If EURO general managers could go back in time to the Season 5 draft knowing what they know now, the proceedings would have gone a lot differently.
For example, Munich GM Chad Legge would not have picked Roland McKeown 13th overall. The defenseman who was drafted into the NHL by the LA Kings, has 10 games for the Carolina Hurricanes under his belt and is still waiting to get his Websim attributes. He is not expected to play much for Carolina this season.
Munich might have instead opted for Evgeny Solomonov. If he was still available, that is. Solomonov, a Belarusian right wing, was ranked 63rd in draft guide, but he sat around until pick 70, when Bratislava traded for a chance to draft him. Slow afoot but with good hands and hockey sense, Solomonov is averaging more than 50 points per season through two seasons with the Eagles. He’s played 3 fewer seasons than the players picked at the top of the draft, but he’s sixth in career scoring among his draft class peers. Not bad for the third-last player drafted.
And the player who everyone thinks of when they start talking about the Season 5 draft – Berlin Smurf heartthrob and superstar Erik Forssell, who was drafted 57th – might have been a first-round pick.
Going by the stats generated by the nearly five seasons since the draft, we’ve reorganized the guys in the draft, but bear in mind that some players haven’t gotten into much action yet and others have … only because their salaries are low and can fit under the cap.
Nineteen of the 72 players drafted that season have yet to play a game in the league. 16 of them are NHL draftees who have never earned their Websim attributes, at least not yet they haven’t.
Here’s our redraft of the Season 5 draft, done with the benefit of almost five years of hindsight. Again, a player like Kevin Clark, who was picked #18, has not seen action yet, so he isn’t even drafted below. But he still has more potential than most. I’m just taking contributions to date into consideration. Click here to view the Season 5 Draft Guide (It says Season 9 a couple times, but ignore that)
1. Oslo – Sergei Mozyakin #2 in actual draft (actual pick was Viktor Antipin)It’s still a tough call, even to this day between Mozyakin, Jan Kovar and Viktor Antipin. The Outlaws went with defenseman Antipin and he is generally regarded as the league’s best shot blocker already. But the Outlaws have gone nowhere since then, so maybe a change is what they needed all along. Plus, they later acquired Shayne Gostisbehere and Zach Werenski so they could have used the winger Mozyakin more. (this is where hindsight comes in really handy). Even though they are virtually equal offensively, we’ll give the Russian the nod over Kovar because he’s proven to be more physical and better defensively.
2. Geneva – Viktor Antipin #1 in actual draft (actual pick was Sergei Mozyakin after Geneva jumped from 7th to 2nd in the lottery) The speedy, active defenseman would probably be teamed with Colton Parayko right now and Brandon Carlo would still be on the farm club in Luxembourg. That’s unless he was traded to St. Petersburg, like Mozyakin was.
3. St. Petersburg – Jan Kovar #3 in actual draft (actual pick was Kovar) Kovar won rookie of the year and was dealt to Berlin. The same thing would have likely happen even with this redraft.
4. Milan – Fyodor Malykhin #5 in actual draft (actual pick was Par Arlbrandt) Even though the Guerriero are jam-packed with forwards and would probably have been thinking defenseman or goalie here, they would be wise to go with either Malykhin or Arlbrandt again. David Bell would still be upset about the lottery forcing him out of the Antipin-Mozyakin-Kovar Zone, but Malykhin is a decent pick here. He has gotten more ice time than the bigger Arlbrandt has so far in his career, so it’s a bit unfair to compare Malykin’s 222 points to Arlbrandt’s 187, but where Malykhin wins out is in puck possession, where his turnover ratio is +91. Plus, Milan is deeper on RW and would have benefitted a little more from picking a center here. There’s that hindsight again.
5. Munich – Par Arlbrandt #4 in actual draft (actual pick was Fyodor Malykhin) The Dire Wolf, as they were called in those days, had two picks in the first 13. Arlbrandt was and is the best player on the board. Through his nearly five seasons, he is fourth in his draft class in scoring and his shooting percentage is better than Mozyakin’s, Kovar’s and Malykhin’s.
6. Dublin – Artemy Panarin #8 in actual draft (actual pick was Nardo Nagtzaam) then GM Brad Denea would have spent time thinking about a defenseman but the tenacious Panarin would be the better choice. He has developed very nicely in London and it’s not sure he would have done the same in Dublin, but the kid likes to shoot and would have been Evander Kane’s Mini Me during the latter’s Dublin days. Panarin is 5th in goals and points in the draft class with a 13.5 shooting percentage, which is better than the players ahead of him on the goals list.
7. Prague – Evgeny Solomonov #70 in actual draft (actual pick was Vladimir Roth)Right about here is where Prague’s GM (Can’t remember who it was at the time) would have been laughed out of the league for using the 7th pick to select a guy ranked 63rd. But five years later, the GM would have looked pretty smart. Solomonov is really putting up impressive numbers with Bratislava. He’s not yet through his second season, but if you multiply what he’s done so far times 2 to get four years’ worth of stats, he is right up there with Malykhin and Arlbrandt, except defensively, where he is a potential liability. Why a guy with lesser attributes is doing so well is a mystery to the folks in Bratislava.
8. London – Alexander Weiss #16 in actual draft (actual pick was Artemy Panarin) A forward like Panarin would have been a good pick here for London, but for this story, it’s more interesting if they went with a defenseman. Yegor Milovzorov would probably still be on the farm in Tottenham and Weiss would be paired with Janne Niskala or perhaps Luca Sbisa on the second pair. The London GM would have a tough time deciding if the German Weiss is a better pick than Czech Vladimir Roth or Austrian Stefan Ulmer. Roth is better defensively but he gives up the puck more and takes more penalties.
9. Madrid – Nardo Nagtzaam #6 in actual draft (actual pick was Loic Lamperier) The Dutchman who didn’t get much ice time for the first three years of his career in Belfast has had a breakout year in Madrid with 47 points and counting. A faceoff specialist, he plays a good all-around game. If he would have been drafted by Madrid, he would be the Royals’ second-line center, which coincidentally, he is today because they acquired him in a trade with the Giants this season. With Nagtzaam already in Madrid, Belfast would have probably added some comparable young prospect to the trade. Perhaps Cal Foote, Brett Howden or Jack Studnicka would be part of the Madrid organization today.
10. Stockholm – Vladimir Roth #7 in actual draft (actual pick was Jindrich Barak)Swede Simon Hjalmarsson would have been a tempting and popular selection, but Roth would be the smart play. He would have fit in with the slick puck-movers on the Stockholm blueline, and he would have added some nastiness, a quality that’s lacking back there.
11. Gothenburg – Olli Palola #12 in actual draft (actual pick was Linus Klasen)The Finn can score goals. Only five players who were drafted in Season 5 have more goals than he does (41 in 341 games) and his 14.2 shooting percentage is second only to Minsk’s Nick Schmaltz, so as boring as it is, Palola would be in Gothenburg … like he really is.
12. Gothenburg – Gregory Beron #33 in actual draft (actual pick was Olli Palola) The Frenchman Beron has certainly proven to be the most versatile player in the draft class. Bern Coach Mike Babcock and GM Paja Jansson took the former London pick and turned him from a forward into a defenseman this season. The experiment is producing mixed reviews, but even as a forward, Beron is the best athlete available at this draft position with 82 points in 212 games – a few dozen at defense – and he plays a smart two-way game.
13. Munich – Simon Hjalmarsson #20 in actual draft (actual pick was Roland McKeown) The top candidates at this point in the draft are pretty equal, but Hjalmarsson would be a significant upgrade over Calle Jarnkrok in the Red Bull lineup today. He has done a very good job as a defensive forward in Copenhagen and his offensive numbers have been very good for a fourth-liner.
14. Geneva – Linus Klasen #11 in actual draft (actual pick was Bud Holloway) Holloway has done alright for Geneva, but Klasen would be a slightly smarter move. The Swede scores points at a much higher rate and he is adept at getting in people’s faces and disrupting things. Defensively, he has been doing as well as any of the available forwards, including Holloway.
15. Bern – Stefan Ulmer #26 in actual draft (actual pick was Kjetil Martinsen) Five years later, Bern’s biggest needs are RW and D. Two right wings who are starting for Bratislava (Kristian Kuusela and Alex Kerfoot) would be good picks here, but Jansson would like to stick it to Guybrush Threepwood, so the Austrian defenseman would be the pick. Ulmer likes to hit and he has put up good offensive numbers as a Smurf. In fact, his 88 points are 10 more than forward Kerfoot has scored in the EURO League and 16 more than Kuusela has put up.
16. Zurich – Erik Forssell #57 in actual draft (actual pick was Alexander Weiss) Zurich has two picks in a row here and they would be wise to concentrate on good two-way, puck possession players. In Season 9, the Lions are currently giving up too many shots and taking too few each game. There are a number of available forwards who fit the description but none that fire the puck as often as Forsell has in his Berlin career. His -22 rating on a strong team scares us, but he takes the puck away more than he gives it up and he likes to use the body.
17. Zurich – Kristian Kuusela #38 in actual draft (actual pick was Sandro Zurkirchen). The Lions felt they needed a goalie here, but as it turns out, Zurkirchen isn’t helping them as much as they would like. In fact, of the three goalies taken in the Season 5 draft, he has been the least convincing. Kuusela has proven to be Mr. Puck Possession with Bratislava. He is not big on stepping into opponents’ shooting lanes, and he doesn’t do much checking, but he has swiped pucks from opponents 95 times and only given the puck away 58 times. And he can get points, averaging near 40 points per season so far.
18. Minsk – Reto Suri #37 in actual draft (actual pick was Kevin Clark)Since we really have no idea what the Canadian Clark can do, we’ll take someone else here. Maybe Clark deserves his first-round selection, but we’ll have to wait longer to know for sure because he’s only gotten into 6 games so far. We’re liking Suri here. Picked right in the middle of the three-round draft, he has had an up and down career so far with the Royals. But he is a speedster who reminds us of Panarin when he’s on. More consistency is definitely needed in Suri’s game. Of the available forwards, he has the best offensive potential, according to our guy who is able to look five years into the future.
19. Berlin – Jack Callow #47 in actual draft (actual pick was Christian Dvorak)The Berlin GM gambled on a prospect without attributes here and Dvorak turned out to get an 82 PO rating. But about 6-to-8 forwards drafted the same year have proven to be better so far. What probably would have happened here is Guybrush would have gotten on the phone with Copenhagen GM Dylan Callow and informed him he was going to take his son Jack and the two might have worked out a trade that would get Berlin an extra asset. But if Dylan said “Go ahead and pick him. It will do him good to learn German,” then Berlin would be smart to draft Callow, who has proven to be competent fourth-liner in Paris and a decent playmaker. He also has the best plus-minus (+55) of any player drafted that year.
20. Copenhagen – Jyri Marttinen #Not drafted (actual pick was Simon Hjalmarsson) Maybe it takes defensemen longer to develop, but all the top choices at this point in the draft are forwards. Except for Martinen, who played in the Season 9 All-Star Game representing the Moscow Dynamo. In fact, he is the only player from this draft class to appear in an All-Star Game, and he wasn’t even drafted. He was signed as a free agent. He’s aggressive and takes too many penalties for most coaches, but he blocks shots and matches up comparably to Ulmer, who we had going in the number 15 spot above. The Copenhagen GM might consider goalie Luka Gracnar here, but hindsight would say grab a skater because you are going to sign Mexican Andres De La Garma as a free agent anyway and he has been better than Gracnar. So Marttinen goes to Denmark.
21. Athens – Morten Madsen #24 in actual draft (actual pick was Miks Indrasis) The Gods are doing so well in Season 9, they could safely concentrate on filling long-term needs. If they need anything long-term, it’s center, where they have not a single person under 30 years of age. That brings us to either Scott Conway, Christian Dvorak or Morten Madsen. Madsen wins that race easily. Their stats are comparable today, but Conway has played 180 more games and Dvorak has played twice as many games as Madsen in the EURO, so if you multiply Madsen’s statistics by 3.5 to compare to Conway or times 2 to compare to Dvorak, then Athens gets the most useful asset here.
22. Copenhagen – Loic Lamperier #9 in actual draft (actual pick was Ville Vahalahti). The Tridents have a few comparable forwards to select from here, but the Frenchman Lamperier is the best by a sliver. He plays a good, careful, two-way game; not as offensively talented as Viktor Arvidsson, not as good defensively as Bud Holloway, not as physical as Robert Roosa; not the whirlwind that Conway is … but all-around, better than who is available.
23. Paris – Viktor Arvidsson #54 in actual draft (actual pick was Brandon Halverson) Halverson doesn’t have his attributes yet so any name Ralph Booth would have called out would be a definite improvement so far. Paris fans would have loved for Lamperier to slide one more spot, but instead they get a Swede. They will like watching the fast, exciting brand of hockey Arvidsson plays. He takes his share of penalties, he works hard in the offensive zone and will get a fair amount of points once he gets the ice time.
24. Bratislava – Bud Holloway #14 in actual draft (actual pick was Morten Madsen) On draft day, Eagles GM traded down twice and took Madsen. The first of those trades was with Geneva at pick 14 and the Generals took Holloway there. In the redraft, Bratislava gets the guy who was picked with the pick they traded away. Holloway is more of a defensive guy who plays an honest game and Bratislava fans appreciate that type.
Second Round
25. Oslo – Scott Conway #44 in actual draft (actual pick was Robert Roosa)
26. St. Petersburg – Yasin Ehliz #Not drafted (actual pick was Stefan Ulmer)
27. Milan – Alex Kerfoot #43 in actual draft (actual pick was Jayce Hawrlyuk)
28. Munich – Luca Gracnar #68 in actual draft (actual pick was Felix Bruckmann)
29. Dublin – Robin Grossman #30 in actual draft (actual pick was Yegor Milovzorov)
30. Prague – Jindrich Barak #10 in actual draft (actual pick was Robin Grossman)
31. Geneva – Anthony Nigro #Not drafted (actual pick was Andreas Johnson)
32. Madrid – Alejandro Hernandez #Not drafted (actual pick was Tomas Nosek)
33. London – Sakari Salminen #34 in actual draft (actual pick was Gregory Beron)
34. Stockholm – Nick Schmaltz #42 in actual draft (actual pick was Sakari Salminen)
35. Lisbon – Miks Indrasis #21 in actual draft (actual pick was Nicolas Aube-Kubel)
36. Stockholm – Yegor Milovzorov #29 in actual draft (actual pick was Connor Bleackley)
37. Madrid – Matthias Bieber #Not drafted (actual pick was Reto Suri)
38. Bratislava – Max Noreau #64 in actual draft (actual pick was Kristian Kuusela)
39. Bern – Christian Dvorak #19 in actual draft (actual pick was John Quenneville)
40. Zurich – Kjetil Martinsen #15 in actual draft (actual pick was Jack Dougherty)
41. St. Petersburg – Anton Lazarev #Not drafted (actual pick was Alexander Toryanik)
42. Minsk – Erik Andersson #Not drafted (actual pick was Nick Schmaltz)
43. Edinburgh – Siim Liivik #Not drafted (actual pick was Alex Kerfoot)
44. Edinburgh – Ryan Gunderson #49 in actual draft (actual pick was Scott Conway)
45. Athens – Jakub Krejcik #Not drafted (actual pick was Brendan Lemieux)
46. Belfast – Robert Rooba #25 in actual draft (actual pick was Vladislav Kamenev)
47. Paris – Daniel Pietta #52 in actual draft (actual pick was Jack Callow)
48. Moscow – Stanislav Galimov #Not drafted (actual pick was Sam Godfrey)
Third round
49. Stockholm – Michael Keranen #61 in actual draft (actual pick was Ryan Gunderson)
50. St. Petersburg – Vojtech Nemec #Not drafted (actual pick was Joakim Hillding)
51. Milan – Petr Zamorsky #Not drafted (actual pick was Lorenzo Maas)
52. Munich – Mattias Backman #71 in actual draft (actual pick was Daniel Pietta)
53. Dublin – Giorgios Kouleles #69 in actual draft (actual pick was Hyun Min Ahn)
54. Prague – Joakim Hillding #50 in actual draft (actual pick was Viktor Arvidsson)
55. Geneva – Alex Trivellato #Not drafted (actual pick was Christian Marti)
56. Madrid – Hayden Hawkey #Not drafted (actual pick was Alex Lintuniemi)
57. London – Felix Bruckmann #28 in actual draft (actual pick was Erik Forssell)
58. Stockholm – Olli Malmivaara #Not drafted (actual pick was Ivan Huml)
59. Lisbon – Tomas Nosek #32 in actual draft (actual pick was Maxim Letunov)
60. Helsinki – Ondrej Roman #Not drafted (actual pick was Adrian Kempe)
61. Zurich – Diego Kostner #62 in actual draft (actual pick was Michael Keranen)
62. Bratislava – Marek Daloga #Not drafted (actual pick was Diego Kostner)
63. Bern – Mikhail Pashnin #Not drafted (actual pick was Mats Rosseli Olsen)
64. Zurich – Hyun Min Ahn #53 in actual draft (actual pick was Max Noreau)
65. St. Petersburg – CaleTanaka #Not drafted (actual pick was Andreas Englund)
66. Minsk – Sam Godfrey #48 in actual draft (actual pick was Mason McDonald)
67. Berlin – Todd Graham #Not drafted (actual pick was Julius Berman)
68. Edinburgh – Sandro Zurkirchen #17 in actual draft (actual pick was Luka Gracnar)
69. Athens – Ville Varakas #Not drafted (actual pick was Giorgios Kouleles)
70. Bratislava – Sebastian Uvira #Not drafted (actual pick was Evgeny Solomonov)
71. Paris – Mats Rosseli Olsen #63 in actual draft (actual pick was Mattias Backman)
72. Moscow – Dennis Gribko #Not drafted (actual pick was Ryan Donato)
