Thomas Spelling

Lisbon HC won’t have Steven Stamkos, John Tavares and Matt Moulson forever. But that doesn’t mean it will get easy for their opponents. Matthew Barzal and Casey Mittelstadt are among the 9 forward prospects in the system to help young star Max Domi. How the other prospects develop will likely determine how succesful GM Bryan Camara’s team is long-term, at least offensively. Barzal earned himself an 89 PO rating this week from the admins at Websim, so look for Barzal and Domi to try to be the next Tavares and Stamkos in Portugal. Thomas Spelling, who GM Bryan Camara selected 20th ov erall Monday could development into a good trigger man for a center with Barzal’s passing ability.

The 23-year-old Dane Spelling has an excellent shot with finesse and hockey sense. He reminds some of a better-skating Thomas Vanek. Brendan Perlini, who is already on Lisbon’s depth chart, may challenge Spelling for duty on the Barzal-Domi line of the future, and both men are proven goal scorers. With Mittelstadt in the system, Camara has the makings of two potent young lines.

On defense, Seth Jones, Sami Vatanen and Jonas Holos will form the core of the Lisbon defense corps and goalie Kari Ramo is only 27 and has two seasons remaining on his $5 million contract with the Portuguese team. So they have a nice foundation forming behind the forward lines.

Eemeli Rasanen

With the 21st pick came our second Rasanen of the draft. Eemeli Rasanen is a towering, 6-7 prospect defenseman in the Maple leafs organization and he was taken by Martin Sayle and the Copenhagen Tridents. Eight picks earlier, Aapeli Rasanen was taken by Milan and there is no know family relationship between the two Finns. Eemeli is said to be a physical player who can stay calm under pressure and find teammates with passes due to excellent on-ice vision.  With Copenhagen, he joins Thomas Chabot, Noah Hanifin and Jake McCabe as U25 Trident defensemen.