2014 NHL Draft Q & A [Dean Youngblood]

[Potatoeman]

Thank you so much for doing this! I loved the advice I could use last year and I'm already appreciating the advice that has already been given this year to date!

My league is a sim league, so the value of a player in my league is quite closer to real NHL value. In the upcoming draft I have two 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th round picks, in all cases one of them is around the 15-20th range in that round and the other should be in the 25-30th range. Any advice on whom I should be targeting (at least with my 3rd and 5th rounders)? I'm thinking on maybe putting a little more emphasis on D-men and goalies (already read the stuff about the goalies so no need to repeat!), but best player available is always my strategy.

Thanks in advance!

[donpaulo]

Who do you see as the primary goal scoring forward from this years draft in say 3 years ?

[Dean Youngblood]

I like the order of this list in the top 5, but I'm curious, why Kapanen > Dal Colle?

I have the 6th pick in my league in my signature, would it be silly to take Virtanen or Ritchie at 6 over Kapanen or Dal Colle? Hits and Pims are my teams biggest need while i feel comfortable with my scoring going forward.

It's more of a coin flip in fantasy with Dal Colle and Kapanen. I've seen tons of Dal Colle and I love his game (reminds me a bit of Brandon Saad but higher end). I feel he'll be one of the best from this draft, which says a lot. But I've liked Kapanen in the few viewings I've had and read tons of praise about his offensive abilities. Chalk up the small (minute) difference to me being slightly more intrigued by Kapanen'...probably because I haven't seen as much of him. The safer pick is Dal Colle but this is fantasy, I don't like safe haha.


I would certainly take Ritchie over both DC and Kapanen if PIMs and Hits are value. He's the best combination of that. Virtanen I would have just slightly behind the pair though. I worry about his ability to maximize his potential as he seems to get tunnel vision and isn't a pure "creator" of offence like the other two. Top 10 for Virtanen regardless

[Dean Youngblood]

Thanks for doing this. Also, thanks to Pengwin for asking the question I ask in this thread every year, thus freeing me up to ask a different one!

In a multicat salary league I have four picks between 68 and 82. Any thoughts on guys worth picking in that range? Longshot offensive guys are good, but a good hit/block/PIM d-man would be fine too. Thanks!

Depends largely on how these players fall at the draft since most fantasy owners use the actual draft spots to draft accordingly in their leagues.

Guys who might land in that area who I like are:
F - Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Spencer Watson, Ryan MacInnis, Shane Eiserman, Christian Dvorak, Edgars Kulda, Hunter Smith, Warren Foegele, Keegan Iverson
D - Josh Jacobs, Jake Walman, Gavin Bayreuther, Dysin Mayo

Strongly recommend buying the Fantasy Prospects Guide. Extrensive coverage in there will help with these deep lists.

[Dean Youngblood]

Thank you so much for doing this! I loved the advice I could use last year and I'm already appreciating the advice that has already been given this year to date!

My league is a sim league, so the value of a player in my league is quite closer to real NHL value. In the upcoming draft I have two 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th round picks, in all cases one of them is around the 15-20th range in that round and the other should be in the 25-30th range. Any advice on whom I should be targeting (at least with my 3rd and 5th rounders)? I'm thinking on maybe putting a little more emphasis on D-men and goalies (already read the stuff about the goalies so no need to repeat!), but best player available is always my strategy.

Thanks in advance!

Answering this question would be a shot in a dark. Too hard to predict the actual draft outcome. As I mentioned in the previous post, buying the draft guide would help you tremendously. Well worth the coin for deep leagues.

[Dean Youngblood]

Who do you see as the primary goal scoring forward from this years draft in say 3 years ?

Good question. Bennett, Dal Colle, Ritchie and Virtanen are the four that come to mind with true sniping ability. Perlini is another one.

[Pengwin7]

DY,
Tell us... are you totally stoked that your list makes the collective at mynhldraft.com... or totally bummed that they post Pornman's list in the first slot?
http://www.mynhldraft.com/2014-nhl-d...pect-rankings/

Are you on board with most others that there's pretty solid collection of talent in the 5-9 range this year, compared to other years?
I've got the #8 slot in my entry draft, starting June 5th. Standard multi-cat + FOW,Hit,Blk... so I love your help here wrt. Fantasy Hockey!!!

(Congrats BTW - you've done some great work carving out a niche for yourself in the general hockey world! I'm really impressed - miss you as part of the everyday community... but you keep rockin' it man!)

[als_revenge]

DY,
Tell us... are you totally stoked that your list makes the collective at mynhldraft.com... or totally bummed that they post Pornman's list in the first slot?
http://www.mynhldraft.com/2014-nhl-d...pect-rankings/

Are you on board with most others that there's pretty solid collection of talent in the 5-9 range this year, compared to other years?
I've got the #8 slot in my entry draft, starting June 5th. Standard multi-cat + FOW,Hit,Blk... so I love your help here wrt. Fantasy Hockey!!!

(Congrats BTW - you've done some great work carving out a niche for yourself in the general hockey world! I'm really impressed - miss you as part of the everyday community... but you keep rockin' it man!)

LOL. Type-o or deliberate?

[His Dudeness]

Thanks for taking questions. League in my sig. I've currently got the 15th overall pick in 2014 entry draft (i.e. whoever is actually taken 15 goes onto my team). I'm interested to move up and have had talks with guy with 2nd overall pick (held by Buffalo). I offered him Domi and 15th for the 2nd, he said no and asked for Hamilton (whether plus the 15th wasn't clear) but I said no. It looks like he'd want one of my dmen with the 15th in order to give up the 2nd. Pullock and Gostibehere wouldn't be enough. Hamilton and Shattenkirk would be too much (in my view). So I'm considering whether to offer one of Leddy, Maata, Gardiner or Goligoski with the 15th pick, for the 2nd pick. But that would mean whoever goes to Buffalo at 2nd has to be pretty awesome. I'd appreciate your views as to whether he'll be awesome enough to justify giving up one of those dmen. Thanks

[Ed.]

Thanks! As for the Prospects Guide, don't worry. I buy it every year, and this year will be no exception.

[Potatoeman]

Thanks! As for the Prospects Guide, don't worry. I buy it every year, and this year will be no exception.

Same here!

[Dean Youngblood]

DY,
Tell us... are you totally stoked that your list makes the collective at mynhldraft.com... or totally bummed that they post Pornman's list in the first slot?
http://www.mynhldraft.com/2014-nhl-d...pect-rankings/

Are you on board with most others that there's pretty solid collection of talent in the 5-9 range this year, compared to other years?
I've got the #8 slot in my entry draft, starting June 5th. Standard multi-cat + FOW,Hit,Blk... so I love your help here wrt. Fantasy Hockey!!!

(Congrats BTW - you've done some great work carving out a niche for yourself in the general hockey world! I'm really impressed - miss you as part of the everyday community... but you keep rockin' it man!)

Meh, ESPN probably flips them a few bucks to post Pronman's first Thanks for sharing. I didn't notice that.

That list of mine is outdated. My rankings for the Prospect Guide will be more accurate.


Yes, this year's crop is pretty solid right through the middle part of the first round....it tends to drop off midway to more "serviceable" type of guys or players with more risk.

I think I touched on multi-cat players earlier in this thread. I find it difficult to find a do-it-all type of multicat player (HITS, BLOCKS, FOW, etc) but the guys I would target would be Sam Bennett (you won't have a chance on him), Nick Ritchie, Alex Tuch, Dylan Larkin

Thanks for the kind words buddy. I wish I had the time to contribute more to these boards but I do come and go in streaky periods. Call me the Mr. Johan Franzen or Mr Alexander Semin of the fantasy boards.

[Dean Youngblood]

Thanks for taking questions. League in my sig. I've currently got the 15th overall pick in 2014 entry draft (i.e. whoever is actually taken 15 goes onto my team). I'm interested to move up and have had talks with guy with 2nd overall pick (held by Buffalo). I offered him Domi and 15th for the 2nd, he said no and asked for Hamilton (whether plus the 15th wasn't clear) but I said no. It looks like he'd want one of my dmen with the 15th in order to give up the 2nd. Pullock and Gostibehere wouldn't be enough. Hamilton and Shattenkirk would be too much (in my view). So I'm considering whether to offer one of Leddy, Maata, Gardiner or Goligoski with the 15th pick, for the 2nd pick. But that would mean whoever goes to Buffalo at 2nd has to be pretty awesome. I'd appreciate your views as to whether he'll be awesome enough to justify giving up one of those dmen. Thanks

If you could get Leddy + 15th for 2nd, you'd be laughing. Guessing that wouldn't do it. Buffalo is going to take either Sam Bennett or Sam Reinhart. Both will have good NHL careers.

I would send Goligoski + 15th for the 2nd and hope that you land one of Bennett, Draisaitl, Nylander. Not a bad return.

[Selanne13]

Is this thread still active?

If so i'd like to know who do you think will be the better fantasy asset longterm, julius honka or ville pokka?

[Oakville Squires]

Hey Dean, if Baertschi was available would he rank in the top 10 for this draft year and if so where? Also with all of the left winger prospect that Calgary has accumulated (Baertschi, Gaudreau, Poirier, Klimchuk) do you see one of them as a likely candidate to switch to RW.