OK, the final ranking is published now: https://www.tsn.ca/kotkaniemi-surges...king-1.1115400
I would never take one man's opinion as gospel, and I have a tremendous amount of respect towards Pronman. He sees Dobson as top-four guy, many others see him as top-pair guy. I don't know which side ends up being right but you can't just look at one side of things and ignore the other. Young defensemen are much harder to project than forwards but when you find that top-pair guy, it's pure gold. Is a top-six winger like Zadina more valuable than a true top-pair defenseman? I doubt that. But yeah, again, I don't disagree with taking Zadina ahead of him. But I do think Dobson is the safest right-handed shot 'D' available in this draft class, although Boqvist offers more upside especially offensively.
OK, the final ranking is published now: https://www.tsn.ca/kotkaniemi-surges...king-1.1115400
While I (/people) like to hold to their forecasts - sometimes, ya gotta admit a change.
I originally had Zadina/Svechnikov going 2/3, I sort of no wonder if Montreal really will take Kotakaniemi at #3.
The trading of Galchenyuk does seem to add some merit that they've decided that they have a center coming to them at #3 and can move on from Galchenyuk.
Another thought came into my head about Arizona & Chayka at #5.
Watching Chayka's moves, he's been very active about targeting G & D.
For a while, I considered that he simply values those positions as worthy assets, but it crossed my mind that maybe having D before F is the right "ORDER" of building a team.
One looks at a team like Edmonton, who absolutely stockpiled F, and has to wonder... would it have been better if they had a D first.
Nashville is kind of the model here. They've been so successfuly with having their young D in place, going back to the Weber/Suter days, then Josi & S.Jones & Ellis & Ekholm.
With all those guys and Rinne, they haven't even needed that much talent at forward to be successful. Filip Forsberg and RyJo (via S.Jones) is really the only elite talent at F they own and still win so much.
And while I thought that ARI might be targeting a D again... maybe the D is in place, especially with the OEL re-signing.
And last year's Stepan trade was the starting domino that he was ready to place the forwards.
If you have a solid G and D-core, then you can patch in the young kids.
So, I'd switch to say that ARI is holding at #5 and will plug whoever falls of Zadina, Tkachuk, Kotka, might even consider Wahlstrom.
I can see it being Tkachuk who is there at #5... and its a big question whether Chayka values Tkachuk's game over Wahlstrom. That will be interesting if it falls that way.
I'm still thinking Quinn Hughes goes to Detroit at #6. That's another interesting pick, since one of the six forwards (the last of the six) is also still on the board at that time.
Detroit is actually one of the team's that doesn't need to overthink a RHD (say Dobson).
They've got Hronek (RH) and Saarjiarvi (RH) in their system... and the future four might include Dennis Cholowski (LH) and Hughes (LH).
For now, they've got DeKeyser(LH) as the only guy with a long-term hold on a top six spot with the Wings.
Detroit has sort of lost that "local flare" they had with the Ontarians and Michiganders on past teams.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Illitch family desires to get some of that back and passes down their hopes to GM.
Yeah, I'm starting to think it goes:
1. BUF: Dahlin
2. CAR: Svechnikov
3. MON: Kotkaniemi
4. OTT: Tkachuk
5. ARZ: Zadina
6. DET: Hughes
7. VAN: Dobson
8. CHI: Wahlstrom
9. NYR: Bouchard
10. EDM: Boqvist
But honestly nothing is for certain after the first two picks.
While anything Eklund says, I take with a grain of salt.. okay.. most times a shaker without the lid... Have to post this, as JP deserves some love for the tweet. see half-way mark of article: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=93406
Follow me on twitter: @doylelb4
Right now, I think JP's mock is quite likely. The only other options I see are swapping 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9, which goes to show that JP hit the nail on the head! I don't think we'll see a swap of say, 6 for 9 (Hughes for Bouchard, for example). I can see Zadina over Tkachuk, Dobson right before Hughes, and Bouchard possibly before Wahlstrom (although I agree with JP on his placement there). But that's it, other than that, it's starting to become much clearer.
GET WELL SOON, DOBBER.
So I am basically more confused now on who I should draft at 2. DAMMIT!
Points only keeper. 12 Teams. No pos requirements. 18 skaters / 3 goalies (2 count for points.) G/A = 1 point each (includes goalies) Goalies = 1.5 for W / 4.5 for SO. Minors - 4 year protection. Prospects added during their draft year only. Undrafted = waivers.
Skaters: Tolvanen,Jeannot,Drysdale,Benson,Sprong,Fantilli,H .Lindholm,T. Raddysh,K. Miller,Edvinsson,Roslovic,Sharangovich,McBain,Benn ett,Crouse, Luostarinen,Dube,Phillips
Goalies: Gustavsson,Schmid,Vejmekla
Minors: F.Pinelli,Beckman,Cossa,Nikkanen,Tieksola,Pashin,M cMichael,Konovalov,Svechkov,K.Johnson,Moore,Crista ll,Heidt,Ziemmer,Perron,Nadeau,Gulyayev,Wahlberg, Suniev,Tomasino,Khusnutdinov
Why? Dahlin & Svech are runaway's at 1 & 2.. take whichever #1 doesn't
Follow me on twitter: @doylelb4
Points only keeper. 12 Teams. No pos requirements. 18 skaters / 3 goalies (2 count for points.) G/A = 1 point each (includes goalies) Goalies = 1.5 for W / 4.5 for SO. Minors - 4 year protection. Prospects added during their draft year only. Undrafted = waivers.
Skaters: Tolvanen,Jeannot,Drysdale,Benson,Sprong,Fantilli,H .Lindholm,T. Raddysh,K. Miller,Edvinsson,Roslovic,Sharangovich,McBain,Benn ett,Crouse, Luostarinen,Dube,Phillips
Goalies: Gustavsson,Schmid,Vejmekla
Minors: F.Pinelli,Beckman,Cossa,Nikkanen,Tieksola,Pashin,M cMichael,Konovalov,Svechkov,K.Johnson,Moore,Crista ll,Heidt,Ziemmer,Perron,Nadeau,Gulyayev,Wahlberg, Suniev,Tomasino,Khusnutdinov
McKenzie says Kotkaniemi reminds a lot of scouts of Sasha Barkov.. that's the first time I've heard Kotkaniemi compared to someone with that level of offensive ability.
Follow me on twitter: @doylelb4