WHL (World Hockey League) - Settings / Inaug.Draft / Discussion

[Pengwin7]

So... how did everybody in the WHL like their 2018 prospect pick choices?
Anybody care to expand now that picks have been taken.
(Nothing like pumping the value on your own players )

Some comments on mine:

18th overall: Barrett Hayton (*This wasn't my pick, but its worth looking at because I traded it away last year to acquire the 27th overall, which I used to take Robert Thomas. I'm absolutely thrilled with Thomas' last year and his development... so I don't regret trading this pick away at all).

42nd overall: Isaac Ratcliffe. I believe this was the first non-2018 entry pick. I had a queue of about three players, including Lundestrom (ANA), Ylonen (MON), and Lundkist (NYR)... but those guys went 37th, 35th, and 39th. Ratcliffe had a solid +1 year in the OHL and a solid Flyer dev camp. I've got good faith in Philly becoming a powerhouse and am already invested with Frost & Wade Allison. One of these three should get some good minutes on a line 2 or line 3 wing starting 2019-2020... not sure which it will be... but I've got them all now.

3rd round picks: none. I actually traded down because I didn't see anything I really loved here and thought I could get a few sleepers & add some 2019 picks by moving back.

4th round picks: none. I actually traded down because I didn't see anything I really loved here and thought I could get a few sleepers & add some 2019 picks by moving back. *Though, VintageVibe grabbed my final drop (26th man), Christian Wolanin at 77th overall. This hurt me a tad as I think he's got nice upside and possible PP2 usage if Ottawa moves Karlsson.

103rd overall: Jack Studnicka. He was on my radar last year. This year I read he is from Tecumseh, Ontario (my hometown) and had a good OHL +1 year on a so-so Oshawa team (which included Serron Noel and Allan McShane). He also had a nice Boston dev camp. With Boston aging quickly, it'll soon be time for them to turn in some youth... and he could be a nice player in 2+ years.

113th overall Kalle Kossila. At 25, he's at the end of our junior age limit. I can't keep him as a junior next year. But Anaheim has some spots for youth and Kossila had a solid 54pts in 55gp with the SD Gulls last year, leading them in scoring. He's waiver exempt only for one more year, so I'm hoping he's a full time Duck winger in 2019+.

119th overall: Alexander Volkov. Similar to my stock of PHI youth, I own Mathieu Joseph and like having two TB wingers (from AHL Syracuse) that both have a shot on the big squad in the future. Basically, investing in two, hoping to get dividends in one.

120th overall (last pick): Aaron Luchuk. There are rare cases of the cagey overager making a splash. Ottawa is starved for players in its strip-down. And Luchuk has really invested in himself the last two years. I'm not sure how well his game translates to the NHL, but its a "high risk" pick, IMO. He was a key part in the Spitfires Memorial Cup run in 2017... and since my WHL team is named "Windsor Spitfires"... this just felt right!

[Pit Bulls]

Moved my franchise from the high Sierra's to become the Fresno Firebirds this off season, hoping for a better season!

I also traded all of my 2018 prospect picks and acquired 2 huge building pieces for my future - Tolvanen and Hart. I kept my 10 prospects (a couple who should make the show this year) and will round out my roster with 3rd & 4th line depth players - usually the only ones available for our annual "Pro" draft that is coming up this Sept (unless some old guy named Kovalchuk is available).

My rebuild has been very slow - baby steps for sure! Hopefully this year I will move up into the teens in the standings - just to screw over Metaldude who I traded my first overall pick in 2019 to!

[evans334]

Hated my draft, but what can you do with only late round picks.
Happy I was able to pick up Jett Woo though:

Pos Player Rnd Pk Ov Type
C Peca, Matthew - MON 3 17 65 LS
D Toews, Devon - NYI 4 8 80 LS
D Woo, Jett - VAN 4 14 86 LS
C Quenneville, John - NJ 4 18 90 LS
LW Engvall, Pierre - TOR 5 9 105 LS

I'm happy with where my team is rounding out.
Everyone under the age of 26.
A stud goalie in Hellebuyck and a good 2nd in Grubauer.
Solid depth at the forward position, but no real superstars.
Just need to hope some of my d-men take a step forward this year.

Summary of my off season moves so far (not including picks):

In (16):
Sven Baertschi, Anthony Duclair, Jacob Trouba, Ivan Barbashev, Robby Fabbri, Phillipe Grubauer, Jonathan Dahlen, Brandon Saad, Charles Hudon, Pavel Buchnevich, Max Domi, Anthony Cirrelli, Brock Nelson, Jan Rutta, Jesper Bratt, Jordan Greenway

Out (11):
Steve Mason, Dylan Sikura, Zachary Aston-Reese, Oskar Lindblom, Dion Phaneuf, Ryan Johansen, Jakub Vrana, Alex Galchenyuk, Conor Sheary, Joshua Ho-Sang, Kale Clague

[Kofax]

After a surprise trip to the Finals in the Fighting Turtles inaugural season, I was left with limited picks in the entry draft.

By the time my first pick came up, it was the end of the second round, and with 24 teams, that's pretty late. I'm no prospect guru, so I don't have a great idea of what I'm looking for in the later picks.

2-20: Rudolfs Balcers - LW - SJS
Balcers doesn't seem to have a high ceiling, but he seems to have a safer floor, as in he should be an NHL player that can provide some production. In a deep league like this, he should end up being rosterable, and hopefully a keeper. He's a speedster with a good accurate shot, which seems to fit in today's NHL, and with opportunity seeming to be opening up in San Jose, I'm hoping he can work his way into a spot and return me some value.
2-23: Alexander Chmelevski - C - SJS
I traded up for this kid as I actually had him higher on my list, but thought he had been taken. He's another smart and speedy player on a San Jose team who seems to draft well. He was a fast riser this past season and I'm hoping the trend continues and he ends up being a bit of a steal for me.
5-22: Kevin Roy - RW - ANA
With one of the final picks in the draft, I grabbed a guy I'm hoping can grab a starting spot with the Ducks. If he manages to stick and provides me with some middling to low end production this year, I'll be happy with that. As a 25 year old, he'll be ineligible for our league about halfway through the season, so I'll have some time for that to happen.

[rataylor22]

I had a real strong plan in this draft to come away with

Veleno or Kotkaniemi at 1.11
Merkley or Kupari at 1.21
Jake Wise at 2.09
Two of Filip Hallander, Ruslan Iskhakov, Jesse Ylonen at 2.20, 2.21
Alex Khovanov at 3.17

After resisting Praba's overtures to get 1.11 and 1.21, I was OTC at 1.21 with Kupari staring me in the face and bright hope of exiting the second round with Kupari, Wise, Hallander, and Iskhakov but an excruciatingly good deal of Nick Backstrom for 1.21, 2.09, 2.20, and 2.21. I pulled the trigger on the deal but felt some frustration of not having a chance at "my guys" anymore.

I then watched Hallander, Wise, and Iskhakov all go before my 2.09 and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was still hopeful for Khovanov at 3.17, but when he went 3.13 I was looking at Der-Arguchintsev or trading back. I traded 3.17 for 4.12 and 5.7 and still managed to land SDA at 4.12, I and I dumped 5.7 for what should be an early 2019 5 (when our prospect pool expands by 5).

I still have two prospects I'll look to snag either later in the pro draft or once Add/Drops are permitted.

Entered the draft with:

1.11, 1.21, 2.09, 2.20, 2.21, 3.17

Exited the draft with:

Backstrom
Veleno
SDA
2019 5th

Really not the direction I planned to go with it, but happy with the areas I improved my team.

[JagrBomb]

Since I'm just starting my rebuild my general plan was to take BPA instead of worrying about positions. Acquired a tonne of picks and have some time to kill at work so here they are:

12th overall - Joel Farabee: Was taking best forward with this pick since I owned pick 15 and had a good chance of landing one of Dobson/Smith. Plus I enjoy drafting players I think Peng might want.

14th/18th Overall - Noah Dobson/Barrett Hayton: I acquired these prospects after the draft, which made losing out on Dobson with my next pick bearable.

15th overall - Ty Smith: Wanted Dobson who went right before me, but Smith is a great consolation given there's talks he could make the Devils roster opening night.

24th overall - Ty Dellandrea: My personal best value pick of the draft, I almost picked him at 12 so pretty happy to get him this late.

26th/29th overall - Liam Foudy/Akil Thomas: I wanted two of Foudy/Thomas/Noel/Wise with these picks, Wise went at 25 and Noel went at 27, so these were probably my easiest picks of the draft.

31st/32nd/33rd overall - Ruslan Iskhakov/Jakub Lauko/Niklas Nordgren: My hardest picks of the draft as I know I selected the latter two earlier than I should have. Was originally going to go with Sandin/Lundkvist/Wilde (who ended up going one spot earlier anyways) since I already drafted 4 forwards by this pick, but looking at the remaining available players there were a tonne of D left but not many forwards I liked so I grabbed the ones I felt had the highest upsides. It was a good gamble as I landed almost every single D I wanted with my later round picks.

36th/39th overall - Rasmus Sandin/Nils Lundkvist: With 7 forwards drafted I knew I had to start selecting D. I couldn't decide which of these two I liked better at 36 so I'm glad I got both.

54th overall - Alexander Alexeyev: I was targetting NHL ready skaters with my 3rd rounders, but given Alexeyev was my close 3rd choice for my previous two picks, taking him 15 spots later was an easy decision.

62nd/63rd overall - Daniel Brickley/Dominik Kahun: Selected guys I felt could crack their team's NHL roster sooner than later as I had a lot of first time draft eligible prospects by this time in the draft.

66th overall - Nicolas Beaudin: Another D I almost chose in the 2nd round that was too hard to pass up on this late in the draft.

106th overall - Bulat Shafigullan: I got bored and wanted to draft.

[GoNucks]

Cool idea Peng, very interesting to read those above, here goes mine,

Overall content with who I landed considering I went in without any 1st or 2nd round picks, had identified several guys I wanted and was luckily able to land most of who I targeted.

2nd round - 30th overall - Bode Wilde. Very high on this guy & his multi cat upside. Traded up to land this pick. Also since he was once regarded as a 1st round pick, sliding to where he did in the actual NHL draft has left a chip on his shoulder (stated by him) and he will have lots of motivation to have success at NHL level. Good opportunity to make an impact sooner than later with a porous & aging NYI D core, and with new GM & coach I could see them wanting to overturn the roster to their own guys.

4th round - 74th overall - Lucas Wallmark. Felt he has highest upside of available players, and after 101 points over past two AHL seasons he seems poised to make the NHL roster this or next year.

4th round - 89th overall - Boo Nieves. Wanted an NHL ready prospect eligible player that could slide immediately onto my NHL roster. Will likely be a bottom six guy but produced decently in that role as a rookie last year, could have a bit of an expanded role with some vets now gone from the NYR.

5th round - 104th overall - Jeremy Helvig. Feel this could be the Canes goalie of the future, was 2nd best GAA & save % in OHL last year, led the league in shutouts the year before, and had a sparkling 2.13 GAA & .929 save % in his second OHL season. Was watching him slide for awhile during our draft hoping he would get to me with a later pick.

5th round - 117th overall - Kerby Rychel. Boom or (likely) bust pick late in the final round. Small sample size but had 2 points in 4 games with Habs late last year, MaxPac likely gone could open up a firm roster spot for this former first round pick.

[glorybe23]

Very happy with my draft this season Peng.

had some hard decisions to make, lets take a look:

1st rd - no pick
2nd rd - no pick
3rd rd - no pick
4th rd - no pick
5th rd - no pick

I won't be moving my 2019 picks, lets just say that right now.

[GinFizz]

Just saw this.... I had the 19th and 20th picks this year which is somewhat new territory for the #Moose. My plan was to swing for the fences and take Merkley. There was no way in hell that someone from the WHL would take him before that.. right??? Way friggin #wrong. I basically depleted my D corps for more Wingers and was hoping to restock via this draft.

Before the draft started, I went out and traded Glass for Makar which should add a bit of value to my blue line in the near future while drafting K. Miller (1-19) and Tychonick (3-21) to also help in the next few years. With the 20th overall, i grabbed J. Berggren. Im very excited to follow his growth trajectory and watching him climb up some prospect rankings in the coming years. With my last pick i selected Cameron Hillis who to be honest dont know much about. im sure D5D will keep me posted.
Good luck all

[havanablast21]

Just saw this.... I had the 19th and 20th picks this year which is somewhat new territory for the #Moose. My plan was to swing for the fences and take Merkley. There was no way in hell that someone from the WHL would take him before that.. right??? Way friggin #wrong. I basically depleted my D corps for more Wingers and was hoping to restock via this draft.

Before the draft started, I went out and traded Glass for Makar which should add a bit of value to my blue line in the near future while drafting K. Miller (1-19) and Tychonick (3-21) to also help in the next few years. With the 20th overall, i grabbed J. Berggren. Im very excited to follow his growth trajectory and watching him climb up some prospect rankings in the coming years. With my last pick i selected Cameron Hillis who to be honest dont know much about. im sure D5D will keep me posted.
Good luck all

LOL... Sorry Fizz on Reaching for Merkley. I worked hard to try and re-enter the 1st round in the top 15 and given I landed at 13, I knew any of the kids I knew anything about would have been gone... So He was my target all along having watched him develop. Kid has an issue between his ears but I'll be damned if he isn't the smoothest skater I've seen in a long time. Just hoping San Jose can figure him out.

But Hockey Karma bit me as Fizz managed to get the kid I was targeting with my 3rd pick, Cam Hillis... but got risky and let him fall... right into Fizz's lap. I think he'll be a pretty good player eventually in the NHL, but not sure it will be with the Habs as they tend to sell their prospects like drunken sailors.

The middle of my draft was nothing to write home about and given I was pretty much pickled during the entire week at the cottage, would explain some of my picks.

With my 2nd pick not until the 3rd round, and Hillis having already been selected, I basically went for the position I needed the most help at and am hoping Borgstrom starts the season with the buds. He played well while he was up for the most part. Helluva hitter.
Re-acquired a Goalie Voodoo convinced me to take after fending him off on multiple offers... but figured... may as well take a chance as he Merick Madsen came off a fairly impressive college run.
Add in another Leaf (Brooks) who I don't expect much from in the near future and an Oiler Khaira who had his moments last year (likely bottom 6) and I have my depth.

Merkley is my crown jewel of this draft with the rest serving more of function than future building.

Fingers crossed he's more on the BOOM side of the Boom Bust critique.

[evans334]

Just saw this.... I had the 19th and 20th picks this year which is somewhat new territory for the #Moose. My plan was to swing for the fences and take Merkley. There was no way in hell that someone from the WHL would take him before that.. right??? Way friggin #wrong. I basically depleted my D corps for more Wingers and was hoping to restock via this draft.

Before the draft started, I went out and traded Glass for Makar which should add a bit of value to my blue line in the near future while drafting K. Miller (1-19) and Tychonick (3-21) to also help in the next few years. With the 20th overall, i grabbed J. Berggren. Im very excited to follow his growth trajectory and watching him climb up some prospect rankings in the coming years. With my last pick i selected Cameron Hillis who to be honest dont know much about. im sure D5D will keep me posted.
Good luck all

We'll be talking in a couple seasons

[evans334]

Because I'm procrastinating at work......

District-5 Ducks Season 2018-19 Season Preview

The 2017-2018 saw the Ducks miss the playoffs for the first year since the inception of the WHL, finishing the standings in 15th with an 11-12 record.
Mangement decided half-way through the season after years of early playoff exits that this team didn't have what it takes to challenge for the championship.

Queue the re-tool.

In a flurry of consecutive trades the Ducks core group was moved out for futures and prospects.
Big names like Tarasenko, Marchand, Eberle, Jones, Subban and others were traded and a youth movement was started.

The biggest move the Ducks GM made was to bring in young emerging star goalie, Connor Hellebuyck.
The 24 year old goalie is primed to be the back-bone of this organization for years to come.
Backup goalie Phillipe Grubauer was later brought in as insurance and to also help keep the crease competitive.

With solid goaltending in place the roster started to take shape, Ducks GM went on acquiring players like Drouin, Domi, Trouba, Buchnevich, Saad, Bratt, Fabbri, Coyle and Hudon. Roster players that all are looking for bounce back seasons and that can provide great scoring depth to an often inconsistent Ducks squad.

The farm team was revamped also. Big names like Dahlen and Greenway leading the way along with some players looking to crack the pro roster in Peca and Toews.

Projected Opening Night Roster

L1: Max Domi - Jonathan Drouin - Pavel Buchnevich

L2: Brandon Saad - Anthony Cirelli - Jesper Bratt

L3: Robbi Fabbri - Brock Nelson - Charlie Coyle

L4: Charles Hudon - Ivan Barbashev - Andrew Shaw

Extras : Anthony Duclair, Tobias Reider, Drake Cagguila, Matthew Peca, Jordan Greenway, Jonathan Dahlen

Scoring potential on each line, but the teams main weakness is up the middle.
Rookies Cirelli and Peca will be called upon to produce when they may no be ready for the full time gig yet, while Drouin still adjusts to the center ice position.
The Ducks will need big contributions and continuous improvement from the center core.
And there's a lot of question marks surrounding Fabbri's injury and if Domi and Saad can bounce back from a down years.
Can rookies Greenway and Dahlen come in and produce right away?

D1: Victor Mete - Jacob Trouba

D2: Mike Reilly - Jan Rutta

D3: Brad Hunt - Troy Stetcher

Extras: Devon Toews

Not a lot to write home about here with a majority of the production being shoulder by Trouba, the rest of the d-core will need to contribute with there defensive prowess and not anchoring the team with horrible plus/minus.

G1: Connor Hellebuyck
G2: Phillipe Grubauer

This Ducks team will live and die by their goal tending duo.
Hellebuyck led the league in points last season and Ducks management is hoping he can carry that momentum on through the 2019 schedule.
Grubauer will have some opportunities, as the team has him projecting about 35 starts.

Final Standings Prediction

The WHL saw a lot of movement this off season with some of the perennial top teams making major changes.
The Ducks finished only 3 wins out of the playoffs last year so there's a feeling of optimism going into the upcoming campaign.
If this teams group of forwards can stay healthy and produce at a steady clip, along with consistent goal tending, we should see them challenge for a playoff birth.

[WHLinsider]

Looking forward to the upcoming season WHL GMs!

[WHLinsider]

Looking forward to the upcoming season

[rataylor22]

Looking forward to the upcoming season

Oh shit yo