HF Habs: Draft 2018: What are your immediate draft class feelings?

[Victoire HuGo]

BTW, where is the post mortem from Timmins talking about all the picks?

 

[beowulf]

Meh in general. Still not sold with the 3rd overall pick but I hope this kid can show me to be wrong. I am just worried he will be rushed and mismanaged like Galchenyuk was. Bergevin having the balls to say that he is their first true center prospect or how ever he put it is a load of crap.

 

[member 300185]

Thrilled. This is the best habs draft, IMO, from top to bottom since I've been following. A couple painful snipes (berggren and ragnarsson), but you can't always get what you want.

I think the Islanders and Detroit won the draft but Montreal was right there. I dont like the Kotka pick, I thought Zadina would have been better but time will tell. The rest though are fairly decent and Montreal will have a few growing pains until they are ready. Out of the picks, if 3 hit, thats successful.

So overall, I give this draft a B+

 

[G0bias]

Beside Kotkaniemi, is there one of the Habs 2018 draft pick that is not 5'11?

Olofsson

 

[DAChampion]

Missed the draft. I thought we had 4 second rounders?

One of them was traded for two lower picks.

 

[Adriatic]

I have a good feeling about that kid they picked 2nd. Looks really skilled.

 

[CapSpace]

You guys know that we picked someone in the 7th round too, right?

#190

Montréal Canadiens

Brett Stapley (F)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Ah, the famous 7th round pick switcharoo. Trade a 7th next year for this year. Well, we got Primeau doing this last year, so why not.

 

[NotProkofievian]

I think the Islanders and Detroit won the draft but Montreal was right there. I dont like the Kotka pick, I thought Zadina would have been better but time will tell. The rest though are fairly decent and Montreal will have a few growing pains until they are ready. Out of the picks, if 3 hit, thats successful.

So overall, I give this draft a B+

The Islanders are my favourite for draft winners, too. JK was my guy at 3, but there were 4 guys who would have been good picks to me, Zadina included. I really don't like Veleno and had him behind Olofsson, who we ended up drafting at the end of the 2nd. But Detroit did really well with Zadina, Berggren, and Regula, IMO.

 

[Skip Bayless]

First round: I had no preference between Zadina, Tkachuk and Kotkaniemi. Happy with the pick.

Second round: They picked two of the players I wanted with the early picks; Ylonen and Olofsson. Romanov threw me off, but I've never seen him play and this draft was crazy, so I'll give it some time like every other pick.

Third round: Cool with the Hillis pick, him and Wise are guys I saw us picking with one of our late seconds and we got him a bit after that. Don't know anything about Harris, but I wish him well.

Fourth round: McShane was surprisingly still there, I thought he'd go late second, but there he was. Happy with the pick. I have no clue Who Jack Gorniak is, but I wish him well.

The rest of the draft seems uneventful for me...

So in general good feeling about many guys we picked, but we'll see in a few years.

 

[cujo1117]

at the time day per day .... the 2012 was the best ever ... cuz we picked the BPA according to central scouting..... hey guys just chill were talking about 17-18 years old.... let them grow....and we will talk in 4 years about the 18 draft.However i like the fact that the habs whent for skill and upside... we will see... i trust in timmins for this one ...hes capable to pull off great player from nowhere

 

[Harpo]

I wish I had a strong opinion, but all my thoughts are based on stuff I read on the internets.

The only thing I can say is that I am relieved that it seems to be a draft based on the future. I was scared Bergevin would push for immediate results to save his ass, but it's not the case.

Although now it might give him some more leash, and a bad season next year might not be the end of him.

 

[Habs13]

Shrimps.

 

[EXPOS123]

So let me see if i got this right. Half our forwards and one of our top Dmen are midgets on the big league club and we go ahead and use 90% of our drafts picks to select more of the same? Come on! I also have zero faith in these Euro picks - when was the last time one actually panned out? (and no, i'm not sold on Lehkonen and Ikonen had a down year and a third/4 liner like DLR is nothing to brag about). As for, Kotka, he seems like a project that is 3 years away.

 

[scrubadam]

Drafting for size didn't lead anywhere. Tinordi/Crisp/Mac etc.... so many meat heads.

You can't tell how the draft will go 1 hour after its done. It will take 3 or 4 years. NHL is moving towards speed and skill and not size. Look at all the small D taken this draft. This draft could represent a pretty big shift in the NHL if it pans out. But we have to keep in mind that 90% of these guys are going to bust.

 

[De Montreal]

First things first, the guys who didn't go who we need to invite are:
Kyle Topping
Pavel Gogolev
Brendan Budy
Alexander Steeves
Chase Wouters
Karel Plasek

Second, the draft:
Kotkaniemi: A ; Got a top line C prospect, big kid, skilled, smart, has the right demeanor to succeed in this market.
Ylonen: A ; Scoring winger prospect, got a lot of talent
Romanov: B- ; Like the player, it's just too early.
Olofsson: A+; He has 2nd line upside as a C, his point totals in the Allsvenskan were great, wish we also got his teammate but to get a guy of his calibre that light, beautiful.
Cameron Hillis: A+; Love this player, my favorite pick we made today. He plays hard, he wants the puck, he was a true rookie in the OHL. May have the best passing and vision in the draft.
Jordan Harris: F; I didn't see this guy to have an own opinion but the Blackbook report on him is not very good. See Casey Staum
Allan McShane: B ; Value is there, feet aren't, has skills.
Jack Gorniak: C- ; Hard to really know since his stats were not good, his team wasn't good. Mixed reports on the kids sense.
Cole Fonstad: A ; At that point in the draft, potential steal, over a PPG in the WHL, loads of skill, loads of sense.
Samuel Houde: X; X for Xenophobia.. what the hell was that
Stapley: D; Brendan Budy is better from the same league.

oh my god

 

[Brownies]

When people say that Zadina is more Nhl ready than Kotkaniemi, do they believe it based on what they've seen or are they only repeating what everyone says. I don't see it.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

Happy we took some shots at centres, for every WTF pick there were was one that dropped down so likely balances out. Probably would've preferred to jump up rather than drop back but we stocked up a couple of extras for next year

More than anything I'm glad we used the picks rather than going veteran character shopping

 

[Sorinth]

My feelings are pretty meh

I like Kotkaniemi though would have preferred Zadina
I like Romanov just not where we picked him
Ylonen, Olofsson, Hillis all seem like good picks, the rest I'm not so sure about or don't know enough about them.

With a 3rd OVA you expect a lot more hype/hope. You expect a guy who if he won't turn the franchise around you can at least see building around him. I don't see that.

It seems pretty clear that the only chance to trade down and still get Kotkaniemi would have been moving down one spot, and so I can understand why that didn't happen. But not being able to package something together to get another 1st rounder seems like a real missed opportunity.

And as much as a lack of trades shouldn't be part of the draft evaluation having Pacioretty and Byron still on the team and it looking like more and more they'll be there opening night just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[JuicyHam]

Still can't believe we missed out on Bulat Shafigullin

 

[ohmyjlord]

Very pleased with Kotkaniemi, I think it's the right choice. He fits a need, I like his size, and he strikes me as someone the organization will be able to use correctly.

A bit underwhelmed by our first two selections in the 2nd round, as I would've preferred to see us trade back in the 1st round (to pick Bokk, Veleno or Beaudin) or stay put, and claim McIsaac and McLeod. I know Timmins sounds really excited about Romanov, but on the other hand...of course he has to, he's the "off the board" pick. Not nearly familiar enough with Ylonen to really be excited about the pick, I guess he will grow on me as time goes by judging by how many people around here seems to think he was a solid selection at #35.

Olofsson, I'm really comfortable with. Solid value pick that late in the 2nd round. Again, strikes me as someone the organization will be able to use correctly. Same with McShane in the 4th round.

Hillis is slowly growing on me. I wasn't thrilled at first, but I like what I'm reading about the guy.

Harris, Gorniak, Houde and Stapely...what can I say. Those seems like players we could've invited to camp to me.

So in general, I would say...yeah, a bit disapointed for now considering how important that draft was for the Habs. But I guess time will tell.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

So where is this video, because it won't load here.

You can find it here, should be first video right now. Maybe it will fall back later:

NHL Videos and Highlights

 

[WeThreeKings]

This is how I see our prospect pool after today's draft:

1. Jesperi Kotkaniemi
2. Victor Mete (I'd say there's a chance he plays in the AHL next season)
3. Ryan Poehling
4. Noah Juulsen (Didn't fully graduate)
5. Josh Brook
6. Jesse Ylonen
7. Cayden Primeau
8. Jacob Olofsson
9. Cameron Hillis
10. Joni Ikonen
11. Michael McNiven
12. Charlie Lindgren
13. Jake Evans
14. Alexander Romanov
15. Cale Fleury
16. Cole Fonstad
17. Lukas Vejdemo
18. Allan McShane
19. Brett Lernout (not sure if he's waiver eligible, if he is, then he gets removed)
20. Will Bitten
21. Jarrett Tyszka
22. Rinat Valiev
23. Jack Gorniak
24. Jordan Harris
25. Daniel Audette
26. Jeremy Gregoire
27. Scott Walford
28. Simon Bourque
29. Alexandre Alain
30. Hayden Verbeek
31. Brett Stapley
32. Arvid Henrikson
33. Michael Pezzetta
34. Antoine Waked
35. Nikolas Koberstein
36. Samuel Houde

 

[Lebowski]

I like the the skill first approach the organization seemed to have as opposed to the good old size/character. I'm hoping Timmins didn't waste picks on his tokens Q guy/USHS guy/way out of the left field guy.

 

[CHwest]

Well he certainly seems to be high on Romanov. Interesting, thanks for posting.

 

[badi]

Average draft at best + bad développement will result as a really bad draft again

Should have traded some of those picks for nhl players but trades are too hard to make ,,,,,loll