30. New Jersey Devils : Kasperi Kapanen 29. Los Angeles Kings : Brendan Lemieux 28. Tampa Bay Lightning : Julius Honka 27. Chicago Blackhawks : Conner Bleackley 26. Montreal Canadiens : Nick Schmaltz 25. Boston Bruins : Alex Tuch 24. Anaheim Ducks : Jack Dougherty 23. Colorado Avalanche : Travis Sanheim 22. Pittsburgh Penguins : Nikolay Goldobin 21. St. Louis Blues : Joshua Ho-Sang 20. San Jose Sharks : Brendan Perlini 19. Tampa Bay Lightning : Ivan Barbashev 18. Minnesota Wild : Roland McKeown 17. Philadelphia Flyers : Sonny Milano 16. Columbus Blue Jackets : Jakub Vrà¡na 15. Detroit Red Wings : Adrian Kempe 14. Dallas Stars : Robby Fabbri 13. Washington Capitals : Dylan Larkin 12. Arizona Coyotes : Jake Virtanen 11. The Nashville Predators : William Nylander 10. Anaheim Ducks : Jared McCann 9. Winnipeg Jets : Nikolaj Ehlers 8. Toronto Maple Leafs : Nick Ritchie 7. Carolina Hurricanes : Haydn Fleury 6. Vancouver Canucks : Leon Draisaitl
5. The New York Islanders select Right Wing Kevin Fiala of HV71 in the Elitserien
5’10, 181lbs, 1996-07-22 : 17 years old
17 – 3g -8a – 11p (Playoffs : 8 – 1g – 5a – 6p)
My boldest prediction. Somebody will see what I see in Fiala, I hope it’s a certain team who have sucked for a long time and never seem to pick boldly, but somebody will! I know it! Maybe. Fiala has me convinced that he has the skill, the will and the right way of playing to be a star in the NHL. Come on, he had the second highest point percentage in Elitserien history for an U18 player, behind who? Peter Freaking Forsberg, Foppa himself. This was a similar argument I made for Aleksandr Barkov last year about how he was basically the highest scoring U18 player in SM-liiga history. At every level he seems to just dominate and completely change the game, be it for HV71, their junior affiliate or the Swiss national team. He had a massive impact for his team, especially for the first 7 games. Despite his size, he’s a battler and plays that Swiss style that seems to be all about never quitting and finishing your checks. Fiala is fast, extremely fast. At the U18’s he looked on the eye test to be the fastest player on the ice of any team, only Pilipenko for Russia seemed faster (2015 eligible) in a straight line (A tourney that included other elite skaters like Virtanen and Nylander). He was everywhere. He and Noah Rod were a great tandem, they were so close to taking Canada to overtime in the Quarter Finals after Fiala scored with 5 minutes left, Konecny (2015) though would be the hero for both that game and against Sweden in the final seconds.
One thing I’ve noticed is that Fiala does like to take runs at players, even bigger guys. He basically bowled over Haydn Fleury, mostly because he can get up to speed so quickly and launch himself at players. I think like many smaller players he needs that kind of tenacity and fearlessness, though at the NHL level you better hope you have some big friends around. This is the thing though, his versatility on the ice is enticing, he’s not just a fancy scorer or a European styled sniper, he’s a gritty, hardworking elite skating scorer. If he wasn’t 5’10 (looks even smaller than that to be honest) the hype would be huge for somebody who at 17 was a key contributor for his Elitserien squad, almost willed Switzerland into the Semi Finals of the U18, led the Swiss in points at the U20’s and came on for the World Championships and put up 2 assists from the fourth line as one of the youngest players to ever participate in WC history (It seems only Nino Niederreiter and Anze Kopitar were younger in the last decade).
Fiala finished runner-up to Andreas Johnson (Toronto) for the Elitserien Rookie of the Year, which was pretty fair. Despite how impressive he has been, the selectors are never shy about choosing an older, more established player for the award, it is nice that he got recognition however (Hedman and Backstrom the only two to win it in their draft year). He also became just the second foreigner to be considered for the award in its history.
At the next level he will need to improve his defensive game, his explosive skating can get him out of problems, but to be a truly elite player you need to be able to help out in all aspects of the game. While he causes a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone by harassing players, you can tell that he doesn’t like to block shots, in fact he and Malgin were the only two Swiss players who wouldn’t dive head first in front of the puck. Controlling his game and some of the reckless penalties he will take every now and then would a long way in making him a more complete player.
The Islanders are most likely trading this pick, I think we’re finally hearing the bells toll for contention and the need for the playoffs has to be burning white hot right now. If they do keep it, I think they truly will want a winger or the best forward available. Fiala is one of the most interesting players in the draft, and while a perceived stretch at 5, he’s just that damn good.
Comparison : Matt Duchene
Thanks for reading.