The Season 8 draft was held, the season has begun, and we will have a champion in mid April, I believe. After that, nobody will want to wait two months for Websim to input new players for our Season 9 Draft, so we will need a new, fictional draft set. We covered some of this ground about a year ago, but there are a lot of new general managers, so I’d like to restart the whole process.

First of all, I did a lot of research and determined we should shoot for a draft list that includes talent of the caliber shown below. Please note these are only rough estimates and they could change a little.  There are still some NHL prospects without attributes who will be drafted somewhere on this list – most likely in the third round – so those 73s, 74s and 75s at the bottom will probably go undrafted.

1. 96 – Start of Round 1
2. 93 –
3. 91 –
4. 88 –
5. 87 –
6. 86
7. 85
8. 85
9. 84
10. 84
11. 83
12. 83
13. 82
14. 82
15. 82
16. 81
17. 81
18. 81
19. 80
20. 80
21. 80
22. 80
23. 79
24. 79 – End of Round 1
25. 79 – Start of Round 2
26. 79
27. 79
28. 79
29. 79
30. 79
31. 79
32. 79
33. 78
34. 78
35. 78
36. 79
37. 79
38. 79
39. 79
40. 79
41. 78
42. 78
43. 78
44. 78
45. 77
46. 77
47. 77
48. 77 – End of Round 2
49. 77 – Start of Round 3
50. 77
51. 77
52. 77
53. 77
54. 77
55. 76
56. 76
57. 76
58. 76
59. 76
60. 76
61. 76
62. 76
63. 75
64. 75
65. 75
66. 75
67. 75
68. 75
69. 74
70. 74
71. 73
72. 73 – Last pick of the draft

This list should give you a decent idea of the quality of player you could be getting, and how much a second- and third-round pick will be worth. This knowledge will affect trades made this season.

The next step is to add names to the PO numbers.  So, GMs, should they be:

• Real NHL players from the 1970s and 80s? We could vote on a Retro set from ATTRIBUTES CENTRAL
• Real players who are playing in European leagues now but are unlikely to be drafted in the NHL? Commissioner Chuck would scout and compile the list like he did for the players we drafted in Season 5.
• Totally fictional names? Each GM would submit 3 names and the first on the list would get a Round 1 PO rating, the second on the list would get a Round 2 PO, and so on.
• Simpsons characters? Type “AHL1” in the League box under ATTRIBUTES CENTRAL to see what I am talking about.
• Some other concoction of players

Please go to the Poll on Websim’s EURO League wall to vote.

Just so you know where I stand, I would favor the second choice. I would do a draft guide like I did then (a page is shown below and a PDF document of the whole draft guide can be e-mailed to you if you request one). But whatever the majority decides is what we will do. I just didn’t want anyone thinking Number 2 was a pain for me to do. It’s not.