The fifth mock Hockey Buzz mock draft driven by the readers and a few special guests rolls into the next 10 picks. David Wong, OrcaBlue, selected Axel Sandin-Pellikka for Vancouver with TJ Reilly adding Dimitri Simishov for Arizona. Paul Schott, lonsabres, picked Tom Willander for Buffalo with mkrisnosky, Matt Krisnosky's pick for Pittsburgh in. eichiefs9 is up for Nashville and Trevor Neufeld, HB Flames blogger is on deck for Calgary.
Zach Jarom did not go off the board with the Blackhawks pick, selecting Connor Bedard first overall, while Ryan Armstrong, climbdenali12, selected Adam Fantilli with Anaheim's pick, Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, went with Leo Carlsson's with Columbus' selection. Ken Peterson, Hockeygm. selected Matvei Michkov with Karine Hains picking Will Smith Montreal..TJ Reilly selected David Reinbacher for Arizona while Bill Meltzer grabbed Ryan Leonard for Philly. Optimus-reim picked Zach Benson for Washington, Feds91stammer took Oliver Moore for Detroit while aecliptic closed out the top-10 with Dalibor Dvorsky for St. Louis, Below is the selection and voting poll, please weigh in with your view.
First, some logistical information just for this blog: Thanks to all who have agreed to participate. All teams are spoken for, meaning we have a full complement of General Managers. As a reminder, when you have your pick, rationale for the selection, who else you considered and if you weighed a trade, please send that to me via email to jan.levine@gmail.com. As said previously, for those who agree to participate, please make sure I have your real name to go with your Hockey Buzz ID.
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 morning, then a second in the evening 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.
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.
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.
With the 14th overall selection in the Hockeybuzz Mock Draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins, represented by mkrisnosky, Matt Krisnosky, select Matthew Wood – RW, University of Connecticut.
I will start off by saying that I would be surprised if the Penguins make this draft pick. I do not personally believe their cup contention window is open, but if you are skating even a late career Sidney Crosby, you have to go for broke. So look for the Penguins to move this pick on draft day for someone who will make an NHL impact in the next 2-3 years…and then start the rebuild proper when the bottom drops out fully.
If the pick is made, I like Matthew Wood for a few reasons: -He has an NHL shot and NHL intelligence. He will be able to score goals in this league. Filling the net is never a bad thing. -His collegiate production has been on par with players like Toews / Kent Johnson / Beniers. -He has size that the Penguins woefully have lacked for years. I believe that given his size and scoring ability that he has one of the higher ceilings in this draft. But to reach that ceiling he will admittedly have to improve his speed. I am….er…..Kyle Dubas is swinging for the fences a bit here -but that is what the Penguins are all about - trying to find those players who might be superstars. Other players I considered were Nate Danielson, Colby Barlow and Brayden Yager. But ultimately, I’m not looking for a safe top six forward pick here, I’ll take my centers when the Pens bottom out and select top five, whenever that happens in the future.....(although 'Yager' would be comfortably close to 'Jagr' in the Pittsburgh accent).
2023 NHL DRAFT ORDER 1 Chicago - Zach Jarom, HB Blackhawks blogger, Connor Bedard, C, Regina (WHL) 2 Anaheim - Ryan Armstrong - climbdenali12, Adam Fantilli, C, Univ. of Michigan 3 Columbus - Zak McMillian, HB Blue Jackets blogger, Leo Carlsson, C, Orebro HK, (SHL) 4 San Jose - Ken Peterson, Hockeygm, Matvei Michkov, RW, SKA, KHL 5 Montreal - Karine Hains, HB Canadiens blogger, Will Smith, C, US NTDP 6 Arizona - slimtj, TJ Reilly, David Reinbacher, D, Kloten (SWISS) 7 Philadelphia - Bill Meltzer, HB Flyers blogger, Ryan Leonard, RW, US, NTDP 8 Washington - optimus-reim, Zach Benson, LW, Winnipeg, WHL 9 Detroit - Feds91Stammer, Oliver Moore, C, US NTDP 10 St. Louis - aecliptic, Dalibor Dvorsky, C, AIK, Slovakia
11 Vancouver - David Wong, OrcaBlue, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, D, Skelleftea Jr. (SWEDEN-JR.) 12 Arizona via OTT - slimtj, TJ Reilly, Dimitri Simishov, D, Yaroslavl Jr. (RUSSIA-JR.) 13 Buffalo - Paul Schott, lonsabres, Tom Willander, D, Rogel BK, Sweden 14 Pittsburgh - mkrisnosky, Matt Krisnosky, Matthew Wood, RW, University of Connecticut 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 - John Ryan, jryan88 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- Brendan Smith, tbsmith
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.