Always fun poking holes in this. An annual tradition. Still the best mock draft around.
For one, the CHL crop is overrated outside the big names. Much mid-ness with depth upside at best. The defense prospects are very good, but the forwards not as much. Their stats are gaudy as usual but it’s easy to light up the CHL. Probably part of the reason top Canadian kids are going the BCHL/USHL/NCAA route — Boisvert, Hage, Pridham, Letourneau, etc etc. (Pridham is very good, BTW. I hope the Rangers draft him).
Speaking of which, I know Bob’s pressed for time and could only write/scout so much, but the USHL and BCHL crops are worth mentioning. I’d lean towards them in R2-R4 over CHL kids who will just get released two years from now anyway. Lahey, Ashton, McGinnis, Sawyer, and Milburn are getting drafted, but I say higher than 5-7. Heise is good too but he probably goes later. Swanson and Osburn are two of my favorites.
That one scout’s comments on Russia were a joke. Asking ownership permission because of a KHL contract? Maybe Bob should have struck that quote from record considering Michkov just signed his ELC a year after the Canadian media crushed him for having a KHL deal. As for that scout, tell me you were born in the 1950’s without telling me you were born in the 1950’s. I bet that scout has Paul Henderson’s used socks encased on his mantle with a portrait of Harold Ballard above it. Get with the times.
No Siryatsky? No Mikhaylov? Avramov is Battaglia on steroids but with physicality. No talk of the outstanding Russian goalie crop with Zarubin, Moysevich, Nabokov, etc? This Russian crop is strong — two top-5 picks and Surin, Artamonov, and Shuravin all R1 quality. Guys outside the top 100 like Frolov, Pautov, Krutov would destroy the CHL.
And I disagree that Sweden’s group is weak. Eriksson, Pettersson, LSW, Freij, and Fernstrom are all mid-to-late R1 candidates. Eriksson was better in the Allsvenskan playoffs than Nygard. Zether, Traff, Sjodin, Berglund, Eliasson, Haara, Zetterberg, and Viggo Gustaffson are all solid R2 options. You also have strong goalie pool in Gidlof, Nyman, Stierngranat, Lunberg, and Carlsson. Plenty of sleepers in W. Samuelsson, Bodin, and Hesselvall, But I guess if you don’t actively scout Sweden except for the WJC, coming to that conclusion makes total sense.
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