Just getting home and pouring over todays draft results. My quick thoughts as I sort thru it:
1. Getting a 2nd for Malenstyn is a great return, especially so early in the round. Best of luck in Buffalo, Beck. Solid trade, moved a largely replaceable player for a good draft pick.
2. They went for the D too early in the 2nd, especially when there were better players available. All of Artamanov, Howe, and Stiga were available at 43 (and Stiga was still available at 52). I'm never big on drafting on need over BPA, but especially given that they had acquired an additional 2nd I wish they would have used 43 for a higher upside player that was still on the board. This isn't to say that Colt Hutson isn't a high upside player, but I thought there were some real gems of forwards available.
3. Don't have much of a read on Muggli (I'm not going to pretend I watch Swiss hockey lol), so I guess I'll trust the scouts on that one. We did seem to draft him a little before where most rankings had him, but not egregiously so.
4. Family picks are always a bit weird to me, but I guess we can hope that Ilya is as good as his older brother. He's certainly got the size. Him playing in NA this year did raise his profile a fair bit, but the Caps grabbed him way ahead of most rankings. And it does sting that they missed Mews by 1 pick here, but that's not Protas' fault.
5. Mateiko is a good flyer of a pick for this late in the 3rd round. Odds are that he doesn't really put it together and amount to much in the NHL, but that's the same deal for anyone drafted this late. At least with Mateiko there's a conceivable way he could put his size and strength to good use and become a power forward or grinder. He probably won't pan out, but he's the right type of gamble to make.
6. 6'2" goalie in the 4th round, NCAA commit at Notre Dame. NCAA goalies scare me a bit, because you don't want to rush goalies into the minors when you don't have a real spot for them, but the longer you let them stew in the NCAA the easier it is for them to walk away via free agency. But fingers crossed he pans out well enough that they can sign him before that happens.
7. Consider the Kempf picked kicked off a little bit of a run on goalies in the 4th, I am kinda bummed that we didn't take Gamzin instead (who the Islanders took right after). I've seen very little of him, but he had some incredible stats in 13 games played in the KHL this year as an 21 year old (and has impressive VHL numbers as well). Not sure what his contract status is, but if the Islanders can get him over to North America, he seems like a fast track prospect.
8. Petr Sikora AND Miroslav Satan!?! Did we time warp back to 2003 while I wasn't looking?
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