Lord Stanley
Revoluccion Leader
HFNHL Vegas Draft Recap 2019
Day one picks:
1/24: D Ville Heinola
Leading up to the draft we had hopes that one of Spencer Knight or Moritz Seider might drop to us at 24. We didn’t expect that it would happen and we were right. The first round pretty much played out as expected for us we had Ville Heinold ranked 20th overall and he was our highest player available when our pick came up. We’ve heard the comparisons to Miro Heiskanen and we’d be thrilled if that turned out to be the case. I don’t think Ville really has the elite package that Miro had, his package is a step below I’d say. We see Ville as a future top 4 defender that skates well and moves the puck well, similar to a lot of todays smaller defenders that are making it in the NHL.
2/33: D Vladislav Kolyachonok
This is a player that at the beginning of the year wasn’t anywhere in our thoughts when looking a head to the draft. However with one of our picks form last year Dennis Busby playing in Flint we were constantly checking in on him and noticed this guy. We started to pay a lot of attention to Kolyachonok and pretty much decided a while ago this was a player we really wanted to get. I had him ranked 22nd overall, admittedly I might have been higher on him than anybody else but I really like this kid. He really opened a lot of eyes at the U18’s when he lead Belarus to the Quarter Finals and helped them avoid relegation to the B pool.
2/61: G Mads Sogaard
Goaltending was an area of need in our prospect pool, with the struggles of Tyler Parsons and not really knowing what Malcolm Subban is. We stuck to our list here as we did with almost every pick we made and ended up with this huge Dane. We had Sogaard ranked 48th overall the 2nd highest goalie on our list. Kochetkov was 3rd and ranked 49th. This guy is massive and takes up a lot of net obviously it’s going to take some time for him to develop, but we feel we got a guy that could be our future number 1 goalie down the line.
3/64: D Jesper Sellgren
This is one time we went off our list. Sellgren wasn’t even on our list we submitted to Brock for day 1 as he was a guy we planned to put at the top of our day 2 list being a re-entry guy. However after watching Ersson get picked in the 2nd round we thought we need to jump on this guy now. He was a 6th round pick in the NHL draft last year and played for one of the top teams in Sweden. He ended up signing his entry level deal after his season in Sweden was over and played for Charlotte in the AHL playoffs this year where he helped them win the Calder cup scoring 3 goals and adding and assist in 11 games during the playoff run. We got a close look at him during that run watching our other prospects Julien Gauthier and Stelio Matteos play for Charlotte as well.
3/73: C Yegor Spiridonov
We don’t typically draft players from Russia, I think the last time I draft a Russian was in 2011 Maxim Shalunov. We seen Spiridonov ranked all over the place but we really liked what we did see of him and what we heard and read about him. He was ranked 51st on my list the same spot Button has him ranked. He sounds like the type of player that could be a really effective middle six forward in the NHL as he bring some physicality, defensive awareness and scoring to the table.
3/78: RW Michal Teply
I think we had him ranked higher then most everybody else 53rd on our list. In a down year for the Czechs Teply is likely to be the highest draft player from there this year. He bounced around all year between different mens teams and his junior team. When playing against players his age he performed well. I think if he got to spend the season playing with just his junior team and internationally he’d likely have ended up higher ranked. He’s a big winger that skates well for his size and shows some offensive skills. We see a lot of upside here and hope our confidence in him pays off down the road with a goal scoring winger.
3/81: LW Marcus Kallionkieli
We went off our draft list slightly to select Kallionkieli who we had ranked 64th overall. The one player that was left on our list ranked higher was Karl Henriksson. Why did we go off our list to select Kallionkieli? We felt a player this good looking would not make it to the 4th round. We prefer Finns to Swedes, we called Jojos psychic alliance to ask who would be better down the road. We went with the size and shooting ability of Kallionkieli over the more well rounded questionable offensive upside of Henriksson. Obviously this will be something we watch moving forward to see how these two players develop.
This draft is certainly different than my typical draft, as not a single player selected was born in North America. With the exception of Heinola and Sellgren we did stick to drafting bigger players that could skate well for their size. I think though that I was a little more risky with my picks this year than normal where I tend to draft players that are more well rounded especially with my last two picks Teply and Kallionkieli. We still have 3 more picks coming up in day two.
Also leading up to the draft I held the 5th overall pick. I was hoping that Byram or Turcotte would fall to 5th overall after losing the lottery. As time wore on U18’s were played it became less likely that either of those players would make it to 5th overall. I was right about that, 5th on my rankings was Trevor Zegras. While I like Zegras, and think he’s going to be a very good player I don’t see him as a franchise type center. As a result of this feeling I ended up trading the 5th pick to Philadelphia for Rasmus Kupari and Adam Fox. Both Kupari and Fox were ranked inside the top 30 NHL affiliated prospects by the hockey news and Craig Button during the season. I think that the potential of Kupari and Zegras are very similar plus I got a highly rated defensive prospect in Adam Fox which was an area of need for my system. In a draft day trade at the end of Day one I decided to deal my 2nd round pick in the 2020 draft to Toronto for Alexander Romanov, who was a 2nd round NHL pick and is coming off a tremendous year in which he raised his stock considerably. It’s going to take some time to judge everything that went on with this draft, but we are happy that we got to fill some holes in our system and as a result feel that anywhere you look at our system there is a player with high end potential.
Updated Top 10 Prospects
1) Barrett Hayton
2) Rasmus Kupari
3) Joel Farabee
4) Adam Fox
5) Owen Tippett
6) Alexander Romanov
7) Maxime Comtois
8) Nic Hague
9) Serron Noel
10) Ville Heinola
Day one picks:
1/24: D Ville Heinola
Leading up to the draft we had hopes that one of Spencer Knight or Moritz Seider might drop to us at 24. We didn’t expect that it would happen and we were right. The first round pretty much played out as expected for us we had Ville Heinold ranked 20th overall and he was our highest player available when our pick came up. We’ve heard the comparisons to Miro Heiskanen and we’d be thrilled if that turned out to be the case. I don’t think Ville really has the elite package that Miro had, his package is a step below I’d say. We see Ville as a future top 4 defender that skates well and moves the puck well, similar to a lot of todays smaller defenders that are making it in the NHL.
2/33: D Vladislav Kolyachonok
This is a player that at the beginning of the year wasn’t anywhere in our thoughts when looking a head to the draft. However with one of our picks form last year Dennis Busby playing in Flint we were constantly checking in on him and noticed this guy. We started to pay a lot of attention to Kolyachonok and pretty much decided a while ago this was a player we really wanted to get. I had him ranked 22nd overall, admittedly I might have been higher on him than anybody else but I really like this kid. He really opened a lot of eyes at the U18’s when he lead Belarus to the Quarter Finals and helped them avoid relegation to the B pool.
2/61: G Mads Sogaard
Goaltending was an area of need in our prospect pool, with the struggles of Tyler Parsons and not really knowing what Malcolm Subban is. We stuck to our list here as we did with almost every pick we made and ended up with this huge Dane. We had Sogaard ranked 48th overall the 2nd highest goalie on our list. Kochetkov was 3rd and ranked 49th. This guy is massive and takes up a lot of net obviously it’s going to take some time for him to develop, but we feel we got a guy that could be our future number 1 goalie down the line.
3/64: D Jesper Sellgren
This is one time we went off our list. Sellgren wasn’t even on our list we submitted to Brock for day 1 as he was a guy we planned to put at the top of our day 2 list being a re-entry guy. However after watching Ersson get picked in the 2nd round we thought we need to jump on this guy now. He was a 6th round pick in the NHL draft last year and played for one of the top teams in Sweden. He ended up signing his entry level deal after his season in Sweden was over and played for Charlotte in the AHL playoffs this year where he helped them win the Calder cup scoring 3 goals and adding and assist in 11 games during the playoff run. We got a close look at him during that run watching our other prospects Julien Gauthier and Stelio Matteos play for Charlotte as well.
3/73: C Yegor Spiridonov
We don’t typically draft players from Russia, I think the last time I draft a Russian was in 2011 Maxim Shalunov. We seen Spiridonov ranked all over the place but we really liked what we did see of him and what we heard and read about him. He was ranked 51st on my list the same spot Button has him ranked. He sounds like the type of player that could be a really effective middle six forward in the NHL as he bring some physicality, defensive awareness and scoring to the table.
3/78: RW Michal Teply
I think we had him ranked higher then most everybody else 53rd on our list. In a down year for the Czechs Teply is likely to be the highest draft player from there this year. He bounced around all year between different mens teams and his junior team. When playing against players his age he performed well. I think if he got to spend the season playing with just his junior team and internationally he’d likely have ended up higher ranked. He’s a big winger that skates well for his size and shows some offensive skills. We see a lot of upside here and hope our confidence in him pays off down the road with a goal scoring winger.
3/81: LW Marcus Kallionkieli
We went off our draft list slightly to select Kallionkieli who we had ranked 64th overall. The one player that was left on our list ranked higher was Karl Henriksson. Why did we go off our list to select Kallionkieli? We felt a player this good looking would not make it to the 4th round. We prefer Finns to Swedes, we called Jojos psychic alliance to ask who would be better down the road. We went with the size and shooting ability of Kallionkieli over the more well rounded questionable offensive upside of Henriksson. Obviously this will be something we watch moving forward to see how these two players develop.
This draft is certainly different than my typical draft, as not a single player selected was born in North America. With the exception of Heinola and Sellgren we did stick to drafting bigger players that could skate well for their size. I think though that I was a little more risky with my picks this year than normal where I tend to draft players that are more well rounded especially with my last two picks Teply and Kallionkieli. We still have 3 more picks coming up in day two.
Also leading up to the draft I held the 5th overall pick. I was hoping that Byram or Turcotte would fall to 5th overall after losing the lottery. As time wore on U18’s were played it became less likely that either of those players would make it to 5th overall. I was right about that, 5th on my rankings was Trevor Zegras. While I like Zegras, and think he’s going to be a very good player I don’t see him as a franchise type center. As a result of this feeling I ended up trading the 5th pick to Philadelphia for Rasmus Kupari and Adam Fox. Both Kupari and Fox were ranked inside the top 30 NHL affiliated prospects by the hockey news and Craig Button during the season. I think that the potential of Kupari and Zegras are very similar plus I got a highly rated defensive prospect in Adam Fox which was an area of need for my system. In a draft day trade at the end of Day one I decided to deal my 2nd round pick in the 2020 draft to Toronto for Alexander Romanov, who was a 2nd round NHL pick and is coming off a tremendous year in which he raised his stock considerably. It’s going to take some time to judge everything that went on with this draft, but we are happy that we got to fill some holes in our system and as a result feel that anywhere you look at our system there is a player with high end potential.
Updated Top 10 Prospects
1) Barrett Hayton
2) Rasmus Kupari
3) Joel Farabee
4) Adam Fox
5) Owen Tippett
6) Alexander Romanov
7) Maxime Comtois
8) Nic Hague
9) Serron Noel
10) Ville Heinola
). I also like the picks throughout, getting Kolyachonok in the 2nd round is a steal. If Teply puts it all together he has the talent to be a 1st rounder, so another quality pick there.
