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. The Vancouver Canucks select Centre/Left Wing Leon Draisaitl of the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL
6’1, 209lbs, 1995-10-27 : 18 years old
64 – 38g – 67a – 105p
One of the “big-5… will drop, one has to drop, otherwise this will be as boring as 2009…actually nothing could be as boring as the start of the 2009 draft; it went down exactly as everybody expected. Draisaitl is the only player that I think can drop, overexposure, some holes in his game and being one of the oldest players in the draft might be the tide that washes him to six. This isn’t to say he is a bad player or that he had a bad season, because he didn’t, he had a very good season. He didn’t even look out of place at the World Championships where he was promoted to the German first line…which tells you something about Germany’s place in the hockey universe to be sure. At the U20’s he was mostly a miss, but came up huge for Germany in their relegation games against Norway (coincidentally where he picked up 4 of his 6 points in the tournament). His puck protection style and ability to use his size on the puck make him a deadly player for any team implementing a cycle. On the power play he is deadly and demonstrates that given time and space he will make you pay. He tied Sam Reinhart for the most PPP’s of the draft eligible WHL players, each had 12 goals and 40 points on the man advantage, only Brayden Point had more goals with 17. It’s so difficult to get the puck off of him when he’s on his game and he can control the game on his own.
Offensively he’s very difficult to stop, he has that nice blend of size, speed and amazing hands that has scouts drooling. Defensively he’s a bit of a mess at times (though he isn’t the worst in the “top-5…); he obviously prefers the offensive zone. This could be because he is depended on by a low scoring team to basically make things happen on his own. At the WJC’s we saw this a lot, he was a one man show, both for the good and bad. He got so frustrated at being targeted by three players at once that he lashed out and got himself ejected from two games in a petulant moment of rage. For a player who is usually so cerebral and won’t engage physically, when he gets pissed he gets even, reminds me of Malkin in that regard. The light switch turns on and suddenly he wants to bulldoze the guy who pissed him off.
There is a bit of a debate about whether he will eventually play centre at the NHL level or if he will play left wing like he did at times. If he gains the defensive awareness needed to be a centre he could be a dominant force, if only because of his puck protection skills. His face-off skills aren’t great, though that isn’t a deal breaker and often takes time anyways to develop. All I can say is that some team will hope he can be a centre, even if he never truly makes it in that position (See JVR, Kessel, Kane and Hall).
Draisaitl is expected to be the first German drafted in the first round since Marcel Goc in 2001 and the second highest drafted German of all time after… Orest Romashyna at 3 in 1963…ya…had to look that one up…the hell? It’s a feel good story however you look at it and I love when some of these fringe hockey nations can produce a great player (Slovenia and Kopitar, Kazakhstan and Antropov, etc.). Why would Vancouver pick him? Do I have to answer that? It’s fairly obvious. They’ll be after the BPA as they try to re-stock their prospect pool and re-tool. If Draisaitl fell to 6 you have to think they’d take him, if he doesn’t, I expect either Ehlers or Virtanen to be their target to be honest.
By the way, I know it will come up, but I don’t favour Vancouver at all. This isn’t favouritism, just my argued reason on why I think he might be the one to fall.
Comparison : Jamie Benn (I know people love to compare him to Kopitar, but I just don’t see him having that dominating defensive game)
Thanks for reading.