2016 NHL Entry Draft Discussion

[Rielly4]

We have the third worst forward group in the league after only Arizona and New Jersey...Our Defense however is middle of the pack... We may actually have a pretty strong blueline depending on how some young guys progress...I could see Harrington stepping up in a big way for our team...And Rielly and Gardiner progressing hugely. Polak is great...Marincin could be good...

We could have a strong blueline and a good goaltender but i dont think thats enough to keep us out of the bottom 5...Any type of injury to an important player will crush us.

Even though we all want Chychrun or Matthews there are some really good options outside of the top 2...And even into the 10-15 range there will be some really good prospects.

 

[WTFMAN99]

We have the third worst forward group in the league after only Arizona and New Jersey...Our Defense however is middle of the pack... We may actually have a pretty strong blueline depending on how some young guys progress...I could see Harrington stepping up in a big way for our team...And Rielly and Gardiner progressing hugely. Polak is great...Marincin could be good...

We could have a strong blueline and a good goaltender but i dont think thats enough to keep us out of the bottom 5...Any type of injury to an important player will crush us.

Even though we all want Chychrun or Matthews there are some really good options outside of the top 2...And even into the 10-15 range there will be some really good prospects.

I definitely think there is some good talent in this draft, and I think we have a *deep* prospect pool in terms of defenseman, I do not see any bluechip top pairing guys on the list, unless one of our prospects exceeds expectations. The top pairing RHD slot is a gaping hole in the future, assuming Rielly will be able to make the jump to the top pairing this season or next.

 

[Rielly4]

I definitely think there is some good talent in this draft, and I think we have a *deep* prospect pool in terms of defenseman, I do not see any bluechip top pairing guys on the list, unless one of our prospects exceeds expectations. The top pairing RHD slot is a gaping hole in the future, assuming Rielly will be able to make the jump to the top pairing this season or next.

Agreed. We need to add a top pair D (RHD preferably) and we need to add another top line forward who has size.

I would say we could add one via UFA and one via draft..OR both via draft doesnt really matter. I would really like us to draft Chychrun...

Juolevi is a guy i will be watching heavily with the knights...I think he could be a stud as well...I would love to come out of the draft some how with Puj and Juoleiv...That would be unreal lol but unrealistic.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Agreed. We need to add a top pair D (RHD preferably) and we need to add another top line forward who has size.

I would say we could add one via UFA and one via draft..OR both via draft doesnt really matter. I would really like us to draft Chychrun...

Juolevi is a guy i will be watching heavily with the knights...I think he could be a stud as well...I would love to come out of the draft some how with Puj and Juoleiv...That would be unreal lol but unrealistic.

Juolevi is a guy I have noted and I will be keeping an eye on this season, i'm already gonna be watching the Knights for Marner, may as well multi-task.

I think Rielly can swap over to the right side if neccessary - in which case Chyrchun-Rielly would work out pretty well in the future, Rielly has the speed and agility neccessary to play his off-side. That or hopefully Juolevi becomes Matta 2.0

A forward with size would be useful - JVR technically fills this need right now but not sure if he will be here long term. Power forwards are super hard to get so that may need to come by trade or luck. Hard to draft them (we swung and missed on Biggs, Broll, and Devane)

 

[Rielly4]

Juolevi is a guy I have noted and I will be keeping an eye on this season, i'm already gonna be watching the Knights for Marner, may as well multi-task.

I think Rielly can swap over to the right side if neccessary - in which case Chyrchun-Rielly would work out pretty well in the future, Rielly has the speed and agility neccessary to play his off-side. That or hopefully Juolevi becomes Matta 2.0

A forward with size would be useful - JVR technically fills this need right now but not sure if he will be here long term. Power forwards are super hard to get so that may need to come by trade or luck. Hard to draft them (we swung and missed on Biggs, Broll, and Devane)

Im not nessecarily talking about a powerforward...

Just a guy who has that elite skill but also has the size...Because if all your top end forwards are on the smaller side your just simply not going to win as many battles...JVR definitely fits in but IMO we could use another guy who is 6'2 plus in the top 6. Matthews would fit that...As would Puj, Laine, Brown, either of the knights forwards....should fill a need or two at this years draft. Would love to add a 3rd 1st round pick.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Im not nessecarily talking about a powerforward...

Just a guy who has that elite skill but also has the size...Because if all your top end forwards are on the smaller side your just simply not going to win as many battles...JVR definitely fits in but IMO we could use another guy who is 6'2 plus in the top 6. Matthews would fit that...As would Puj, Laine, Brown, either of the knights forwards....should fill a need or two at this years draft. Would love to add a 3rd 1st round pick.

I was hoping we'd see Leivo in the line up this year full time. He's a pretty solid kid, but not sure if he can make that jump to 2nd line or if he's a 3rd line type.

To be honest though I think 1 bigger forward is fine - look at these top 6 in the finals

Saad-Toews-Hossa
Shaw-Richards-Kane (2nd line LW was rotating all the time, Bickell was there too)

Killorn-Flip-Stamkos
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov

The 2 biggest guys were Killorn and Toews at 6'2, but other wise you had a range of 5'9-6'1

Right now we have Nylander and Marner who are gonna be 5'11-6'0 unless a large growth spurt occurs.

Some type of mix of Bracco, Johnson, Brown, Kapanen - most are undersized - We also have Kadri at 6'0-6'1, and JVR at 6'3. Leivo is 6'2 but not close to a sure thing at all.

1 larger winger in the system would be nice but I think we all agree we don't want to pick a lesser player in the draft because he's 2 inches taller then a more skiller/higher hockey IQ player

 

[91Kadri91*]

Im not nessecarily talking about a powerforward...

Just a guy who has that elite skill but also has the size...Because if all your top end forwards are on the smaller side your just simply not going to win as many battles...JVR definitely fits in but IMO we could use another guy who is 6'2 plus in the top 6. Matthews would fit that...As would Puj, Laine, Brown, either of the knights forwards....should fill a need or two at this years draft. Would love to add a 3rd 1st round pick.

In terms of his size, speed and the raw physical tool kit, one would expect van Riemsdyk to post offensive zone loose puck recovery results more consistent with what fellow power forwards like Max Pacioretty and James Neal managed last season, rather than being outperformed in this area by Manny Malhotra.

It’s certainly worth noting that the uniformity of the results between line mates van Riemsdyk, Kessel, and Bozak would suggest that there is probably some type of coaching or line effect at play. It’s certainly not a team effect; because a variety of Maple Leafs players like Daniel Winnik, Peter Holland and Nazem Kadri excel by this metric.

http://sportlogiq.com/2015/08/12/toronto-maple-leafs-top-line-struggles-analysis/

 

[Animal]

Juolevi is a guy I have noted and I will be keeping an eye on this season, i'm already gonna be watching the Knights for Marner, may as well multi-task.

I think Rielly can swap over to the right side if neccessary - in which case Chyrchun-Rielly would work out pretty well in the future, Rielly has the speed and agility neccessary to play his off-side. That or hopefully Juolevi becomes Matta 2.0

A forward with size would be useful - JVR technically fills this need right now but not sure if he will be here long term. Power forwards are super hard to get so that may need to come by trade or luck. Hard to draft them (we swung and missed on Biggs, Broll, and Devane)

I've been told on this forum that Chychrun prefers to play the Right side and is apparently better at it

 

[Nithoniniel]

http://sportlogiq.com/2015/08/12/toronto-maple-leafs-top-line-struggles-analysis/

Interesting stuff.

 

[91Kadri91*]

Interesting stuff.

Agreed- very promising. Here's a video showing how sportlogIQ calculates their 'events' (and many other statistics), for anyone who is interested:

 

[cookie]

I think that the star defenseman in Chychrun should be > than getting the star forward in Matthews for the team. Simply by looking at the TOI played will point out the difference. Chychrun being a LHD, preferring to play the right side, and his game remind me of a ton of Dion. When the Hawks won their cups, their top 4 defense corps played an astounding number of minutes; the scoring was done largely in committee. Similarly the Lightning had Stamkos be cold for a significant number of games and the Palat, Johnson and Kucherov line picked up the slack. The player types we're missing are the defensive top winger and center like Chicago's Hossa and Toews combo. Rielly, Gardiner, and hopefully Dion and Chychrun could round out the defense and make them look somewhat respectable

 

[WTFMAN99]

I think that the star defenseman in Chychrun should be > than getting the star forward in Matthews for the team. Simply by looking at the TOI played will point out the difference. Chychrun being a LHD, preferring to play the right side, and his game remind me of a ton of Dion. When the Hawks won their cups, their top 4 defense corps played an astounding number of minutes; the scoring was done largely in committee. Similarly the Lightning had Stamkos be cold for a significant number of games and the Palat, Johnson and Kucherov line picked up the slack. The player types we're missing are the defensive top winger and center like Chicago's Hossa and Toews combo. Rielly, Gardiner, and hopefully Dion and Chychrun could round out the defense and make them look somewhat respectable

If I had to choose between Rielly and Chychrun playing the right side, even if Rielly may not be as comfortable, would we still not rather have Rielly on the right side due to skating ability? Haven't heard any knocks against Chychrun in regards to skating really but Morgan is pretty damn elite and I just think his agility and ability to pivot may be handy.

 

[LaPlante94]

Agreed- very promising. Here's a video showing how sportlogIQ calculates their 'events' (and many other statistics), for anyone who is interested:

Hmmm... I'm usually against these advanced stats and what not, but this looks like something I could get into. Looks promising.

 

[Bullseye]

Florida Swampland for Sale...

 

[Rielly4]

Got me there...Size doesnt equal winning battles...

Just for me building the ideal roster i want one guy per line who is 6'2+...

Its kinda just OCD i guess...Not actually needed but i like to have one guy per line with some size.

As Dubas has mentioned though, we will draft skill and if we need size at some point we will trade our abundance of skilled smaller guys for some size.

 

[Duke16]

Taylor Raddysh appears to be a sniper for next year's draft he had Brandon Pirri like stats in the O last year with 21 goals and 6 assists.

 

[RyanOhReally]

Taylor Raddysh appears to be a sniper for next year's draft he had Brandon Pirri like stats in the O last year with 21 goals and 6 assists.

Cy Young winning numbers

 

[The Magic Man]

Taylor Raddysh appears to be a sniper for next year's draft he had Brandon Pirri like stats in the O last year with 21 goals and 6 assists.

What about his teammate, Debrincat? 50 goals, 104 pts. Only 4x the production. I'm sure his production is due to go down, especially if Strome stays up, but he has a legit NHL shot.

 

[Nithoniniel]

What about his teammate, Debrincat? 50 goals, 104 pts. Only 4x the production. I'm sure his production is due to go down, especially if Strome stays up, but he has a legit NHL shot.

He's also got a quality name. That must increase the odds that he becomes a star by at least 25%.

 

[NylanderBros]

Chychrun then with the later first grab Nylander or Debrincat would be cool.

 

[ChicagoBullsFan]

If Toronto Maple Leafs wants big Defenceman, they should pick in that case Oliver Felixson.

Felixson is 198cm ( 6'6) and 100kg ( 220 lbs) Defenceman from Finland.
Upcoming season Felixson plays QMJHL and his team is Saint John Seadogs.

Felixson uses his size effectively in the defensive zone and brings some offensive upside. He has vision and reads passing lanes well. Scouts have praised his powerful shot, his skating ability, and his rapidly improving defensive game. While he is physical and clears traffic in front of the net, he has also gained a reputation as a disciplined player, who takes very few penalties while logging a ton of ice time.

Here's Olivers eliteprospect.com profile.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=222116

Only problem to picking Felixson is that he isn't, necessarily first rounder next summer.
But if Toronto has other draft picks in later rounds ( 2-7) they could pick him there.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

If I had to choose between Rielly and Chychrun playing the right side, even if Rielly may not be as comfortable, would we still not rather have Rielly on the right side due to skating ability? Haven't heard any knocks against Chychrun in regards to skating really but Morgan is pretty damn elite and I just think his agility and ability to pivot may be handy.

I don't know, but from the little I've seen from Chychrun, he's a beast in almost every aspect. He's also got the one thing Morgan's missing from his game; a heavy shot from the point.

 

[darrylsittler27]

How strong is this draft?

Great question, what is our most glaring need? I know Babcock will press for a big D man who can play top pairing. We took Marner this year but still need some size in that top 6 to fully utilize all this skill we are drafting Nylander,Marner,Bracco and the pickup of Kapanen.I doubt we finish that low 2 years from now, so this does become a critical draft. Im assuming we finish 7 to 10th last. Who would be there for us to take at that slot?

To me the Leafs would be wise to pick up one more mid first rounder if this is a strong draft. We need a big top pairing D man and a top 6 forward with some size/grit.Oh ya, and goaltending.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

Wouldn't mind taking a goalie or 2 in the later rounds, our weak point of our pool.

 

[Drew75]

Juolevi is a guy I have noted and I will be keeping an eye on this season, i'm already gonna be watching the Knights for Marner, may as well multi-task.

I think Rielly can swap over to the right side if neccessary - in which case Chyrchun-Rielly would work out pretty well in the future, Rielly has the speed and agility neccessary to play his off-side. That or hopefully Juolevi becomes Matta 2.0

A forward with size would be useful - JVR technically fills this need right now but not sure if he will be here long term. Power forwards are super hard to get so that may need to come by trade or luck. Hard to draft them (we swung and missed on Biggs, Broll, and Devane)

Julien Gauthier could end up a mid first pick - if we could walk away with both Chychrun and him in the first it would be a home-run!