Brobidus

If Vegas takes Liljegren then holy smokes... Getting their potential 1C, 2C and 1D all in a single draft. They're going to be a team to watch

Picking from McKenzie's list is super frustrating. He has Fleury ranked so low too. #5 Glass (Petersson) #33 Jokiharju (Boqvist/ Davidsson) #55 Leschyshyn (Rasanen) #64 Samorukov (Geekie) #95 Fleury Hahaha, imagine us picking Petersson and Boqvist, reunite the Timra line with Dahlen

Anyone else super excited about drafting twice in the second round? So many defenders and centers around that #33 pick. Some of them are pretty awesome prospects with huge potential too. D: Henri Jokiharju, PO Joseph, Dylan Samberg, Nic Hague, Josh Brook, Eemeli Rasanen C: Shane Bowers, Marcus Davidsson, Filip Chytil, Jesper Boqvist, Joni Ikonen, Alexei Lipanov, Aleksi Heponiemi, Morgan Geekie, JAD, Josh Norris. G: Dipietro, Petruzelli, Primeau A couple of these guys could even be available at #55.

Makar is a boom or bust prospect this draft. It seems like he could become the next Erik Karlsson with his dynamic play or he could turn out to be the next Jordan Subban, great offensive instincts but the defensive play isn't enough to force himself onto the team. I mean he is currently defending against players in the AJHL but not dominating defensively. I don't think Makar is a good pick for this team and our team makeup. Imagine if he busts, media and fans would tear Benning apart. It would be tragic to possibly have two top 6 picks not work out. So I agree with your assessment here. Heiskanen has been getting crazy reviews, he is apparently on the top pairing of one of the best (if not the best) team in Finland right now. His biggest knock at the start of the year was his size and now he grew a couple of inches. Liljegren is super dynamic and people have soured because he hasn't improved within the year (which is big, if he can't improve on a constant basis). But they're still both phenomenal players and at least in this case possibly better picks for our team. But I agree with consensus, Heiskanen is the way to go at #3. Wouldn't feel bad with Liljegren though, although we could probably move back a couple of spots to take him.

His weight. He is really really lanky. I've read that scouts don't know how much weight he will be able to put on.

I concur. Kuznetsov is a premium player. I love Tanev but he won't bring back Kuz. He'd be an amazing get.

It seems that in many ways the question of who we pick this year will be evident after the interviews. Liljegren has the "European skill", he is definitely a player we should be excited about to have in our system, perhaps more so than Juolevi. The question is where his heart is at. I completely agree with you in that OJ and Liljegren could end up making an interesting pairing. I think the only thing I'd be worried about is with Green. How far will he go to develop a player, even if his defensive acumen is a bit underdeveloped. But this problem can easily be applied to most of the prospects at the top of the draft this year. I wonder why people have soured so much on Liljegren. Of all the defenders in the draft I'd still personally target Liljegren over Heiskanen and Makar, and building from the backend seems to be the new hype, one I agree with. Has anyone done or know of a comparison of players that have dropped in rankings from the start of their draft year to the draft (and how they turned out)? So something like Chychrun's fall last year. Would be interesting to compare.

I don't think that's the case. A lot of people would be fine with the majority of the top 7. I've seen some people be against certain prospects though, and naturally there will always be people that are upset. But yeah, in reality, I don't see the forum exploding because Vilardi was picked while Mittelstadt was available or some other mix. I personally still trust Benning and our scouts. There's only so much information we can pick up on, and he has made some solid picks.

I remember an article mentioning that Columbus has until the start of June to decide whether we get the 2017 2nd or 2018 2nd. Last year Friedman tweeted on the 1st of June that Columbus had deferred the pick: (https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/two-more-teams-will-retain-their-draft-picks-and-defer-compensation) Nucks Misconduct also had an article quoting the 1st of June: (http://www.nucksmisconduct.com/2015/10/21/9582916/blue-jackets-hire-john-tortorella-and-canucks-get-a-2nd-round-pick) I swear that this year will be the same (either the 1st or 2nd of June) but I can't find an article that says by when Columbus has to decide by. Hope this helps!

I wonder how much the Olympics played a role in his decision. I seem to remember a game against the Capitals where Ovechkin talked to Tryamkin. It would make sense that he only signed a one year contract so that he could go win an Olympic medal, the timing this year is wonderful for Russia. And then next year he'd be free to come back if he wants to. This gives him a year to better his English, a year to log on huge minutes in the KHL and practice the stuff he's learned in NA. This would also explain his comments at the season end presser. After all, this could be just like Sobotka's decision to go back for a couple of years before returning. Let's not give up on Tryamkin yet.

I remember that last year we had this same talk about Chychrun and his injury woes. He ended up falling heavily but he's played out this season pretty nicely missing only a couple of games. Are there any other drafts where there was a player in the top 5 with big injury problems? It would be interesting to see how they turned out.

My feeling going into this draft is about the same. I also would be happy with one of Pettersson or Liljegren. But those three would be my primary targets. Vilardi's work ethic just screams "Pick Me!".

Robin Salo could be a good get. He's on pace for roughly the same amount of points as Ristolainen in his draft year. Still don't get how Erik Brannstrom gets rated so low. This draft has some potentially nice gets.

The best teams in the conference were the teams that managed to keep Brock off the board basically. If you remember the start of the year Brock had one hell of a start until he ran into Minny and Denver. After a short stretch of little offense he got shut down for a bit longer than a month with his wrist injury. He ended up coming back after his injury (in January?) and continued the trend of scoring against the weaker teams in the league and getting shut out by the better teams. You can take a look here: http://www.uscho.com/stats/player/mid,25309/brock-boeser/ Some thoughts: The loss of Stecher seems to have hurt the team a lot. Even though Poolman is piling up more points than Stecher did. Last year they had a brilliant top line, this year Jost and Boeser seem to have played on seperate lines. Boeser didn't have the same quality team mates to play with. The Caggiula Schmaltz Boeser line was hard to contain due to the talent all over the ice, whereas now teams can just concentrate on Boeser. I think we should let him play and show us what he can do next year before saying anything. Kyle Connor was a huge disappointment at the start of the season. There's a chance that Boeser will need some time to adjust. I'm wondering where he fits in. Probably not beside the Sedin's. I'm not too keen on having him near Sutter without some kind of playmaker on the left wing. That leaves him with Horvat. Let's see :D

Any names to watch out for the second round? We potentially could end up with the 31st pick + our 2nd + Columbus 2nd.

What's the deal with Conor Timmins? By terms of rankings he seems to be at the end of the first round. But his point totals and plus minus are fantastic. He even seems to have the size. Is he an overager perhaps?

If you had a choice. Mittelstadt, Pettersson or Necas?

If Benning ends up convincing Gaudette to sign in the summer then I'd be stoked to see a line of Dahlen - Gaudette - Virtanen growing together on Utica. Finally gives Utica a couple of great prospects to watch. I also wonder what Benning thinks about Elias Petterson. He was just on his Euro tour so he must have watched Timra quite a bit. I've liked Petterson and wouldn't be disappointed if we picked him even as high as 4th. So Dahlen becomes our 4th best prospect? We've now got a nice solid base of prospects to go with Boeser, Juolevi, Demko, Dahlen, Gaudette, Virtanen, Brisebois, Lockwood. Excited to see what else can be done at this trade deadline especially with that Columbus 2nd coming this year as well. Still amazed we got Dahlen back for Burrows without and retention.

I am uninformed and excuse me if I happen to be wrong but I've heard the exact opposite. He doesn't play with Aston-Reese or Sikura often unless its on the power play (and yes he gets a ton of PP points but still). And they are indeed feeding off each other. Sikura was in no way elite last year. Something must have clicked this year. Looking forward to seeing him on the big team in the near future

Not at all. But at the moment we are lacking something in our system. At least in my opinion. Would be nice to have some more flash. Yes I totally agree with Liljegren being in that list.

On pace for way more points than Virtanen Jokes aside. He is one case who may not make it. Not a reason to stop going after skilled players. I really would love someone like debrincat in our system.

I'm very much hoping for a more skilled player with our 1st rounder this year. The 2 way players have been great but we've been missing a pure skill player since we traded off Shinkaruk. Would love to see Hischier, Vilardi or Pettersson, Necas in our system.

A Edler - Stecher Hutton - Gudbranson Tryamkin - Tanev B Edler - Tanev Hutton Gudbranson Sbisa - Larsen These are the pairings I want to see when everyone's healthy again. Stecher has never played 82 games though. So he may need so switching. Play A for two games, then switch to B. Rotate whoever needs to be rotated. Keeps everyone fit. Consistency for some, less for others.

I think it's time for Tallon to go to another team. Benning for Tallon anybody? Who is going to replace Gudbranson/Kulikov on Florida? I imagine Psysk takes Gudbransons spot? Matheson Kulikov's? That's a pretty bold move.

Unless I've missed a trade you've left out Hall.... Holy crap that's scary. How are the Oilers going to pay up for all these guys when they each score 40 goals/ 80 assists in 8 years?