context of where you play is important, but whether that's any more true than in the OHL where third liners from the London Knights can go in the first round I don't know. I will say that I ultimately backed off some of the D+1 and D+2 MHL scorers after seeing Mikhail Shalagin struggle to score even in the ECHL, but then again guys like Denisenko never even approached a point per game in that league. So who knows, good bets to place late.

you're totally right. it's so much of an unknown quantity, speaking of the mhl, that it's hard to draw any meaningful conclusions. in my estimation, the only production that was important was the absence of production. the vast majority of my opinions on the last few players from the mhl were based on very limited viewings and more towards the suggestion and insight of a few posters on these boards who give me a nudge in the direction of players that stand out for one reason or another and i do my best to track down those leads. didkovsky was a name that kept coming up with a lot of vague qualifiers. the endorsement from craig button who has him at 82nd on his list was also encouraging because his rankings are often skewed towards technical skills and my draft strategy with late round picks is almost always defaulting to the enigmatic in hopes of maturation as opposed to kids who are capped at their talent level but play max effort.