Mock Draft

[lightupdadarkness]

NJ - Robert Thomas - F

[Shoalzie]

My mock draft:

Henri Jokiharju D
Filip Gustavsson G
Nick Foligno F
Tyson Barrie D
Evgeny Kuznetsov F
Kale Clague D
Mike Reilly D
Chris Kreider F
Mathieu Joseph F
Jack Roslovic F
Sami Niku D
Vitek Vanecek G
Kieffer Bellows F
Brandon Carlo D
Tage Thompson F
Christian Fischer F
Casey Mittelstadt F
Robert Thomas F
Keegan Kolesar F
Ryan Donato F
J.T. Compher F
Dillon Dube F
David Savard D
Ethan Bear D
Zach Aston-Reese F
Sam Steel F
Jack Campbell G
Troy Terry F
Leo Komarov F
Adam Pelech D
Milan Lucic F

My approach was to draft mostly younger players with upside but you had to mix in some veterans and some big contracts to round out the lineup. The average age of my drafts is just under 25.6. It's a competitive team but it's also a team with mostly younger players so there's room for improvement.

[Shoalzie]

My projected lineup:

Donato - Kuznetsov - Kreider
Foligno - Roslovic - Mittelstadt
Dube - Compher - Thompson
Aston-Reese - Thomas - Joseph

Barrie - Pelech
Carlo - Reilly
Savard - Bear

Campbell
Vanecek


Scratches/Trade Candidates
C Steel
W Fischer
W Komarov
W Lucic
W Terry
D Jokiharju

Minors (Waiver Exempt)
W Bellows
W Kolesar
D Clague
D Niku
G Gustavsson

[CasperX22]

Malkin is a power forward over 30.

The nice part about having 32 GMs is 32 different opinions.

To add to this, I disagree that Joki is a good young defender. Of the NHL defenders that played 30+ games last season he was one of the worst in the NHL. His fantasy stats arent very useful either, so he's a double whammy of bad real life player and bad fantasy player.

And I'd say Ottawa's net is wide open given Murray's performance this season. Even so, they are still going to need a reliable 1B and long term answer.

[lightupdadarkness]

NSH Casey Mittelstadt F

[Shoalzie]

Nicholas Beaudin (keeps appearing and disappearing on the spreadsheet, so not sure if actually eligible)

These are definitely the flakiest sheet I've created. I apologize for it's performance...information would change while I'm on the sheet. I was worried about this for David and that he wasn't going to end picking someone who either wasn't eligible or was actually protected. The lists changing repeatedly is very annoying.

I'll rework how I import information to everyone's sheets for next season. Unfortunately I threw these expansion sheets together in a hurry. I think they look good but they don't perform well.

[DApolloS]

It steadys itself after a minute before acting up again, but if for any reason reason drafted someone not eligible, please let me know and I will make the proper adjustments, but I'm like 99.8% sure everyone I picked are both unprotected and eligible to be drafted.

[Shoalzie]

It steadys itself after a minute before acting up again, but if for any reason reason drafted someone not eligible, please let me know and I will make the proper adjustments, but I'm like 99.8% sure everyone I picked are both unprotected and eligible to be drafted.

Too many lists being imported from different sources and they were getting filters multiple times...it was kind of a mess.

That's why I wanted teams to post their lists and I'll obviously make sure you're good with your picks.

[lightupdadarkness]

NYR Mark Jankowski F

[Da_Hawks]

Malkin is a power forward over 30.

The nice part about having 32 GMs is 32 different opinions.

To add to this, I disagree that Joki is a good young defender. Of the NHL defenders that played 30+ games last season he was one of the worst in the NHL. His fantasy stats arent very useful either, so he's a double whammy of bad real life player and bad fantasy player.

And I'd say Ottawa's net is wide open given Murray's performance this season. Even so, they are still going to need a reliable 1B and long term answer.

Malkin is not a power forward, he`s just a big guy with skill. Also, Lee does not have the offensive output potential of a Malkin.

As for Joki, he`s only 21 and plays in Buffalo - of course he`s going to suck. But, I'd rather roll the dice on him then add an awfully long contract like Lee that has 0 trade value.

Murray showed flashes of excellent play last year, so I`m not counting him out yet. If he does suck, well then oh well. No guarantee the answer is Gus either. I'd prefer to run with veteran goalies to start and that have known value. Just my thought process though - I can 100% see the reasoning for yours as well.

[CasperX22]

He sucked before he got to Buffalo. Players production typically goes up when they get traded to Buffalo bc of opportunity. Case in point, recently Anders Bjork. To further that point, a guy like Ristolainen would likely be a 3rd pair guy on a competitive team, but he is a stud in this league because he plays a ton of minutes and racks up a lot of stats due to that fact. Joki is just flat out bad.

[Da_Hawks]

He sucked before he got to Buffalo. Players production typically goes up when they get traded to Buffalo bc of opportunity. Case in point, recently Anders Bjork. To further that point, a guy like Ristolainen would likely be a 3rd pair guy on a competitive team, but he is a stud in this league because he plays a ton of minutes and racks up a lot of stats due to that fact. Joki is just flat out bad.

If you say so Casper. Because a 21 year old dman has never ever improved before.

[Da_Hawks]

He sucked before he got to Buffalo. Players production typically goes up when they get traded to Buffalo bc of opportunity. Case in point, recently Anders Bjork. To further that point, a guy like Ristolainen would likely be a 3rd pair guy on a competitive team, but he is a stud in this league because he plays a ton of minutes and racks up a lot of stats due to that fact. Joki is just flat out bad.

If you say so Casper. Because a 21 year old dman has never ever improved before.

[CasperX22]

Sure he could, but he's not good, arguably was overdrafted in the 1st place, and in danger of getting lost on even Buffalo's blue line. Generally for a player to have a breakout season in the NHL he needs to have been good in the 1st place and the analytics have never looked good for him, so it would definitely be a surprise.

[kyuss]

Mik why would you protect a guy like Klingberg rather than say Josi?

not sure I get the comparison, Klingberg is a zilion times better than Lindblom, who has often been a 'healthy' scratch after what he went through...

and I doubt an expansion team can have my cap issues

[Da_Hawks]

Sure he could, but he's not good, arguably was overdrafted in the 1st place, and in danger of getting lost on even Buffalo's blue line. Generally for a player to have a breakout season in the NHL he needs to have been good in the 1st place and the analytics have never looked good for him, so it would definitely be a surprise.

Analytics are overrated. See: Martin Marincin - analytics darling, shitty hockey player.

[Shoalzie]

Regarding Josi...let's not forget, we're going to have a flat cap for a few years. I think some teams here were of the belief they could slip some of their veterans through exposure when they have a huge contract but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they drafted.

Josi at $4 million has a different appeal than at $9 million. Klingberg has the more digestible contract.

You almost had to play the game of protecting the best players with the best contracts and perhaps Seattle would take a big money deal off your hands to free up some cap space. It's not easy to trade big contracts at value. Typically, there's some concessions that have to be made for a team to eat a big contract in this financial environment.

[Bruyns]

Mik why would you protect a guy like Klingberg rather than say Josi?

not sure I get the comparison, Klingberg is a zilion times better than Lindblom, who has often been a 'healthy' scratch after what he went through...

and I doubt an expansion team can have my cap issues

I was just making the point that you protected an inferior player due to cap hits affecting value and Malkin's cap hit affects his value.

[kyuss]

of course cap hit and age affect Malkin's value, but if the alternative is a healthy scratch who could be closer than Malkin to the end of his career...

[Bruyns]

of course cap hit and age affect Malkin's value, but if the alternative is a healthy scratch who could be closer than Malkin to the end of his career...

He is cancer free now I think, but there's also players like Kreider and Cizikas.