Speculation: HFWild Mock Draft #2 Pick

[Digitalbooya]

Who do you think Minnesota should take #2 overall?

The idea is to create a Minnesota Wild big board for the draft.

Vote for who you think it is and then give recommendations on who to add for next poll. For this poll I have added Anton Lundell.

I am going to limit the poll day length to just a single day, so get your votes in!

Wild Draft:
1. Alexis Lafreniere 88.9%
2.​

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[57special]

There is simply too much there too pass on Byfield, IMO. The fact that he is a late birthday, and a no doubt C, is icing on the cake.

 

[AKL]

I voted for Byfield and that’s who I’d take, but if it ended up being Stutzle I wouldn’t be upset at all.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Minnesnota in the #1 thread might have convinced me on Rossi here

 

[AKL]

Minnesnota in the #1 thread might have convinced me on Rossi here

I have no problem with someone wanting Rossi higher than I do, I would obviously love if we ended up with him, but there are still some red flags/concerns/assumptions that weren’t addressed, for me.

1) The assumption that Lafreniere’s ice time being higher directly and linearly translates to an increase in points cannot possibly be proven true, but was used in favor of Rossi and against Lafreniere

2) The point was never actually conceded that Rossi does player on a much, much better team than most other draft eligibles, which absolutely does inflate his stats. The only argument provided against it was that Rossi improves his team while he’s on the ice. Both ideas can be true. Rossi can benefit from playing on a stacked team while still being the best player on the team. That said, we’ll never be able to know how much it inflated his stats.

3) Lafreniere, Byfield will still have an easier time physically adjusting to the NHL. I don’t want to say that size is the be all end all of making it to the NHL, because it’s not, but when you look at Lafreniere at 6’1 200lbs, Byfield at 6’4 215 and Rossi at 5’9 180, it’s not hard to guess which one is physically under matched against the average NHL defenseman at like 6’2 210lbs. Again, not saying he can’t make it, but he’s going to have a harder time with the size disadvantage.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I can buy all that and I really don't have a strong opinion on it but for every Jack Hughes (who's currently too slight) there's a Stepan Falkovsky (who's just not that skilled)

Lafreniere to me looks slow at times too despite his talents and I'm definitely a Q doubter when it comes to counting stats