HF Habs: Who would you have drafted? 2018 Edition

[Tyson]

I thought we should have drafted Zadina initially but after doing a lot of research on Kotkaniemi I am very ok with the pick. If he and Poehling pan out the Habs will be set at Center for a while. Let’s hope

 

[The Great Weal]

Alright boys and girls, post/edit your lists

 

[The Great Weal]

Mine:
1) BPA (Draft Time):
3. Kotkaniemi
35. Hallander
38. Ylonen
56. Hillis
66. SDA
71. Shafigullin
97. Fonstad
123. Topping
128. Zhuravylyov
133. Jenkins
190. Gogolev

2)Best Case Scenario (Post Draft)
3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylonen
38. Iskhakov
56. Hallander
66. Hillis
71. SDA
97. McShane
123. Roman(I know he went 122, but I would have given them 123 or no deal)
128. Fonstad
133. Jenkins
190. Topping

 

[Habs76]

3: Dobson
35: Ylonen
38: Tychonick
56: Hallander
66: Ragnarsson
71: Der-Arguchintsev
97: Demin
123: Fonstad
128: Utunen
133: Sharangovich
190: Gogolev

 

[danyhabsfan]

3rd: Kotkaniemi
35: Thomas
38: Wilde
56: Wise
66: Ragnarsson
71: Mclaughlin
97: Mcshane
123: Fonstad
128: Jenkins
133: Chyzowski
190: Topping

 

[JeffreyLFC]

3: Kotkaniemi
35: Olofsson
38: Hallander
56: Morozov
66: Lauko
71: McLaughlin
97: O'reilly
123: Fonstad
133: Jenkins
190: Topping

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Following my pre-draft rankings

Spoiler: Best player available by rank

1: Rasmus Dahlin [D]
2: Andrei Svechnikov [F]
3: Jesperi Kotkaniemi [F]
4-11: Oliver Wahltrom [F]
Close option: Zadina [F]
12: Noah Dobson [D]
13-16: Martin Kaut [F]
17-33: Jonatan Berggren [F]
Close options: Joe Veleno [F], Ty Smith [D]
34: Serron Noel [F]
35-48: Jonny Tychonick [D]
49-58: Filip Hallander [F]
Close options: Calen Addison [D], Kirill Marchenko [F].
59-65: Jan Jenik [F]
66-69: Jake Wise [F]
70-82: Bulat Shafigullin [F]
Close: Niklas Nordgren [F], Jakub Lauko [F]
83-99: Slava Demin [D]
Close option: Allan McShane [F]
100-146: Danila Zhuravlyov [D]
Close options: Philipp Kurashev [F], Aidan Dudas [F], Jachym Kondelik [F], Milos Roman [F], Blade Jenkins [F]
147-185: Xavier Bouchard [D]
186-217: Carl Wassenius [F]
Best undrafted (close): Luka Burzan [F], Kyle Topping [F], Krystof Hrabik [F], Chase Wouters [F], Libor Zaransky [D].

Ideal scenario (trade while following my list):
3. Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C) - SM-Liiga - 6’02 [3]
*31. Jonatan Berggren (C) - SuperElit - 5'10 [33]
38. Jonny Tychonick (D) - BCHL - 6'00 [48]
56. Filip Hallander (C) - Allsvenskan - 6’02 [58]
71. Bulat Shafigullin (L) - MHL - 6’01 [82]
97. Slava Demin (D) - BCHL - 6’02 [99]
123. Danila Zhuravlyov (D) - MHL - 6’00 [140]
128. Blade Jenkins (C) - OHL - 6’01 [134]
133. Xavier Bouchard (D) - QMJHL - 6’04 [185]
190: Carl Wassenius (C) - SuperElit - 6’02 [Undrafted]
*31th for 35th and 66th (losing in value).
Badly wanted Berggren being at #13 on my list, willing to overpaid for it, I see elite upside in his game (high likelihood of top6 NHLer) mark my words.

Very good prospects still left on the board this year, would look possibly to make an offer to: (top ones) Luka Burzan & Kyle Topping, and otherwise Justin Brazeau who can already start his pro career being 20 years old.

Less ideal without trade:
3. Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C) - SM-Liiga - 6’02 [3]
35. Jonny Tychonick (D) - BCHL - 6’00 [48]
38. Filip Hallander (C) - Allsvenskan - 6’2 [58]
56. Jan Jenik (C) - Czech2 - 6’1 [65]
66. Jake Wise (C) - USDP - 5’10 [69]
71. Bulat Shafigullin (L) - MHL - 6’01 [82]
97. Slava Demin (D) - BCHL - 6’02 [99]
123. Danila Zhuravlyov (D) - MHL - 6’00 [140]
128. Blade Jenkins (C) - OHL - 6’01 [134]
133. Xavier Bouchard (D) - QMJHL - 6’04 [185]
190: Carl Wassenius (C) - SuperElit - 6’02 [Undrafted]

Spoiler: Previous years doing the exercise

2018.
1st:3. Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C) - SM-Liiga - 6’02 [3]
*1st:31. Jonatan Berggren (C) - SuperElit - 5'10 [33]
2nd:38. Jonny Tychonick (D) - BCHL - 6'00 [48]
2nd:56. Filip Hallander (C) - Allsvenskan - 6’02 [58]
3rd:71. Bulat Shafigullin (L) - MHL - 6’01 [82]
4th:97. Slava Demin (D) - BCHL - 6’02 [99]
4th:123. Danila Zhuravlyov (D) - MHL - 6’00 [140]
5th:128. Blade Jenkins (C) - OHL - 6’01 [134]
5th:133. Xavier Bouchard (D) - QMJHL - 6’04 [185]
7th:190: Carl Wassenius (C) - SuperElit - 6’02 [Undrafted]
*31th for 35th and 66th. Otherwise, Tychonick becomes 35, Hallander becomes 38, Jenik at 56 and Wise at 66 (In sum: Jenik+Wise instead of Berggren).

2017:
*1st:23. Kristian Vesalainen (LW) - SHL - 6’04 [24]
2nd:58. Max Gildon (D) - USDP - 6’03 [66]
*3rd:75. Alexei Lipanov (C) - VHL - 6’00 [76]
3rd:87. Ostap Safin - (RW) - Czech - 6’05 [115]
5th:149. Alexander Chmelevski - (C) - OHL - 6’00 [185]
7th:199. Pavel Shen - (RW) - MHL - 6’01 - [Undrafted, #212 in 2018]
*25+56 for ARI 23+75. The picks were Kostin + Brook otherwise.

2016:
1st:9. Mikhail Sergachev (D) - OHL - 6’02 [9]
3rd:70. William Bitten (C) - OHL - 5'10 [70]
4th:100. Jacob Moverare (D) - OHL - 6’02 [112]
5th:124. Tim Gettinger (LW) - OHL - 6’06 [141]
6th:160. Jesper Bratt (LW) - Allvsk - 5’10 [162]
7th:187. David Bernhardt (D) - SHL - 6’03 - [199]

2015:
*2nd:38. Daniel Sprong (R) - QMJHL - 6'00 [46]
*2nd:58. Oliver Kylington (D) - SHL - 6’00 [60]
3rd:88. Filip Ahl (LW) - SHL - 6'03 [109]
5th:131. Cooper Marody (R) - USHL - 6'00 [158]
6th:177. Nikita Korostelev (R) - OHL - 6'01 [185]
7th:207. Nathan Noel (C) - QMJHL - 5’11 - [Undrafted, #113 in 2016]
*26 for CLB 38+58. The pick was Beauvillier otherwise.

2014:
1st:26. Nikita Scherbak (R) - WHL - 6'01 [26]
3rd:73. Brayden Point (C) - WHL - 5'11 [79]
5th:125. Ondrej Kase (R) - Czech - 6'00 [205]
5th:147. Adam Ollas Mattsson (D) - Allvsk - 6'05 [175]
6th:177. Axel Holmstrom (C) - SHL - 6'01 [196]
7th:207. Vladimir Tkachev (L) - QMJHL - 5'10 - [Undrafted]

2013:
1st:25. Marko Dano (C) - KHL - 6'00 [27]
2nd:34. Robert Hagg (D) - SHL - 6’02 - [41]
2nd:36. Nick Sorensen (R) - QMJHL - 6’01 - [45]
2nd:55. Artturi Lehkonen (L) - SM-Liiga - 5’11 - [55]
3rd:71. Pavel Buchnevich (L) - KHL - 6’02 - [75]
3rd:86. Oliver Bjorkstrand (R) - WHL - 6’00 - [89]
4th:116. Eric Roy (D) - WHL - 6’03 - [135]
6th:176. Lucas Wallmark (C) - SHL - 6’00 - [Undrafted, #97 in 2014]
*7th:206. Nikita Tryamkin (D) - KHL - 6’07 (19) - [Undrafted, #66 in 2014]

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Mine:
1) BPA (Draft Time):
3. Kotkaniemi
35. Hallander
38. Ylonen
56. Hillis
66. SDA
71. Shafigullin
97. Fonstad
123. Topping
128. Zhuravylyov
133. Jenkins
190. Gogolev

2)Best Case Scenario (Post Draft)
3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylonen
38. Iskhakov
56. Hallander
66. Hillis
71. SDA
97. McShane
123. Roman(I know he went 122, but I would have given them 123 or no deal)
128. Fonstad
133. Jenkins
190. Topping

No more love for your boy Wassenius?

Surprise I am not seeing Shafigullin more often too, didn't know you had SDA and Hillis in front?

 

[Redux91]

3.Kotkaniemi
35. Ylonen
38. Thomas
56. Hallander
66. Wise
71. Lauko
97. McShane
123. Fonstad
128. Utunen
133. Jenkins
190. Topping

dude, scary, you must of had a good day lol

 

[The Great Weal]

No more love for your boy Wassenius?

Surprise I am not seeing Shafigullin more often too, didn't know you had SDA and Hillis in front?

I like wassenius but those guys are clearly better.

 

[WeThreeKings]

No more love for your boy Wassenius?

Surprise I am not seeing Shafigullin more often too, didn't know you had SDA and Hillis in front?

I just did the next best player I saw picked. I don't think I needed to mention Shafigulin since we all know i would have done a lot to secure him and Morosov

 

[NotProkofievian]

3. Kotkaniemi
35.
38.
56.
62.
66.
97.
102.
122.
128.

I really feel like people should submit lists before the draft for this sort of thing, but I'm game.

''BPA'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Nordgren
71. S. Demin
97. Fonstad
123. Topping
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

Topping I think is a loose pick here, but whatever, that's what was on my list. If I were to massage my list in hindsight I would draft Ragnarsson at 66 instead of Nordgren. Instead of Topping I think I would mix in my top overager Justin Almeida to my list. Given Ragnarsson at 66, I'd probably take the best remaining center at 71 who, according to my list, was Linus Karlsson. Resulting list would be:

''Hindsight'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Ragnarsson
71. L. Karlsson
97. Fonstad
123. J. Almeida
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

That's a spicey meatball. As I said I'm very happy with our draft since 4 of the picks came straight off the top of my list, and the ones that didn't are at least interesting players, or were only a few spots back. Hillis for example was 3rd on my list at 66, so I obviously have no problem with that selection. Same story for McShane.

 

[The Great Weal]

''BPA'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Nordgren
71. S. Demin
97. Fonstad
123. Topping
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

Topping I think is a loose pick here, but whatever, that's what was on my list. If I were to massage my list in hindsight I would draft Ragnarsson at 66 instead of Nordgren. Instead of Topping I think I would mix in my top overager Justin Almeida to my list. Given Ragnarsson at 66, I'd probably take the best remaining center at 71 who, according to my list, was Linus Karlsson. Resulting list would be:

''Hindsight'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Ragnarsson
71. L. Karlsson
97. Fonstad
123. J. Almeida
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

That's a spicey meatball. As I said I'm very happy with our draft since 4 of the picks came straight off the top of my list, and the ones that didn't are at least interesting players, or were only a few spots back. Hillis for example was 3rd on my list at 66, so I obviously have no problem with that selection. Same story for McShane.

How is Topping ranked higher than Gogolev in BPA but not in Hindsight?

 

[NotProkofievian]

How is Topping ranked higher than Gogolev in BPA but not in Hindsight?

As I said, Topping was a loose pick. But that's the list I uploaded here, so that's what I have to own up to. As of today I prefer Gogolev. In my mainboard thread I said that in order to rank 93 names, I would have to perform 4186 pairwise comparisons, and that I didn't do that. That's one of the comparisons that didn't get done lol.

 

[NotProkofievian]

How is Topping ranked higher than Gogolev in BPA but not in Hindsight?

Oh, and giving myself a way out without such an ad-hoc bullshit explanation, I said that when I submitted my list that I would ''mix'' my overager and goaltender lists as I saw fit. Oh my gosh, I just had to take Almeida at 123. I just had to! I took him 92nd in the mock draft. Nope. No bullshit here.

 

[MasterMatt25]

3. Filip Zadina
35. Jared McIsaac
38. Ryan McLeod
56. Jacob Olofsson
62. Jake Wise
66. Jakub Lauko
97. Allan McShane
102. Xavier Bernard
122. Cole Fonstad
128. Filip Kral

 

[The Great Weal]

Oh, and giving myself a way out without such an ad-hoc bull**** explanation, I said that when I submitted my list that I would ''mix'' my overager and goaltender lists as I saw fit. Oh my gosh, I just had to take Almeida at 123. I just had to! I took him 92nd in the mock draft. Nope. No bull**** here.

Good story that he went with the Pens though. He and Bellerive were best friends since childhood.

 

[MD thaivuN]

playing the hindsight game

3. Dobson
35. A. Thomas
38. Hallander
56. Olofsson
66. Hillis
71. Shafigulin
97. Mascherin
123. Fonstad
133. Zhuravlyov
190. Bouthillier (as the token Q guy)

 

[Doublechin]

3. Noah Dobson
35. Jared McIsaac
38. Jack Drury
56. Filip Hallander
62. Jan Jenik
66. Cameron Hillis
97. Stanislav Demin
102. Milos Roman
122. Cole Fonstad
128. Toni Utunen

 

[Andrei79]

As I said, Topping was a loose pick. But that's the list I uploaded here, so that's what I have to own up to. As of today I prefer Gogolev. In my mainboard thread I said that in order to rank 93 names, I would have to perform 4186 pairwise comparisons, and that I didn't do that. That's one of the comparisons that didn't get done lol.

The thing here is we're limited when it comes to draft strategy.

You can rank a player 20th, but if you have a good feel for the other teams (which I think many scouting teams do and which we're not privy to), you might not necessarily pick him just yet.

I see our lists here more about who are our favorite players, who we project to be more valuable/better players, etc.

Those pairwise comparisons, at least for us, are often done at the time you need to decide and where even your 7th or 8th guy (or lower) could end up being the guy you picked for different reasons.

Like, f***, I don't think Topping is a significantly better prospect than Kupari whatsoever. But Kupari was never going to be there where I wanted him so he dropped and dropped, meanwhile if I knew teams weren't high on Topping, I'd still rank him relatively high but take him in the 7th.

 

[Mrb1p]

''BPA'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Nordgren
71. S. Demin
97. Fonstad
123. Topping
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

Topping I think is a loose pick here, but whatever, that's what was on my list. If I were to massage my list in hindsight I would draft Ragnarsson at 66 instead of Nordgren. Instead of Topping I think I would mix in my top overager Justin Almeida to my list. Given Ragnarsson at 66, I'd probably take the best remaining center at 71 who, according to my list, was Linus Karlsson. Resulting list would be:

''Hindsight'':

3. Kotkaniemi
35. Ylönen
38. Hållander
56. Olofsson
66. Ragnarsson
71. L. Karlsson
97. Fonstad
123. J. Almeida
128. D. Zhuravlyov
133. F. Kral
190. P. Gogolev

That's a spicey meatball. As I said I'm very happy with our draft since 4 of the picks came straight off the top of my list, and the ones that didn't are at least interesting players, or were only a few spots back. Hillis for example was 3rd on my list at 66, so I obviously have no problem with that selection. Same story for McShane.

Oloffson vs Goose? What's the tally. I thought he was top 30 on your list?

 

[NotProkofievian]

Oloffson vs Goose? What's the tally. I thought he was top 30 on your list?

Goose was in my top 30, but I chilled on him for my final list. Goose ended up at 41, Olofsson ended up at 31. End of the day I went for Skills over Smarts/Chutzpah. This will be a learning experience.

 

[Milhouse40]

Forget about Best Player Available.
Draft by needs only:

3. Joe Veleno
35. Benoit Olivier-Groulx
38. Gabriel Fortier
56. Olivier Rodrigue
62. Xavier Bernard
66. Samuel Houde
97. Zachary Bouthillier
102. Zachary Emond
122. Shawn Boudrias
128. Alexis Gravel
133. Mathias Laferriere
190. Traded for Xavier Ouellet

Then i would be called "The best Head Scout in the history of Hockey" by RDS, 91.9FM, TVASPORT and half the fan base......and Louis from Ville Mercier would be licking my toes every Monday for the rest of time.

 

[Mrb1p]

Forget about Best Player Available.
Draft by needs only:

3. Joe Veleno
35. Benoit Olivier-Groulx
38. Gabriel Fortier
56. Olivier Rodrigue
62. Xavier Bernard
66. Samuel Houde
97. Zachary Bouthillier
102. Zachary Emond
122. Shawn Boudrias
128. Alexis Gravel
133. Mathias Laferriere
190. Traded for Xavier Ouellet

Then i would be called "The best Head Scout in the history of Hockey" by RDS, 91.9FM, TVASPORT and half the fan base......and Louis from Ville Mercier would be licking my toes every Monday for the rest of time.

Tbh, 91.9 doesn't give a rat's ass about QCs. There's like two fumbles who do and they're there to cater to the QC annoying fan base.

Rds tho........

 

[Milhouse40]

Tbh, 91.9 doesn't give a rat's ass about QCs. There's like two fumbles who do and they're there to cater to the QC annoying fan base.

Rds tho........

The biggest name at 91.9 is JC Lajoie and he's pretty muh the biggest whiner in MTL

 

[Mrb1p]

The biggest name at 91.9 is JC Lajoie and he's pretty muh the biggest whiner in MTL

Agreed somewhat on that. But I think it's more him kot knowing squat about the draft? Idk.

You gotta admit that, to an uninformed person Veleno at 25 is a huge bargain. C, production, etc.