The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 362: Draft Day(s)

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Will Scouch joins the show to discuss the 2020 NHL draft, the most notable takeaways, and the teams that got the best bang for their buck with the picks they made. Topics covered include: 3:00 The draft broadcast 15:00 Evaluating the picks at the time they were made 22:00 The Sharks making lemonade out of lemons 26:00 The Kings adding to their impressive system 31:30 The Wild completely changing their philosophy 38:00 The Hurricanes making Hurricanes picks 45:30 The Leafs volume of picks 50:30 The Flames pulling off the sequence of the draft 55:30 Rapid fire on remaining teams and picks Every episode of the show is available on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, and wherever else you may typically get your podcasts. Make sure to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any new episodes. All ratings and reviews are also greatly appreciated, especially the ones of the 5-star variety! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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And joining me as my good buddy for the first. first time, hopefully the first of many times, it's Will Scouch. Will, what's going on then? Oh, Tometri. It feels really good to be here. I remember when the PDO cast was in its infancy, and I was an avid listener. But it's strange finally being here. It's great. It's strange for me to, we're going to do it recording this over a video chat, and I'm so used to watching your videos and hearing you break down random 17-year-olds from the MHL, but it's weird to talk to you about hockey and have this podcast. But no, I'm excited. We're going to do a bit of a winners and losers of the NHL draft recording this Thursday evening. Hopefully it'll be out Friday morning. And we've had, what, 24 hours or so to kind of digest whatever the hell of that day two of the draft was, where it was basically this eight-hour marathon that felt like it would never end.

Oh, yes, I'm aware. That was a bit of, yeah. It was, yeah, it was, it was hectic. We're going to get into all of it. I'm pumped to have you on. I've referenced your videos in the past many times on the podcast as people who listen know. And I find that. to be an invaluable resource in the draft process. I often find that so much of analysis is kind of just like regurgitating stuff. You heard from someone else or if anyone who watch the broadcast, they know it's just like people citing off measurables and how tall a guy is or how strong he is. And I think you do a great job of, I'm going to butter you up a little bit here to start the show and make sure everyone goes and checks out your videos.

But you do a great job synthesizing all the video that you watch and track into actual useful takeaways so that you can just in 15 minutes get to feel like you really know this prospect for people who aren't conceivably going to have time to go watch 220 guys each year. So I really appreciate that about the work you do and I'm excited to get into all these prospects with you. Yeah, I'm happy to chat about whoever and whenever, whatever. Well, okay, let's start with the broadcast first before we get into the actual draft itself. Did you, were you watching it or I feel like you were like live streaming as well, right? Yeah, so last year I live streamed the whole draft.

and so did I I did the same thing this year so I did have the live broadcast going but I can't say I was paying too much attention to it you know it was more just so that it told me who was coming off the board and when I mean the NHL website was kind of

running a list as well but I also needed some sort of background noise because it was kind of weird in my basement here with no other sounds except me watching a ticker go by so I did watch the broadcast but yeah I was live streaming throughout the whole thing. I actually had a power outage

yesterday during the draft which basically torpedoed the I think it was somewhere in the fourth round so I had to reboot my entire internet infrastructure and then that didn't do a full job with the Wi-Fi and it was just a it was a bit of a mess but we got there. It was like you mentioned an eight-hour slog but we made it. Yeah your internet was down for three hours and you missed seven picks so yeah exactly yeah

No, I mean, I thought the broadcast, well, first off, if you wanted to know what the picks were, you should have been following Corey Brodman and you would have found out five minutes in advance of the broadcast. It was funny that, like, I tried to tune it out and just watch the broadcast itself. I wanted to feel that sort of surprise of what was going to happen with the next picks, but also part of it was like just scrolling down my feet and then I'd see who was going before that pick was announced. And then you'd like watch the panel talk for deliberate for two and a half minutes over who they think would go. And it's like, this is, this is kind of just weird timing. And I'm living in this alternate universe. And then the camera would pan, it's a grainy footage to the living room of the prospect that was taken. And the camera wouldn't be adjusted properly.

And you'd just be like staring at all of their legs and their torsos for like six awkward minutes until they went through an X-Pick. I don't know. I feel like it's nitpicking because it's amazing that they pulled off this virtual draft without any major hiccups or sort of just where everyone was like, ha-ha, the NHL really messed this one up. and if anyone would, it would have been them. So they got through it without anything major. But in terms of the execution itself, like it wasn't the most viewer-friendly product, let's say.

Yeah, I mean, I think I felt the same frustrations. I mean, I think at the end of the day, it's a league event first. I think especially rounds two through seven, like most fans. I mean, it's funny that for me, night one, I had fewer, on average, fewer viewers than yesterday. and that was kind of surprising. But that same thing happened last year.

I think it's because people, the broadcast on the second day, like on the NHL network, wasn't like you alluded to it. Like they were more talking about just physical attributes and really sort of surface level analysis. And I think a lot of the guys, like I haven't seen all 217 of these guys,

especially not in a sample that I would consider good enough to really tell people what I think and have any basis in a real sense. solid sample size, but I have data sets on about three rounds worth of players, and some of those players didn't even get drafted. So when names do pop up that get drafted in the fifth, sixth, seventh rounds, they're names that don't surprise me because there are names that I've targeted. And so you get an interesting sort of thing where you have the NHL network where they, you know, may not have seen enough of a player or maybe not even have heard of a player because they play in

Russia or whatever. And then, you know, it gives me an avenue to then give people something that they don't usually get. You know, I have experienced live streaming. We do one every week on YouTube. And those are relatively popular. And people, it's funny, like, people tell me names. And then I go and look and, you know, some are, some are more beneficial to me than others.

But for the broadcast on the NHL draft thing, they did a great job, I thought, all things considered. I mean, the length wasn't ideal. but it was a it was it was I mean it's a league event first and I think it was let's make sure that all 31 teams are comfortable with how it's progressing and that it's not rushing along too quickly because of technical issues they get left behind or something maybe one thing or the other could you know may have been tweaked a little bit here and there but I think it's just like considering it was a the pandemic special as you might say I think they did a pretty good job yeah I think the thing that is kind of stuck in my head as I think about the broadcast was just like considering it was just the actual analysis itself where I get you're right you're not going to be able to watch in-depth footage of all 217 guys and probably prepare for even a handful of others that you thought might get drafted and didn't it's just not a feasible task especially for someone who's probably an NHL analyst and isn't even like a full-time prospect evaluator but when the extent of the

analysis of a player taken especially in like round two or round three is just reading basically their height off of the chart and then just being like oh this guy is Yeah, he's tall. He's tough to play against. He's physical. He's mean. He's angry. Did I mention he's tough to play against?

And like for a short guy, and it felt like there were a lot of five, nine players that were taken. And I love that because that should be the case, as we're seeing in today's NHL. I don't think that's an issue at all. We're going to talk about Mark Laosie and various other short players that were taken. But they'd show this, like, footage of a five, nine player involved in all of these beautiful, highlight, real goals. And then it would pan to the broadcast. and they just be like, well, this certainly isn't the biggest kid out there.

It's like, okay, well, yeah, he's 5-9. We get it. Can we talk about, like, his skill is he is a good skater? Can he make up for that size disadvantage by getting to the outside? Can he use his leverage in low center of gravity to get on the inside into the dirty areas? Like, Markler-Ros, he does. Like, well, how can he compensate for that? Give me some strengths and weaknesses here, and for a lot of it, it was just very lacking.

So maybe the regular sort of average Joe, that's watching this broadcast doesn't really need that. They just want to know who's being taken where and who their favorite team's going to get. But for a nerd like myself, and I'm sure you feel the same way, like I just, I wanted to dig a layer deeper beyond that and just actually know in terms of pure hockey ability what they bring to the table. Yeah. I mean, that's really the goal of my work overall is I, I mean, to me, the way I view something

like size, which is, I guess, where we're going initially, it's like, it's an asset just as much as anything else, but it really depends on how you use it and how it affects your game. So I look at guys on either end of the spectrum in this year's draft. I mean, there are some small players that, you know, I have people tell me that I just like small players.

I have players that tell me that I just don't like big players because they're big. And no, like what I do when I track data and build databases and really try to dig into what a player is doing is saying, all right, the size can just be something that provides context. I'm looking for like what happens when they're on the ice and why do they generate the results that they generate and how. So you can have big players,

but if they can't keep up with the pace of play or if they can't, you know, make open space for themselves in the offensive zone outside of just bulldozing their way to the net, you know, you have to identify different traits that you think are projectable. And small players might have a lot of those traits. But at the same time, just because you're small doesn't mean that you're undervalued.

a really good example this year I thought was Zion Neubeck who was a Swedish 5 foot 6 maybe on a good day and you know he's a player who when you're that small I think you need sort of an elite level sort of skating and skill combination

or at least some sort of combination of those talents that put you near the top but he doesn't really have that and he fell lower than most people expected him to go and I was sitting here not really surprised about it I think he went 1 15 to Carolina. I thought that was a really great pickup in terms of value. I think that one thing he does have in his favor, and this is what I look for in small players that maybe don't skate

exceptionally well, is how do they act when they have guys draped all over them? How do they adapt to play when they're really facing pressure from one or two defenders? Can they get that puck out of danger? Can they get the puck to a line mate? Can they even spot a line mate? And that's something that Neubeck does really well. So if his skating and strength on that little frame can sort of concentrate, and get a little bit better than I think there could be an interesting pick there. But as he is right now, I certainly understand why people are skeptical

about a player like that's projection. So size to me, like they bring it up a lot as a positive or a negative for various reasons. But to me, it's like just another area of context. And then you have to, but you really have to focus on exactly

what is happening when the player is playing the game. Because at the end of the day, like I'm sure you'll agree. That's what matters, right? When they play, what happens? Yeah,

the context is how do they use that size? right like I think that is a misconception in terms of the valuation of player size where the sort of early to mid 2010's kings that were winning Stanley Cups and competing for Stanley Cups were a great example where I think people really got fixated on the fact that they were just like a big physical meat and potatoes team that was dumping the puck in and chasing after it and working the the for check and the cycle it's like yeah they also have Jeff Carter who's a big player on Zay Kopitar who's a big player Dustin Brown who plays a physical game but these guys have skills so you're not necessarily trading in one for the other. It kind of works as a complementary package, and it allows you, obviously, to play a much more versatile game where you can play against the bigger opponent and not get bullied,

but also maybe turn the tables on a smaller opponent. You can just, it allows you to play so many different types of ways and we'll kind of mold your roster around that. And so I certainly all things being equal would prefer the bigger player, but I find sometimes if that's your only trait, that's an issue for me.

And we're going to talk about like Tyler Clevin or a few others, but there's a lot of like, tell me something this guy actually does beyond being 6'4 because being 6 to 4 in isolation doesn't necessarily mean they're good at hockey. Yeah, and it also doesn't mean that someone that's 6.4 has to be that big physical player. I mean, a really good example from this year's draft is someone like William Bolinder who went to Detroit at 32. I mean, he's a big defender, but he's not really known for his physical play. Would it be nice if he was a bit more physical, especially.

in front of the net. Absolutely. He has some issues defensively for sure in terms of his positioning and jumping into offenses way too quickly. But he's an exceptional skater probably for his size, one of the best skaters in the draft. And he plays defense. He's a really clever passer. He knows how to manipulate the ice really well to find line mates and just push play really well with connecting on really good passes and a solid puck mover who can also jump into an offense and use that skating ability to drive the net. I am a big fan of him. I think Detroit got a really, really good player there. But you could easily look at his size and the fact that he's not super built in terms of muscular frame and say, well, he's a big physical player who just hasn't filled out to the point

where he can use that frame. And I sit there and go, you've got a big player who's got a long reach and a ton of skill and great skating ability. Like nurture that part of it. Like nurture the things that make him special and then just say, we need you to just be competent in terms of using your frame and muscle in front of the net and recognize situations where you can fetch that puck in the corner or something and get it out of danger. Those things all kind of work together. So it kind of goes both ways. I mean, sometimes there are smaller players also that play like they're a lot bigger.

And a big example of that this year, I think, was Sean Farrell. That might have been a big reason why he fell so far. He went to Montreal, I think, in the fourth or fifth round. But he's a guy who I thought was a second round pick. He's small, but he's rambunctious. He works hard. and to me I look at a guy like Brendan Gallagher with the habs and I don't really have an issue with drafting small rambunctious players

who like to throw their weight around as long as they drive good results and Farrell did that on a really good team and I think that if Farrell can maybe get to know Brendan Gallagher a little bit better and talk to him about what has brought him along because Gallagher was a guy who was available way too late in the draft for someone for the player that he turned out to be so it's all about context right like a lot of this is really digging through

looking at results, looking at what goes into them, and looking at the player's overall profile and saying, all right, is this player actually going to be an impact player? Or are they too much of a shortcoming in certain areas to make up for it? And that's a dangerous game to decide when a player's not worth it. But it's all kind of comes down to context. And I think that's why we see so many teams going in so many different directions. All right.

Let's get into it. So we're kind of framing this as winners and losers just because I feel like that's an easy way to frame it. and it gets people's attention when you say that. I think both of us would agree that it's not necessarily saying who won and who lost as much, we're just kind of evaluating what teams did, what was noteworthy. I kind of gave you some homework, and I was like, I just want to talk about the notable stuff we thought, both good and bad in terms of what teams did.

And you hear the common pushback of, like, well, we can't evaluate this draft because these are teenagers, and we have to wait five years to see how they pan out and what the landscape looks like. And I agree in the sense that ultimately that is when we will decide whether a team had a good draft five years ago or not. But at the same time, as evaluators, I think it's our job to sort of have opinions on this stuff in terms of, all right, we have this information available right now. These teams made various decisions in terms of who they picked, what they traded, what they did at the draft. And now it's on us to evaluate that based on the information we had. And that information is going to change over five years and we'll need to be flexible and adjust. accordingly but I think as long as you acknowledge that uncertainty you can as an evaluator

critique and praise what teams did now beyond just sort of cop out of like oh well every prospect is going to hit their absolute ceiling each team did a great job all of these prospects are going to be amazing NHLers each guy is going to be a comparable to an NHL star so let's not overthink this and let's not be critical because I think that's ultimately lazy and and that's not what people want to hear people want our opinions on how we think teams did based on what we think of the prospects involved. Yeah, totally. I agree. I think the way that I frame it is where is your team picking and who's on the board,

and what are you leaving on the board when you take the guy you want? I think you can really, I think you can, I don't think you can say this team is going to end up with X number of NHL players, but what you can do, I think, is say, with the players this team was selecting, they left X on the board. And even if you, want to go a step further and say here's who they have in their pipeline who's here's who they have locked up on their NHL roster for seven years here's where there's line up holes whether they fix it through trade or free agency that's one thing but if you want to build a pipeline here's where

they could use more and I think what you can do is look at each player where they were picked and say all right you know a 28th overall for example just take a look at the player you want and what else is available and I think you can look at say who gives us the best chance of success And in terms of success, what do you mean? To me, that's impact hockey. Like, not just scoring points, but I mean, you know, good impact at both ends of the ice, you know, or at least overall, not a net negative. So if they score more than their defensive shortcomings might allow, that's something that you can evaluate and take a look at and examine and judge. Or the opposite, you know, in some cases you might look defense first and worry about the offense later.

That's not my style, but I can see some teams wanting to do that. So I think teams, you know, the way I look at it is what teams looked at what was on the board and just took the just most high potential options, the best players that are there right now that have skills that project to the NHL and which teams either overthought it or went for something that was, you know, maybe something in a very specific alley that they're looking for that may class. their judgment in terms of like looking at who's valuable in the draft. I think there is such a thing as a valuable player at draft time and giving yourself the best chance. And I think there is such a thing as aiming too low, trying to chase after something that allows you to ignore value, which, you know. Yeah, I mean, it drives me crazy when a guy gets drafted and they're like, oh, this is going

to be one of those guys you can just plug into your fourth line or third pair and you know what you have. It's like, yeah, you can find those players. the HL for league minimum. Like you should be aiming. That's why I have no issue. And when we talk about the hurricanes and teams like that, and maybe we do overrate them sometimes because they do something and we're like,

oh, that was such a hurricanes pick. Like this is great. This is kind of lining up with my expectation of what they were going to do and what we think of this prospect. And it's kind of a bit of confirmation bias. But I want that sort of aspiration of it might be a small chance. It might be a two to five percent chance.

But if this player, it can be a meaningful impact player at the next level. I would much prefer that over the 25% chance of a guy that it's going to be like a replacement level guy that is just going to be like passed around the league. So I think it's a matter of sort of expectations and also what you're actually trying to accomplish. I do think sometimes teams get, when they do get into trouble, it's either foregoing best player available

because they feel like they haven't drafted a defenseman in a long time so they just have to add one or, oh, well, this guy kind of fits into our idea of what this specific niche role in the NHL is. And by the time he's in the league, who knows what the NHL is going to look like five years from now. It certainly looks different in terms of player types and how teams are playing and operating than it did five years ago. So God knows what it's going to look like.

So if you're drafting purely for that sort of a specific need, I think you're going to forego that value and wind up regretting it down the road. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think that it's really, really important to, I think what's interesting about this year's draft that kind of stuck out to me thinking about it is a lot of teams seem to have

what I would call like their guy. You know, I think that's a dangerous territory is when you zero in on an individual and you want that player so bad because you think they're going to be such a great fit and then in five years you're going to be looking and going, geez, we, you know, this guy was on the board and went two picks later

and he's scoring 60 points a year while our guy is struggling to maintain a third line job. And, you know, especially once you get into the second round and beyond, most of these players on paper technically won't play. You know, they might never make the NHL. So you may as well swing for the next Johnny Goodrow or the next Brendan Gallagher or the next Andre Pallad or the next Tyler Johnson. Like Tyler Johnson, I don't even think was drafted.

So you may as well just, you know, go for it, especially outside the first round. So when I rank guys and order guys, I'm looking. for like if I am just flying by the seat of my pants going full on turbo mode and just seeing things that I like in a player, I'll put that guy higher, not listening to so much to what other people are ranking guys and thinking about that because I think people get caught up and saying, well, this guy could be just a player. So maybe he should be a second round pick. But it's like to me, that's running a big risk. And instead you might look at guys who maybe have a ton of offensive skill, but maybe the defensive work rate needs some work.

and I'd rather hope that they figure that out and be able to flex their offensive tools better than anything else. So it's a difference in philosophy, I think, but yeah, it's very interesting to watch because there's 31 different philosophies going on at once. All right, we're going to get into some of those philosophies. Let's take a quick break here from a sponsor, and we will get into our winners and losers are more notable takeaways after the break.

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I'll give you the floor as a guest. What's the first team that you have that you want to talk about in terms of the did noteworthy stuff for you during the two days of the draft? You know, I was really impressed, I think the most overall with what the San Jose Sharks did, especially before Pick 100. I think they landed five guys that could be NHL players, like, easily.

Ozzy Weez, Ozzy Weis-Blat, Thomas Bordolo, Tristan Robbins, Danny Gushion, and Brandon Co. I mean, the guys they picked in the seventh round, they're flyers. I don't mind Timofa Spitzerov. I don't mind Alex Young for a guy who was undrafted last year. We'll see about the other guys. But the names that I thought really, especially for where they went, really maximized value, was the sharks. I mean, I love Ozzy Weas Blatt's potential.

He's a bit wiry and his defensive game needs some work. But he was as good a playmaker as he was a shooter. He drove the net really well. He's got great skating stride. He's got a lot of agility and skill. I really liked him when he played center, and I think that he has potential to be that type of a player. Thomas Bordolo, USA Development Program kid,

really, really crafty playmaker. I think he forces a little bit too much in terms of his playmaking, but he's a good player, drove a lot of dangerous chances in the offensive end. I don't know if he's going to be a center down the road, but as a winger that can make a play and has a good shot and some good skill. I mean, maybe not the guy I would have gone for at 38, but he's a very good player.

Tristan Robbins is a guy everyone really seems to like. I like him fine, but people really clamored to him because of his back half, which was very, very strong. I think he could be an interesting player, maybe more of an offensive leaning, scoring forward for the Sharks. A bit of a longer term project, but he definitely has talent and picking him up at the end of the second round is perfectly reasonable.

And in the third round, getting Danny Guestrian and Brandon Co., Guestrian might be one of the most pure, skilled players in the entire draft. I think he is one of the most electrifying talents. If things work out for him, he could be a guy that people look back on and are really blown away that he slipped to 76. I had him ranked in the first round. Really incredible skill.

He's got a bit of swagger to him. He can put himself on the highlight reel, no problem. And Brandon Coe, for guys who say that I'm not a fan of big players, he's big. He's about 6'3 or so. But, I mean, I've seen him absolutely embarrass defenders with his skill. you know, he pushes to the net really, really well with his, with his frame,

generates a lot of dangerous chances in tight. And I think that, I mean, even as a third line guy, and he regresses to maybe a more physical player, I didn't see a ton of that. But if it's not really working as an offensive finesse player, he has the frame, he has the skill to at least be a decent, complimentary player down your lineup. And if you need a bit more of that muscle,

I think he could be that player. I think him playing on a really bad team, shielded him from a lot of people who might put him a lot higher. I think he drove really good results in North Bay from the data that I tracked, and the sharks, I think, did a really good job. Out of all the teams, those five picks, considering they didn't have that fifth overall pick or third overall pick that they gave to Ottawa, I think they covered their own, their selves really, really well with who they picked,

at least early on. Yeah. No, I think they certainly made the most of their situation. I felt like they were really active. Every time I looked up, they were like making some sort of a move to either acquire more picks or move up or down. get more volume and and uh yeah gushin was one of the players that i noticed that i was like i can't believe this guy's falling and then all of a sudden he goes like okay that was that was a good pick

it's it's interesting that you brought them up because they weren't on my list i've got like seven or eight teams that i wanted to talk about they were sort of an honorable mention for me but uh i didn't really have too many sharks thought so i'm glad you you got into that and this is why we uh we're getting you on the show yeah uh i mean other ones that i would say like in and this is in no particular order uh i mean i really liked la's draft Okay, let me do my, let me do my King's, King's bit, because they were number one on my list, and it's kind of low-hanging fruit, but I really wanted to get into what they did. So first thing I liked, they didn't Galaxy Brain the pick at number two.

There was a lot of smoke screens that it's like, ooh, are they going to take Stutzla? It seems like that's going to be the pick. There were actually, like, reports and rumblings leading up to the draft that that was going to be the case, and I was like bracing myself because it seemed like a very NHL thing to have happened, and I was like, oh, my God, this is going to be a mistake. but they came through and I'm proud of them for avoiding making that mistake and going with byfield. You know, Helge Grant's at 35.

He was 15th on our good buddy Cam Robinson's list. Just another guy. Like he's, what, he sees 6-3 or something like that. So he's certainly not a small player, but he's mobile and has actual tangible skills. And I really like that, especially from a modern-day defenseman. They traded 51 and 97 to move up and take Brock Weber at 45. and they only had that 51st overall pick to play with because of 17 games of Tyler DeFoli, so they certainly maximize that asset and it wound up working for them.

You know, they got Alex LaFerrier, which is great because it led to a lot of, they got Byfield and LaFerrier jokes. They got, you know, Martin Cromiac, I really liked at 128. Casper, how do you say it, Simone Taival? Simon Taival, yeah. Simon Taival, yeah. At 466, so they were really kind of loading up on goal scores and high. upside skill players and when you add that to the collection of talent they've accrued over

the past two or three drafts with turkot calli afa fagamo kuparri akil thomas i mean kale clagin and twice burnford on the blue line i really like what they're doing they had so many draft assets they were able to you know move a pick to take a relatively low risk flyer on lea sanderson who uh i know people have a lot of takes on him but he's still only 21 years old and the reason why i bring that up is because the oilers took a guy in the sixth round this year who is also years old. So it's important to remember from politics just how young Lias Anderson still is, even though it feels like he's been in the league and out of the league for so long. I think pretty clearly they have the best prospect group in the league. And I think the kind of

takeaway for me from that is it only really took them two or three years to accumulate it. I certainly think that if you were saying that three years ago that the Kings were going to have this best prospect pool in the league, you'd be like, wow, something really magical must happen. but nothing really did. I mean, certainly a couple things fell into their lap and getting the second overall pick always helps, but they put themselves in a position to succeed here because they had a plan and they really went for it

and they traded a lot of depreciating assets at the deadline during the season for draft capital. And they really seem like they have this plan that's coming together. And when you kind of spin it forward and think about it, it's like, all right, you know, they're sending a bunch of these prospects already over to the DEL to practice with, you know, grow, men in a men's league and that's enormous and managed and good on them for flexing that muscle.

But then, you know, certainly all these projects aren't going to pan out, but you just look, they basically have a clean slate because all of those big contracts that they have on aging players from the cup runs expire over the next couple of years. So by 2022, they'll only really have like Kopitar and Dowdy on the books. And so there's going to be this next wave of Kings players and you can sort of see it start to form. And you look at this group and you're like, wow, this is genuinely impressive. what they're doing because they're just basically accumulating as much talent as possible.

I know people will roll their eyes and say, well, yeah, that's obvious. That's what every team is doing. But you look at what teams are doing in the draft and what they're doing throughout the year. And that may not always be the case or they may have a different definition of what that is. With the Kings, it's very clear where they're just like, we're just going to get and hoard as many good young players as we can, acknowledging the success and failure rate and just stack the odds in our favor by just accumulating a large volume of it. Yeah, I totally agree.

I thought the Kings had a great day. I mean, Helga Grants was a guy. I was really surprised to see going the second round, especially considering who went in the first round, especially defensemen. Brock Faber, fine. I mean, I wasn't a huge Brock Faber guy in terms of his projectability,

but he's a good skater, really, really young. You can work with that moving forward. Simone Tyval, I couldn't believe he was available at 66. I had him at 42. He's a risky pick, but he's a lot of fun to watch. He's got some real highlight, real kind of stuff to him. him. I'm really curious to see what happens with their seventh round pick, actually, and Atu Yomson, who's a guy who played in the under 18 league in Finland last year and just shot the lights out.

But, and this year at the under 20 level, he's kind of hit the ground running. And he's a guy who I've seen a little bit of. I took a little bit of a look at him last year. I almost put him on my list, but I didn't because I just couldn't see enough. And he was playing at the under 18 level. And that's not the best place to go for your, for your prospects. But the LA Kings must have seen what he was doing this year and said, let's just take a flyer. Because I've liked what he's been able to do with that team and with the Pelicans. But the LA Kings, I think, had a really, really good draft. And I think, like you said, it kind of adds to a pile that is a very, very high quality

group of players. And even if they may not have taken every single player that I would have taken, I think, you know, it's a really, really solid foundation to work with. And it's going to make their life way easier when it comes time to start pushing for another round of contention. Yeah. I just like it seems like it's very easy to discern what their plan is, and they're just executing it. So I enjoy that.

Yeah. All right. Give me our next team. I really liked Minnesota. I mean, I really liked the, like we were talking about value, right? So Minnesota, I think, only had four picks, right? Let me just double check that. Yes, they had five.

And I think that all, I think at least three will be NHL players. I think at most four. I'm a really big fan of Marco Rossi. Getting him at nine is hilarious. I've been the guy beating the Maratkus, Nadinov drum, all year long. I believe in that guy forever. He might not be an NHL for another three years or so, but I just cannot stop watching him play hockey.

I love what he brings to the game. And I'm not surprised Judd Brackett took him at 37. I think that that is just a pick that, you know, is having a laugh taking. He was way up in my first round. And Ryan O'Rourke at 39, not the biggest fan of Ryan O'Rourke, but I think that what he does really well

is really impressive. He can stretch the ice. He's a good passer. He's a good passer into the neutral zone. He needs a bit of work, I think, in the defensive end. He's a one, he's a weird case where I think people were portraying him as a defensive, tough, physical player.

And there's a bit of that to him, but I think his best attributes are in the offensive direction. He steps up from the blue line, well to get shots from sort of the more dangerous areas of the ice. He's got a nice wrist shot from that area as well. Damon Hunt, solid. I don't mind him. I think at 65, that's a perfectly reasonable swing.

He was a first round level player last year. Fought some injuries this year, played on an awful team in Moose Jaw this year, but drove some decent results defensively. If Pavel Novak learns how to skate a lot better in a straight line and laterally and everything, maybe he could be a player as well. but at 146, that's a swing you take. He's creative. He can adapt to pressure well.

When he gets involved defensively, he's good at stripping pucks off of opponents. So working on those fundamental skills to sort of raise his floor, I think might make him a decent playmaking winger, but I think Rossi and Kuznudinov is your first two picks off the board without a top five pick is tremendous.

And then Ryan O'Rourke, I think it could be a useful, maybe second pair defenseman, third pair at worst, and Damon Hunt, who knows. But Minnesota, I thought, had pound for pound a really, really good draft. Especially since they went into day two without having that 37th pick, and they'd made the Cunnen Bonino swap, and then they went. And I think pretty immediately identified that, oh, because Natina was still on the board,

we should go and make this happen. I imagine that was a big driving force for it. But what a glow up for the Minnesota Wild, because at last year's draft, you had this amazing quote from Paul Fenton. I'm going to read to you right now. I liked when guys came up to our table, and they were way taller than me. we've had some smaller prospects good hockey players but every time somebody came up to me and they were much taller than me you got to a smile on all of our faces and the contrast of that to then

taking two five nine players which are great picks both as you as you outlined is amazing to me and i love it and kudos to bill garren and judd bracket and who knows in a different year without this global pandemic and if we're doing our regular june draft jud bracket's probably running the Canucks draft but instead the contract expires he had the wild pounce on him and uh it wound up working out for Minnesota and I think you know I was when I did my mock draft with Cam Robinson and Rachel Dory I was all in on Marco Rossi's everyone the listens knows I had him third on my board I love the pick I think I mean just when you think about the Minnesota wild like is he arguably the most dynamic center they've ever had like since maybe young pierre mark Bouchard like

I guess you can make the argument, Mikkel Granlin, although he was always more of a balancing between winger and center, and Marco Rossi might as well at the NHL level, but I just feel like he adds this element to them where they've never really, as a franchise, had that we always think of the Minnesota Wilde as this boring team that kind of just grinds it out, that is sort of built around their blue line and having three or four guys there and never really having that offensive flare. And then now all of a sudden, you've got Rossi down the road, you are Kevin Fiala, emerging into the superstar.

we've been waiting for him to be. You've got, sorry, Caprizov coming overseas. You've got, you know, in the past couple drafts, they got Kovanov, they got Adam Beckman. Like, there's a lot of talent all of a sudden here now, Matthew Boldy. And so over this wild team,

they're going to certainly need some things to fall into place and some of these prospects to develop, but it's a pretty exciting time to be a fan of this team. And you could argue that they've never really had a group this sort of talented and dynamic offensively to look forward to. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, it's amazing how the arrival of a whole new management structure there has completely sort of transformed the way that they're doing their business. There were people in my chat not super down with the trade to get Benino there.

But to me, I mean, I view that as, you know, you're basically picking up a second round pick for very little. And you get a player who can at least, you know, I think a rebuilding team like that kind of needs players like Benino where they've been around the block. You know, they're on a relatively affordable contract in terms of length and money. and the grand scheme of things. And to the other team, you're doing them a favor and you can gain some assets that way. And then seeing Judd Brack could turn around and actually use them in the way that he did.

I think is really, really smart. It's another step in the right direction. They had a good draft last year as well. For the most part, I think there's some good players in that group. And as long as they can sort of continue on this road and slowly start to keep building to that pile like L.A. has. I think Minnesota has all the makings of being a great team.

I mean, Marco Rossi, I think, you know, he has all the potential in the world. I think he's going to be a guy that will work his tail off to reach the point where he's maximizing what he's able to do. And I think that what he's able to do is quite a lot. And so I think he could be a foundational player for that team in the next decade could be a team that maybe Marco Rossi isn't the 120 point, you know, MVP of the league that carries his team to the Stanley Cup. But certainly a good enough player to be, I would say, a top line player, whether it's at center or wing, I hope he's a center. I think he's good enough to play there.

And really be the guy that drives the bus for a really important group of players when the Minnesota Wild put him over the bench because I really like him and I think they did really well in the draft for sure. Yeah, I think he'll inarguably wind up being the best player. It's taken from the Ottawa 67s this year. So considering he wasn't the first one, as you almost spit out your drink there, I apologize. I was bad timing on my part.

It's all right. All right. I'll give you the next team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah, let's talk to Carolina Hurricanes. They, you know, they are a very good team at letting other teams sort of give them the players they want. I think they just kind of sit back and take the guys that are falling to them. I mean, Seth Jarvis at 13 is a really, really good pick. I had him ranked there.

I think he's sort of a plug-and-play guy. He's really creative offensively, good shooter, gets to dangerous areas, had a crazy back half of the year. But the data that I tracked on it was actually kind of interesting. because it seems like people ask me all the time, like, what changed? What was the thing in the first half to the second half that changed? And to me, not much really changed. I think that he just wasn't getting his bounces. His linemates weren't finishing his plays in the first half.

But then things kind of overcorrected down the stretch, like way more than they should have, but they did. And I think he, you know, a lot of those chances he was creating were going in. So for Carolina, I think it was a great pick at 13, not a foundational player, but a really good, complementary score, one of the better ones in the draft. Gunler, big wild card, but at 41, you take that pick. He's already playing against men.

He scored a goal today, if I'm not mistaken. He's doing well over there. His data that I tracked was actually better in many ways than someone like in Alexander Holtz, but there are question marks about Gunler's game. But when I look at that, I go, all right, so this is a player where if you say he has question marks, sure, we can, we can, whatever. But if he fixes those, what are his results going to be then? Because they're already good now.

So, you know, there are areas where he certainly needs work. But there are also areas where he's very, very good. And if those fix themselves, then they could have a player that very easily should have been a top 20 pick in my view. Ponomarov and Nikitian, I think, are pretty basic picks. I don't mind Niketian. I'm surprised that Carolina took him, but I don't mind him. I think for a KHL defenseman, he probably was a little bit overwhelmed with his role with Spartac Moscow, but, you know, he's, he's a guy with some sneaky skill from here

from time to time. You know, you see him escaping pressure pretty well, and, you know, his passing game might need a little bit of work, but he's not a bad defenseman. I think he, I don't know if he's a player, but he's not bad. And Ponomaria, I didn't see enough to really have a huge background of information on him, but mostly that's because whenever I watched him play, I didn't really see much out of him. I'm, I liked him a lot more internationally, so I don't know if something was going on in Schoenigan that was kind of changing how he played. But, I mean, after that, they basically just sat back and said, we're just going to take the guys that fall to us.

I mean, Zeon Neuback at 115 is a no-brainer, even if he doesn't work out. Who cares? Lucas Mercury, I saw a little bit of, but, I mean, at 159, whatever, you take who you want. But Poshin and Seeley, I think Alexander Poshin, we look back in five years. If things go well, maybe 10 years. And I think we look back if things go well for Poshin. And he could be one of the biggest steals of the draft. I love Alexander Paution.

And it's strange that you win at $1.99 because sometimes you can kind of say that, oh, this happened. You know, some of the public lists we have are different than what teams are thinking behind the scenes. But, you know, Bob McKenzie's list, which is, I think, dictated based on, like, talking to scouts and stuff like that and who people have on their boards, he had him at 89 on his list. And so that sort of discrepancy between a guy falling that far from what you would think

was kind of the scuttle butt around league sources to where he actually went. You do very rarely see that big of a discrepancy. I think what happened a bunch of times was do we really want the 5-7 guy playing junior hockey in Russia? Like, I think that's a legitimate discussion to have amongst your team. But I look at what he's doing on the ice. He's already playing in the KHL. Whenever he went up to the VHL to play against men in the minor league,

he did pretty well. I think that I think what happened is when teams sort of had him on their list, they might have gone, do we really want to take this guy? Like, do we really want to give this guy a chance? And I think the answer more often than not, obviously, it would have been no. I was told that there was a few teams that actually tried to move up and take him, but there was disagreement. You know, that there was, there was, it was, he was an enigma, I think, amongst scouts.

Very divisive. I think the people who operate the decision-making. engine. I think those guys were the ones who might have been a bit more skeptical because they see the size, you know, they see the defensive shortcomings that are there from time to time. But to me, I see the speed, the skill, the work rate when, you know, he might lose the puck from time to time, but he's right on the guy that strips him of the puck and trying to get that puck back. And he gets it back a lot. You know, he's a creative playmaker. I see the vision in the offensive zone. He's a volume shooter, but he has the speed and skill to attack the net. So hopefully he can

learn to do that more. You know, he's very young. I think he's a, July birthday. I mean, at $199, that guy could be, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if he never plays an NHL game. He comes to the AHL and struggles, but then becomes a KHL guy that scores 50 points a year in the KHL. I could see that. But I'd rather take the chance on that guy and give him every chance to succeed, especially with the 199 pick, then just let him go undrafted and wait and see so that next year he maybe ends up a second round pick. You know, I love the kid. I think he's great player, has the potential to be a really, really fun player with some highlight real play. And, I mean, not to forget Ronan Seeley, who went a 208, but that's a guy ranked much higher,

also very young. I liked him in short spurts, but at 208, that's another guy that should have been gone already and just goes to the Carolina Hurricanes because, of course, he does. I mean, not to discredit the legwork that I'm sure the fine folks at the Carolina Hurricanes and their scouting staff are doing themselves, but it does feel like with a lot of these times it's they're just like crowdsourcing what smart people on on twitter are saying about these prospects where it's like i love that their brand is basically linked to like when they took set jarvis or when they took some of these other players like gungler or newbeck as you mentioned it was everyone the

common sort of refrain was oh that's such a hurricanes pick and for you to be associated with taking a guy who shouldn't have fallen as far as he did and has high upside and a lot of skill that's what 31 nshl team should be aspiring to be linked to so for that to be their brand, I think, is like a really good thing and really telling of the job they've done over the past however many years. So I kind of wanted to bring them up. And I think it's important because, you know, we'll see how much money they have to operate with. But as they start getting into these years now where they're already paying Sebastianaho, they're going to be paying Svecchnikov a lot of money. They might be paying Dougie Hamilton if they resign him down the road.

Like they're going to be allocating a lot more resources than they were in the past of their top end players who have worked out for them. now they're going to need some of this next wave to come in on the ELCs and produce, you know, whether it's Dominic Bach or Suzuki or Jake Bean or some of these other players are drafting. So for them to just keep accumulating as many of these lottery tickets as they can will be enormous for their chances to sustain this nice run. They've been on the past two years for five, six, seven years down the road. Totally. I totally agree. All right. I'll give you, is it my turn or your turn to say a team? I think you gave me the Carolina.

I think you gave me Carolina. Honestly, this might be a bit of because I live in the area, but the Toronto Maple Leafs I thought had a really good draft. Again, you have to think about it pound for pound and who was available on the board and who shouldn't have been available when they did take someone. I mean, I think the key to Toronto's draft this year was the trade they made with Ottawa.

Ottawa trading up with 59 and 64 to move to 44. I mean, I really feel, and it's, again, you can't, you can't just look at the draft and say, this is definitive, but I would be very surprised if in the next couple of years we're not looking back on that trade and going, yeah, the Ottawa senators may have gotten a big, mean, nasty defenseman and Tyler Cleven. But the Toronto Maple Leafs got what could be a good third line center in Ronnie Hervinen and a good right-handed defensive defenseman in Topi Nima, a guy who, two guys who actually drive positive results. And I don't know if I see that in Tyler Cleven. I think Mitch Brown was a guy who mentioned something very specific about Tyler Cleven that sticks out to me,

which is in his breakout data, the only player, he was worse at breaking the puck out of his defensive end than his goaltender was. And that is an amazing achievement. So, I mean, I might be misinterpreting what he said, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. But we're talking about the Leafs. Rodeon Amirov at 15, I thought was a great pick. he was my 11th ranked player. I love what he brings to the game. I think there's a ton of upside.

The offense is only just starting to come out in the KHL. It's there at every other level. He was at the 2019, I think. Yeah, 2019 under 18s and was way over a point per game as one of the youngest players on the team. You know, I think he's going to bring a lot to Toronto. Hervin and Nimalah, I mean, those three guys, I would be surprised if they didn't become at least some kind of NHL player.

Beyond that, They got a goalie. Cool. If he works, sure. I don't know much about goaltending, so I'll defer to them on that. And then the next three picks, at least, I'd say, look really good. I mean, William Villeneuve is a divisive guy. I am on the more skeptical side.

I think that there's a lot of work that needs to be done, especially with his skating. But if there's a team out there that was going to take a chance on William Villeneuve, I'm not surprised it's Toronto. He's got a bit of a personality to him. He's kind of a fun guy to follow on the internet, but that doesn't make you a good hockey player. I think he has some defensive issues that really, there are some moments when I watch the Seedogs play this year

where I'm going, how do they think it's a good idea to play William Vilnove with Jeremy Poirier? I don't understand. But, I mean, sometimes you want to win games eight six, I guess. Beyond that, of Chinikov, Demetri of Chinikov is a big wild card. They traded up to get him, which surprised me, but that's a really interesting pick.

You know, I think you let him stew in Russia for a few years, but he's a spee skilled guy. You know, he's a Russian player, and there's a connotation that Russians don't play inside. They shoot from the blue line. They shoot from anywhere, blah, blah, blah. And that's the case with a guy like Pasha, I would say. But Obcinochinov is a guy who I think it was over 80% of his shot attempts that I tracked

were medium or high danger, which is really high. Like most guys aren't that high. His defensive game is pretty hit or miss. But I really think that overall, that's a potentially really, really good pickup, especially for a guy. He went from bottom six minutes on. his junior team in Russia to like top line center on that team and now he's in the KHL up and down and I've heard that he might be back in the KHL very soon.

So the Leafs might have a guy who's playing in the KHL that, you know, they get at 137th who just barely is 18 years old. And VT Miettenen, VT Mietin is a great player. I mean, I think 168, you just take the chance on him. He would have been playing in the league all year against men, but he's going to college. So I really like that pick. All of those guys are all really interesting. And Axel Rendell and from there onwards, you take your flyer and call it today.

But for the Toronto Maple Leafs to start with what they started with before, even like a month ago, before the Kaplan and trade, whenever that was, to come out with not only Rodion Amirov, but then trading 44 and instead of Tyler Cleven getting two guys who I think could play, whereas Cleven might be a bit more of a question mark. I think it's a brilliant couple of days for Toronto. and they're right up there with guys like San Jose and L.A. and Carolina like we've been talking about. Yeah, just the Kings of Pick Volume and the trade downs and understanding that these are lottery tickets and you want as many kicks as you can as you can. I mean, for them to come away with 12 picks, obviously acknowledging that only the Rodeon one was really sort of a premium pick at 15, but just giving themselves as many chances at it is something that I'm always a fan of. So good on them. I'll give you a team that I really enjoyed what they did.

I think they authored my single favorite sequence of moves. You know, the Leafs Trade, as you mentioned there, the 44 for 59 and 64 or whatever was really good. The Calgary Flames going... I had a feeling you'd mention them, yeah. Sitting at 19, trading down for 22 and 72, and then arguably two of... I mean, probably the two biggest sort of reaches are off-the-board picks

going in that span at 20 and 21, and then them seeing looking at the board and being like you know what we can afford to trade down here again and going from 22 to 24 and 80 and then just taking connor's area at 24 which would have been a very reasonable pick at 19 in the first place and they just got themselves to nice assets there in 72 and 80 and then going and parlaying at 72 into jeremy porier and i completely understand that he's a coach's nightmare that he has severe limitations i think there's a very good chance he never plays and then i NHL or certainly not significant minutes. But I think at that point, like when he was a borderline first round pick, that was a bit too rich. When you get into the second round, it's like, okay, like, you know, maybe there's some still more surefire prospects here. When you get the 70 second overall, just the pure sort of skill and potential there.

And also, if you are a forward-thinking team and you're thinking down the line, I mean, it gives you opportunities to experiment. I don't even know if he's going to be a defenseman at the NHL level, but maybe you go with, maybe you go 11 forward seven defensemen which we just saw the Tampa Bay Lightning do all the way to the Stanley Cup and he's your seven defensemen there but then he's on the power play and you're giving him some shifts on the wing uh kind of a Swiss Army knife player as a rover like there's so many things to experiment with and as a third rounder just the fact that his skill allows you to do that I think is worth whatever risk it is that he's just never going to pan out to anything or he's going to drive his coach crazy and and there's going to lead lead to some sort of an incident because they just can't handle uh the limitations. he has in his own end but I mean his highlight reel is just out of this world I know that the queue tends to lend itself to ridiculous score lines and there's so much space out there and it's sometimes tough to evaluate how that translates to the next level but just seeing some of the stuff he did in tight with his hands it's like defensemen shouldn't be able to do this stuff and I guess

he's not a defenseman so maybe that's why he can do that stuff but I'm just the talent is so intriguing to me that I think basically just buying themselves that lottery ticket while still getting Connor Zerry was my favorite kind of pound for pound sequence that any team did in the entire draft. Yeah, I agree. The more I think about what Calgary got, the more I like. And especially, like, I'm scrolling through Instagram and seeing, you know, the Cape Breton Eagles writing or posting that Ryan Francis got picked by Calgary. And then the next one is that Rory Kieran's got, from the Sue Greyhounds got picked, you know, and they're congratulating him. And I go, oh yeah, those two guys for a late round,

for mid to late round picks, like pretty solid value picks. Like both guys produced pretty well in the queue and in the OHL. I always really liked what Rory Kieran's brought whenever I watched the Sue Greyhounds. Ryan Francis, I mean, we saw the Ottawa senators, draft Igor Saka Lov,

who some people are really big fans of, but I found that Ryan Francis drove the bus on that line a lot. You know, and if we're talking about Connor Zari, you know, I thought at 24, that's a good pick. It's reasonable. Probably not the guy I would. have gone for but I totally understand if that's your guy you trade back and if people are telling you the names that went off the board between the pick they originally had and 24 you make

those moves every time you basically got Jeremy Poirier for free and you're right everything you said about him totally true he I think his issues are a very long laundry list for sure and a number of them are very difficult I think to fix in their entirety but if he works out I mean you can't really deny that he is one of the more skilled defensemen that we've seen in this draft. He certainly likes to shoot the puck. I found that my

tracking of him, that he he's an offensive defenseman who doesn't really maintain control of the puck particularly well, but you know, when the puck's in the offensive zone, he can be a real wizard. So if he can sort of round out his game, I think a big key for him will be not trying to do too much on his own, just take the foot off the gas

pedal from time to time, make better reads of the opponent, and just use your line it's better. I found the St. John C. Dogs were a team of individuals, and a lot of guys just really trying, you know, Vilnav was a guy who did that as well, just trucking up the ice at five miles an hour, trying to push offense himself, whereas most successful teams tend to work well as a unit passing the puck around and generating speed through turns and trying to just push up the ice that way with control of the puck, whereas I didn't see a ton of that with St. John, and I think Poirier was a big part of that, but he has the potential for sure, I think, and especially when you can

get that guy literally for doing nothing, I will not complain. I was very, very happy to see him go at 72 with the pick they got for literally doing nothing. Yeah, I would rather have him than not have. Yes. All right. Let's rapid fire it through a couple. Who else do you have on your list? I think the only team we haven't looked over is Winnipeg. And again, this is a quick one, like just pound for pound. I thought Cole Perfetti available at 10. I knew something like this was going to happen, but I did not think it was going to be Cole Profetti. When you started hearing things that Jack Quinn might go top 10, Jake Sanderson might go really early, you know, you start doing the calculus about who might slip, and someone good

was going to slip. And I thought Cole Perfetti fell pretty far. I still wouldn't have taken him over Marco Rossi, for example, but the Winnipeg Jets should be thrilled with that pick. I mean, the idea of them trading Patrick Linae now with Cole Perfetti on the way maybe in a year doesn't seem as attractive to me because the idea of Cole Profetti and Patrick Linae sharing the ice together and him setting him up constantly is really terrifying

if you're not a Winnipeg Jets fan. I really, really like Cole Perfetti's intelligence with the puck. He's a passer and a shooter. I mean, he brings a lot to the table that I think the Winnipeg Jets are really going to like, especially with a guy like Mark Schifley and Blake Wheeler already there. Daniel Torgerson at 40, I thought was a really good pickup.

I think he's a no-nonsense guy around the net. Antoniohannison. I mean, he's really small and he has small people problems, but holy crap, that guy can pass the puck. He is, I mean, if he was a bit bigger and didn't have the injury problems and was a little bit stronger on his feet, to me he's a guy that I think would be a first round pick. I mean, unbelievable vision in the offensive zone,

great stretch pass through into the neutral zone, really, really daring with his decision-making, which can lend to some issues, but really didn't cause as many issues as you might think. he's a really good passer. If he can stay healthy and just keep working on his skating, it didn't generate speed particularly well, but he was a pass-first guy that I really liked.

I think he still passed to the puck, I think 30% more often than anyone else I tracked all year. So he is just a primary mover of the puck. I think he made a guy like Emil Andre look a lot better. And I think his defensive game is fine in transition. So if he can get stronger on his feet, I think there's a lot of potential for him. Tyrol Bauer, I have no idea really what that's all about.

But I think all three of those first three picks for Winnipeg have a chance of being NHL contributors. And Yohannison, if things go really well for him, I mean, maybe that Jared Spurgeon brand of hockey where he just really knows how to move around the ice with the puck and his skill and puck movement and passing ability. It's all really high level with him. So I'm really interested in the Winnipeg Jets for sure. Yeah, I think the perfetti thing is such a problem solver for them too because it seems like one of the big, impasses between the team and the player with line A is he wants to play with Mark Shifley because he clearly looks around and realizes they don't have anyone else down the middle or they can play on the wing with him.

They can help him get the puck and make himself succeed and look good. And the Jets were kind of unwilling to do that. But all of a sudden, if you have another option in Colper Fetti down the road, that all of a sudden gives them more sort of wiggle room to play around with that and give line A what he's looking for. So certainly that's an interesting call. I think, you know, segueing and sort of looking at intriguing fits or sort of lining up two talents that make sense together. When we were doing our mock drafts, we had Alexander Holtz going six to the ducks because I really wanted to selfishly see him on the receiving end of Trevor Zegress passes.

And we're not going to get that. But, you know, I'm not going to be picky. I'm willing to settle for Jacob Perl receiving pucks from Trevor Zegris. Very true. just an unreal shooter from all over the ice and I'm really curious to see that and I think where they got him at 28 or whatever is perfectly reasonable especially considering that they went and took jamie drysdale at six instead of holds and I mean with the drysdale pick there it was so just fascinating seeing the discourse how much it shifted between him and sanderson and how much as the process went along people kind of soured on drysdale but I think at that point especially with what's happened with that organization where you would look from whatever 2008 to 2014 or 15 and they just drafted this embarrassment of riches of, you know, modern day defensemen who could just move and pass the puck and just do everything for them. And then you look at what they have now on their blue line and very few remnants of that. So for them to go out and get Driesdale,

I think makes a lot of sense. And pairing up him and Perrault was was satisfactory to me because it just kind of worked out that they got the shooter that I was hoping they would get at some point of the first. Yeah, totally. I thought the ducks had a decent night. or a decent couple of days for sure. I mean, Perot, I thought, fell way too far. I mean, that crazy zone, as I've been calling it today, that crazy zone between, I'd say, 20 and 30, got really crazy for a bit there.

So I think the Ducks capitalized that on that really, really well with Jacob Perrault. He, I mean, like we're talking about, you mentioned Alexander Holtz. I'll settle for Jack Hughes teeing up Alexander Holtz, because I remember seeing Jack Hughes and Cole Coughfield together and now you've got your shooter again. So hopefully that's how it works out for the devils for sure because that might be the ticket to Holtz being a premier NHL goal score for sure.

One of the weirdest things for me in the day one of the draft was seeing the dialogue around people framing the Red Wings taking Lucas Raymond at 4 as a curveball pick or kind of off the board. I was like, what? It's not. It was so strange. On my mock draft on the show, we had him at Fort of the Red Wings.

I saw him in many top fives. It was just the framing of that was very bizarre. I don't know what the intel was. I guess they were really linked to Cole Perfetti there for a long time. So maybe people just had that in their mind. And then when they didn't take Perfetti and Perfetti was falling, all of a sudden they were like, oh, like this is kind of a out of left field. But I really thought that was a very logical pick.

And sure enough, Raymond scores a beautiful goal today. And he's playing like 15 minutes a night in the Swedish league. And I think it's going to be one of those picks there with each. game as we progress throughout the season it's going to be like oh thank thank goodness they didn't galaxy brain this and they just took Lucas Raymond here because he's a top five talent yeah i i love lucas Raymond i have all the time in the world to watch he's one of those guys that i can just watch play hockey all day a really really smart player and the more you learn about the game and the more you learn about tactical systems and what you want out of players he just ticks so many boxes i i'm

really thrilled that he's a red wing for sure we didn't really talk about the senators i guess you You kind of talked about Tyler Clevin a bit, but for a team that sort of dominated the first round as much as they did with their three picks and then, you know, having as much volume as they did throughout the draft, I don't want to nitpick it because I, you know, Stutzel is a great prospect, Sanderson certainly as well. I would sort of, where I would come at it from is I guess it's fair to wonder, did they maximize the value that they could have with all the picks they had? because there's no doubt that their prospect pipeline is better now than it was before the draft, and they have a bunch of bodies there in talent to get excited about. But, you know, the conversation we had at the start of the podcast was, you know, when you have these picks, what are your expectations, what are you striving to accomplish with them? And I can't help coming away from it thinking, oh, like, if this was in an ideal world

and you really just got the best player available at all of these picks, the board would look slightly different for the senators than I wound up being. Yeah. I you know again I don't like categorizing drafts as bad but what I do prefer is what are you leaving

on the board and with the Ottawa senators I mean they were a team that I think had their guys and took their guys I don't think it's any more complicated than that I mean I sent out a tweet today that was basically like because I'm a sadist

I just can't help myself you know if I were to make the picks that they had made, who would I have gone with? And I'm looking at my list and relative to who they landed. I mean, it's a lot of smaller players, but I don't really think that's much of an issue because I think the bigger players they drafted, they might be hard pressed to be real, full-time NHL impact contributors. I mean, you know, I think Jake Sanderson will be a fine second pair guy you can run a power play through, something you need. But I look at the Ottawa senators and their prospect pipeline, and I see.

Still, even with Tim Schutzlo there, I think he's going to be a great scoring winger. I think Robbie Yarventee has a chance to be a good scoring winger. I still look at the Ottawa Senators down the middle for the next five years and really question what their goal is there. Is Logan Brown, Josh Norris, and Colin White, your guys? I don't think that's good enough to compete. I look at what the Ottawa Senators had a chance to land. I mean, my picket three would have been Marco Rossi. There's your center.

Rock solid. Depending on who Detroit took, either it's Lucas Raymond. to Tim Stutzla in that order, that's who I would have gone for. If it's Raymond, great. That's a great ad. Maverick Bork at 28 would have been my guy. Ridley Grigg, I think he'll play,

but I think he'll be nothing more than a middle six, you know, winger who can drive play and he plays hard. He's young. So, you know, he's just kind of going to be a good player, but nothing truly spectacular to me. I don't think he's that Brady Kachuk level guy that everyone, you know, sours on the day he's drafted and then proves everyone wrong immediately. I don't think he's quite on that level.

He would have been a good second round pick, perhaps, but not sure about that. And then Yarventee at 33. I would have taken Marat. There's another center that really could have worked for the senators, really hardworking, fast kid. Danny Goushton at 44 would have been great. I mean, they took Tyler Cleven,

but I don't know. Will he be a player? I don't really know. I think he's going to be one of these guys that gets a chance to play, and keep trying him and keep trying him, and keep trying them, and I don't know if it's going to be enough to get him there. Yeager Sokolov at 61. I mean, at 61, you had a guy like Toby Nemelaw on the board,

who was a right-handed defense who actually can play defense, two years younger than Sokolov as well. Like, Sokolov has gotten better. The big thing for him recently has been skating, but that seems to be a bit better. He's got a great shot. He's got some good skill for a big guy. But I don't know.

Like, I'm not sure about that pick. There's a lot that you can really poke through with the senators and go, all right, well, you don't want to automatically call them just not good players, but they drafted a lot of 20-year-olds. They drafted an unproven goaltender who has had good numbers, but an unproven goaltender. They've traded up two really good picks to take Tyler Cleven. A lot of 20-year-olds, I mean, there's just not a lot of real solid depth for their

future there, I think. And, I mean, I'm happy to be wrong. But, yeah, in terms of what they left on the board, considering they had how many picks, seven picks before 80th overall. I mean, I think with those seven picks you're going to end up with it most for full-time NHL players and that's being optimistic. Like impact positive net positive players. Maybe four.

Maybe the goalie works out. That would be great. I just, they had a chance to just take a bunch of home run swings and wait and see what happens. And they seem to have rested on just a certain profile of player like we were talking. older, bigger players. They did the same thing last year. Whether it works out or not,

we'll have to wait and see. But interesting draft for them for sure. Yeah, I guess my one final thing that I wanted to mention was the Devils where I loved, it was one of those things. I was like, okay, Holt's at 7. I was like, I love this. Dawson Mercer at 18.

I was like, I like this a lot. This is awesome. They have another pick coming here at 20. Braden Schneider goes at 19. I'm thinking, oh, man, the Devils, if they get Hendricks Lapier here, This is the prime spot for me where it's your third first round pick. You've got two relative slam dunks already on the board.

This is where you really kind of flex your muscles a little bit and go, we're going to try to make this a historically great draft for us right here. And listen, like Shakira Mukmadulin might be fine. I certainly understand the intrigue, six-four defensemen who can skate the way he has, the start to the year, the KHL that he's had. I get it. I just think it was kind of. a bit of an uninspired pick for me just because

with Hendricks LaPierre there was a rare opportunity where they could live with that downside considering the capital that they'd already accrued and I really wish they had swung for the fences with that instead of going the route they did yeah I you know I actually overall like when you look at the entire picture I didn't mind the devil's draft at all I thought they were up I'd say in the top 10 of the draft like in terms of value that they added I think Alexander Holtz with Jack Hughes or Nico who cares. He's going to, he's going to score goals. Dawson Mercer could be a really good complimentary scorer for those guys. You know, Nico Dawes, he's a goalie. If he works out,

awesome. Yarmier Pitlick, I'm not a huge fan of, but Ethan Edwards, Artem Schlane and Benjamin Baumgartner, where they picked them. I think those guys could all be at least push for an NHL job at some point. I think Schlaan's going to need time. Edwards is going to need time. But Baumgartner is, Baumgartner is an older player that I actually would have been pushing for in drafting and getting him at 161 is an area where I would have I would have really like to add him. I think he's got a lot of potential. He's a he's taken a huge step this year playing with Davos in his first men's league game. You know, really crafty skilled player who can shoot it and score and pass the pluck.

He's the guy I think who is number two on my tracking list of all the players I tracked that in terms of generating dangerous chances from right in front of the net. He knows how to get there. He's small, but he's playing against men in Switzerland. I think there's a lot of potential for bomb for bomb gardener with Shakir I think that seemed to be like the guy that they wanted and they knew they wouldn't get if they didn't take him there I don't think that's the best draft strategy because I think Shakir Mukumadoulin is a player that has a very long road to become an effective defenseman I more the more the more and more I think about it the more I think about relieving him of his defensive duties and making him a winger because he can skate pretty well he's got decent skill he's big he's big he's can play physical, but just the mental, the mental sort of mathematics that you kind of need to do on the fly to play good defense, you know, away from the puck especially, I think is just not there. You know, he really has trouble with what I would call like holy crap moments, like moments where you

really think the game is about to just completely fall apart around him. you know i see i've seen moments where and this is stuff that you should be able to see and coach out of him but he does it a lot where he'll just drift around along the offensive blue line you know not really paying attention to where his partner is not really paying attention to the guy that's sneaking into the neutral zone behind him puck squeak out behind him he was one of the worst players i tracked in terms of cutting off those defensive transitions something that someone like jacob or jake jake james james james jen does really well i i just think there's a really long road for muka Madoulin and a 20th overall.

I mean, if you want to take a swing on him in the second round, be my guest. And I think the devils could have traded down. And again, if you could have, if you did trade down and didn't get a chance to take him because someone else took him at say 21, I don't think you, I don't think you missed out on a whole lot. I think so you let someone else take the risk on that player and you draft a player in the second round that, you know, you could have had a Helga Grants. I mean, never in a million years on the day of the draft, would you have told me that Helga Grants wouldn't have been a first round pick?

and Shakir Mukumadulan not a first, or sorry, where Shakir Mukumadulan would have been a first, and Granz wasn't. I never in a million years would have thought that, but here we are. The draft is weird. I mean, it is what it is, and I think the devil's just kind of latched onto their guy, and it's a risk. I mean, I don't think I'm as much of a Debbie Downer about Mukumudulin as most people in the Twitter sphere, I guess you could call it,

but I certainly see the holes in his game because there are a lot of them. really frustrating player to watch but when you see him skating with the puck like once in a while you go okay that's kind of what I'm going for but that just does not happen enough to me for especially a top 20 pick yeah I think for me

it's just what could have been as opposed to saying anything about the player himself but yeah I think it was the vibe of today's podcast is generally very optimistic and positive I think we were talking more so about stuff we liked and players that you know their strengths and what they bring to the table

All right, well, we're going to get out of here. There's obviously a bunch of different teams and players that we just couldn't get to because it would have taken forever. It would have been as long as day two of the NHL draft. Oh, God. Plug some stuff. Where can people check out your work, where can they follow you, and they can support, all that stuff.

Sure. So Twitter.com slash scouting is where everything is kind of hosted. I have a YouTube channel, scouting, obviously. A bunch of reports coming, or a bunch of reports have been posted there, profiling individual players. I think there were 36 of them this year, which is crazy. You can also go watch the archive version of the draft live streams that we did. The other thing is there's going to be draft recaps.

So we didn't get the time to go through every single team. But I am this weekend going to be shooting recaps of each individual team. So we'll release those once a day for a month. Just have some fun. Sit back and kind of reflect on what happened. So that's going to be fun on the YouTube channel as well. If you want to directly support my work, you can go to patreon.com slash scouting. There's a bunch of tiers.

There's a Discord server you can join. There's data sheets for drafted and undrafted prospects from around the league and around the world. There's all kinds of stuff. So just check out and whatever you can. Certainly, I'm all, I'm welcome to having you join up. So any of those things you can find me. I'm also on Instagram, scouting underscore will, but I'm not super active there. Twitter and YouTube and Patreon is probably where you're going to find the most content.

I like it, man. I love your content. I love this content. I'm glad we got to collaborate and do this. Pio guys together and it was a blast hopefully you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to having you on again some time down the road so enjoy this little little bit of a reprieve here I know you're going to be doing the team reports but uh take a few nights for yourself before we start thinking about the 2021 class oh I'm gonna try I'm gonna try I'm it's it's not something that doesn't feel like

works so I'll try to keep myself away but I can't make any promises that's a good mindset all right man have a good one all right you too man see you before we get out of here I just wanted to quickly thank everyone for listening to today's show and share some exciting news about the hockey pdo cast in its future so for those of you that haven't heard the news yet uh the show will be joining the blue wire podcast network and really really excited about the opportunity it's not only going to allow us to keep the show running by helping pay the bills and and provide some stability which is something the show was definitely um lacking and was a big reason why we took that four month or so hiatus that we did up until recently.

But also, it's going to allow us to keep the show running as is free for those of you to be able to just download and enjoy and listen the way you have up until now. So it's not really going to change anything for you as a listener. It's going to allow us to experiment and do a bunch of fun new stuff down the road. So really looking forward to seeing what's next for the show and being able to keep doing it and maybe even expanding it to the point where we're going to definitely be doing it once a week for the coming weeks and months, but maybe even expanding it to twice a week depending on how much stuff there is to talk about. So really excited about that. And a big reason why that's possible is because

of all of you that have supported the show and kept listening and downloading and subscribing and leaving ratings and reviews. And I hope you'll continue to do so. A lot of you, since I started asking for ratings and reviews have gone and done so over the past couple days and weeks and hopefully those either haven't yet will consider doing so because honestly it just takes a minute or two of your time it's really simple and easy to do and it goes a long way to where it's helping the show and i genuinely am humbled by the by the comments that are left and and you know if you're just going and leaving a quick five-star review that's fine if you want to actually get a bit personal and tell me what you appreciated about the show maybe get in on some inside

jokes, all of it is great and I appreciate it in every single shape and form. So that's going to be it for today's show. We'll be back early next week with a bunch of free agency content. We're going to be doing some winners and losers, some reactions to the signings that we've seen. And yeah, that's going to kind of guide us for the next little bit here. So looking forward to that. Thanks for listening to today's show. And until then, here's the outro music. Filippovich and on soundclass Hockey PEDEOCast.