3 Prospect Picks - 3rd, 7th and 8th - Who to Target?

[tdot1985]

I for one look forward to our prospect draft every year, as it means the season will be coming soon!

After rebuilding for a few years, I am probably going to be trying to compete this year.

With that said, the spoils of trades last year has left me with 3 prospect picks. We have a 10 team league, and our prospect draft is different than our regular draft.

In this draft, we are eligible to draft any player who is still considered a rookie, and roster them on our farm team for up to 3 years, at which point we must activate them. We can also activate any of our players on our farm at any time, and they are considered a free keeper for the during the off season they are activated.

With this out of the way, I know for sure Nico will be picked 1st. After this, I assume I will have my pick of Nolan Patrick and Clayton Keller.

After this I am totally unsure of what to do. I have all of this current draft class available to myself, plus most of 2016's (excluding Matthews, Laine, Dubois, Puljujarvi, Tkachuk, and Nylander). There are also a few intriguing names from 2015 who still qualify and are available, such as Chabot, Eriksson Ek, and Boeser. I have also been keeping an eye on Demko as an option.

As you can see I have way too many options, but you all have not steered me wrong so far, so any input would be more than helpful.

As a start, here is how I rank my targets:

Nico H
Clayton Keller
Nolan Patrick
Sam Steel
Brock Boeser
Tyson Jost
Elias Pettersson
Cody Glass
Casey Mittelstadt
Gabriel Vilardi

FYI; The league for this is the one in my description.

[Slythefly]

I put Glass and Mittelstadt behind Pettersson and maybe behind Jost.

[PenguinHunter]

You have a pretty stacked farm... is there any way to can trade 3 and 8 to move to 1 to pick the player you want?

I personally would try to move to 2nd if you were 100% sure Hischier was going 1 and take Patrick #2 overall.

Anyways as for your question

Who to target at 3... I would want Patrick... but you have to take whichever of Hischier, Patrick Keller that are aavailable at three.

For picks 7 and 8:

After those top three I rank them:

Boeser
Jost
Steel
Glass
Mittlestadt

So use that for your targeting!

[lucafen4]

Keller's at the very top of my list

Hischer
Patrick
Boeser
Glass
Jost
Mittlstadt
Makar
Pettersson
Liljigren

[VintageVibe]

Keller's at the very top of my list

Hischer
Patrick
Boeser
Glass
Jost
Mittlstadt
Makar
Pettersson
Liljigren

Push comes to shove... this is how I rank them too.

[lucafen4]

I should add, I would trade up to get Keller at #1... using 3 & 8... I wouldn't trade up to get Hischer at that price. I think there's going to be a sizeable gap between them

[Potatoeman]

Keller's at the very top of my list

Hischer
Patrick
Boeser
Glass
Jost
Mittlstadt
Makar
Pettersson
Liljigren

I like this ranking as well.

Keller definitely first over Hischer and Patrick.

Then Boeser, as the wait time is shorter, which gives you the option of unleashing whoever you picked at 3 along with Boeser, Nylander, Laine, Eichel and Rantanen all at the same time.

I might consider moving Makar up the list since you seem to have no d-men in your farm team, unless d-men are of less value or are easier to acquire in your league.

[Jouko-Pouko]

As a start, here is how I rank my targets:

Nico H
Clayton Keller
Nolan Patrick
Sam Steel
Brock Boeser
Tyson Jost
Elias Pettersson
Cody Glass
Casey Mittelstadt
Gabriel Vilardi

Definitely try trading up to 2nd if you think Keller will be there - I would definitely take him over Hischier as well but if you know he's going first, then 2nd overall is good enough for you.

I would push Patrick down to below Boeser on your list, and flip Pettersson and Glass. I would put Chabot up there as well, somewhere around where Jost is. I'm too lazy to think about other players who might be available, so I'm just going by the names you mentioned.

[smytty]

Keller
Hischer
Boeser
Patrick
Pettersen
Makar
Jost
Glass
Mittlestadt
Liljigren

[Cypher11]

I think Eriksson Ek is going to be a stud, but doesn't get the respect he deserves because he's in Minnesota's system.

Keller
Hischier
Boeser
Patrick
Eriksson EK
McAvoy
Sergachyev
Chabot
Steel
Jost
Mittelstadt
Glass
Makar
Vilardi
Petterson
Liljegren

[Axeman33]

Is Luke Kunin available as well? Id put him ahead of a lot of this years guys.

[tdot1985]

Well so far I have a lot to think about. I appreciate everyone's input so far! I am just going to reply to some of the questions here:

You have a pretty stacked farm... is there any way to can trade 3 and 8 to move to 1 to pick the player you want?

I personally would try to move to 2nd if you were 100% sure Hischier was going 1 and take Patrick #2 overall.

Anyways as for your question

Who to target at 3... I would want Patrick... but you have to take whichever of Hischier, Patrick Keller that are aavailable at three.

For picks 7 and 8:

After those top three I rank them:

Boeser
Jost
Steel
Glass
Mittlestadt

So use that for your targeting!

I should add, I would trade up to get Keller at #1... using 3 & 8... I wouldn't trade up to get Hischer at that price. I think there's going to be a sizeable gap between them

I have reached out to the person with the 1st overall pick, but he's pretty set on picking Nico. And he thinks he wont be there if he trades down, so unfortunately unless I offer more than I am comfortable doing (I offered 3rd and 7th/8th), he is going to turn it down. Person with 2nd Overall wont trade, and really he is who I am worried about, as he is very prospect savvy and I feel would take Keller before Patrick.

I think Eriksson Ek is going to be a stud, but doesn't get the respect he deserves because he's in Minnesota's system.

Keller
Hischier
Boeser
Patrick
Eriksson EK
McAvoy
Sergachyev
Chabot
Steel
Jost
Mittelstadt
Glass
Makar
Vilardi
Petterson
Liljegren

I actually like Eriksson Ek quite a bit, but I feel he would be available as someone to take in my non prospect draft, as a late round pick. Also, do you feel he would be playing in the top 2 lines in the near future?

Is Luke Kunin available as well? Id put him ahead of a lot of this years guys.

Kunin is also available, and just going of Dobber's Prospect Rankings, here is who would be available still:

1 Clayton Keller ARI
2 Nico Hischier NJD
3 Nolan Patrick PHI
5 Vadim Shipachyov VGK
6 Brock Boeser VAN
8 Kevin Labanc SJS
9 Oliver Bjorkstrand CBJ
13 Tyson Jost COL
14 Kirill Kaprizov MIN
15 Cody Glass VGK
16 Timo Meier SJS
17 Sam Steel ANA
18 Anthony Beauvillier NYI
19 Josh Ho-Sang NYI o
20 Jakub Vrana WAS o
21 Colin White OTT o
22 Brendan Perlini ARI
23 Ivan Barbashev STL
24 Luke Kunin MIN
25 Christian Fischer ARI
27 Evgeny Svechnikov
28 Casey Mittelstadt
29 Joel Eriksson Ek
30 Elias Pettersson
32 Nikolay Goldobin

[tdot1985]

Hey Everyone, all the feedback was much appreciated. One wrinkle I have overlooked and was hoping for some input would be potential goalies. Goalies who still would qualify as rookies, such as Demko and Saros. As I have 3 years to activate them, I feel that will be enough time that I could consider both of them. Based on the rankings above, where would you slot these two in? As goalies are fairly valuable in my league, I would be tempted to slot them in as such:


Clayton Keller
Nico H
Nolan Patrick
Sam Steel
Brock Boeser
Tyson Jost
Thatcher Demko
Jusse Saros
Luke Kunin
Mittlstadt
Makar
Pettersson
Liljigren

Any input regarding the goalies and where to rank them?