DRAFT THOUGHTS AT 1AM
By Lowetide
9 years ago
The Edmonton Oilers entered the weekend with one lottery pick and 5 lottery tickets, and that’s exactly what happened.
No. 3 overall Leon Draisaitl is already an Edmonton favorite, the big man said all the right things after being chosen to right the world from the center position.
- Draisaitl: “I’m going to have to do my job and earn my spot if I want to play in
that league and on that team,” he said. “I think they’re moving forward
for sure and they made some good trades, (David) Perron, and the guys
are getting older and more mature. This is just awesome right now.”
William Lagesson was the next pick, he’s a two-way defender with size and the ability to move the puck. Stu MacGregor made a point of mentioning how much he enjoys the battle. It’ll be years before we see him, but I think that’s good value for a 4th round selection.
ZACH NAGELVOORT
You have to like that run of save percentages dating back as far as the eye can see. Goalies are tough to figure out, but this guy has a strong resume based purely on boxcars. Keeping in mind he was selected No. 111 overall I’m pleased with the pick.
- No. 130: Liam Coughlin—I often have Kirk Luedeke from Red Line Report on the Lowdown, and he texted this to me today about Coughlin:Luedeke: “Big kid, can skate. Had him as my
“super sleeper” a year ago, but didn’t see him at Vernon. Raw as hell
but passionate, industrious” - No. 153: Tyler Vesel—Impressive scoring numbers over several years, most recently in the USHL. Stu MacGregor: “He’s a scorer. He had a tremendous year and he’ll be
going to Nebraska-Omaha where Dean Blais is a competitive coach who
develops players.” - No. 183: Keven Bouchard—Stu MacGregor: “It’s always difficult with
goaltenders when they don’t play a lot but we had an eye on him from the
previous year and I happened to be at a game this season where he did
play and had a period at the Memorial Cup. He’s a guy with potential.
He’s very fit and strong and he’s willing to put in the work. Freddie
Chabot and Sylvain Rodrique (goalie coaches) know him really well and
have worked with him.”
REMINDS ME….
This is so much like the 2008 draft. Edmonton took Jordan Eberle in round one, didn’t have a second or a third round selection, and then drafted Johan Motin, Phil Cornet, Teemu Hartikainen and Jordan Bendfeld.
Career Numbers:
- Jordan Eberle: 275GP, 96-125-221
- Johan Motin: 1GP, 0-0-0
- Phil Cornet: 2GP, 0-1-1
- Teemu Hartikainen: 52GP, 6-7-13
Six years later, those are the boxcars for the 2008 entry draft. I think Leon Draisaitl will play more NHL games than Jordan Eberle in his first six seasons (he should be over 400) but the rest of this 2014 draft class can reasonably be expected to score about the same in terms of NHL games played.
The lesson here: those second and third round picks are valuable, because there are still good players available. Craig MacTavish received very good value for those picks (David Perron and Ben Scrivens), and I’m not suggesting they were mistakes.
It is worth noting that the picks traded away over the last 12 months turned into Ivan Barbashev and Dominic Turgeron today, and that stings more than a little.
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