Hockey News mock draft

[82birds]

I don't really want to have to try to spell that all the time.

Fine. We’ll draft one of Brzustewicz or Boumedienne then.

LOL

[Pierre McGuire]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

[STL fan in MN]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

Positives: he’s 6’6”, skates very well and can be mean/physical.

Negatives: he didn’t even start playing hockey until 3ish years ago when he moved to Canada. He scored 0 goals and 2 assists in the OHL this season. He has the sort of profile of a player that typically doesn’t get drafted at all. Yet most have him ranked in the 2nd and some think he may slip into the 1st. I wouldn’t touch him until the 3rd and I think that might be pushing it. I won’t say he has poor hockey sense but he simply is still just trying to learn the game…which is near impossible to learn playing elite level hockey after not playing in his youth at all. The thought would be that perhaps he could be a monster if/when his brain catches up due to his size and skating ability. But I just don’t think it’s all that likely he’ll be able to catch up. Last I saw, he’s expected to play for BU next season but I think that’s a bad idea. I don’t see him as remotely ready for college hockey. He can’t think the game fast enough yet. For his sake, I hope he plays another year of Jrs first and defers going to BU a year. Otherwise, I bet it’ll be as successful as it was for Boston 1st rounder Dean Letourneau who put up 0 goals and 3 assists for BC this season.

He’s a cool story in that he’s clearly a freak athlete that’s able to play in the OHL after not really playing competitive hockey until age 15 and he’s come a long way since coming over from China but that doesn’t mean he’s ever going to be able to be a NHL caliber d-man.

[Pierre McGuire]

Here is a good piece by Mike Morreale on Wang

https://www.nhl.com/news/haoxi-wang-eme ... t-prospect

[seattleblue]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

I watched him play twice. We just disagree

[Pierre McGuire]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

I watched him play twice. We just disagree

Disagreeing is one thing but he's good enough now that somebody is going to take a chance on him...nobody is saying its going to take him 5 years to be good, its 5 years of development....dmen take some time to develop. Somebody might have a very mean and nasty 23 year old 6"6 or 6"7 230lb dman 5 years from now.

[seattleblue]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

I watched him play twice. We just disagree

Disagreeing is one thing but he's good enough now that somebody is going to take a chance on him...nobody is saying its going to take him 5 years to be good, its 5 years of development....dmen take some time to develop. Somebody might have a very mean and nasty 23 year old 6"6 or 6"7 230lb dman 5 years from now.

I appreciate your perspective and take your opinion seriously. In no way did this player catch my eye as some mean player. He was timid when I saw him. I watched a bunch of clips on him a few months ago other than the games I saw and his hockey sense was laughable. Thus hearing that these are actually strengths and the allure of miracle projects that are barely underway don't do it for me.

[Pierre McGuire]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

I watched him play twice. We just disagree

Disagreeing is one thing but he's good enough now that somebody is going to take a chance on him...nobody is saying its going to take him 5 years to be good, its 5 years of development....dmen take some time to develop. Somebody might have a very mean and nasty 23 year old 6"6 or 6"7 230lb dman 5 years from now.

I appreciate your perspective and take your opinion seriously. In no way did this player catch my eye as some mean player. He was timid when I saw him. I watched a bunch of clips on him a few months ago other than the games I saw and his hockey sense was laughable. Thus hearing that these are actually strengths and the allure of miracle projects that are barely underway don't do it for me.

Who did you finally settle on as your Blues main want at #19...Carbonneau?

[seattleblue]

Any thoughts about Simon Wang a D man with Oshawa ? I wonder if the fact that he is Chinese and a nontraditional hockey nation and started playing late will hurt him ? Saw him in a couple of games and he has good size and is a pretty good skater.

I have him as a straight up do not draft. Wang is not in any way good. He has the opposite of an edge. He's butter soft and inept with no hockey IQ.

The entire idea of him is that in 5 years he could be good, all he has to do is learn the game because of his gifted figure skating abilities. Let someone else be that shrewd IMO. That is the opposite of organizational philosophy that a team should have. That is desperation and lottery tickets.

So this tells me you haven't watched him play. He definitely has an edge to his game and his hockey IQ way above average.

I watched him play twice. We just disagree

Disagreeing is one thing but he's good enough now that somebody is going to take a chance on him...nobody is saying its going to take him 5 years to be good, its 5 years of development....dmen take some time to develop. Somebody might have a very mean and nasty 23 year old 6"6 or 6"7 230lb dman 5 years from now.

I appreciate your perspective and take your opinion seriously. In no way did this player catch my eye as some mean player. He was timid when I saw him. I watched a bunch of clips on him a few months ago other than the games I saw and his hockey sense was laughable. Thus hearing that these are actually strengths and the allure of miracle projects that are barely underway don't do it for me.

Who did you finally settle on as your Blues main want at #19...Carbonneau?

I'll post a list closer to the draft. I'll have a top preferred forward and defender at 19 and indicate which I prefer. I understand your point about a late player catching your eye over a longer standing favorite. It's actually why particularly with the prospects game everyone needs humility – we all watch the Blues games and can discuss nuances of each player at length – but it's only a handful of us watching prospects, and there is a vast array of leagues/games to watch, it is impossible for anyone to weigh their own informed opinion across all players because their own informed opinion is higher on some prospects than others. It's why I have come to dismiss the whole "ranking the prospect pools against each other" game.

[LGB73]

I've seen plenty of people on here say there is really no difference between the prospects between 15-25 or 18-25, so best player available is really irrelevant. They're all essentially equal and you'll have a mix of C, Wingers, and D slotted at those prospect ranks. The Blues should pick the player that fills organizational need which is RD or C.

[zamadoo]

My favorite player in the bottom of the 1st round is Ryabkin.

Some prospects I like who we might have a chance at (not necessarily in this order):

Ryabkin
Hensler
Boumedienne
Fiddler
Mrtka
Cootes
Bear
Reschny

[STL fan in MN]

I've seen plenty of people on here say there is really no difference between the prospects between 15-25 or 18-25, so best player available is really irrelevant. They're all essentially equal and you'll have a mix of C, Wingers, and D slotted at those prospect ranks. The Blues should pick the player that fills organizational need which is RD or C.

While it’s true that’s somewhat of a talking point this year and a lot of these guys are ranked in all sorts of orders, the truth of the matter is that some of these guys will end up better than others. Just because the consensus of scouts can’t agree today on which one is better doesn’t mean they’re all going to end up worth relatively the same value 5-10 years from now. Some will thrive while others do ok and others bust. So if the Blues prefer a guy even a little bit, I’d prefer them to take the guy they prefer a bit more regardless of position.

All that said, I’m also hoping the guy who’s BPA on their list when it’s their turn to pick is a C or RD.

[Pierre McGuire]

I've seen plenty of people on here say there is really no difference between the prospects between 15-25 or 18-25, so best player available is really irrelevant.

At this point in time sure....but that 6th round Jesper Bratt is out there.