2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC

[MoneypuckOverlord]

1 hour ago, Smashian Kassian said:

How would u guys rate Podkolzin, Cozens & Boldy?

 

Ive been most impressed by Boldy. I think hes got the best hands & the best shot. Aswell as the highest IQ.

 

Podkolzin is the most complete, and probably has the most potential to be a line driver.

 

Cozens big advantage is he also plays C. He's plays a complete game & skates very good at his size.

 

Some advantages are bigger than others, some are slighter.

A bunch of hfboards people think krebs is better then cozens.  

[Bure_Pavel]

If the draft goes;
 

Hughes

Kakko

Cozens

Byram

Dach

Turcotte 

Boldy

Krebs 

Podkolzin

 

Who do we take?

The most common ive seen ranked in top 10 outside those guys is Zegras, or draft a Dman, or do we swing for the fences? 

 

[Master Higgins]

21 minutes ago, Bure_Pavel said:

If the draft goes;
 

Hughes

Kakko

Cozens

Byram

Dach

Turcotte 

Boldy

Krebs 

Podkolzin

 

Who do we take?

The most common ive seen ranked in top 10 outside those guys is Zegras, or draft a Dman, or do we swing for the fences? 

 

Personally beyond this i’d go zegras or newhook 

[Canuck Surfer]

5 hours ago, NUCKER67 said:

I have a feeling EDM is going to grab Broberg with the #8. They don't need forwards, they need D, and Broberg has size and speed. I believe he's also already playing against men in Sweden. Perhaps a future top pairing of  Broberg - Bouchard for them.

 

 

 

Soderstrom competed in the SHL, Sweden's top league. Broberg skating in a league a level removed, the Allsvenskan.

 

Was as productive in the higher league, much better defensively, much more polished skills & compete.

 

Its simply the raw potential in his speed and size that makes Broberg a distraction.  

[Smashian Kassian]

34 minutes ago, MoneypuckOverlord said:

A bunch of hfboards people think krebs is better then cozens.  

I compared those 3 b/c their all bigger or stronger.

 

But ya I have time for that, throw Newhook in that conversation too. Newhook might be the best player on this Canadian team. 

[aGENT]

25 minutes ago, Canuck Surfer said:

Soderstrom competed in the SHL, Sweden's top league. Broberg skating in a league a level removed, the Allsvenskan.

 

Was as productive in the higher league, much better defensively, much more polished skills & compete.

 

Its simply the raw potential in his speed and size that makes Broberg a distraction.  

Thoughts on Seider?

[Bure_Pavel]

28 minutes ago, Master Higgins said:

Personally beyond this i’d go zegras or newhook 

Ya both are highly skilled and have that bring fans out of their seats quality. 

[Canuck Surfer]

1 minute ago, aGENT said:

Thoughts on Seider?

I have not seen him play, to be fair.

 

My impressions from highlights is he is not as fast or silky smooth. Is stronger, has some skills, possibly better skills. But its just highlights. A great athlete, raw potential guy?

 

And harder to equate as the German league is probably an even lower standard than the Allsvenskan. Still against fully grown adults and impressive for a teen.  

 

Guys like this win drafts for some teams and become vacant picks for others?

[R3aL]

3 hours ago, The 5th Line said:

Even Jim himself said he wanted players with Canadian heart.  It's a different animal playing hockey in Canada, it's in our blood, it's everywhere.  Canadians play a different style, it's not about race or nationalism. I'm pretty sure nobody minds having Petey around.  Of course you don't stretch and take a far less superior player if he's Canadian but if it's a close call you take the Canadian.  Was Virtanen clear cut BPA or did he have an advantage because he was from Abbotsford and grew up watching the Canucks?   We don't want another group of soft spoken Swedes leading the way, it doesn't work in Hockey.  You need a good group of North American players to win the cup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man so much wrong with this line of thinking in today’s day an age.

 

“Nobody minds having Petey around”.. “don’t want another group of soft spoken swedes leading the way”...

 

This just upsets me reading, just ridiculous. Like nobuddy minds having Pettersson that’s so stupid... we are lucky as hell to have him and to have gotten him at 5th overall. He’s the best most exciting player we have had since Bure. Oh wait he wasn’t Canadian either. You don’t deliver your message clearly cause guess what, Pettersson is going to be a big leader for our group both statistically and in the locker room for a very long time. 

 

And referring to that old quote of Benning’s saying Canadian heart with euro skill, that was quite awhile ago, and he was referring to old stereotypes and also acknowledging that its not exactly like that anymore. And if he did and if that is why they picked Virtanen over Nylander, Ehlers and McCann over Pastrnak, clearly that was a mistake and proves that line of thinking is clearly and horribly wrong. Pastrnak is also a big time performer and looks fantastic in playoff hockey. 

 

you need a Blend of talent, hard work, team chemistry, timely goal tending, solid coaching and luck to win a cup not just North American (at least you have broadened it from just Canadian) players.

 

so how did Washington win last year with 2 Russians, a Swede and an American leading the charge for them offensively?

 

Kuznetsov and Ovie were the top 2 playoff MVP choices too.. Both Russian

 

you don’t build teams

By nationality. Teams are

built with great diversity in nationality, playing style, heights, weights, personalities, personal interests, skill levels and blends of those skills.

 

you also want a dynamic mix of people as this leads to greater creativity. Give you a business example, when Steve Jobs left Apple and worked at Pixar he made a big renovation to

the building to increase /

force staff interaction. Putting all the washrooms in one centeal

area so that it would force workers of different departments to be mixed together and to get people talking that wouldn’t see each other from different departments otherwise. This facilitated innovation and creativity. You take a team of players all from the same

place and similar history, interests etc I would bet you that a team with a mix of backgrounds interests will create a more dynamic creative environment.

 

 

 

[R3aL]

1 hour ago, Canuck Surfer said:

Soderstrom competed in the SHL, Sweden's top league. Broberg skating in a league a level removed, the Allsvenskan.

 

Was as productive in the higher league, much better defensively, much more polished skills & compete.

 

Its simply the raw potential in his speed and size that makes Broberg a distraction.  

GMs / scouts could get seduced by his international play, physical attributes and physical draft year resemblance to hedman.

 

i could see a team being high on him and taking him before our pick. Would just give us another high end forward option.

[appleboy]

37 minutes ago, R3aL said:

GMs / scouts could get seduced by his international play, physical attributes and physical draft year resemblance to hedman.

 

i could see a team being high on him and taking him before our pick. Would just give us another high end forward option.

Some scouts question his hockey IQ.

[The_Rocket]

49 minutes ago, R3aL said:

GMs / scouts could get seduced by his international play, physical attributes and physical draft year resemblance to hedman.

 

i could see a team being high on him and taking him before our pick. Would just give us another high end forward option.

I really hope some GM’s (looking at edm, Ana, maybe buff) go real f the board so we can grab another faller like Quinn Hughes last year

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

 

[Noble 6]

Looking at our potential options at 10th, I think Heinola is getting overlooked by most. He just turned 18 last month and he's been playing in Liiga, the top Finnish men's league, for pretty much the entire year. That's impressive for someone his age as European leagues tend to favour older veterans.

 

What's even more impressive is his level of production at that level. Heinola has been the most productive draft eligible defenseman coming out of Liiga in a long time and has even outproduced some recently drafted forwards. He displays high end hockey IQ from the blue line and creates offense by making good decisions with the puck. He's not afraid to move in the zone of he catches his defender sleeping. At the end of the day, the offensive abilities have to be good to put up the kind of numbers he has been. 

 

Here's a look at Heinola's production compared to other recent first rounders from Liiga:

 

Kotkaniemi (F): 29 points in 57 regular season games (0.51 PPG) - 3rd Overall 2018

Heinola (D): 14 points in 34 regular season games (0.41 PPG) and 4 points in 7 Playoff games (0.57 PPG) - Draft Eligible

Kupari (F): 14 points in 39 regular season games (0.36 PPG) and 0 points in 6 Playoff games - 20th Overall 2018

Kokkonen (D): 19 points in 56 regular season games (0.34 PPG) - Draft Eligible

Heiskanen (D): 10 points in 37 regular season games (0.27 PPG) and 3 points in 8 Playoff games (0.34 PPG) - 3rd Overall 2017

Vaakanainen (D): 6 points in 41 regular season games (0.15 PPG) and 3 points in 14 Playoff games (0.21 PPG) - 18th Overall 2017

 

As you can see, Heinola's production is absolutely elite for someone coming out of Liiga. Most notably, he scored at a rate considerably higher than Heiskanen, who has shown this year and in the first round that he can he's one of the best young defensemen in the NHL. Heinola was the 4th highest scoring defenseman on his team in terms of point totals, but he played in about half the games as two of the defensemen ahead of him. Heinola's PPG was comparable to the team's leading scorer from the blue line, indicating that he would've likely finished with similar totals if he played the same amount of games. 

 

You can also see that Kokkenen's numbers stand out. He could be an excellent value pick in the late 1st round or our 2nd if he lasts that long. 

 

To be honest, I don't understand why Heinola isn't a lock for the top ten and maybe even in the discussion for the top 5. His production is amazing, he's got good size at 5'11 and 189 pounds, and doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. His defensive play could stand to be refined, but that's true for essentially every draft eligible defenseman. The most direct comparable is Heiskanen, but Heinola does not have the same elite skating as him. His skating is good, just not at that elite level. I think he can have a similar effect offensively in terms of point totals, just maybe not quite as much of a play driver. 

 

Looking at the potential implications for the Canucks, if we were to draft Heinola we would have 3 young LHD. In addition, none of them would have any size or thrive in physical play. That could be offset with a partner, but finding an effective complimentary piece for 3 puck moving type defenseman is not an easy task. If the Canucks do deem Heinola to be BPA, then trading Juolevi at some point should be considered to address organizational needs at LW or RD. 

 

Of course, a lot needs to happen before we consider something like that, but a prospect of Heinola's caliber would warrant some organizational adjustment. 

 

 

[R3aL]

1 hour ago, appleboy said:

Some scouts question his hockey IQ.

Some scouts have different questions than others but for sure I’m not disregarding that.

 

just saying he’s the kinda dman a team could get seduced by his physical traits and potential and rank him higher then others overlooking his decision making and current hockey iq

[R3aL]

1 hour ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

 

He’s on the Caufield train.

 

3rd overall Cole He wouldn’t bat an eyelash

 

at this point he’s really proven himself on a big stage with his peers. I still think he’ll have to work on his skating and elusiveness so he doesn’t get hurt badly in the NhL going into

trafdic areas or dirty areas for goals but hard to argue with the kid being a special goal scorer.

 

 

 

i thought his take on Newhook was interesting, he said he’s good but not great in regards to skating and compared him to Stillman. Everything I’ve seen from Newhook is he looks incredibly fast on the ice to me. So maybe he means his edgework and stride aren’t great and wasn’t referring to his overall skating speed? Unless I need to get my eyes checked. 

 

Like how high craig is on Krebs though.

 

 

[TGokou]

3 hours ago, Canuck Surfer said:

I have not seen him play, to be fair.

 

My impressions from highlights is he is not as fast or silky smooth. Is stronger, has some skills, possibly better skills. But its just highlights. A great athlete, raw potential guy?

 

And harder to equate as the German league is probably an even lower standard than the Allsvenskan. Still against fully grown adults and impressive for a teen.  

 

Guys like this win drafts for some teams and become vacant picks for others?

Seider had 2 assists last game in the DEL playoff final Game 4, which puts him at 5 pts in 13 playoff games .(38ppg) which is an improvement over his regular season 6 pts in 29 games. Furthermore, he is averaging only around 12 min. per game which is a lot less ice time than a lot of draft eligible defensemen are getting. Prorated to an average of 18 min. per game he would be getting anywhere between .39 - .57 ppg this season. He also rarely gets PP time and so does not have any stat inflation either from the PP. I did some research and found the Allvenskan and DEL leagues to be fairly comparable although DEL do score at a slightly higher pace than Allvenskan. I based this on players who transferred either from DEL to Allvenskan or from Allvenskan to DEL the following year. Most of these players are in their late 20's or early 30's so there should be no improvement from a skills perspective at that age. 

 

In conjunction with hiw WJC-20 D1A tournament where he had 1 G 6 A in 5 games it tells me he actually has a lot of offensive potential waiting to be tapped. As mentioned in another post, if he were placed into the OHL this season he would most likely have anywhere between .7 - 1 ppg based on my projections.

[R3aL]

1 hour ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

Looking at our potential options at 10th, I think Heinola is getting overlooked by most. He just turned 18 last month and he's been playing in Liiga, the top Finnish men's league, for pretty much the entire year. That's impressive for someone his age as European leagues tend to favour older veterans.

 

What's even more impressive is his level of production at that level. Heinola has been the most productive draft eligible defenseman coming out of Liiga in a long time and has even outproduced some recently drafted forwards. He displays high end hockey IQ from the blue line and creates offense by making good decisions with the puck. He's not afraid to move in the zone of he catches his defender sleeping. At the end of the day, the offensive abilities have to be good to put up the kind of numbers he has been. 

 

Here's a look at Heinola's production compared to other recent first rounders from Liiga:

 

Kotkaniemi (F): 29 points in 57 regular season games (0.51 PPG) - 3rd Overall 2018

Heinola (D): 14 points in 34 regular season games (0.41 PPG) and 4 points in 7 Playoff games (0.57 PPG) - Draft Eligible

Kupari (F): 14 points in 39 regular season games (0.36 PPG) and 0 points in 6 Playoff games - 20th Overall 2018

Kokkonen (D): 19 points in 56 regular season games (0.34 PPG) - Draft Eligible

Heiskanen (D): 10 points in 37 regular season games (0.27 PPG) and 3 points in 8 Playoff games (0.34 PPG) - 3rd Overall 2017

Vaakanainen (D): 6 points in 41 regular season games (0.15 PPG) and 3 points in 14 Playoff games (0.21 PPG) - 18th Overall 2017

 

As you can see, Heinola's production is absolutely elite for someone coming out of Liiga. Most notably, he scored at a rate considerably higher than Heiskanen, who has shown this year and in the first round that he can he's one of the best young defensemen in the NHL. Heinola was the 4th highest scoring defenseman on his team in terms of point totals, but he played in about half the games as two of the defensemen ahead of him. Heinola's PPG was comparable to the team's leading scorer from the blue line, indicating that he would've likely finished with similar totals if he played the same amount of games. 

 

You can also see that Kokkenen's numbers stand out. He could be an excellent value pick in the late 1st round or our 2nd if he lasts that long. 

 

To be honest, I don't understand why Heinola isn't a lock for the top ten and maybe even in the discussion for the top 5. His production is amazing, he's got good size at 5'11 and 189 pounds, and doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. His defensive play could stand to be refined, but that's true for essentially every draft eligible defenseman. The most direct comparable is Heiskanen, but Heinola does not have the same elite skating as him. His skating is good, just not at that elite level. I think he can have a similar effect offensively in terms of point totals, just maybe not quite as much of a play driver. 

 

Looking at the potential implications for the Canucks, if we were to draft Heinola we would have 3 young LHD. In addition, none of them would have any size or thrive in physical play. That could be offset with a partner, but finding an effective complimentary piece for 3 puck moving type defenseman is not an easy task. If the Canucks do deem Heinola to be BPA, then trading Juolevi at some point should be considered to address organizational needs at LW or RD. 

 

Of course, a lot needs to happen before we consider something like that, but a prospect of Heinola's caliber would warrant some organizational adjustment. 

 

 

I don’t watch liiga games so I’ve only seen him in this u18 tourney and it’s hard when the Finnish team isn’t that great.

 

but I think the big differences between Heiskanen and Heinola are 

 

1. skating - Heiskanen skating is fantastic and better then Heinolas was/is

2. Goal scoring - Heiskanen scores goals he scored 5 goals to Heinolas 2 in their Liiga Seasons

3. u18s - Heiskanen was like 2pts per game last year and really stole scouts attention at the international tourney last year. No one was even talking about him much until then.

4. Defensively - Think he was more solid in his own end, but maybe that was because his team Was better overall hard to judge

 

i don’t think we will be taking Heinola with the high end forwards that will be available and with our positional depth on left side right now as a small added factor.

 

i could see Heinola or Lavoie going to Montreal at 15.

Edited April 25, 2019 by R3aL

[Smashian Kassian]

Interesting that Craig said Newhook isn't a great skater.

 

Maybe he means his stride is awkward or something. Going to have to watch that closely. I've thought his edgework is superb & his speed is better than some of the other high profile FWDs on team Canada.

 

Sometimes Craig has puzzling takes. That stuck out as one to me, but I'm gunna focus on it in the remaining u18 games. 

[86Viking]

7 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

Interesting that Craig said Newhook isn't a great skater.

 

Maybe he means his stride is awkward or something. Going to have to watch that closely. I've thought his edgework is superb & his speed is better than some of the other high profile FWDs on team Canada.

 

Sometimes Craig has puzzling takes. That stuck out as one to me, but I'm gunna focus on it in the remaining u18 games. 

I thought Newhook had decent speed, Button seems to be right about Virtanen so far...praying that Jake can evolve into a top 6 guy for us still tho and prove that high draft selection right, same as OJ!