Prospect Info: With the #24 pick, the Wild select (D) Filip Johansson (Allsvenskan, Leksands IF)

[Digitalbooya]

I’m just dying to know TSK, what is the elite club?

 

[Puhis]

I’m just dying to know TSK, what is the elite club?

I'll go ahead and assume it's players who are granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Yes, and they also let Sean Day into the club.

There are dozens of posts in the General Wild discussion thread defending this pick:

1) It was made by guys who have a track record in identifying NHL prospects as teens.
2) He was the highest guy on their board.
3) Some pundits, some teams, some Swedish observers, had Johansson in the approximate range where he was picked.
4) He was a teen playing pro hockey in a shutdown role - he did well. He did well against his peers too.
5) The Allsvenskan gets less scouting than the CHL or USHL - thus he is a bit "under-hyped."
6) People have stated their opinions - some like the pick, some don't. The jury is out and won't be back for a few years so let's let the kid develop. I'm cheering for him.

For Athletic subscribers, there's a new puff piece about Johansson from the summer intern. Big takeaway is Bruce saying he skates well and passes the puck well.

 

[JK2K]

McBain is the prize of the 2018 draft for the Wild.
Hindered by playing in a sub par league and team mates (to retain his eligibility) he starred in the Hlinka u18, and u19 WJAC tournaments for Canada. Played well in the U18 World Championships and is now headed to Boston college as a true fresh. Was a first round pick to the OHL and at the beginning of the year was ranked top 15 by Bob McKenzie falling to 35TH in his final ranking. Getting him at 63 was unbelievable. I’ve watched him play live 4 times , 6’4 and contrary to what has been written his skating is not a problem.
Khovanov is another steal, hampered by illness most of last year. In all I believe fans of the Wild will be surprised at the quality the Wild got picking where they did.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Yes, and they also let Sean Day into the club.

And that kind of put a clamp on things, though Sean Day has been getting better, ending with 47 points in 50 games and 14 points in 16 playoff games. There was a lot written about what happened with him, but we'll see. Veleno has been stuck on some bad teams as well, and with deep centers, so it's hard to know what his ceiling is at.

McBain is the prize of the 2018 draft for the Wild.
Hindered by playing in a sub par league and team mates (to retain his eligibility) he starred in the Hlinka u18, and u19 WJAC tournaments for Canada. Played well in the U18 World Championships and is now headed to Boston college as a true fresh. Was a first round pick to the OHL and at the beginning of the year was ranked top 15 by Bob McKenzie falling to 35TH in his final ranking. Getting him at 63 was unbelievable. I’ve watched him play live 4 times , 6’4 and contrary to what has been written his skating is not a problem.
Khovanov is another steal, hampered by illness most of last year. In all I believe fans of the Wild will be surprised at the quality the Wild got picking where they did.

I agree, both of those are excellent draft picks - if they develop right.

 

[Nsjohnson]

I agree, both of those are excellent draft picks - if they develop right.

I think they are excellent draft picks, period. You could say 'if they develop right' for every single pick, which means almost no picks are good picks in the entire NHL, because so many players don't pan out or develop.

For their positions, these guys are steals. Whether they make it to the NHL and become impact players, that is to be seen and doesn't mean they are bad picks this year.

 

[AKL]

I think they are excellent draft picks, period. You could say 'if they develop right' for every single pick, which means almost no picks are good picks in the entire NHL, because so many players don't pan out or develop.

For their positions, these guys are steals. Whether they make it to the NHL and become impact players, that is to be seen and doesn't mean they are bad picks this year.

With this being said, and this is an open question to anyone, how can you say these guys are great picks regardless of what happens, but saying a pick isn’t good is such a bad thing?

 

[Wild11MN]

With this being said, and this is an open question to anyone, how can you say these guys are great picks regardless of what happens, but saying a pick isn’t good is such a bad thing?

Completely fair point. These are good picks because of "value", but most people are disregarding the "value" aspect of the Johansson pick to say it might not be bad. The only difference is there have been a few people come in here who have actually seen guys like McBain play before, whereas no one has seen Johansson, so that's a bit of a difference. Some players are more heavily scouted/visible than others. No one really knows on any of these guys though, so who knows.

 

[StateofCelly]

It's not that some of us don't believe in the pick. But when you have a guy like Joe Veleno sitting there, who is in an elite club (can anyone guess what that is?) of players, and this team is missing a player that can take over the game - and he's sitting right there, it's a little disappointing. Especially when this team is trying to sell people that they are taking another direction - and yet, different GM, same philosophy.

Exactly my point. I just feel like maybe for everyone with a little hesitation in regards to it could have felt better if this kid had some Zadnia in him, some chip on his shoulder or desire to prove people wrong. From what I read yesterday early thoughts on him are that he is a very well spoken kid and represents himself well, and seems to have great hockey sense. The writer I saw on Twitter was essentially beaming.. granted small sample size from one day of prospect camp, but maybe this explains why he handled the situation the way he did. I think my consternation with the pick comes from the regime like you stated.. get tired of seeing the same old same old and expecting different results. Hope this kid proves us all wrong!

 

[thestonedkoala]

I think they are excellent draft picks, period. You could say 'if they develop right' for every single pick, which means almost no picks are good picks in the entire NHL, because so many players don't pan out or develop.

Sheppard and Phillips were considered good picks. Pouliot was considered a good pick. None of them did anything, because they didn't develop for one reason or another. McBain and Khovanov have some warts to their game, but they represent a lot of value because of who they can become. The question is are they going to be good value, because they overcome their warts OR are they going to be the standard 3rd round/5th round disappointment because they can't over come their warts. They have excellent value only because if developed right, they can great players. If not, /shrug.

 

[Nsjohnson]

Sheppard and Phillips were considered good picks. Pouliot was considered a good pick. None of them did anything, because they didn't develop for one reason or another. McBain and Khovanov have some warts to their game, but they represent a lot of value because of who they can become. The question is are they going to be good value, because they overcome their warts OR are they going to be the standard 3rd round/5th round disappointment because they can't over come their warts. They have excellent value only because if developed right, they can great players. If not, /shrug.

Yeah, I get what you mean. And it's true the real question is after their initial drafting, can they develop? Will they be given a good chance to develop? And if so, can they do it?

I think that there are like two tiers of 'good picks'. There's the initial 'did we draft a good player for the position?'. We got a few of those this draft.

Then, in retrospect after say, 3-5 years, did they end up being as good of a pick as we thought?

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

With this being said, and this is an open question to anyone, how can you say these guys are great picks regardless of what happens, but saying a pick isn’t good is such a bad thing?

Can we just make things easy and say that no pick is good or bad until actually proven so?

 

[PuckInTheNards]

Can we just make things easy and say that no pick is good or bad until actually proven so?

Amen, brother. I wasn't crazy about the pick but the least we can do is suspend judgement and give the kid a chance to prove himself. Plenty of time to rip the scouting staff if the kid busts but they've earned the benefit of the doubt, I think.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

This kid is now on the Swedish summer showcase roster after Sandin pulled out.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Exactly my point. I just feel like maybe for everyone with a little hesitation in regards to it could have felt better if this kid had some Zadnia in him, some chip on his shoulder or desire to prove people wrong. From what I read yesterday early thoughts on him are that he is a very well spoken kid and represents himself well, and seems to have great hockey sense. The writer I saw on Twitter was essentially beaming.. granted small sample size from one day of prospect camp, but maybe this explains why he handled the situation the way he did. I think my consternation with the pick comes from the regime like you stated.. get tired of seeing the same old same old and expecting different results. Hope this kid proves us all wrong!

just out of curiousity, i really know nothing about Veleno, but if he is in "elite club" how did he fall to 30?

 

[nickschultzfan]

just out of curiousity, i really know nothing about Veleno, but if he is in "elite club" how did he fall to 30?

Because he was far from perfect as well.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Because he was far from perfect as well.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

just out of curiousity, i really know nothing about Veleno, but if he is in "elite club" how did he fall to 30?

Because a lot can happen between 15 years old and 18 years old.

The "elite club" he was/is a part of was being granted exceptional status by the CHL to play early, joining Tavares, McDavid and Ekblad.

He fell to 30 because he pretty clearly isn't on the same level as those 3.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Because a lot can happen between 15 years old and 18 years old.

The "elite club" he was/is a part of was being granted exceptional status by the CHL to play early, joining Tavares, McDavid and Ekblad.

He fell to 30 because he pretty clearly isn't on the same level as those 3.

gotcha thank you for that.

 

[Nsjohnson]

gotcha thank you for that.

Also, to add to that, you aren't granted Exceptional Status as some sort of surprise prize. You have to apply for it yourself. Valeno applied, got it, and then just never developed into something that was much better than the better players at his age.

EDIT: I didn't want to sound like I was ridiculing him for applying. I think it's usually a good sign when a player applies. It means they have a lot of confidence and really WANT 'it'. But big expectations are caused by the acceptance of the status and of course not everyone can live up to being given that title.

 

[thestonedkoala]

He fell to 30 because he pretty clearly isn't on the same level as those 3.

Or he hasn't had the opportunity. He is on a pretty stacked team.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Or he hasn't had the opportunity. He is on a pretty stacked team.

No he isn’t.

 

[Twoods1623]

Wondering if anyone has watched his games or seen highlights from this year? I see he doesn't have any points in the Allsvenskan so far this year.

 

[AJ Thelen]

Wondering if anyone has watched his games or seen highlights from this year? I see he doesn't have any points in the Allsvenskan so far this year.

Based on his stats i doubt there is any highlights.

I'll try and catch a couple of games in the near future to see if there is something to tell.

 

[AJ Thelen]

So, i finally got a bit of samplesize.

The litle i got to see of him he didn't look very comfortable. Very often half the distance behind on plays and attacking players. Tries the difficult instead of the simple.

To be sure if my small samplesize was correct i asked around with people who follow him more closely.

One of the experts on Swedish Hockey; Uffe Bodin says he has been "OK" but he needs to step up his game if he has any plans on being included in the WJC-roster.

Another guy that follows Leksand said that FJ's play this far has been really poor and way below expected. He also said he looks uninspired, that he looks full of himself and that his stats don't lie.