2016 NHL Mock Draft - brought to you by KilkennyDan

Dan I was glad to have you participate in this one after you couldn't in the other due to your health.

 

Carolina

Julien Gauthier W
Alex Debrincat W
Kale Clague D
Benjamin Gleason D
Maxime Lajoie D
Josh Mahura D
Filip Hronek D
Nicholas Caamano W

Gain
Jeremy Bracco W
Lost
Roland McKeown D

Well If the Carolina real life trade did happen earlier I would of drafted completely different (got more centers early most likely) and not traded Mckeown (100% wouldn't of traded back up). Well at lease Carolina has a surplus of Wingers.

Nashville

Michael McLeod C
Luke Green D
Jack Kopacka LW
Otto Makinen C
Brett Murray LW
Vojt?ch Budik D

For Nashville I went best player available Imo (I know there will disagreements)

 

Minny only had 2 picks in the whole 5 round draft. They grabbed this guy ^, would add much needed size and speed up front. btw, thats Chychrun getting walked and spun there.

Wild also hypothetically grab a goalie dart to throw at the board of success.

 

I was going to take someone else with the Jets but I forgot about him when it was finally time. I was gonna take the guy that re-entered the draft after Arizona failed to sign him.

 

thanks for all that participated. now we wait 3-7 years for the results. special thanks to those that made this possible. *DRINK*

 

This was an easy draft for the Panthers. For some reason every player I was targeting was still there. The hardest part was not selecting Brett Howden to play with his brother (Scott), but German Rubstov has some serious game and it wasn't close enough to choose on nepotism.

 

I recommend that you have your favorite team enter the draft with 12 picks. It does provide some flexibility. There's no way that Buffalo ends up picking the equivalent of 3 or4 first rounders. But this mock helped me understand both the strengths and limitations of this draft class

 

How is that? How do you know who will develop down the road years from now? Brett Hull was a 117th pick. Others have been picked late and developd better than 1st round picks. I don't know how anybody can know the strengths and limitations of a draft until years later. The same could be said for MLB. Once your past the few top players, it's rolling the dice in the other rounds and even mid to late 1st round........

 

In years we can make comments with that kind of hindsight, but we do not have the benefit of that now. So we will deal with the facts as we see it now. Of course, it is reasonably easy to make projections today about who will be selected in the first, second, third rounds etc.

I was not making any career projections with my comment; I was only commenting on what is going to start later today.

 

I gotta see Florida's picks lined up like WPG & AZ. Of course WPG & AZ had two first round picks so it's not a surprise that they have a couple of mock firsts that went in the first.

What I want to see is how many mock picks were actually selected higher. To me, that demonstrates the prowess of each mock GM.

I think Joe nailed the draft for both AZ & WPG. I also know that red I is had a bang up draft for the swamp kitties. (I also think that the Sabres had a great mock.)

I'm getting back home on Thursday and will want to know where to mail the Rockford IceHogs sweater.

I welcome anyone to make the case for their favorite mocker.

 

Not counting myself or Dan, I nominate Boston. I like the almost 10 pick jumps for the 1st 2 picks for Florida (Loved the Rubtsov pick), but the other picks were relatively disappointing. Boston had a bold trade up to get their D-man and he was the 1st one drafted and although they didn't have a 2nd after the trade they got 2 in the 3rd round of the mock with Dahlen and Krys.

Post-draft Boston had my favourite mock after a certain two teams *PARDON*
He also did a good job with Minny despite only having 2 picks. Max Jones dropped about 10 spots but he got Woll at #116 when he went #62.

Great job!

 

thanks Joe.
ya Max Jones fell hard. He might have fallen in to a great scenario in Anaheim, for him specifically. Would assume he's a couple years out and in a couple more years Perry could use some help throwing elbows around out there.

 

for a first time draft, i think it went well and was surprised at some of the players chosen early in the 2nd through the 7th. just like car buffs, some scouts just like a certain make and model.

 

Understood Dan!........What kills me about all these selections is they make them all sound so great and over half will never make the NHL......

Agree with Bob and the others. Go for your 1st pick , then draft according to best available, no matter what. Don't know if any of you saw Rutherford being interviewed but he definitely wanted a defenseman. Penguins top scout talked him out of it to draft the best goalie on their board and were surprised he was still there, Gustavsson. So they ended up taking him and taking quite a few defensemen in the other rounds.......Erixon (top scout) said he won't be disappointed......But of course, we'll see in the next few years.......

 

I have been catching up in the office after being away for quite a while. I have not really compared the Mock Draft to the actual draft in detail, but I will post my reactions.

MTL had a really strong mock draft! I may use the results for both teams as a tie breaker when selecting Best Mocker. I did not like the Oil's draft compared to how the real one played out.

Joe has a pretty commanding lead since both WPG & AZ had strong drafts. I'll compare all the teams over the weekend, and then prepare the IceHogs sweater for shipment,

Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July to everyone.

 

I haven't done the final evaluations, (I tend to be very methodical on these matters), but I have mapped the mock and real drafts together. The finalists for the Rockford IceHogs Best Mock are:
- Arizona
- Boston
- Carolina
- Florida
- Montr?al
- Winnipeg

Objectively, Buffalo belongs in consideration, as do the Kings (D. Gambrell, C, U. Denver; mocked in the 5th, taken in the 2nd) but the LAK had only two selections. Neither team will win.

I welcome any of the finalist to make their case for why they deserve to win. Also, I will grade up for impassioned responses.

Any team that is not a finalist is also welcome to make their case for consideration.

 

Buffalo & Boston swung a mock trade that was highly unlikely in the real world. BUF moved two 3rds for one higher in the round.

First, BUF & BOS very rarely make trades.
Second, from a draft chart value perspective, BUF gave up too much.

But, I really wanted my player. Interestingly, in the real draft Abramov went in the early third (I had him rated as an early 2nd). But both players Matty selected (Krys & Dahlen) were taken in the 2nd. I have to considered Buffalo skunked on that trade.

 

My first two picks were dead on. Logan Brown went 11th overall (to the Sens but that was originally Jersey's spot where I selected him) and the Devils selected Nathan Bastian in the second round (#41 overall), the exact same spot I did. *SHADES*

I moved down in the third to take Eetu Tuulola, but in the real thing he went in the 6th so I reached on that one. However, I made up with it in the Givani Smith pick. I took smith at the top of the 4th but he went in the second to the Wings.

Filip Berglund went in the bottom third, I got him in the mid 4th. David Bernhardt went in the 7th, I reached for him in the 4th. Connor Ingram went in the 3rd, I got him in the 4th. Keenan Suthers was the Devils final pick and he went undrafted.

For the Rangers, Simon Stransky was my first pick in the third round and he never heard his name called in the real thing. I took Mikhail Maltsev a couple spots before he was actually drafted. And then... I traded to get more picks and the Rangers were done.

Definitely like how it went down for Jersey more than how it did for NY. *YES*

 

I like my Winnipeg draft the best. I had the obvious pick at #2. At #21 I got McAvoy who went at #14. At #50 I got Laberge that went at #36. At #56 I got Hart that went at #48. At #67 I got Grundstrom that went at #57. At #97 I got Adam Fox that went at #66. At #127 I got Kuokkanen that went at #43. Fox was the latest player I got from the real draft and it was early 3rd. I took him a bit over a full round later. I started the mock with 2 1sts, 1 2nd, 1 4th and 1 5th. I ended up with 2 1st rounders, 4 2nd rounders and a 3rd rounder in terms of the actual draft.

With Arizona I traded #7 overall + a 3rd(68) & a 7th round picks and it turned into the following package after trades with the Bruins and Sabres:
#14 Fabbro (who went #17) Went a few picks off but in the same little tier.
#29 Mascherin (who went #38) I grabbed him a bit early but he went where I expected.
#69 Katchouk (who went #44) I traded away #68 so this got it back.
Picks #89, #130 & #165

I then traded #89 & #165 along with Hanzal for #134 and Shattenkirk.
I later traded #134 and the #130 pick I got earlier for:
#108 Trent Frederic (who went in the 1st round).

I traded my #20 and late 2nd for:
#10 Jost (who went at #10)

With my original early 2nd I got
#37 Niemel?inen (who went #63) My only pick I could be disappointed on but I knew I was probably reaching a little bit.

So essentially #7 + 7th + Hanzal got me:
Fabbro
Mascherin
Frederick
Shattenkirk

With my original 2nd & 3rd I got:
Niemel?inen
Katchouk

And #20 + #53 got me:
Jost

While Winnipeg got me no fallers, Arizona got me a lot from some savvy trading. My #7 overall (+7th rounder & Hanzal) got me guys in the real draft that equated to 2 1sts, 1 2nd and Kevin Shattenkirk. And with that trade I had more ammo so I was willing to trade up and was still able to get a top 10 selection with another trade.

Only 1st and 2nd rounders from real life in each mock with the exception of 1 for each being an early 3rd rounder.