So Craig Button put out his final draft list, the top-60 prospects in his opinion. I usually don't look at Craig's List, unless I'm looking for a romantic encounter, but after a few people brought up some of the more stark raving mad features I decided to give it a go.
Well...it's certainly bold, I'll give him that.
Now I like making fun of a man who makes six figures to be on TV and watch hockey in his underpants all day long as much as the next person (and we all love to, be honest!), but I genuinely have to say, at least he's out there. He might look like a Who from Whoville and his drafting record as a GM might be one of the worst in history, plus his drafting staff that stayed on in Calgary has been such an abysmal failure that only in the past two years after moving a bunch of them into cushy upper management positions have they finally turned it around, but he has balls if this list is any indication.
So without further ado.
THE TOP 60 - STATS THROUGH JUNE 3
Final Rank Player Former Rank 1. Sam Reinhart 1 2. Aaron Ekblad 2 3. Sam Bennett 3 4. Leon Draisaitl 4 5. Michael Dal Colle 5 6. Nikolaj Ehlers 7 7. Haydn Fleury 10 8 Travis Sanheim 32 9. William Nylander 10. Adrian Kempe 9 11. Brendan Perlini 6 12. Vlad Kamenev 25 13. Kasperi Kapanen 14 14. Ivan Barbashev 16 15. Anthony DeAngelo 12 16. Nick Ritchie 15 17. Brayden Point 24 18. Julius Honka 17 19. Jared McCann 8 20. Sonny Milano 18 21. Dylan Larkin 19 22. Kevin Fiala 34 23. Jakub Vrana 36 24. Nick Schmaltz 22 25. David Pastrnak 11 26. Alex Nedeljkovic 27. Josh Jacobs 26 28. Robert Fabbri 38 29. Marcus Pettersson 31 30. Connor Bleackley 23 31. Dominik Masin - 32. Alex Tuch 27 33. Brendan Lemieux 51 34. Nikolay Goldobin 28 35. Nikita Scherbak 21 36. Brett Pollock 46 37. Ryan MacInnis 33 38. Mason McDonald 52 39. Josh Ho Sang 20 40. Anton Karlsson 29 41. Michael Bunting 39 42. Adam O. Mattsson 43 43. Jake Virtanen 41 44. John Quenneville 44 45. Jayce Hawryluk 47 46. Justin Kirkland 45 47. Vaclav Karabacek 79 48. Eric Cornel 40 49. Ondrej Kase - 50. Ryan Collins 95 51. Roland McKeown 35 52. Brycen Martin 37 53. Thatcher Demko 53 54. Spencer Watson 42 55. Chase De Leo 58 56. Vladislav Gavrikov 49 57. Michael Prapavessis - 58. Alex Peters 56 59. Jake Walman 60 60. Ryan Mantha 55
61-100 isn't really anything special or jarring outside of defenseman Jack Dougherty being at 81, damn if he fell that far some team will be getting a good prospect. He was fantastic at the U18's, easily the best defenseman for the USA.
1. So, first thing that pops into my mind when glancing at the top-15, where's Virtanen. Then You find him at 43 and palm meets face. Now he will be out for 6 months with a shoulder injury and many wonder if that will make him drop, my one question is...why? We've seen him all season, we saw him at the U18's be Canada's best forward, we know who and what he is, why would a shoulder injury hurt his draft position? Nobody expects him to make the NHL out of camp, especially being an August birthday. Virtanen is one of the fastest players in the draft, if this was a freak knee injury or something, maybe you're worried, or if he had a history of injuries, but he simply doesn't. This is a big scratching of the head moment, unlike say Brandon Saad who slipped into the second round, his fall was gradual and played out throughout the whole season as his coach tried to turn him into a hulking power forward which he simply was never going to be. The fact that he has Virtanen at 43 and had him at 41 last time is...freaking weird.
2. Vladislav Kamenev at 12? Good luck mate. Aren't you the guy who had Nichushkin at 3? People don't like Russians in the KHL/MHL. I think that's a little bit of a leap and outside of Tampa who has an affinity for drafting Russian players and seems to have a lot of trust in them, who honestly would pick Kamenev at 12? I think it's probably even a stretch that he goes in the first round despite his strong play and good upside.
3. Brayden Point at 17 is fairly out there, I kind of like it actually. He's a guy who definitely doesn't get a lot of press and was having a versatile U18 before he got injured. His size though, 5'9 will always be an issue when getting drafted, though maybe teams look at how effective guys like Gallagher and Marchand can be at the NHL level and they hope he can develop into that kind of role. Like him as a player, showed he can be really good at shutting down players when he needs to, showed he can dominate the face-off dot against his peers and showed in the WHL that he can score. Somebody will get a good player, just not likely at 17.
4. Travis Sanheim at 8...I don't even...are you trolling Leafs fans for fun? I like doing that too, but come on...SANHEIM? Seriously? That isn't even a stretch simply to meet organizational needs which is usually when stretches at the draft happen! He was great at the U18's, showed some good offensive upside and strong defensive play, and yes, at 6'4 with his skating he has some promising upside...but 8? Man, that's pretty nuts. Usually when a player on Craigslist is so jarringly out of place it means that is where Todd Button his brother has the player on the Calgary Flames list (See 2012 being the only guy to have Jankowski in the first round, see 2013 where he had Poirier and Klimchuk in pretty much the exact position Calgary picked them at) so maybe we have our next guy under this little game I like to play with Button. If the Leafs did draft Sanheim at 8, I think Mr. Nonis should lock his doors at night, because I know a few really angry guys who really want them to start drafting skilled forwards instead of the safest and least interesting players on the board (Biggs, Gauthier, Schenn...even Percy).
5. Robby Fabbri (28) and Kevin Fiala (22) are pretty low, just my opinion on this one, I do think either could fall to the late first, both having to do with their size problem. However after Fabbri's amazing playoff run with Guelph and Fiala's elite performance at the U18's for Switzerland on top of his amazing year in the Elitserien once he got there and strong play at the World Championships, I find it hard to imagine nobody will take notice and take them in the 8-15 range. Fabbri being the OHL Playoffs MVP will go a long way in increasing his draft status, let's just look historically, as recently as last season when Bo Horvat won the same award, he basically jumped 20 spots in everybody's mind and unlike Fabbri, Horvat hadn't had a great regular season to stand on too.
So what do you guys think about his list? Anything you like or don't that I missed or failed to mention? Have at it.
Thanks for reading.
In case you wanted to know, yes my mockable mock draft is coming, it'll start tomorrow going from 30-1 to keep people guessing. I don't really do it as a predictor, more so people can get to know some of the prospects more, especially the guys in the late 20's who don't/won't get a ton of press.