The Hockey Buzz mock draft driven by the readers and hopefully a few special guests is back for a fifth season. This approach is driven by what I wrote in year 1 with those who participated then having similar interest this season, “I thought we should have a mock draft with some of the commenters taking a team and making a pick. But not only making a pick but providing the rationale for the pick. If that selector wants to propose a trade as opposed to making a pick, then they have that right. But the key has to be what works for that team and not just the Rangers."
Four of the past five seasons, we did a mock draft pick by pick to lead us up to the actual draft. This season, the interest level appears to be there again to have the same, especially with the Blueshirts at a.critical juncture of their rebuild The logistics should be similar to what we did previously, but running them below to verify that info.
For those who agreed to participate, thank you, and if interested in one of the remaining open teams, please let me know, When doing so, please make sure I have your real name to go with your Hockey Buzz ID and email address. In addition, please PM me or email me to jan.levine@gmail.com to confirm you are in and will definitely be drafted. I would prefer not to chase everyone at the last minute, especially since we have a condensed time to complete the draft.
As a reminder, for each pick, included should be: a) Selection and reasoning/scouting report, and, b) Alternatives considered(both players and trades). Please provide me via email your pick with the aforementioned information following the posting of the prior pick on the site. If I become aware of a pick or a few picks in a row, I will email you to help facilitate moving the mock draft along. I will post the blog with the pick and the voting poll within each blog.
In terms of trades, I am happy to have them proposed, but for ease of purpose of the draft, I would prefer not to slow down the making of picks and the voting by waiting for a vote on if the deal is fair. Due to the late start for the draft, my view for this year's iteration is no trades.
The draft is June 28 and we are starting the draft Thursday, June 15 in the morning. That will give us 13 days or so to complete the draft, even factoring in the Sabbath. For weekdays and Sunday, I will post a pick in the am, then a second in the pm with voting in between, for at least the first half or so of the draft. The second half or so, we can run three per day if needed so we get all 32 picks by or on the morning of June 28.
Overall Rules and Process
As mentioned previously, there is a little kicker. After the pick or trade is made, a poll will be posted to rate the selection or deal. If the majority of people like the pick or trade, that selection stands and it moves on to the next team’s picks. If not, the majority rules and that’s what happens with that team and pick. I have the last right of refusal to keep everything on the up and up and avoid ballot box stuffing. My request to you is that you take this seriously and not make a mockery of the mock draft, because that would be an insult to the others who are participating and makes the whole process a sham. But by playing this out, we get to have healthy debate and conversation to remain engaged up and possibly beyond the draft. If teams make deals and they occur before a team’s selection is due, that deal will play a part as to when each person’s selection occurs.Here how this will work: each evening (for now, one pick per day, but we will go to two when we get to second half of the mock draft and possibly even before that, so that we complete on time) the team’s selector will email me at jan.levine@gmail.com their pick and their rationale for that selection. If making a trade, the same applies, and all the selectors have been listed below along with their screen name if from this site or their twitter handle if external to help facilitate making trades. I will post that pick and rationale on the site and create a voting poll. For now, I was thinking solely just a yes or no vote for the poll, but if people want me to list other options for the selection at that pick number in cases of a no vote, I am happy to do so, to help make it more robust.
Here is the current list of drafters by team. A few remain open, let me know if interested. In addition, have projected when the picks will be posted, giving us a little wiggle room, just in case. Let me know if you have any questions.
2023 NHL DRAFT ORDER 1 Chicago - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger, Thursday, June 15, am 2 Anaheim - Ryan Armstrong - climbdenali12, Thursday, June 15, pm 3 Columbus - Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, Friday, June 16, am 4 San Jose - Ken Peterson, Hockeygm, Friday, June 16 pm 5 Montreal - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger, Saturday, June 17, pm 6 Arizona - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Sunday, June 18, am 7 Philadelphia - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger, Sunday, June 18, pm 8 Washington - optimus-reim, Monday, June 19, am 9 Detroit - Feds91Stammer, Monday, June 19, pm 10 St. Louis - aecliptic, Tuesday, June 20, am
11 Vancouver - David Wong, OrcaBlue, Tuesday, June 20, pm 12 Arizona via OTT - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Wednesday, June 21, am 13 Buffalo - Paul Schott, lonsabres, Wednesday, June 21, pm 14 Pittsburgh - mkrisnosky 15 Nashville - eichiefs9 16 Calgary - Trevor Neufeld, HB Flames blogger 17 Detroit via NYI - Feds91stammer 18 Winnipeg - Jacob Billingham, HB Jets blogger 19 Chicago via TB - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger 20 Seattle - NYRangers1124
21 Minnesota - TC88, Todd Piepho 22 Philadelphia via Columbus via LA - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger 23 NY Rangers - Jan Levine 24 Nashville via EDM - eichiefs9 25 St. Louis via TOR - aecliptic 26 San Jose via NJ - Russ Cohen 27 Colorado 28 Toronto via BOS - Michael Augello, HB Maple Leafs blogger 29 St. Louis via DAL - aecliptic 30 Carolina - BINGO!, Chris Cole
31 Montreal via FLA - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger 32 Vegas - Trevor Neufeld, HB Flames blogger
Looking forward to running this again. We had a ton of fun the last few seasons. That should be the same again this year with New York having the 23rd pick in the first round.