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LD Andong "Misha" Song - Madison Capitols, USHL (2015, 173rd, NYI)

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There's an interesting contrast to this and the NBA draft this week.

Sutnam Singh was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks this past week, marking the first time an Indian born player has been drafted in the NBA. Mark Cuban, a very flashy and outside the box owner was quick to cite the business value as well.

The key difference however is that with the NBA, there's only two rounds, so there's little margin to waste picks.

Singh was discovered a few years ago and moved to the US where he's been in a development school. He's hasn't played in any competitive league, and was a big gamble, but, there was a lot of scouting of him in advance, and people felt his size and coordination definitely showed NBA potential, even if it needed to be developed.

Only the Isles and their scouts can answer whether they feel there is any legitimate potential there with Song.

If they did this just for the marketing, they've done a disservice their organization, but, also to the first legitimate prospect to come along from there. If there were 2.5 million who watched him get drafted, imagine the audience when the first time a player makes a team.
 
Awesome for him. I was reading his story and how he learned English at a young age so that if he eventually moved to Canada to further his hockey career he would speak the language, pretty cool
 
APVJ said:
Well, maybe he has some franchise value in China...

Not a reason to get picked though
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Ok so how many players that get drafted in these rounds actually makes it? Does that mean picking those players who have virtually no chance of making it a waste of a pick? At least with this pick it is being discussed and may have opened many doors.
 
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DatsyukToZetterberg said:
How obscure is the league he played in this season? Very. Elite Prospects doesn't even have the stats for the league. I am really curious as to how the Islanders found him.
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He was in a pretty crap league. Looks like his school played Belmont Hill and Gunnery who are pretty good prep teams but that's about it.

He's doing PG at Phillips next year. He'll be overage but Phillips is solid. Didn't hurt Chris Kreider or Cory Schneider.
 
joemon999 said:
Genius business move by Charles Wang.

I don't think the Islanders could care less if this kid dosn't even sniff the AHL, but The Islanders just gained at least 2.5 million new fans.

This seemed to me more of a business move then drafting a prospect.

Islanders may of just become China's new favorite NHL team.

Dat Islander merchandising gear doe $$$$$$$$$$
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Will be the top selling knockoffs ever.
 
Dustin Peener said:
USHS is only actually a good level in certain areas

They would, because he clearly isn't very good, but it would be put down to poor scouting rather than an obvious marketing stunt
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New england prep is one of them. I played at Albany Academy (one of the teams in the video) and there were always a few kids each year in the league who got drafted or went on to juniors and then drafted..
 
I've seen some people that Rod Langway was the first player born in China.

He was born in the Republic of China which is different to the People's Republic of China.
 
It is a good marketing move.

Maybe eventually he gets an ELC deal so that they can do a pre-season game in China.

Also, even if he stinks (I don't know who he is, he could be a good prospect), I bet you 100 percent he'll be signed either way so that he can play 1 regular season game as a bottom pairing D and be the first ever Chinese born player to play a regular season game. Which, for the Islanders, is great marketing and publicity.

If he makes it to the AHL or ECHL as a prominently featured player, they could attempt to get a TV deal in China for his team.

If China gets the '22 Winter Olympics, they'll have to put together a hockey team, so whether or not he makes it to the NHL, so long as he is in the system there's even more publicity for the Islanders organization with this move.

The more that I think about it, a Canadian team would have been smart to draft him. 1.5 million Chinese in Canada. 10 percent of Toronto are Chinese, and their AHL team is in Toronto and not a different city. If he ever becomes good enough to be a bottom pairing AHL defender, he even if he never made the NHL, he could still be marketed heavily within the city. It is rare that a team like Toronto gets a chance to grow their fan base, this could have been it.
 
I posted this in another thread in case people are interested on the state of hockey in China. For the record, I'm an early 20-year guy who was born in Jinan, China, immigrated to Toronto at age 4 but went back for a gap year after University to teach English and am currently in Chengdu, Sichuan. I played AA in Toronto hockey until I was ~16ish.

I'm from China so maybe I can give some "intangible" input apart from data. I'm actually from Shandong, which is slightly northern in latitude and on the east coast. The temperature is a bit warmer than Toronto, but there is still snowfall in the winter. Literally no one gives a **** about hockey. Nobody knows who Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Crosby etc. are. Almost nobody even knows the rules (most just know that you have to shoot a flat black disc in a net but that's it). There is exactly one skating rink in my entire city (Jinan - it's not a small city either, capital and nearly 7 million people). When I went to visit a few years ago, I skated in the rink - literally by myself and I caught the attention of a guy who works there - a figure skating coach. He's from Liaoning (very far northeast in China) and he played some pickup when he was back in his hometown, but couldn't find anyone to play with when he moved to Jinan. He got me a stick and a puck and we played around for a while. This lack of popularity should be even more apparent in the densely populated south like Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou etc. I can see hockey growing somewhat as a niche, hipster sport in northern provinces like Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin but I don't see it becoming anything remotely close to "popular" within the next ~50 years.

Chinese people also do not like the physical/violent nature of the sport. Generally because of cultural reasons but if you look at the average build of a Chinese guy, it doesn't exactly suit us biologically either (not politically correct, but IDGAF). China has also struggled with team sports. Basketball and soccer are hugely popular in China but we can't even qualify for the World Cup and outside of Yao Ming, haven't really produced any good basketball players (Jeremy Lin does not count - he was born and trained in the USA system - plus his parents are from Taiwan anyway - not really "China". He can't even speak Mandarin/Cantonese) despite our ~1.5 billion population. So I doubt we'll be producing any NHLers anytime soon. Canadian/American - born Chinese might be more realistic. Zachary Yuen I believe was a decent junior player and was drafted a few years ago.

Also, because of the nature of the time difference, a lot of these games are at like 7am. I've flipped through channels and stuff but I've never come across a single hockey game. My family did watch the Gold Medal games at my insistence at the 2010 & 2014 Olympics. All my grandfather said was "wow, they're fast".
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discostu said:
If they did this just for the marketing, they've done a disservice their organization
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Why? Their organization is a business. Part of their goal is to make money. The odds of a 6th round pick even becoming a third liner or bottom pairing d are very low.

Even if Song is never heard of again, the publicity they've gained thus far with 2.5 million potential new fans in China watching the draft is worth more monetarily than the miniscule percent chance that whoever else they would have picked would have become an NHLer would have been worth.
 
Is this really as big as people are making it out to be? I'm browsing the CCTV (China's largest news network) website and I can't find any mention of the guy anywhere.
 
danielpalfredsson said:
Why? Their organization is a business. Part of their goal is to make money. The odds of a 6th round pick even becoming a third liner or bottom pairing d are very low.

Even if Song is never heard of again, the publicity they've gained thus far with 2.5 million potential new fans in China watching the draft is worth more monetarily than the miniscule percent chance that whoever else they would have picked would have become an NHLer would have been worth.
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Because if there is zero expectation that Song will become an NHL player, then it's just a cheap publicity stunt, and it lessens the impact of when there will be a real viable Chinese born player.

I have no problem with the business side having some impact in the decision, but, there needs to be some expectation of Song turning out to maintain integrity.

Plus, based on your user name, I'm presuming you probably would have been disappointed if the Ottawa Senators used their 6th round pick for a marketing selection one year instead of on the guy that became the franchise player.
 
Not many sixth round picks get more than a cup of coffee in the NHL, let alone become franchise players. It wasn't like the Islanders bypassed a sure thing talent to select Song
 
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