1 | | - | | No brainer, especially for Buffalo. Ugh... a top pairing of Ristolainen and Dahlen is going to be terrifying to deal with. |
2 | | - | | Ottawa is fairly secure with their defensive and center prospects. They need a winger, so they take the best on in the draft. |
3 | | | | The Isles' only real position of strength in their prospect pool is with left wingers. Between Dal Colle, Beauvillier and Bellows, the Isles are stacked at LW as far as prospects are concerned. But Zadina's skill set is just too good to pass up. Putting a true sniper like Zadina on a line with Tavares or Barzal (both of whom are great playmakers) could be devastating, and we could see that as soon as this coming season. |
4 | | - | | With OEL possibly leaving at the end of this year, and with no true heir to OEL as far as right shooting defensemen are concerned, Boqvist is their best option, despite Tkachuk probably being the more skilled player. |
5 | | - | | Vancouver gets even more stacked with their forward prospects. Adding a big bodied talent like Brady Tkachuk to an already impressive cohort of Boeser, Horvat and Pettersen, it's only a matter of time before the Nucks have one of the league's premier young Top 6s. |
6 | | - | | The Red Wings have only just started their rebuild, but thanks to savvy drafting while they were still perennial playoff competitors, the Red Wings can afford to take a bit of a risk by drafting Bouchard as early as the 6th pick. Bouchard has shown incredible talent, but I've seen him projected as high as 5th overall and as low as 30th. I think the Red wings, if put in this position, would the risk, and a couple years down the road, reap the rewards on one of my personal favorite prospects this draft. |
7 | | - | | Montreal has been desperate for a good young center to lead this venerable franchise into the future. Wahlstrom isn't guaranteed to be a 1 Center, but he's certainly more than capable of it. |
8 | | - | | Edmonton needs defense far more than it needs offense, but they've been looking for a good, skilled, dynamic young winger to complement McJesus. Edmonton reaches one or two slots for Farabee. |
9 | | - | | Chicago needs defense and this draft has plenty of it. In this projection, the Hawks are even lucky enough to see Hughes slide a few slots their way after the two teams above them pass on Hughes in favor of organizational needs at Center and Wing. |
10 | | - | | The Isles, in need of depth at Center and possibly facing the departure of their captain and number one forward John Tavares, will almost certainly pick a center with one of their two draft picks, lottery or no. While I personally like Veleno's game better, I think Kupari is a better fit for the Isles as an organization. Kupari is known for a physical two-way game. Isles management is known for being extremely hard on any young player who doesn't play defense first, and in my opinion, they've ruined a lot of great talent trying to fit Ho-Sang shaped pegs into Clutterbuck shaped holes. So even though I'd rather have Veleno, I think Kupari's grittier, more defensive style is more likely to not get ruined by Bridgeport. |
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