A look ahead to the next draft

Looking ahead to the Season 10 draft, Rasmus Dahlin should be the most sought-after pick. With the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the 18-year-old defenseman is on pace for a 42-point season while playing 20:27 minutes per game. Those stats should translate into superstar attributes when he enters the Websim world.

Rasmus Dahlin, the favorite to go first overall in the draft, says he wants to play for Gothenburg.

Dahlin grew up an hour’s drive from Gothenburg and the Frolunda are his favorite team. The youngster has made no bones about the fact he would like Gothenburg to win the draft lottery and then pick him first overall.

“That would be a dream come true,” Dahlin said. “I’m not going to be politically correct and say ‘I will be happy wherever I play’ because that’s not true. If Bern or Edinburgh or some other team picks me, I will sulk and not play well. Maybe Austin Dwyer (Gothenburg GM) will talk to Sepp Blatter about the lottery. I hope he does.”

A few other members of the 2018 NHL draft class will also be highly sought after and will get good attributes in about four months, including forwards Brady Tkachuk, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov. And for the GM who is willing to wait at least another season, promising Barrett Hayton, Filip Zadina and Quinn Hughes will be worth a gamble.

As for players who will be new to the league in Season 10 who already have their attributes (you may know them as “Future Players” in Websim terms) Jesper Bratt is the best available with an 84 PO rating. Only 6 players have PO ratings of 80 or higher, a fact that should have GMs willing to gamble more on the NHL draft class.

This batch of future players is crowded at the top with two types of players: Right wings who might be able to play today (Evgeny Dadonov, Yanni Gourde, Danton Heinen and Oliver Bjorkstrand) and young offensive defensemen (Will Butcher, Sam Girard and Vince Dunn).

General managers will not be able to find a decent goalie this year.

Before the draft lottery, here is what the first round order looks like: