|
2016 NHL Draft – The First Round (Top 30) |
|
|
|
|
|
The day has finally come for Maple Leafs fans as they prepare to draft their first overall pick since Wendel Clark back in 1985.
If you are the Leafs would you consider trading Matthews to Arizona for a lucrative deal?
A: OEL, Strome, 7th
B: Strome, Domi, 7th, 20th
C: Strome, Dvorak, 7th, Lupul’s contract
Personally I think Toronto holds onto their future number one center and play it safe.
It’s certainly a top heavy Canadian draft year in terms of the draft order with six of the seven Canadian teams drafting in the top nine. What an ugly year 2015/16 was for Canada’s teams, pitiful if I do say!
Could this be the year that Edmonton trades their first round pick for some defensive help? Or do they plan on trading one of their young talented forwards in a blockbuster trade to shake things up? We all know Peter Chiarelli is the type of General Manager that has a history of trading elite young talent. It should be a very active summer for the Edmonton Oilers, and it’s about damned time. With McDavid on their roster, every year they fail is a waste of his contract on the team, so the way I see it, the Oilers better get their act together and get the team on track.
There are a handful of teams who have two picks in the first round, who include; Anaheim Ducks (24, 30), Boston Bruins (14, 29), Winnipeg Jets (2, 22), Carolina Hurricanes (13, 21) and the Arizona Coyotes (7, 20). When you have two picks in the first round, there are always options of moving up or down in the draft, so keep an eye out for some movement from these specific teams.
Goaltenders in this year’s 2016 Draft will likely not be selected until the second round barring any surprises, which always seem to happen. Look at last year for instance, Boston selected three players in a row in the mid-teens (13-15) and only one was projected to go in the first round. That makes the remainder of the first round of drafting a totally different approach for a lot of teams.
Now that the day has arrived for the first round of the NHL Draft, I have toggled with my top thirty players and would like to submit my list to give you an idea of who will be drafted and in what order. Quite often teams will pick the best player available, but as we’ve seen in the past, there are times teams will select a certain type of player which they feel is more of an organizational need.
Out of last year’s first round picks only five players got a taste of NHL action, including:
Connor McDavid: 45 games played, 48 points.
Jack Eichel: 81 games played, 56 points.
Noah Hanifin: 79 games played, 22 points.
Pavel Zacha: 1 game played, 2 points.
Mikko Rantanen: 9 games played, 0 points.
We shall see starting next season how many first round picks make it to the big show.
NHL 2016 Draft: Round 1
1. Toronto: Auston Matthews
2. Winnipeg: Patrik Laine
3. Columbus: Jesse Juljujarvi
4. Edmonton: Pierre-Luc Dubois
5. Vancouver: Matthew Tkachuk
6. Calgary: Olli Juolevi
7. Arizona: Alex Nylander
8. Buffalo: Mikhail Sergachev
9. Montreal: Clayton Keller
10. Colorado: Jakob Chychrun
11. New Jersey: Logan Brown
12. Ottawa: Tyson Jost
13. Carolina: Jake Bean
14. Boston: Logan Stanley
15. Minnesota: Kieffer Bellows
16. Detroit: Dante Fabbro
17. Nashville: Charlie McAvoy
18. Philadelphia: Michael McLeod
19. New York Islanders: Luke Kunin
20. Arizona: German Rubtsov
21. Carolina: Rasmus Asplund
22. Winnipeg: Max Jones
23. Florida: Alexander Debrincat
24. Anaheim: Julien Gauthier
25. Dallas: Brett Howden
26. Washington: Sam Steel
27. Tampa Bay: Tyler Benson
28. St. Louis: Pascal Laberge
29. Boston: Riley Tufte
30. Anaheim: Dennis Cholowski
That concludes my list for this year’s first round. If I missed anyone who you think should be in the mix, by all means I’d like to hear who, and where you rank them.
Thanks for reading, enjoy today/tomorrows draft and prepare yourself for the Free Agency ride that follows!
Blogger •Fantasy Hockey Expert • 
Join the Discussion:
»