Congradulations, you all made it through the week, sober, to my favorite event in the NHL… DRAFT DAY!
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The Dobber Prospects team will be working hard over the next couple days to keep you uptodate and get you info on as many players and teams as we can in the ‘prospectsphere’
The team that I know on working will be me, Jason Banks (working on the ramblings page here and watching for trades and notes), Brendan Ross (working on first round draftee organization and notes) and Austin Wallace (Administering the Live Draft Chat)… others will be in and out over the next few days and be found in the messageboard responding to many readers.
This ramblings will be a bit different than usual, it will feature the main draft board at the top, to keep those updated who need it, and news and notes below. News and Notes will be inverted so that the newest note is featured at the top. (I suggest open a window and press update every few minutes).
Please join in on our live chat here: http://prospects.dobbersports.com/Feature-Story/live-draft-chat
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Round 1
#1 – Edmonton – Connor McDavid – C
#2 – Buffalo – Jack Eichel – C
#3 – Arizona – Dylan Strome – C
#4 – Toronto – Mitchell Marner – W
#5 – Carolina – Noah Hanifin – D
#6 – New Jersey – Pavel Zacha – C
#7 – Philadephia – Ivan Provorov – D
#8 – Columbus – Zach Werenski – D
#9 – San Jose – Timo Meier – RW
#10 – Colorado – Mikko Rantanen – RW
#11 – Florida – Lawson Crouse – LW
#12 – Dallas – Denis Gurianov – RW
#13 – Boston – Jakub Zaboril – D
#14 – Boston – Jake DeBrusk – LW
#15 – Boston – Zach Senyshyn – RW
#16 – New York I – Mathew Barzal – C
#17 – Winnipeg – Kyle Connor – LW
#18 – Ottawa – Thomas Chabot – D
#19 – Detroit – Evgeny Svechnikov – LW
#20 – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek – C
#21 – Ottawa – Colin White – C
#22 – Washington – Ilya Samsonov – G
#23 – Vancouver – Brock Boeser – RW
#24 – Philadephia – Travis Konecny – C
#25 – Winnipeg – Jack Roslovic – C
#26 – Montreal – Noah Juulsen – D
#27 – Anahiem – Jacob Larsson – D
#28 – New York I – Anthony Beauvillier – LW
#29 – Columbus – Gabriel Carlsson – D
#30 – Arizona – Nick Merkley – RW
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Griffin Reinhart has been delt to Edmonton, which move the needle a bit higher for his offensive outlook, but really pushes Edmonton forward from an organizational stand point. Reinhart could pair excellently with Darnell Nurse going forward. For Nurse I feel this has a bigger influence on his offence than McDavid, Hall, Eberle ect… If your a fantasy owner of any of the above mentioned, get more excited.
With Zadorov being moved, the way is paved for Jake McCabe to become ‘minute-muncher’ on the Sabers, with Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Pysyk also entering the frey full time. Buffalo’s non NHL defensive prospect pool is rather thin with only Brady Austin with a positive outlook. It would not surprise to see Buffalo select a D with the 31st pick if they dont try and move up before then.
With the trading of Ryan O’Reilly to Buffalo, Colorado injects much needed depth and talent into the Colorado prospect pool. Nikita Zadorov becomes a top 3 defenceman right away, Mikhail Grigorenko likely moves to the wing beside Nathan MacKinnon or Matt Duchene and J.T. Compher slides in as a likely 3rd liner or starts in the AHL as a key prospect.
On the LA side, In the crease the Kings will need to bring in anouther veteran netminder, but they may opt to try Jean-Francois Berube as NHL backup and have a more experianced guy in the pipeline for insurance. The organization’s AHL affiliate ended up winning the Calder Cup, but they did so without the above mentioned Berube who was the main reason they got there. He was hurt early in the final series and Patrik Bartosak took over and finnished Utica off. Bartosak will continue in the AHL for a couple seasons.
The Bruins also recieved Martin Jones in the deal who will effectively replace Nik Svedberg who took off to Europe in a surprising move after a strong debut. For Jones it doesn’t really matter, Tukka Rask/Jon Quick = same limited oppertunities. For Malcom Subban means he will stay in the AHL and develop for atleast anouther season or 2 (it should be noted that he has also been subject to trade rumors). Zane Gothberg-McIntyer will likely be the other player in Providence.
Defenceman Colin Miller was delt as part of the Milan Lucic trade, Miller is a budding offensive backliner who is getting close to making his NHL debut, Boston will be needing a cheap, up and comer to plug in and Miller becomes a good option with Joe Morrow, Zach Trotman, David Warsofsky and Linus Arnesson