Happy Thursday to you all, for these ramblings my prospect draft is finally complete in my one pool, and I think I am stuck with my late picks in the other one that is taking forever.

 

First here are my draft grade ramblings from the past two weeks:

Prospect Ramblings – Team Draft Grades Part 1

Prospect Ramblings – Team Draft Grades Part 2

 

A little background, this league has been going on since the Tavares draft (I am awful at remembering dates, but after looking it was 2009), and it was 18 teams but we reduced it to 16. It is a head-to-head keep 13 league that’s scoring has evolved over time to G, A, PIM (I know), SOG, H+B, STPs, GWG, W, SV%, SV, SO. We start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 6D, 2G, 5 reserve, 2 IR, and 20 prospects.

 

Best bet for winning hockey pools in your rookie draft is the Dobber Fantasy Prospects Report

 

Background on my team is that I started out very well, I won the league once and finished second twice and usually was a top five finish. Then my team got old and started awfully two years ago and I decided to blow it up and rebuild, because who does not love trading. I may have mentioned this last year but who can remember that far away!

 

So I went in to the draft before the lottery with picks #1, #4, and #10. I had moved some seconds, one of my firsts and a prospect for Kuznetsov, which was a steal but he also does not contribute a lot to additional stats. It is safe to say I was a little displeased after the lottery (even with my Devils winning the draft) as my picks move to #4, #6, and #11. Yay me.

 

Before the draft I really needed to address my goaltending as my goalies were Mrazek and Nilsson. Well I jumped at an opportunity after two GMs made a trade giving one GM Binnington to go along with Allen, Price and Schneider. Well I had Husso and know that GM needed some prospect depth (skaters under 120 games and goalies under 80 games count as prospects). Our trade that we settled on saw me send:

 

• Pick 11, Ville Husso, and Cody Glass
• For
• Cory Schneider and Vitek Vanecek (I also have Samsonov and Blackwood)

 

So that was one pick moved. I do not know if I need to discuss my reasoning for it, I had to pay for Schneider and luckily I did that before the Devils got Subban. Vanecek is starting to come in to his own and is giving Samsonov a run for his money in the AHL. It will be an incredible battle to watch this year for the Bears that will spill over to full time play for either or both goalie in 2020-2021.

 

I think needed to address my forwards as I have Andrei Svechnikov under 120 games, so I made a trade for Marchessault where I sent:

 

• Jonathan Marchessault and Pick #28
• For
• Erik Brannstrom and Pick #6

 

My reasoning here is that Marchessault is a 60 point LW that shoots a ton, which is good for this league, and with Stone added to Vegas on line two Marchy should have more room in 2019-2020. I do not like Ottawa much anymore for points over the next few seasons as they look to incorporate a lot of young players in to the team. He also has Chabot to deal with for PP time. Pick #6 was a sacrifice I had to make, but pick #28 was fine to get as the 2019 draft was all over the map and picks 12-40 were all around the same value.

 

Then the draft rolled out, but once we got to pick #29 I made another move. I will show you the draft list and how I grade them:

 

ROUND 1

 

1.C          St. Louis               Hughes, Jack – NJ

• A; Hard to go wrong here unless you are already stacked at C, but I would have picked Kakko as awesome wingers are harder to come by. Also he knows I am a Devils fan and everyone here should see the expensive price he wants me to pay!

 

2.RW     Boston                  Kakko, Kaapo – NYR        

• A+; Easiest pick in the draft for 2019 in the second one

 

3.G             Philadelphia       Knight, Spencer – FLA    

• A+; You need to give a top grade for when someone just goes for it. In our pool goalies are super valuable so when you have top goalie prospects you can get a great player and a top starter is impossible to get without an overpay.
• The GM who selected Knight made a bunch of trades to get here but his final one saw him send:
  • Andreas Johnsson, a 2022 first (this GM has so many firsts from 2019-2022), pick #27 and Henrik Borgstrom
  • For
  • Pick #3 and a 2020 third

 

4.C          New Jersey        Turcotte, Alex – LA

• A; I kept this pick and used it on who I thought was the third best forward in this draft

 

5.C          Edmonton           Dach, Kirby – CHI

• B+; I still do not know what to make of the Hawks picking him but obviously they see something

 

6.LW      Colorado              Caufield, Cole – MON    

• A; Get the best goal scorer while you can. If I still had this pick I likely would have used it on him as well

 

7.C          Washington        Zegras, Trevor – ANA     

• B+; hard to go wrong with Zegras AND anyone Anaheim drafts in the NHL as they all seem to play

 

8.D         Anaheim              Byram, Bowen – COL      

• A; Huge steal right here, but can he get 1PP time over Makar and Girard

 

9.LW      Winnipeg             Krebs, Peyton – VGK      

• B+; He fell in the NHL draft but not in ours and it is a great pick

 

10.RW   Toronto                Podkolzin, Vasili – VAN  

• A-; If he can become the player many think he can (strong in multicat) this could be a steal of a pick

 

11.LW    Calgary                 Boldy, Matthew – MIN  

• B+; You cannot go wrong with Boldy but there were slightly better players out there. With how Minnesota needs young skilled players though he could be given ample amounts of opportunity

 

12.C       Washington        Cozens, Dylan – BUF       

• A+; Cozens was not going to fall anymore and he is a great pick here

 

13.LW    Colorado              Newhook, Alex – COL    

• A; He is a C but Fantrax has his as a LW. It would be great if he stayed a LW

 

14.LW    California             Kaliyev, Arthur – LA        

• A; I love that this GM just took one of the most skilled players in the draft that somehow fell to the second round. He was not going to let anyone else take him

 

15.LW    Las Vegas            Hoglander, Nils – VAN   

• C+; This was a big reach but this GM has a great team and is a Canucks homer so he reached big time (No it is not Cam Robinson)

 

16.C       St. Louis               Tomasino, Philip – NSH

• B-; Nashville needs scoring down the line and Tomasino has loads of it

 

ROUND 2

 

17.RW   Las Vegas            Brink, Bobby – PHI           

• B; Brink is highly skilled but small we will see if he turns out

 

18.RW   Chicago                 Lavoie, Raphaël – EDM  

• B; I am bullish on Lavoie as he came on so late and got selected by the Oilers outside of the first round. We will see how he turns out

 

19.LW    Vancouver          Tracey, Brayden – ANA 

• B+; He is a good pick but perhaps a tad too high

 

20.D       Edmonton           Seider, Moritz – DET       

• A; He surprisingly went sixth in the NHL draft but defensemen in our prospect draft always tend to slide. If he has some high ceiling for offense and become the 1PP option in Detroit this pick would make other GMs (except me of course) look silly

 

21.LW    Washington        Puistola, Patrik – CAR     

• C+; He slipped far in the NHL draft but I think he could have been available in round three

 

22.C       Boston                  McMichael, Connor – WSH          

• B; Average great for an average pick

 

23.LW    Quebec                 Dorofeyev, Pavel – VGK

• B-; A tad too high but he is still a great prospect that slid to Vegas in round three

 

24.D       Winnipeg             Thomson, Lassi – OTT

• C+; I did not like the pick for Ottawa (or a majority of the teams entire 2019 draft) and better defensemen were on board

 

25.G       Calgary                 Sogaard, Mads – OTT

• B; This was a great pick for Ottawa and the one I really liked for the team

 

26.D       Edmonton           York, Cam – PHI

• B+; This GM keeps getting stuck with the BPA being a defenseman, so they picked one

 

27.D       Quebec                 Broberg, Philip – EDM

• B-; The Oilers love him but will he pan out in to anything for our pool

 

28.G       New Jersey        Kochetkov, Pyotr – CAR

• B; I will take the top rated European goalie prospect no problem

 

Here is where I traded Pick #29 for a second in 2021 that could wind up at, above or slightly below this pick

 

29.C       New Jersey        Pelletier, Jakob – CGY

• B+; A first round pick still on board who could be great for multicat and score, sign me up

 

30.LW    California             Foote, Nolan – TB

• B-; I mean Tampa knows more about drafting that a lot of us so who am I to criticize. Anyway my criticism of this pick is that I am not a fan of Foote and felt he was better for the third round

 

31.D       Colorado              Soderstrom, Victor – ARI              

• A; Another sliding defenseman that could make us all look silly

 

32.C       Edmonton           Robertson, Nick – TOR

• A-; One of the more intriguing picks in the NHL draft being that he one of (or the) youngest player(s) in the draft. If he was a few months older he could have had a better season and been a top talent in 2020

 

ROUND 3

 

33.D       Anaheim              Bjornfot, Tobias – LA      

• B; He is a first round pick and LA obviously loves him enough to grab him

 

34.LW    Edmonton           Afanasyev, Yegor – NSH               

• A; I love Afanasyev’s skill and his placement of Nashville. They have the patience to develop him

 

35.D       Las Vegas            Harley, Thomas – DAL    

• A; Harley Thomas is another great sliding defenseman that could make everyone look silly for how late he went

 

36.C       Washington        Suzuki, Ryan – CAR

• B-; A solid pick but with limited upside

 

37.D       Washington        Heinola, Ville – WPG       

• B; Winnipeg knows how to draft and Heinola could be another in the teams long list of great picks (minus Logan Stanley)

 

38.C       Boston                  Leason, Brett – WSH       

• A-; Leason could become a good middle-six winger for the Capitals, but he is an overager who produced in his final season and those players are risky

 

39.C       Anaheim              Beecher, John – BOS      

• C+; He is a first round pick but Boston makes the weirdest first round picks. He might be a good third line centre

 

40.LW    Las Vegas            Grewe, Albin – DET

• C+; He fell to Detroit in round three but he likely could have been selected later or when the draft completed. But if you want the player take the player, the Red Wings usually know how to draft

 

41.LW    Philadelphia       Poulin, Samuel – PIT

• A; A first round pick for the Penguins out of the QMJHL could be great. He seems like a lower ceiling type player but I could be wrong

 

42.D       Vancouver          Johnson, Ryan – BUF      

• B; He is a solid pick at #31 for Buffalo

 

43.C       Las Vegas            Mastrosimone, Robert – DET      

• B-; The GM here got his other Red Wing player. Perhaps he got the two mixed up

 

44.RW   Anaheim              Pinto, Shane – OTT          

• B-; Pinto was a solid pick for Ottawa to start the second round. He could have went in the first round

 

45.G       Quebec                 Wolf, Dustin – CGY          

• A; Wolf could be the best goaltender in this draft and I was so hoping Wolf would be forgotten and I could add him as soon as the draft was finished. The 2019 Draft is a very good goaltender draft that I think everyone overlooked initially but in five to seven years everyone will look back on it as one of the best

 

46.LW    California             Firstov, Vladislav – MIN 

• A-; Minnesota needs skill, and to draft Russians to sway Kaprizov to come over, so this was a solid pick

 

47.G       St. Louis               Alnefelt, Hugo – TB         

• B+; A good goalie prospect

 

I made one last trade as the GM with pick #48 loved a goalie prospect I had, so I decided to grab a goalie prospect and trade one all at the same time. I traded Jakub Skarek (NYI) for the #48 pick.

 

48.G       New Jersey        Konovalov, Ilya – EDM

• B-; I grabbed the KHL rookie of the year. He could be a great pick but he is also an Oilers pick

 

That is my entire draft I hope you enjoyed it.

 

******************

 

A little write up on my other keeper league. That league is a full keeper point’s league that is H2H. I came in second in points and first in the H2H battle for money finishes. So our draft finally started and is going so slow, but at least it is moving.

 

I had no picks in the 2019 draft. I traded Dominik Kahun after he was moved to the Penguins for third round picks 10 and 11, which could end up biting me in the bottom. I then made the following trades (keep in mind my team is pretty stacked):

 

• Alex Turcotte (I made another trade when I got him, but it was after he was drafted), 2019 pick 3-11, Alex Tuch, Colin Miller and a 2020 third
• For
• Evgeni Malkin, 2019 pick 3-6, and a 2020 second

 

Then I traded:

 

• Rasmus Asplund and 2019 pick 3-10
• For
• 2019 pick 3-7

 

AND then I traded:

 

• Vladislav Gavrikov and 2019 pick 3-7
• For
• 2019 pick 3-3

 

That is the story of how I went from Dominik Kahun to 2019 picks 3-3 and 3-6.

 

Thanks for reading. I think 2,300+ words are enough for now.

 

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