EDINBURGH – Young hockey players Gavin McKenna, Emmitt Finney, Ivar Stenberg and lots of others will soon hear their names announced over the draft podium microphone.
The Season 19 Draft will start with a pick by Madrid. The draft lottery was held Thursday morning and two teams moved up on the draft list. London jumped from 6th to 2nd and Berlin moved up one spot to pick at number 8.
This story will be updated throughout the draft, documenting what each team did with their picks.
Gavin McKenna goes first overall
We don’t know if Canadian left wing Gavin McKenna took any Spanish courses at Penn State, but in hindsight, that would have been a good move because he’s going to live in Spain for the foreseeable future. Madrid made McKenna the first overall pick in the Season 19 draft. With the Royals, he should partner nicely with center Macklin Celebrini in the future. The team has a couple of good younger right wings in Nico Huuhtanen and Matt Boldy, and Michael Misa will be a good second-line center, but the cupboards were bare on the left wing until this pick was made.
Now Madrid GM Mikko Mäntykoski will have to wait and see how the youngster plays in his first NHL season as a Toronto Maple Leaf. That will determine his Websim attributes forever. McKenna certainly has playmaking ability. He scored 129 points in 56 in his first season in the WHL with Medicine Hat. Then, he played in the NCAA and led the Nittany Lions in scoring with 51 points in 35 games.
London fends off suitors and takes Stenberg
Ivar Stenberg was the 2nd player picked in the draft as the London Monarchs grabbed him after their move up the draft list in the lottery. At least two general managers really wanted the Swede. Naturally, Gothenburg wanted the new San Jose Sharks forward because he grew up not too far north in Stenungsund on the country’s western coastline. They also liked the fact he’s talented and has a bright future. But London boss Jalen Smyth said he could recognize the potential, too, and he said no thanks to a solid offer that would have had the two teams swap draft positions.
Stenberg will play in the NHL with the aforementioned Celebrini and Misa. He has been scoring at a point-per-game pace in the SHL (Sweden) and international competition.
Third slick forward in a row taken by Olso
Center Caleb Malhotra became a Canuck last week and now he’s an Outlaw too. Oslo grabbed him with the third overall pick and he joins a stable of prospects in Norway that includes four players taken 9th or higher in their drafts. He has a chance to be part of a strong young nucleus that includes players like Tyson Foerster, Cutter Gauthier and Matt Savoie.
Malhotra will get lots of love and nurturing in Vancouver. He will play for his father Manny, the new coach of the Canucks. He projects to be a playmaker and a solid two-way player.
Draft experts like Craig Button and Mike Johnson expect the draft to now enter a stretch in which prospect defensemen will start falling like dominos.
Gothenburg drafts first defenseman: Chase Reid
The Gothenburg Frolunda’s impressive vault full of prospects and good young players got another gem added Thursday in Chase Reid, a right-hand shooting defenseman from Michigan. Some scouts seemed to simply cherish Reid before the NHL draft where he went 7th overall to Seattle. A few said they would have picked Reid with the first overall pick. He is very skilled and can really skate. Gothenburg GM Jason Haupt is hoping Reid will develop into a little bigger version of Lane Hutson, who is already wearing a Frolunda sweater. The two young guns could share shifts on the blue line with each other some day, but 25-year-old Danilo Tomasevic appears to be locked into a first-pair spot on the team for the next 3 or 4 seasons.
We have a trade to announce
The Helsinki Jokerits have traded the negotiating rights to Patrik Laine (54 goals and 334 shots last year) to Minsk for the negotiating rights to William Nylander. While Nylander said, “No, I think I’ll go fishing for more dollars in the free agency pool, Laine said, “Yep. I’d love to play for Mr. Kirunov. Where do I sign and how much will I get paid?” Laine, 30, let his agent take it from there and the sides worked out a 3-year deal that will pay the Finn $10.3 million per year.
We have another trade to announce
The Copenhagen Tridents have traded center Auston Matthews and a 3rd round pick (68th overall) in this draft to Belfast for Shane Wright and Belfast’s 1st round pick (23rd overall). Matthews has a year at $10.2 million remaining on his contract plus a team option. We suspect we’ll hear more news out of Denmark, and for now, Matthews joins Mitch Marner, Nathan MacKinnon and David Pastrnak in the Giants lineup. Matthews, 31, has recorded six straight seasons of 100 or more points. Wright, 22, is an offense-first center who will have to work on his faceoffs but projects to be an 88PO player.
Dublin picks mammoth defenseman at 5
Guinness Chugger general manager Dennis Lee must believe in the old saying, “Go big or go home” and he must not want to go home right now. With the fifth pick in the draft, Lee called out the name Louis Crevier and this imposing 6-8, 230-pound Goliath stood up – way up – and walked to the stage. Crevier is obviously an instant injection of size and strength in Dublin but that’s not all he offers. He’s a good skater for a big guy and he has good hockey sense that will help him clear the net in front of the Chugger goal. The blue line in Dublin is currently in an odd state because all 6 of last season’s starters have seen their contract expire. That means Crevier is at the top of a 3-man depth chart.
Latvian Smits becomes a Boss Scouser
Scouts say Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits will develop into a classic shutdown defenseman with some added intangibles such as discipline, work ethic, leadership and a penchant for knocking people around. A player like that is sorely needed in Liverpool, where the pickings are slim when it comes to young defensemen in the system. Merseyside fans will be watching to see how the New York Rangers handle his development. New York made Smits the 5th pick in the NHL Draft last week.
Goalie Greaves should play in Athens this season
The Athens Philosophers’ net will now be guarded by a pair of 24-year-olds who get paid a total of about $2.1 million this season, thanks to the selection of Jet Greaves with pick No. 7 in the draft. Noah Paixao’s goals against average has steadily improved the last three seasons in Athens to 3.39 and he was better than veteran Adin Hill, with whom he shared the crease. Greaves has a better goalie rating than either of them. In the NHL, with Columbus, he played 55 games and posted a 2.60 GAA with a 90.8 save percentage last season.
Red Wings’ Finnie picked by Smurfs
In a couple of ways, Emmitt Finnie of the Detroit Red Wings was a safe pick with the 8th pick in the draft. He is not a prospect, so General Manager Guybrush Threepwood knows exactly what he’s getting. And what’s he’s getting is a defensive forward who will not take penalties and make his team play shorthanded. The word “discipline” has never been part of the Smurfs’ culture, but Coach Adam Oates has allowed that type of play in games as long as the player has been willing to “spend time” with the cheerleaders who the club has spent so much cash on. Fortunately, Finnie grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta, which has a strong Mormon influence so he’s probably not a one-woman man.
We have a trade to announce
The Copenhagen Tridents, as part of their “Not a Rebuild,” have traded a second-round draft pick in the Season 19 draft to Tallinn for Matt Duchene. The veteran center, 38, has two years remaining at $4 million each on his contract and last year he scored 67 points (33 goals) in 70 games for the Vikings, playing 24 minutes per game. The next point he scores will make him the 7th-highest scorer in league history.
Swedish D-man going to Edinburgh
Capitals scouts were immediately impressed with the way 6-4 defenseman Malte Gustafsson moves his skates and the puck, but they grew to love his defensive hockey sense even more. The boy seems to be in total control back there and he has drawn comparisons to Jonas Brodin, the kind of player you can simply plug into a defense pairing and not worry about him again until his contract is starting to wind down. But before he gets to Scotland, he’s going to learn the game with the New York Islanders, where he’ll someday play with this Matthew Schaefer kid, who is supposed to be pretty decent. Edinburgh GM John Charles is chatting with Islanders coach Peter Deboer as we speak asking him to hold off on picking Gustafsson for the lineup until he’s fully ripened.
Forward Graf could play right away for Zurich
With pick number 10 in the draft, the Zurich Lions went with a sure thing in Collin Graf, the defensive winger from the San Jose Sharks who offers more than just defense. He scored 20 goals and 44 points for the Sharks last season. At 23, Graf should be able to step right into the lineup for the Lions at either right wing or center. And he’s inexpensive. He’s on the last year of a Type 1 contract at $941,667, so he will cost Zurich only about $1.2 million for the two seasons after this one. It should be a no-brainer for the Lions coach to plug him into the lineup on a regular basis because Graf already has a DEF rating of 97 and that should mean his progress will come with other attributes like hockey sense, speed, passing, etc.
Carson Carels falls to Oslo and into a deep prospects pool
Some people thought Carson Carels would be among the top 2 defensemen picked in the NHL draft and there was some talk that he could be the second player picked overall last week. Oslo got him today with pick number 11. The western Canada product will start his NHL career with the Calgary Flames, who used the 6th pick in the NHL draft last week to get him. Carels can motor out there and he hustles and hits. He’s just what the doctor ordered for the Outlaws as they attempt to rebuild with youth. In addition to Carels, Oslo has Dmitri Simashev and Radim Mrtka on their list of prospect defensemen and that means they have three defensemen chosen in the Top 10 in NHL drafts. Media in Norway say they have heard rumblings that GM Carl Choiniere is willing to listen to offers for the newest Outlaw.
Dynamic defenseman Rudolph picked by Prague
It was a bit of a surprise when the Buffalo Sabres used pick number 4 of the NHL draft to nab defenseman Daxon Rudolph, but it certainly was not a shock that Prague picked him in the 12 spot of the EURO draft. Naturally he has all the physical tools worthy of a high draft pick, but what Buffalo liked about him most was the way Rudolph thinks the game. Sparta fans will be curious to see how the Sabres ease him into the lineup and they hope he can become the next Rasmus Dahlin in Buffalo. He scored 78 points in 68 WHL games last year, so that should tell you what kind of defenseman he is. Prague also has a promising defenseman in Adam Jiricek, a Czech who is waiting to get his NHL shot for the St. Louis Blues.
Tallinn picks Carolina’s Alexander Nikishin
Defensemen keep rolling onto EURO teams as Tallinn selects Russian Alexander Nikishin with pick 13. That makes 7 defensemen in the last 10 picks. Maybe the Vikings liked the fact Nikishin has never played an NHL season in which he didn’t end up with the Stanley Cup (he was a rookie for the Hurricanes; he just played like a veteran). Maybe they liked the Websim attributes he earned that show him as a remarkably well-rounded player – solid in every area. They probably don’t like the fact they will have him as an inexpensive member of the lineup for just one year before they will have to meet with his money-hungry agent to resign him a year from now. They probably also don’t like the fact they now have a bit of a logjam on the blueline with seven 77OV or higher players vying for spots in the lineup. But that’s a good problem to have.
Something different: A defenseman
This draft seems to be blessed with good defense prospects and Stockholm claimed another when they took Keaton Verhoeff, another western Canada boy, 14th overall. He shoots right-handed, which ups his value in the NHL and the San Jose Sharks took him 9th in the draft last week. Look for him to be a good all-around player and offensive enough to represent Stockholm in the occasional all-star game later in his career. In a couple years, the team’s older defensemen will be phased out and Verhoeff will be in a nice group expected to replace them. Artur Cholach, Markus Steinkasserer, Brandt Clarke and Verhoeff seem to be a good core to build upon.
Forced to pick someone under 40, Paris take Bjork
Convinced he should always do the opposite of what his brother does, Paris General Manager Steve Yung drafted a forward and he actually took one from Stockholm, Sweden, just to rub it in Delwin’s face. Viggo Bjork is described by Elite Prospects as a hyper-competitive and highly intelligent forward who elevates everyone around him. Let’s see if he tones it down around a Paris clubhouse filled with guys with heart monitors. Bjork was drafted in the NHL by Winnipeg and although he’s relatively small, he doesn’t appear to be aware of that fact when he plays.
We have a trade to announce
The Tallinn Vikings have traded goalie Juuse Saros at half his salary to Helsinki for the negotiating rights to Andres De La Garma, Helsinki’s first-round pick in Season 21 and their 3rd-round pick in Season 19. Saros, 32, is entering his 12th season and he regularly stops pucks at 89 to 90 percent. The Jokerits save about $2.8 million at the goalie position in the exchange.
Power forward Belchetz goes to Milan
The Guerriero picked a large human in Ethan Belchetz, a left winger from Ontario and now a part of the Utah Mammoth organization too. Belchetz is listed at 6-5, 227 pounds and scouts say he’s a good skater and smart player who just needs to make sure he gets involved in the play more often. Sometimes he’s dominant, other times not so much, they say. He can put the puck in the net when he gets the chance. Belchetz scored 34 goals in 57 games with Windsor in the OHL last season. There are a lot of young wings in the Milan prospect system and Belchetz has a size component none of the others can match.
With pick 17, Madrid adds versatile 17-year-old
For the second time in the first round, Madrid picked a player from the U.S. college ranks. With a pick obtained in a trade with Kosice, they took Penn State’s Gavin McKenna earlier. Wyatt Cullen, 17, who was picked No. 10 last week by the Nashville Predators, was the 17th pick in the EURO draft. He can play any forward position and scouts say he is getting better at a very good rate. He is an excellent skater and expected to consistently score points once he establishes himself on a team. Cullen is expected to play for the University of Minnesota this year.
Lisbon goes with established forward Laba
Lisbon General Manager Bryan Camara didn’t feel like gambling on a prospect and selected Noah Laba, a 22-year-old center for the New York Rangers who scored 24 points last season and is currently classified as a defensive forward. His salary will be just $870,000 the next two years and then only go up 25 percent for the two years – possibly 3 years – after that. The Michigan native is 6-3, 215 pounds. He might not play much this season because he would have to get past Logan Cooley or Shane Pinto to do so. Cooley could be moved to a wing if coach Kris Knoblauch really wanted Laba in the lineup.
We have a trade to announce
Athens has traded Noah Paixao and Peyton Krebs to Bern for Bern’s 1st round pick in this year’s draft (No. 19) as well as players Jack Quinn and Lukas Dostal. Paixiao will back up Chris Driedger for the Bears, with Athens retaining about $683,000 on Paixiao’s salary. Quinn should be able to step right into the Athens lineup and contribute right away.
Oliver Kapanen goes from Montreal to Athens
Durable Finnish forward Oliver Kapanen was Athens’ choice as the 19th player selected in the draft soon after they acquired the pick in a trade with Bern. Kapanen will fill a bottom six role and be a checking forward, but he will pop in some goals. He scored 22 in 82 games with the Montreal Canadiens last season. The trade also netted the Philosophers Jack Quinn, and if both Kapanen and Quinn are inserted into the Athens lineup, that could mean demotions for promising winger Jiri Kulich and power forward Dmitri Voronkov, who could go either to the press box for games, or waivers.
Tridents opt for two-way defenseman Lin
Copenhagen already had the 23rd pick in the draft and they traded to get the 20th pick from Belfast in the Auston Matthews/Shane Wright deal. Ryan Lin, a smooth-skating, puck moving defenseman from British Columbia, was their choice at 20. Lin scored more than a point per game in his first year in the WHL with Vancouver and he will learn his higher-level hockey with the San Jose Sharks, who drafted him 21st overall in the NHL draft. Lin is small by current standards but his compete level is high and his smarts could make up for the lack of beef.
Dublin picks faceoff expert Hryckowian
The Guinness Chuggers picked Justin Hryckowian, who is a low-cost, good defensive forward who should win the majority of the faceoffs he takes. With Dallas in the NHL, Hryckowian showed a lot of hustle and he was able to score 14 goals with 16 assists last season. He will compete for a bottom six spot on Dublin and his $870,000 salary allows the team to spend more in other positions, perhaps in free agency.
Oslo picks hard-driving Dagenais
Center Maddox Dagenais was picked 16th overall by the St. Louis Blues last week and 22nd overall in the EURO. Scouts say this kid is a real battler who charges hard and fights for pucks in all areas of the rink. And at 6-4, 198, he’s going to win a lot of his battles. In addition, Dagenais has a good shot. In the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, his production improved from 26 points two seasons ago to 62 last year.
First Ruck brother picked is Tridents’ 2nd pick this draft
Liam Ruck racked up 104 points in 64 games for a good Medicine Hat team in the WHL last year and he is now part of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Copenhagen picked him with the second of their two first-rounders in this draft. Both of their picks were players who grew up in British Columbia. Ruck is slight, but he’s quick, skilled and can play any forward position. Scouts and fans also say he has the personality to make him a fan favorite.
Command is off to Munich to end first round
The Munich Red Bulls were in command of the league for two months and to commemorate that period, they took a Swedish center named Command. Alexander will develop into either a two-way forward or a playmaker. The key time in his career will be the first 35 (maybe up to 82) games he plays in the NHL, and as the 12th player taken in the NHL draft, he stands a great chance of making it through that first step. The New Jersey Devils took him in the NHL draft after seeing him score 21 points in 21 games for Sweden’s U18 team. If all goes according to plan, Command will have good finesse and hockey sense attributes.
This story will not be updated after the first round of picks.
