2021 NHL Entry Draft

[Nicklas Bo Hunter]

3 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

I believe this is how it's going to go down:

 

BUF - Power

SEA - Beniers - a star forward to kick off the franchise

ANA - Eklund

NJ - Hughes - Luke joins Jack

CBJ - Clarke

DET - Wallstedt - Seider and Wallstedt to fortify the D

SJ - Edvinsson

LA - McTavish

VAN - ???

 

Guenther, Johnson, Lucius, Sillinger - or trade the pick? 

If Johnson is avail van is taking him. means in a few years Bo can go 3rd line C 

[BCNate]

40 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Dang, overlooked that, thanks

I'd do Scnmidt and our 1st for Seth Jones though!  Obviously we'd be adding another piece though.

[Smashian Kassian]

2 hours ago, HighOnHockey said:

Huge forward, first and foremost. Just a thick, stocky kid. At U17s he was already listed at 196 and was able to just physically impose his will on the ice. He's now listed around 205. My main concern is just that he's been performing ahead of the curve because of his physical maturity, i.e. ability to outmuscle opponents at the junior level, or ability to not be physically overwhelmed at the pro level, compared to the other kids who went over to Europe.

 

That said, I can see why some people are so high on him. First and foremost he has one of the best shots in the draft, particularly his ability to shoot with power from any position. Some of the one timers and rebound goals he scores, he'll have the puck right in close to his body when he lets it go. A highly translatable skill for a big guy to score around the net in the NHL. I wouldn't say he's a two-way center per se. Nothing against his defensive game, but it doesn't stand out like a Beniers or Svechkov. He also took some criticism earlier on for not being physical enough for his size; but more recently he's been seen throwing some big hits. Doesn't exactly have elite/highlight-reel hands.

 

But the most exciting thing for me is his ability to make plays down low in tight spaces. This is a skill I always watch closely for, and last year for instance I ranked Amirov way higher than most largely because he is so good at it. I believe it is this primarily that makes for guys like Justin Williams and Henrik Zetterberg in big games - as everything tightens up as the games get bigger and tougher, these players just keep doing their thing and have success. But trying to account for this in draft rankings get tricky. Where does a pretty good top six forward but elite playoff performer rank compared to a regular season all-star? Where would Justin Williams or Claude Lemieux go in a redraft of their drafts? Not a simple  question to answer. Best comparables for McTavish might be Nick Foligno or Claude Lemieux, although he doesn't have Lemieux's mean streak. Seems to be super high-character, could be a future captain in the NHL.

 

Thanks for the insight. So a big scoring C that is good in the hard areas, top 6 upside but probably not an elite player. And character to boot.

 

Judging by that I wouldn't be surprised if hes taken ahead of us, being a quality C with size. Teams tend to covet these players and they sometimes end up going a bit higher than projected. (Thinking back to picks like Kotkaniemi, Hayton, Rasmussen, Dach - tho I had him ranked #3 myself - and further back even Horvat was generally ranked a little lower than 9th). 

[spook007]

57 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

I believe this is how it's going to go down:

 

BUF - Power

SEA - Beniers - a star forward to kick off the franchise

ANA - Eklund

NJ - Hughes - Luke joins Jack

CBJ - Clarke

DET - Wallstedt - Seider and Wallstedt to fortify the D

SJ - Edvinsson

LA - McTavish

VAN - ???

 

Guenther, Johnson, Lucius, Sillinger - or trade the pick? 

No love for Guenther?...

[HKSR]

On 5/28/2021 at 9:12 AM, HKSR said:

 

THIS POST WAS PRIOR TO THE LOTTERY

Ok, I'm bored at work on a Friday morning so I thought I'd play the mock draft game...

 

BEFORE LOTTERY

Not knowing what the lottery will look like, I just went with current order of selection:

 

1 Buffalo - Brandt Clarke - Sabres couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Dahlin and Clarke as their top pairing for years to come

2 Anaheim - Matthew Beniers - Way too much talent to pass up a player of this calibre at #2

3 Seattle - Owen Power - An all around, all situation hulking defenceman like Power can help eat up minutes for the expansion franchise

4 New Jersey - Luke Hughes - The connection to Jack Hughes is a marketing powerhouse in the making, not to mention Jack Hughes is an excellent defenceman

5 Columbus - William Eklund - Eklund lands into Columbus' lap.  There is no way the CBJ pass up on him here at #5.

6 Detroit - Kent Johnson - Already in Michigan, this is a perfect match for Detroit

7 San Jose - Simon Edvinsson - Burns and Karlsson are aging out.  Time to add a potential franchise defenceman to their pool

8 LA - Jesper Wallstedt - LA is stacked with prospects, but with Quick aging fast, Wallstedt is clearly the perfect replacement

9 Vancouver - Mason McTavish - With a floor of a top tier 3C, and potential for at least 2C, McTavish brings the size and grit that the prospect pool desperately needs

10 Ottawa - Dylan Guenther - Wow, a steal here for Ottawa.  The weak showing at the U18 sees Guenther drop into the lap of the Ottawa Senators.

 

AFTER LOTTERY

I ran the lottery once and Anaheim and Ottawa moved up.  A bit of shuffling around, but I still think the Canucks end up with McTavish.

 

1 Anaheim - Owen Power - Paired with Drysdale, the Ducks are set on defence for a long, long time.

2 Ottawa - Brandt Clarke - Too good of a RHD to pass up. 

3 Buffalo - Simon Edvinsson - The Swedish top pairing of Edvinsson and Dahlin... WOW.

4 Seattle -  Matthew Beniers - Highlight reel goals to fill the stands!

5 New Jersey - Luke Hughes - The connection to Jack Hughes is a marketing powerhouse in the making, not to mention Jack Hughes is an excellent defenceman

6 Columbus - William Eklund - Eklund lands into Columbus' lap.  There is no way the CBJ pass up on him here at #6.

7 Detroit - Kent Johnson - Already in Michigan, this is a perfect match for Detroit

8 San Jose - Dylan Guenther - An excellent sniper to add to SJ's pool

9 LA - Jesper Wallstedt - LA is stacked with prospects, but with Quick aging fast, Wallstedt is clearly the perfect replacement

10 Vancouver - Mason McTavish - With a floor of a top tier 3C, and potential for at least 2C, McTavish brings the size and grit that the prospect pool desperately needs

 

Critique away

Just to bring this back for more conversation.  Looks like "The Athletic" did a mock draft and ended up with Canucks taking McTavish as well.  We will see.

 

I guess with the lottery completed, my picks look like:

1 Buffalo - Brandt Clarke - Sabres couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Dahlin and Clarke as their top pairing for years to come

2 Seattle - Matthew Beniers - Way too much talent to pass up a player of this calibre at #2, not to mention the marketing of a star centre for the expansion team

3 Anaheim - Owen Power - Paired with Drysdale, the Ducks are set on defence for a long, long time.

4 New Jersey - Luke Hughes - The connection to Jack Hughes is a marketing powerhouse in the making, not to mention Jack Hughes is an excellent defenceman

5 Columbus - William Eklund - Eklund lands into Columbus' lap.  There is no way the CBJ pass up on him here at #5.

6 Detroit - Kent Johnson - Already in Michigan, this is a perfect match for Detroit

7 San Jose - Simon Edvinsson - Burns and Karlsson are aging out.  Time to add a potential franchise defenceman to their pool

8 LA - Jesper Wallstedt - LA is stacked with prospects, but with Quick aging fast, Wallstedt is clearly the perfect replacement

9 Vancouver - Mason McTavish - With a floor of a top tier 3C, and potential for at least 2C, McTavish brings the size and grit that the prospect pool desperately needs

10 Ottawa - Dylan Guenther - Wow, a steal here for Ottawa.  The weak showing at the U18 sees Guenther drop into the lap of the Ottawa Senators.

[N4ZZY]

21 minutes ago, spook007 said:

No love for Guenther?...

I don’t know too much about him. How does he compare to say Johnson? 

[BCNate]

14 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

I believe this is how it's going to go down:

 

BUF - Power

SEA - Beniers - a star forward to kick off the franchise

ANA - Eklund

NJ - Hughes - Luke joins Jack

CBJ - Clarke

DET - Wallstedt - Seider and Wallstedt to fortify the D

SJ - Edvinsson

LA - McTavish

VAN - ???

 

Guenther, Johnson, Lucius, Sillinger - or trade the pick? 

Personally, I'd go with Guenther here.  Kid had dominated the WHL, I'd have loved to see what he would have done in a full season this year.  

[Bure_Pavel]

11 hours ago, Canuck Surfer said:

McTavish is lower than 9 on a lot more lists than he is above. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/479812/mason-mctavish

 

Personally, I prefer a high end athlete in the top ten.  Although he is a solid prospect & he is big.  Maybe he is faster than I am ranking?

McTavish has been one of the biggest risers in this draft though. In the past some players that were the biggest risers were guys like Seider and Heiskanen. 

[Nucker 67]

31 minutes ago, spook007 said:

No love for Guenther?...

 

5 minutes ago, BCNate said:

Personally, I'd go with Guenther here.  Kid had dominated the WHL, I'd have loved to see what he would have done in a full season this year.  

I'm only assuming he doesn't go too high because he's a winger.

[nergish]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

 

I'm only assuming he doesn't go too high because he's a winger.

This is a crazy draft year, I think there's even an off-chance Buffalo takes him at 1st overall.

Or he could be there for us at #9... gonna be a wild ride.

 

[Nucker 67]

1 minute ago, nergish said:

This is a crazy draft year, I think there's even an off-chance Buffalo takes him at 1st overall.

Or he could be there for us at #9... gonna be a wild ride.

 

For sure, I'm not sure what to expect, there always seems to be one or two teams that go off the board to take a player they covet. Canucks could end up with a great prospect, but I wonder, because Benning has pressure to make the playoffs next season, will they trade the #9 for immediate help. Benning might not even be around to watch this prospect play an NHL game. I think he tries to save his job and gets Canucks Nation excited about playoffs again. 

[N4ZZY]

Just now, NUCKER67 said:

For sure, I'm not sure what to expect, there always seems to be one or two teams that go off the board to take a player they covet. Canucks could end up with a great prospect, but I wonder, because Benning has pressure to make the playoffs next season, will they trade the #9 for immediate help. Benning might not even be around to watch this prospect play an NHL game. I think he tries to save his job and gets Canucks Nation excited about playoffs again. 

He still has to continue to stockpile the prospect cupboard too. But if there’s any year that the Canucks should trade their first. It’s probably this year with players not being able to play and scouts not being able to get a lot of information on them. This is one of those drafts when we look back and think. This player was a steal at this position and why didn’t this player go first. 

[spook007]

4 minutes ago, BCNate said:

Personally, I'd go with Guenther here.  Kid had dominated the WHL, I'd have loved to see what he would have done in a full season this year.  

 

13 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

I don’t know too much about him. How does he compare to say Johnson? 

I'm also sleeping a bit on Guenther... McTavish has the size, and shot, but not a special play maker and some were talking about his speed, Johnson is a Petey light (but how light), and then there is Guenther. MacKenzie has him at 2 in his rankings... 

 

He's a winger, so that drags him down... But I like his size, believe he can play both wings, and if they decide to go with J.TMiller as a Center, a fast trigger man could be perfect.

[N4ZZY]

4 minutes ago, spook007 said:

 

I'm also sleeping a bit on Guenther... McTavish has the size, and shot, but not a special play maker and some were talking about his speed, Johnson is a Petey light (but how light), and then there is Guenther. MacKenzie has him at 2 in his rankings... 

 

He's a winger, so that drags him down... But I like his size, believe he can play both wings, and if they decide to go with J.TMiller as a Center, a fast trigger man could be perfect.

In my opinion if Guenther is the BPA at 9. Doesn’t matter if he’s a winger to me. We should take him. 

[R3aL]

10 hours ago, HighOnHockey said:

Alright, it's gonna take me at least a few days (weeks?) to get through my full mock draft, so I'll just post about 5 picks at a time. Once the whole thing is done I may go through and make tweaks, particularly if anyone has helpful comments or critiques, or if Bob McKenzie's final list makes me seriously reconsider what the experts might be thinking.

 

1. Buffalo Sabres - Owen Power. It seems to be fairly consensus from the experts, so regardless of the intricacies of Buffalo's particular scouting staff, I'm guessing it wouldn't have mattered too much who was going to pick first, Power would probably be the pick. Newly promoted DAS (head scout) Jerry Forton was previously their director of collegiate scouting, so it makes sense there too. My only hesitation is that the new ADAS Jason Nightingale is also their director of analytics. I have no idea what the analytics people are saying about Power, but perhaps if analytics don't look favorably upon him, Nightingale could push them to rethink. If anybody follows analytics closely and has any info here, please let me know.

 

2. Seattle Kraken - William Eklund. What an all-star lineup of scouts. Wow. Seems like most of their scouting staff is composed of former head scouts. But the group is headed up by Robert Kron, recently Carolina's director of European scouting. They also snatched up Carolina's longtime DAS Tony MacDonald, who I'm assuming will get a title something like "director of North American scouting". If you look at Carolina's draft just last year, there was absolutely no hesitation to pick small, ultra-skilled forwards, particularly out of Europe and even in the top 10 - Seth Jarvis 9th overall, 5'10. Zion Nybeck 115th, 5'8. Alexander Pashin 199th, 5'7.

 

3. Anaheim Ducks - Brandt Clarke. We know Bob Murray and Martin Madden (former DAS and current AGM) have heavily favored the CHL in the first round since Madden has been there, with a couple first rounders from Sweden mixed in. They did go off script in 2019 picking Trevor Zegras from NTDP, which I'm assuming new head scout Bruce Franklin had a hand in. This one is tough. Hughes, Beniers, Edvinsson could all be in play, plus any of the CHLers (although they mostly didn't really play in the CHL this year). I ended up just having to pretty much guess, but based on their last couple highly successful picks, Zegras and Drysdale, it seems they're putting a premium on offensive skill and elite hockey IQ.

 

4. New Jersey -  Simon Edvinsson. Under DAS Paul Castron and director of European scouting Greg Royce, it seems very likely they'll pick either from Europe or CHL. I've made it no secret I'm not a big fan of the player, but the experts seem to really like him, and under Greg Royce last year they took two players out of Europe in the first round with question marks around decision-making, in Mukhamadullin and Holtz. I was super high on Mukhamadullin, but I know the concerns were there for many. This year I'm one of the ones with concerns on Edvinsson and some really love him. Time will tell, but we know NHL scouts will always lean toward the giant defenseman oozing natural ability - gotta trust that your coaching and development staff can mold him, right?

 

5. Columbus - Mason McTavish. How do you make a prediction when the prediction is "they will go off the board"? Kekalainen is the king of new age; doesn't seem interested in traditional hockey knowledge. Yet with their DAS Ville Siren based in Finland, and their head European scout Josef Boumedienne based in Sweden, as tempting as it is to have them pick out of Europe, they do also have a pretty solid history in N.A., and AGM Basil McRae is also involved in amateur scouting and is based out of Ontario. Unless they're gonna take Wallstedt here (which is very possible), the next few BPAs are all N.A. I just can't get out my mind that the last time they picked this high, they went with the fast-rising, big center in Dubois. Plus, I'm sure they had scouts on him in Olten like nobody else.

I love the thought and detail you put into this top 5. I’d be really surprised to see beniers fall out of top 5 but this could be a crazy draft so who knows. Wallstedt at 5 would be very interesting. But maybe good long term as they would suck next year or so with no immediate help and rebuild with wallstedt being the timeline for the rebuild 

[R3aL]

9 hours ago, DontMessMe said:

 

His list 

 

Clarke

hughes

eklund

 

my big 3 wish we can get 1. Unlikely, but who knows.

 

this draft will be so interesting  

[spook007]

1 minute ago, N4ZZY said:

In my opinion if Guenther is the BPA at 9. Doesn’t matter if he’s a winger to me. We should take him. 

Absolutely... That's really the big issue this year. With such a small sample size I not sure anyone really knows, who is the BPA... or at least bigger uncertainty than normally... But yes I agree... always BPA during 1st maybe even second round. After that its a total crap shot anyway, so might as well draft for need...

[Nucker 67]

Benning (as quoted in The Province on May 23): 

 

"We're going to be aggressive on the trade front and in free agency. We're looking at players that drive offence, that can play with our other offensive players. I think we need more speed up front. Some veteran leadership."

 

Aggressive? Is trading Schmidt aggressive? I can't see them trading Miller, as he brings a lot of skill and passion, and he drives offence. Speed and veteran leadership in the Top 6 isn't cheap. I'm not sure the Canucks have the assets, including Schmidt. But they do have a #9 pick. 

 

I'll be thrilled if he can turn this team into a playoff team AND draft the #9, but can he do it with the assets they have? The Canucks need improvements in the Top 6, Bottom 6, and D. That's a lot.

 

 

[BCNate]

1 minute ago, spook007 said:

 

I'm also sleeping a bit on Guenther... McTavish has the size, and shot, but not a special play maker and some were talking about his speed, Johnson is a Petey light (but how light), and then there is Guenther. MacKenzie has him at 2 in his rankings... 

 

He's a winger, so that drags him down... But I like his size, believe he can play both wings, and if they decide to go with J.TMiller as a Center, a fast trigger man could be perfect.

Guenther was at a Goal and assist per game through the 14 WHL games this year.  If he had been able to keep that up anywehere close to that over the full year, he would be a top 3 lock.

[King Heffy]

4 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

He still has to continue to stockpile the prospect cupboard too. But if there’s any year that the Canucks should trade their first. It’s probably this year with players not being able to play and scouts not being able to get a lot of information on them. This is one of those drafts when we look back and think. This player was a steal at this position and why didn’t this player go first. 

And this is where having a GM who is an expert at scouting could pay off in a huge way for us.  I'm trusting Benning to find the steal.