Team Board Mock Draft

[Svechhammer]

Voted Zach Dean but that's because of his name.

Woah woah woah, don't give away our secrets, keep it

 

[tarheelhockey]

I guess I'm sold on Stankoven or Robertson. Honestly this is just a grab-bag pick AFAIC.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

If Matthew Beniers is available at our pick - we have to take him right??

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

I feel like Helenious would be a typical 2nd-3rd round Francis pick not a DW pick. Huge guy, that has a high floor but low ceiling, and has a strong 2 way game already. Watch for Seattle to take him in round 3, if he is still there. Not a 1st rounder.

Olausson is a name that doesn’t get a lot of attention on here but probably should. He is another all over the place rating guy. Shoot first guy (hey we need those), good with the puck on his stick, and high mobility. He played 16 games on a bad HV71 team (Nybeck’s team) so I can understand the knock of being slightly selfish. If he isn’t getting the support he is probably going to create on his own. How much of his knock of his inconsistent lack of effort is due to playing on abad team? It isn’t an excuse but how many of us have let off the accelerator some when on a bad team and losing big?

Like the kids from Karpat, JYP, and Assat, we got a good look at him due to watching our prospects.

 

[Lempo]

If Matthew Beniers is available at our pick - we have to take him right??

We got Marley Drug, we'll have no issues from missing Beniers.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Stankoven has been called a bowling ball who fearlessly attacks the slot as well as "superhuman" offensively. He has dropped due to size and we all know what Dundon feels on that account.

I'd go Stankoven or L'Heureux (Rees 2.0). Othmann, Svozil, and Olausson are three others in the Canes wheelhouse. Koivunen looks like a potential Aho, I'd be pumped if they picked him that high.

I do love Stankoven a ton, and I hope that he somehow becomes a Cane. Under this current mock draft crop, however, I see Robertsson as impossible to pass up. To me, he should be at least a top-15 pick and a borderline top-10 guy. Again, here's the draft profile on him, courtesy of Will Scouch. To me, he's everything that a Canes top-6 guy should be: incredibly intelligent and effective offensively but also good on the defensive end, and an elite shot relative to his draft class.

 

[GoldiFox]

I do love Stankoven a ton, and I hope that he somehow becomes a Cane. Under this current mock draft crop, however, I see Robertsson as impossible to pass up. To me, he should be at least a top-15 pick and a borderline top-10 guy.

I haven't read up on Robertsson. Hard to gauge those guys getting 5 minutes a night in the SHL putting up 2 points over a season. From what I saw from Robertsson in the U18 was underwhelming. Rosen and Lysell were leagues ahead. Even Stromgren looked comparable. But I take one tournament with a huge grain of salt.

Scouching has a video from earlier in the year so I will take a look.

Pretty much anyone on this list could be a realistic pick. Wheeler is really high on Pastujov and the Canes have matched his lists well in the past. Behrens sounds like a Canes defenseman to a tee outside of him being 5'10" instead of 6'2"+.

I will say that from the two prospects out of Karpat in the Canes range, Ville Koivunen looks more like a Canes pick to me than Tuomaala.

 

[spockBokk]

I like what I’ve read about L’Heureux. If he’s still on the board and Svechkov, Raty and Lysell aren’t, he’d be my pick.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I haven't read up on Robertsson. Hard to gauge those guys getting 5 minutes a night in the SHL putting up 2 points over a season. From what I saw from Robertsson in the U18 was underwhelming. Rosen and Lysell were leagues ahead. Even Stromgren looked comparable. But I take one tournament with a huge grain of salt.

Scouching has a video from earlier in the year so I will take a look.

Pretty much anyone on this list could be a realistic pick. Wheeler is really high on Pastujov and the Canes have matched his lists well in the past. Behrens sounds like a Canes defenseman to a tee outside of him being 5'10" instead of 6'2"+.

I will say that from the two prospects out of Karpat in the Canes range, Ville Koivunen looks more like a Canes pick to me than Tuomaala.

Lysell was leagues ahead, yes. OTOH, I have him as the third best player in the entire draft, and IMO should be a top-5 pick, so it's important to note that my evaluations are relative.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I do love Stankoven a ton, and I hope that he somehow becomes a Cane. Under this current mock draft crop, however, I see Robertsson as impossible to pass up. To me, he should be at least a top-15 pick and a borderline top-10 guy. Again, here's the draft profile on him, courtesy of Will Scouch. To me, he's everything that a Canes top-6 guy should be: incredibly intelligent and effective offensively but also good on the defensive end, and an elite shot relative to his draft class.

These profiles are so good. Feels almost wrong that they're just out there for free. This guy must do nothing but watch prospects and make videos about them.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

These profiles are so good. Feels almost wrong that they're just out there for free. This guy must do nothing but watch prospects and make videos about them.

Well, the trade-off is that he only does them for so many of these guys. On a side note, I'm trying to convince him to come to Raleigh during the next playoff season for a tailgate. Maybe the Hurricanes snatch him up in the same way that they snatched up Jokke Nevalainen from DobberProspects.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Well, the trade-off is that he only does them for so many of these guys. On a side note, I'm trying to convince him to come to Raleigh during the next playoff season for a tailgate. Maybe the Hurricanes snatch him up in the same way that they snatched up Jokke Nevalainen from DobberProspects.

I get the feeling that he's sitting by the phone waiting for that call from an NHL team that needs a video scout.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I get the feeling that he's sitting by the phone waiting for that call from an NHL team that needs a video scout.

It'll be a sad day if/when he leaves YouTube, but if the Hurricanes were the ones to hire him instead of, say, his hometown Leafs, what a win that would be for our draft team.

 

[emptyNedder]

I know the Canes don't pick D in the 1st round, but given the list of names, I am going to go off the board and say

Jack Peart.

He is a combination of the Rangers' first pair--not quite Fox's offense, not quite as sound defensively as Lindgren, but the best two-way D in the draft.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I know the Canes don't pick D in the 1st round, but given the list of names, I am going to go off the board and say

Jack Peart.

He is a combination of the Rangers' first pair--not quite Fox's offense, not quite as sound defensively as Lindgren, but the best two-way D in the draft.

I love Peart, too. Similar to someone like Brent Johnson, however, he's under-the-radar enough that he could potentially be available in the 2nd or 3rd round.

Still, though, I don't think that "no D in the 1st round" is a hard-set rule. It's simply that the vast majority of the time, the BPA in the late 1st round is going to be a forward. If names like Lysell/Raty/Robertsson/Svechkov/Stankoven are off the board before the Canes pick, I'm pretty sure that they take a long and hard look at Scott Morrow or Carson Lambos with #27.

 

[emptyNedder]

I love Peart, too. Similar to someone like Brent Johnson, however, he's under-the-radar enough that he could potentially be available in the 2nd or 3rd round.

He would have been two months ago--not really anymore. All the lists in July have had Peart in top 50, one even in the first round. When a player moves from outside the top 100-150 in pre-season to the top 35 or so, you know he is playing great hockey.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

He would have been two months ago--not really anymore. All the lists in July have had Peart in top 50, one even in the first round. When a player moves from outside the top 100-150 in pre-season to the top 35 or so, you know he is playing great hockey.

That is true. Also, teams have a habit of drafting defensemen considerably earlier than most projections. It would not shock me if guys like Buium/Schmidt/Nause are drafted well ahead of where they were originally projected to go.

A part of me, however, is skeptical that Peart would be a target for most clubs in the 1st round. Usually, the kind of clubs that reach on defensemen desperately covet size. The three that I noted above have that and Peart doesn't.

 

[LakeLivin]

I know nothing. My only observation is that I was a little surprised at the proportion of Euro players in the list. Seems like hockey is not just a North American sport anymore.

 

[MinJaBen]

I get the feeling that he's sitting by the phone waiting for that call from an NHL team that needs a video scout.

Why is he still waiting? What is his problem? Is it exposure or does he evaluate in a way that most scouting departments think he is a crackpot?

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Why is he still waiting? What is his problem? Is it exposure or does he evaluate in a way that most scouting departments think he is a crackpot?

Scouch actually isn't that well-known. He's built up quite a following among the YouTube community but he isn't tied with the main prospect publications like EliteProspects or its ilk. He also gets way more Patreon donations than the typical scout (including from yours truly).

 

[MinJaBen]

Scouch actually isn't that well-known. He's built up quite a following among the YouTube community but he isn't tied with the main prospect publications like EliteProspects or its ilk. He also gets way more Patreon donations than the typical scout (including from yours truly).

Still, it begs the question why isn’t he well known in his community? Clearly we involved fans know him and he is well enough known to make money on YT and via patreon, so he must be on real scouting services radar and this team radars. So why doesn’t he have a job? Are the scouting groups to dumb to find him, to set in their ways to hire from outside, or is there something flawed in his opinions that make him someone they actively avoid?

Not saying any of us can know the answers to those questions, but it makes me wonder.

 

[GoldiFox]

Still, it begs the question why isn’t he well known in his community? Clearly we involved fans know him and he is well enough known to make money on YT and via patreon, so he must be on real scouting services radar and this team radars. So why doesn’t he have a job? Are the scouting groups to dumb to find him, to set in their ways to hire from outside, or is there something flawed in his opinions that make him someone they actively avoid?

Not saying any of us can know the answers to those questions, but it makes me wonder.

It is possible that he makes more money through Patreon doing what he likes than taking an NHL video scouting job which largely puts him in a box.

How much would he be looking at making in that starting role? I am really not sure but I can't imagine it is too much.

YouTube money can stack up fast if his fanbase continues to grow.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

It is possible that he makes more money through Patreon doing what he likes than taking an NHL video scouting job which largely puts him in a box.

How much would he be looking at making in that starting role? I am really not sure but I can't imagine it is too much.

YouTube money can stack up fast if his fanbase continues to grow.

Scouch actually stated something similar to that on a chat a few weeks back. He's grown quite the Patreon base, almost to the point that he's considering doing this full-time.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Why is he still waiting? What is his problem? Is it exposure or does he evaluate in a way that most scouting departments think he is a crackpot?

Could be both.

TBH he doesn’t seem like a guy who has an elite athletic background. On his bio he basically says he’s always been obsessed with hockey, but he doesn’t mention any actual background in the game other than his own personal projects. And he only seems to exist in a very limited corner of the internet… a blog, his YT channel, occasional guest appearances on podcasts. So he might simply not have any connections in pro hockey, which are pretty important when it comes to earning trust and credibility.

Looking at the Canes’ current amateur scouts, virtually all of them have prior playing and/or coaching experience at a high level:

- Bob Luccini is in the Massachusetts High School coaches HOF and coached Peter Laviolette. He also assistant-coached in the AHL.

- Don Elland is a Compuware guy who worked his way up the coaching ranks to Plymouth (*Karmanos intensifies*).

- Daniel Eklund had a long playing career in the lower tiers of Swedish pro hockey.

- Joby Messier was a college teammate of Rod Brind’Amour, a cousin of Mark Messier, and won a Cup with the Rangers as a player.

- Cody Nickolet started in broadcasting as a radio color guy in Saskatoon (WHL), and pivoted that into a scouting career which started at the WHL level and went upward from there.

- Eric Fink had an extensive career in college and USHL coaching.

- Oleg Smirnov was a player agent and union rep in Russia for a decade.

Going up against guys like this with “I have a YouTube channel with almost 6K subscribers” is just not feasible at all. Even the guys in that group with less-intimidating backgrounds are embedded in specific European hot spots where they know everyone. The North American scouts have 20 years of head start in forming relationships, gaining credibility, showing off their best work.

Then there’s Jokke, the oddball in this group. For context, he’s a part-time employee embedded in Finland. But he did indeed go the route of building an online presence that led to the job. That gives a guy like Scouch a glimmer of hope, understanding that it takes years to build something like Dobberhockey (and it’s not a one-man show). But it can be done, given enough time and willingness to center your whole life around it. And given that a trend-setting organization like the Canes happens to be looking for a scout and also open to an unorthodox hire. If all those factors line up, then it’s a maybe.

 

[emptyNedder]

Are the scouting groups to dumb to find him, to set in their ways to hire from outside, or is there something flawed in his opinions that make him someone they actively avoid?

I like his work and listen to his podcasts. My guess is that folks are waiting on a few years of data to see if he has insights other don't get to using their methods. Which is likely going to be a problem, because he does seem to hedge bets based on the consensus. For instance last season he said that his data clearly showed that Brett Berard had the best transitions numbers of any players he tracked. Yet in his analysis he wondered if his style would translate to the NHL. I found that problematic when on a similarly sized player in Khusnutdinov with less impressive stats by Scouch's own measures, he said the numbers indicated future success. By the time he came to that conclusion most services had Khusnutdinov in the 25-40 range, so Scouch really didn't add much.

Scouch actually stated something similar to that on a chat a few weeks back.

More recently he specifically said he didn't want to be a YouTube scout much longer and would gladly take any and all NHL calls.