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Mockable Mock Draft : Looking Back and It's Not Pretty |
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As the title implies. The accuracy of my picks leaves much to be desired. It may sound like a cop-out, but I do these mostly for player descriptions. However I will man up, I got it wrong on quite a few players that tore up the draft charts. Let's see how I did and make fun of me. I love it.
Mockable Mock Draft 2018 Entry Draft
1. Rasmus Dahlin Rasmus Dahlin
No brainer.
2. Andrei Svechnikov Andrei Svechnikov
Easy.
3. Noah Dobson Jesperi Kotkaniemi
So a little background on this. I wrote that originally right after the Memorial Cup with Dobson fresh in my mind. This was before the rumours that the Canadiens were leaning towards a centre and Bob's List having Kotkaniemi at 3. I felt Montreal would go off the board, just posted to early to tell with who.
4. Filip Zadina Brady Tkachuk
Looking back I think I should have seen this coming. Especially because I live in Ottawa and listen to the radio when I'm stuck in the terrible East-West traffic that dominates this fine city. All the talk from Dorion was "character" and how they "lost the room." Tkachuk is a very charismatic young man and by all accounts is beloved everywhere he goes.
5. Quinn Hughes Barrett Hayton
I already touched on this in my aftermath draft thoughts blog. Chayka ruined 99% of peoples mock drafts and left everybody looking stupid. Hopefully for him, Hayton develops into a Bo Horvat type of player...otherwise this has the potential to be an oopsy baby.
6. Jesperi Kotkaniemi Filip Zadina
I thought the Wings were likely to go with a forward despite their need for defense. I don't think anybody expected to see Zadina here, but lucky for Wings fans. Everybody gets one.
7. Evan Bouchard Quinn Hughes
I was really high on Hughes and figured he would go in the 5-7 realm. CHAYKA!!!! Love the pick for Vancouver. They finally seem to have their amateur scouting down with guys like Pettersson, Di Pietro, Woo, Lind and Boeser.
8. Brady Tkachuk Adam Boqvist
I had Tkachuk as the big faller. That might have happened had Ottawa not picked him, but we'll never know. Blackhawks take the dynamic boom/bust and hope he can become their next Duncan Keith.
9. Oliver Wahlstrom Vitali Kravtsov
Colour me pink. The Rangers went all in on a Russian which hasn't happened since the tragic Cherepanov. I figured they wanted a forward at 9, I didn't expect this gamble though. Maybe it makes sense in hindsight looking at how they opted on European players last year.
10. Adam Boqvist Evan Bouchard
I think we all knew the Oilers were going to take whichever defender in that skill grouping right after Dahlin. Turned out to be Bouchard. I think this is a really good fit and in two years when he's QBing a PP with McDavid, Draisaitl, Lucic and Alexis Lafrenière it's going to be glorious.
11. Ty Smith Oliver Wahlstrom
12. Vitali Kravtsov Noah Dobson
The Islanders lucked into two guys free falling in the draft. Obviously we won't know if this is the greatest steal in history a la Tarasenko or Fowler...or if it's a warning sign like Angelo Esposito. We all knew the Islanders were picking a defender and a forward.
13. Martin Kaut Ty Dellandrea
Dallas always seems to like to make a splash. I figured it would be on the highly skilled Kaut. They went with heart and soul. A theme that ended up ruling the day.
14. Barrett Hayton Joel Farabee
CHAYKA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had the Flyers taking Farabee at 19.
15. Mattias Samuelsson Grigori Denisenko
I'm not a Denisenko belieber and had him at 31. GM's apparently felt the same way about Samuelsson who tumbled out of the first round to 32.
16. Rasmus Sandin Martin Kaut
With Kaut still on the board this makes a lot of sense for Colorado. Really like this pick by them. Reminds me of when they scooped up Rantanen because teams were a bit worried about his speed. Sandin this early looks dumb in hindsight.
17. Jonatan Berggren Ty Smith
Smith fell into the Devils laps and they'll be happy about it. Devils need defense prospects and additional speedy forwards. They got defense.
18. Joseph Veleno Liam Foudy
So this is where the draft went off the rails. Columbus picked Foudy, he of the 40 point campaign based on a month where he looked really good. After seeing Robert Thomas and Morgan Frost explode in production after draft years on a second line, it seems like we will be seeing this trend emerge going forward. Veleno slipped to 30. I didn't have Foudy in the first round.
19. Joel Farabee Jim O'Brien
The Flyers got their Farabee one way or the other. O'Brien was too much of a wildcard for me with his poor small sample of USHL and USDP production. I had him out of the first. I should have listened to Pierre McGuire when he said he would pick him around 15th.
20. Isac Lundestrom Rasmus Kupari
In my original Mock before I blew it up, I had Lundestrom going to the Ducks who fit their mould perfectly. After reviewing it, I figured there was little way he would fall past the Kings. Whoops. He did end up going to the Ducks.
21. Jared McIsaac Ryan Merkley
Oh boy. Merkley's stock had dropped considerably nearing the end of the year. Despite a fantastic year offensively and amazing tools. Questions about his attitude etc. leaked. The Sharks didn't care about Kane's, so why should they care about Merkley's? I had him being an early second candidate. McIsaac ended up falling to 36 where Detroit nabbed him...in fact...Detroit seemed to nab everybody...
22. Bode Wilde K'Andre Miller
The Rangers moved up to select the big skilled forward turned defender. A lot of people had Wilde potentially being a guy who was too inconsistent to be a first rounder. This proved true as he fell to #41.
23. Dominik Bokk Isac Lundeström
This makes sense for the Ducks. He's played primarily left wing, but has played some centre. Figured they would draft a forward with that young defense.
24. K’Andre Miller Filip Johansson
Who? Screams Twitter.
25. Rasmus Kupari Dominik Bokk
Originally the Leafs had this pick, but they traded down because they seemed to know that Sandin would be available. Clearly I overestimated the value placed on the sheet number of smallish defensemen. Blues take Bokk at around where he was supposed to go. I had them taking McLeod at 29 (40th).
26. Akil Thomas Jacob Bernard-Docker
The Rangers originally had this pick and I suppose when they got off the phone with Dorion they knew it was a smart move to move up. I think Dorion could probably have afforded to move even further down, but he got his man and the 48th. This was out of left field. Not sure anybody had Bernard-Docker in the first. Big gamble on an AJHL player. Thomas ended up unfairly (in my opinion) falling to 51.
27. Martin Fehérváry Nicolas Beaudin
This was my surprise gamble pick. The Blackhawks did a tiny bit of a surprise pick. Beaudin was around the late first-early second bubble. Fehérváry showing at the World Championships would give him some love. He was picked by Washington at 46.
28. Nils Lundkvist Nils Lundkvist
What? How can this be? I actually got one correct? Insanity. Cheating. Russian collusion.
29. Ryan McLeod Rasmus Sandin
As mentioned before the Leafs traded down to get their man. They unfourtunately are still overmatched by Buffalo 3 Rasmus' to 1. Like this pick by the Leafs even if their need is for right handed defensemen.
30. Serron Noel Joseph Veleno
I was so tempted to keep Noel out of the first round. I'm not a fan at all. This pick was going with the consensus and not my heart. He went 34th to the Panthers who picked physical players. This was a no brainer for the Wings. Veleno's a very good pick this late.
31. Grigori Denisenko Alexander Alexeyev
In the original draft I had Alexeyev going at 31 for two reasons. His injuries have kept him lower key than he is as a prospect and because he's Russian and the Caps are one of the few teams that like to gamble on them. As mentioned earlier, I'm not a Denisenko fan so I had him falling due to the fact that he didn't produce to his skill set and because he was left off the U18 team for disciplinary reasons.
So I got it all wrong. I suppose I won't be quitting my day job at Arby's. At least we had fun.
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