 |
| Via: Thesportingnews.com |
Last night the NHL held it's annual draft lottery event on TSN to determine who would take the first overall pick at this year's entry draft in New Jersey. The Colorado Avalanche, who had a 18.8% chance of winning, finally got some luck after firing coach Joe Sacco earlier this week and whet home with the big prize. Much to the chagrin of Florida Panther's GM Dale Tallon, who looked none too pleased when the camera cut to him after it was revealed his team had dropped from first to second. However, that was the only change as a result of the lottery, and picks 3-14 remained the same. So now that the order is known the draft is coming into focus a bit, so let's take a look at the top 5 and who they may choose on June 30th.
1st Overall Pick - Colorado Avalanche: If there were any debate about whether American defenseman Seth Jones was going to go first overall, the Avs winning the lottery ended it. Jones is potentially a franchise defenseman who grew up skating in the Denver area and was encouraged to play hockey by watching the Avs win the Stanley Cup in 1996. To pick anybody else would be another folly for Colorado.
2nd Overall Pick - Florida Panthers: Though Tallon lost out on Jones, he still has many options with the second pick. The Panther's prospect pool is a bit weak on the wing, so they may look to take Halifax Moosehead's winger Jonathan Drouin over his linemate and center Nate MacKinnon. Drouin was the QMJHL's player of the year this season, has an incredible scoring touch, and is also a very mature player for his age that could jump into the NHL right away.
3rd Overall Pick - Tampa Bay Lighting: If Jones and Drouin are off the board, it seems the Steve Yzerman will have no choice to pick up MacKinnon. It's not a bad consolation prize, as MacKinnon has fantastic skating skills and offensive instincts that could make him a superstar in the NHL. So far in this year's QMJHL playoffs MacKinnon has 28 points in only 12 games.
4th Overall Pick - Nashville Predators: The Preds have a prospect pool full of character players, but are a bit weak at center, so Finn Alexsander Barkov seems the logical choice for them to take in this spot. Barkov might be the best overall center available in the draft, as he plays a very solid game. He's got a great combination of vision, passing skills and good hands that can put the puck in the net. This year, playing in the SM-Liiga he picked up 21 goals and 48 points in 53 games.
5th Overall Pick - Carolina Hurricanes: After the top 4, there appears to be a bit of seperation among the players available, and the Hurricanes may go off the board a little bit with this pick. Big Russian center Valeri Nichushkin jumped from 10th to 5th in the draft rankings after a great tournament in February, but currently has a contract in the KHL which may scare some teams away. I'm thinking the Canes will go with Swedish center Elias Lindholm with this pick instead. Lindholm only has average size for the center position, but has good offensive skills as he showed in Brynas of the Elitserien this year, picking up 30 points in 48 games.
From the 6th position on, it's tough to speculate about how the teams will pick, as each team may value players differently depending on their own organizational needs. Barring any trades, this is order of how the rest of the top 14 will pick:
6th - Calgary Flames
7th - Edmonton Oilers
8th - Buffalo Sabres
9th - New Jersey Devils
10th - Dallas Stars
11th - Philadelphia Flyers
12th - Phoenix Coyotes
13th - Winnipeg Jets
14th - Columbus Blue Jackets
Those are tough spots for Winnipeg and Columbus to take, after barely missing out on the playoffs this season. One more note on the draft, the New Jersey Devils had to decide whether they were going to forfeit this year's first round pick or next year's as a result of their penalty for the Ilya Kovalchuk contract. Seeing as the draft was going to be held at the Prudential Cetner in Jersey, GM Lou Lamoriello opted to keep his pick this year.
Thanks for reading everyone, don't forget to comment and share if you like the content here at WAAP> I'll be back later for your nightly game previews. It's playoff time! No gif today, but I've got something much better for you. If you haven't seen this spoof of The Hangover by the guys at TSN, you simply must check it out. Anze Kopitar deserves an Academy Award!
No comments:
Post a Comment