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Mock Draft : The Top-Five |
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So we are only 10 days away from the 2013 draft, yes that’s right, only 10 days away from bitterly complaining about your team’s picks, furiously googling who they are and then drinking copious amounts of whiskey trying to convince yourself that every single pick was the steal of the draft!
This year’s Mock Draft was pretty difficult, mainly because of an infatuation or two with certain players, well that and the nutty depth that makes half the guys from 18-50 interchangeable. Just remember these are just my opinions so feel free to spill your ardor.
1. The Colorado Avalanche select Centre Nathan MacKinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads in the QMJHL.
Tada! After one of the top performances in Memorial Cup history MacKinnon seems to have once again leap frogged over Seth Jones, at least in the rankings. The 5’11 speedster brings all the drive and determination to go along with his excellent skill sets to become a top-line centre. While he isn’t Crosby and those comparisons seriously need to stop (we get it, they’re both from Cole Harbour, does that make Matt Stajan the next Jason Spezza because they’re both from Mississauga?). He battles and he plays an NHL style game, there are a lot of flashy moves, but he also knows how to make the smart play and work for it. While Colorado is pretty much stacked at centre, that should never stop a team from taking the best player available. Being 12 days from being in the 2014 draft also helps his case and to my knowledge there hasn’t been a guy with that late of a birthday being the consensus number one before his draft year has started ever, usually older birthday players have all the hype behind them as they are farther in their development.
2. The Florida Panthers select Centre Aleksander/Aleksandr/Sasha/Whateverelsehecallshimself Barkov of Tappara in the SM-liiga.
Barkov is my favourite player of the draft and I’ve been on his bandwagon for two years now. What can you really say about Barkov other than he’s most likely the best defensive forward in the draft, the best face-off man (53% in the SM-liiga and over 64% in the U20’s) and a 17 year old one day younger than MacKinnon that dominated the SM-liiga finishing 9th overall in the league in scoring and wearing the Golden Helmet for top scorer on his team for almost the entire year. He’s a goal scorer and a playmaker with excellent hands, on the PP he’s extremely noticeable for his quick passing and Stamkos –style one timer from the circle. The only things that might scare teams off are the shoulder injury he sustained in the playoffs which forced him to miss the U18’s and his very average skating…that and Finns + scoring doesn’t seem to be a natural occurrence in the NHL. Regardless the 6’3 (He’s as tall as Jones btw so 6’4? Well one is exaggerating) 208lb centre has everything in his arsenal to be the next Pavel Datsyuk. I would also like to quickly point out that Huberdeau has not played centre since 2009 in junior and has been a LW ever since, so expecting him to be primarily a centre going forward might be wishful thinking.
3. The Tampa Bay Lightning select Defenseman Seth Jones of the Portland WinterHawks in the WHL.
The 2012 Top CHL Draft Pick Award winner Jones brings a package that is extremely enticing and also rare. Great offensive instincts, some of the top athleticism out there and the size and willingness to use it. Now in reality it’s unlikely that he drops to three, but then nobody ever guessed that Cam Fowler the consensus number 3 all year long would drop to 12, stuff happens. He can play in all situations and excel, and despite being exposed every now and then he’s still the top defenseman in this draft. The Lightning could use another high-end winger, but they have plenty of forward prospects and younger forwards coming in the pipeline, they have nobody even remotely close to Jones’ level on defense outside of Hedman.
4. The Nashville Predators select Left Winger Jonathan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads in the QMJHL.
The LWer is probably the flashiest of this cluster of excellent players. He has the fancy stickhandling and amazing vision to setup and score highlight reel goals. While the Preds aren’t known for their speed/skill/style they could use the best forward available in the draft, and that as things in this mock have transpired is Drouin. Drouin is at his best on the PP where his vision and skill take off, just an extremely smart player in the offensive zone. He does provide some backchecking, but you can keep that far away from his major strengths, as you might remember when the net was empty for Portland it was MacKinnon (Fournier and Boudreau as well if I remember correctly) and not Drouin intrusted with the lead. The point is the 5’10 winger has some of the most impressive offensive tools and explosive play styles. Drouin won a slew of awards this year including CHL Player of the Year, the QMJHL Best Professional Prospect "Mike Bossy Trophy," the QMJHL Most Valuable Player "Michel Brière Trophy," the QMJHL Personality of the Year "Paul Dumont Trophy," and the QMJHL Playoffs MVP "Guy Lafleur Trophy." The only worries are that at the NHL level 99% of players can’t dance through entire teams and at 5’10 he’s going to have to keep his head up since he’s not a perimeter player.
5. The Carolina Hurricanes select Centre Elias Lindholm of Brynäs in the Elitserien.
The Hurricanes need defensemen this is true, but like the Avalanche you might as well take the best player available and deal with the consequences later. Lindholm is a very versatile player that has shown he can play both centre at the international level like he did at the U20’s and U18’s last year, as well as right wing which he played for Brynäs for half the year. He’s a two-way centre that plays the role of a playmaker more readily than shooter, but he’s often around the net making things happen. He was highest scoring U20 player in the Elitserien at only 18 with 30 points and 11 goals in 48 games. At 6’0 185 he has room to grow and will not be coming to NA until after 2014 as he signed a contract extension. Overall he brings everything you want from a centre, excellent play in all three zones, top-end playmaking and vision, hard work around the net and on the boards, and above average skating.
Thanks for reading…I should never have gone full retard.
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