Ohio Jones
Game on...
Hockey's Future National Hockey League is an FHL-based sim league that has been going strong since the 1998-99 season. Its GMs were selected from avid Hockey's Future fans, including many you know such as Dr. Sens(e), Vaive-Alive, SPG, Brock, and of course HF staffer Sean Keogh.
We held our live day 1 draft (for Rounds 1-3) Saturday the 17th. (We complete the draft through submitted lists). I thought you folks might be interested in the results. I'll just post player order, since the teams drafting don't make sense outside without the HFNHL standings.
One item that became increasingly apparent over the course of the draft was that, although the top-end talent may not be there after the first 12 or so selections, it's a wide-open field after that, with many solid prospects still on the board as we head into the fourth round. There was a great deal of trading activity to try and stockpile picks in the second and third rounds, suggesting that the draft is perhaps not quite so weak as has been previously suggested. (Either that, or none of us know what we're doing
).
Some quick notes: the third round and onwards we generally record the CSB rating of the player to help us find the players that aren't as well known to some GMs. Also, because our draft has been ndependent of the NHL's draft for 8 years, some players get drafted in the NHL that aren't drafted in the HFNHL, and vice versa, which explains the selection of Nikolai Lemtyugov near the end of the third in our draft this year. Finally, we are following the NHL's new rules for European FA eligibility next year, but for this year teams were still required to draft overage Europeans, hence the drafting of standout Finnish goalie Niklas Backstrom, who signed recently with the NHL St. Louis Blues.
Enjoy:
1 1 Erik Johnson
1 2 Niklas Backstrom
1 3 Jordan Staal
1 4 Jonathan Toews
1 5 Phil Kessel
1 6 Peter Mueller
1 7 Derrick Brassard
1 8 Kyle Okposo
1 9 Michael Frolik
1 10 Jiri Tlusty
1 11 James Sheppard
1 12 Bryan Little
1 13 Bobby Sanguinetti
1 14 Ondrej Fiala
1 15 Chris Stewart
1 16 Jonathan Bernier
1 17 Michael Forney
1 18 Riku Helenius
1 19 Jesse Joensuu
1 20 Patrik Berglund
1 21 Nigel Williams
1 22 Yuri Alexandrov
1 23 Claude Giroux
1 24 Cory Emmerton
1 25 Ty Wishart
1 26 Tomas Kana
1 27 Cal Clutterbuck
1 28 David Fischer
1 29 Chris Summers
1 30 Michael Grabner
2 31 Ben Maxwell
2 32 Tomas Marcinko
2 33 Mark Mitera
2 34 Jamie McGinn
2 35 Ivan Vishnevski
2 36 Ryan White
2 37 Alexander Vasyunov
2 38 Ben Shutron
2 39 Nick Foligno
2 40 Ryan Hillier
2 41 Artem Anisimov
2 42 Dennis Persson
2 43 Vladimir Zharkov
2 44 Brian Strait
2 45 Oskar Osala
2 46 Mathieu Carle
2 47 Joe Ryan
2 48 Cody Burki
2 49 Trevor Lewis
2 50 Bryce Swan
2 51 Carl Sneep
2 52 Andrei Popov
2 53 Mike Weber
2 54 Andreas Nodl
2 55 Nikolai Kulemin
2 56 Eric Gryba
2 57 Kris Berglund
2 58 Shawn Matthias
2 59 Bobby Hughes
2 60 David Ruzicka
3 61 Leland Irving (NAG2)
3 62 Luke Lynes (NA48)
3 63 Francois Bouchard (NA41)
3 64 John Armstrong (NA51)
3 65 Jamie McBain (NA84)
3 66 Jan-Mikael Juutilainen (EU24)
3 67 David Kveton (EU12)
3 68 Brady Calla (NA28)
3 69 Simon Danis-Pepin (NA61)
3 70 Mike Ratchuk (NA81)
3 71 Jhonas Enroth (EUG1)
3 72 Joe Palmer (NAG4)
3 73 Tony Lagerstrom (EU28)
3 74 Riley Holzapfel (EU37)
3 75 Jonas Ahnelov (EU10)
3 76 Igor Zubov (EU37)
3 77 Kevin Montgomery (NA45)
3 78 Blake Geoffrion (NA33)
3 79 Derrick Lapoint (NA49)
3 80 Matt Beleskey (NA46)
3 81 Brad Marchand (NA80)
3 82 Felix Schutz (Not rated)
3 83 Nikolai Lemtyugov (STL '05)
3 84 Billy Sauer (NAG13)
3 85 Semen Varlamov (EUG2)
3 86 Mike Carman (NA63)
3 87 Robin Lindqvist (EU81)
3 88 Niklas Backstrom (MIN FA 2006)
3 89 Harrison Reed (NA71)
3 90 Niko Hovinen (EUG7)
For my part I'm pretty pleased that, after having made trades (including moving my 28th overall pick) to acquire more depth picks, my Columbus Blue Jackets were able to select Joey Ryan at 47, Nikolai Kulemin and Eric Gryba at 55 and 56, Jan-Mikael Juutiliainen at 66, and Kevin Montgomery and Blake Geoffrion at 77 and 78.
We held our live day 1 draft (for Rounds 1-3) Saturday the 17th. (We complete the draft through submitted lists). I thought you folks might be interested in the results. I'll just post player order, since the teams drafting don't make sense outside without the HFNHL standings.
One item that became increasingly apparent over the course of the draft was that, although the top-end talent may not be there after the first 12 or so selections, it's a wide-open field after that, with many solid prospects still on the board as we head into the fourth round. There was a great deal of trading activity to try and stockpile picks in the second and third rounds, suggesting that the draft is perhaps not quite so weak as has been previously suggested. (Either that, or none of us know what we're doing
).Some quick notes: the third round and onwards we generally record the CSB rating of the player to help us find the players that aren't as well known to some GMs. Also, because our draft has been ndependent of the NHL's draft for 8 years, some players get drafted in the NHL that aren't drafted in the HFNHL, and vice versa, which explains the selection of Nikolai Lemtyugov near the end of the third in our draft this year. Finally, we are following the NHL's new rules for European FA eligibility next year, but for this year teams were still required to draft overage Europeans, hence the drafting of standout Finnish goalie Niklas Backstrom, who signed recently with the NHL St. Louis Blues.
Enjoy:
1 1 Erik Johnson
1 2 Niklas Backstrom
1 3 Jordan Staal
1 4 Jonathan Toews
1 5 Phil Kessel
1 6 Peter Mueller
1 7 Derrick Brassard
1 8 Kyle Okposo
1 9 Michael Frolik
1 10 Jiri Tlusty
1 11 James Sheppard
1 12 Bryan Little
1 13 Bobby Sanguinetti
1 14 Ondrej Fiala
1 15 Chris Stewart
1 16 Jonathan Bernier
1 17 Michael Forney
1 18 Riku Helenius
1 19 Jesse Joensuu
1 20 Patrik Berglund
1 21 Nigel Williams
1 22 Yuri Alexandrov
1 23 Claude Giroux
1 24 Cory Emmerton
1 25 Ty Wishart
1 26 Tomas Kana
1 27 Cal Clutterbuck
1 28 David Fischer
1 29 Chris Summers
1 30 Michael Grabner
2 31 Ben Maxwell
2 32 Tomas Marcinko
2 33 Mark Mitera
2 34 Jamie McGinn
2 35 Ivan Vishnevski
2 36 Ryan White
2 37 Alexander Vasyunov
2 38 Ben Shutron
2 39 Nick Foligno
2 40 Ryan Hillier
2 41 Artem Anisimov
2 42 Dennis Persson
2 43 Vladimir Zharkov
2 44 Brian Strait
2 45 Oskar Osala
2 46 Mathieu Carle
2 47 Joe Ryan
2 48 Cody Burki
2 49 Trevor Lewis
2 50 Bryce Swan
2 51 Carl Sneep
2 52 Andrei Popov
2 53 Mike Weber
2 54 Andreas Nodl
2 55 Nikolai Kulemin
2 56 Eric Gryba
2 57 Kris Berglund
2 58 Shawn Matthias
2 59 Bobby Hughes
2 60 David Ruzicka
3 61 Leland Irving (NAG2)
3 62 Luke Lynes (NA48)
3 63 Francois Bouchard (NA41)
3 64 John Armstrong (NA51)
3 65 Jamie McBain (NA84)
3 66 Jan-Mikael Juutilainen (EU24)
3 67 David Kveton (EU12)
3 68 Brady Calla (NA28)
3 69 Simon Danis-Pepin (NA61)
3 70 Mike Ratchuk (NA81)
3 71 Jhonas Enroth (EUG1)
3 72 Joe Palmer (NAG4)
3 73 Tony Lagerstrom (EU28)
3 74 Riley Holzapfel (EU37)
3 75 Jonas Ahnelov (EU10)
3 76 Igor Zubov (EU37)
3 77 Kevin Montgomery (NA45)
3 78 Blake Geoffrion (NA33)
3 79 Derrick Lapoint (NA49)
3 80 Matt Beleskey (NA46)
3 81 Brad Marchand (NA80)
3 82 Felix Schutz (Not rated)
3 83 Nikolai Lemtyugov (STL '05)
3 84 Billy Sauer (NAG13)
3 85 Semen Varlamov (EUG2)
3 86 Mike Carman (NA63)
3 87 Robin Lindqvist (EU81)
3 88 Niklas Backstrom (MIN FA 2006)
3 89 Harrison Reed (NA71)
3 90 Niko Hovinen (EUG7)
For my part I'm pretty pleased that, after having made trades (including moving my 28th overall pick) to acquire more depth picks, my Columbus Blue Jackets were able to select Joey Ryan at 47, Nikolai Kulemin and Eric Gryba at 55 and 56, Jan-Mikael Juutiliainen at 66, and Kevin Montgomery and Blake Geoffrion at 77 and 78.
