Welcome back to Top Shelf NHL Prospects, the daily column that brings you the next crop of professional hockey players. Each day I will bring you a new player profile or topical article in the lead-up to the 2014 NHL Draft. Be sure to bookmark the site, follow me on Twitter, and spread the word for the site that will bring you analytical and critical profiles and scouting reports! Last Word On Sports is your new headquarters for everything “Draft”! For a Complete Listing of all our 2014 Draft Articles Click here.
The big day has come and gone, and now we look back to see how each team did in the NHL draft. Look, we know that it is way too soon to evaluate a draft and that the true evaluation will be seen four or five years from now. However, we don’t want to wait, instead we follow our yearly tradition and do our draft grades now.
One Note though: BEST VALUE PICK does NOT mean best player drafted. It means best value. For example, Sam Reinhart is the number two player in this draft in our rankings, which means we would bet on him to be at least the second-best NHL player in the group. However, he is not our Favorite pick for the Sabres. Why? Because anyone can take the second-best player with the second pick, we are looking for value here, what steal did the team get in the draft that went later than we thought he would? If it was merely an exercise in naming the best player drafted, might as well just name the team’s first pick.
For Part 1 Click here.
For Part 2 Click here.
LWOS 2014 NHL Draft Grades Part 3
Ottawa Senators (Includes Spezza failed trade)
2014 NHL Draft Grade C-
Best Value Pick: Shane Eiserman 100th overall
It was a nightmare weekend for Ottawa. Its tough when you don’t have a first round pick, and the Ducks owned the Sens pick after the Bobby Ryan trade. Having a rough season and letting that pick be a top 10 selection makes things worse. In the second round the Sens took Andreas Englund about a round too early. He’s a tough defensive defenceman, but there isn’t any offence there. Miles Gendron played high school hockey this year, so likely needs plenty of time to develop. The smooth skating defender is joining the BCHL in the fall, and committed to UConn in 2015 so he’s a long term project. Shane Eiserman was a solid pick in the 4th round though and the best value the Sens got on the day. Overall an underwhelming draft and the failure to move Jason Spezza and that situation hanging over the team today make it an uncharacteristically poor draft for Bryan Murray, whose had a habit of doing very well in the draft recently.
Philadelphia Flyers
2014 NHL Draft Grade B
Best Value Pick: Oskar Lindblom 138th Overall
The Flyer fans were one of the stories of the weekend. We love their passion and the way they were loud throughout a long two days. As for the home town team, it was a decent first draft for Ron Hextall. When we make our draft rankings (late March) we don’t always have access to all the games that end up being part of our draft reports, this means that a strong under-18, or a good CHL playoffs may be reflected in the write-up, but not in the rank. This normally doesn’t make a big difference in where we would have ranked a player, but it did for the Flyers first rounder in Travis Sanheim. Sanheim showed great improvedment in the second half of the WHL season, carried that through the Hitmen’s first round playoff loss, and was Canada’s best defenceman in the Under 18s. He really would have been a good 20-25 spots higher had we done our rankings this week. This does look like a really solid pickup for the Flyers blueline. In the second round the Flyers get a speedster out of Quebec in Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and there is some real offensive potential there. Mark Freidman is another strong skating defenceman with two way ability and just missed out on our top 100. Not a bad pick in the third round for Philly. Oskar Lindblom is a big, puck possession type of winger who could fit in well with the Flyers style of game. He is a potential steal in the fifth round. Overall some nice prospects and good variety.
Pittsburgh Penguins (includes James Neal trade)
2014 NHL Draft Grade C–
Best Value Pick: Kasperi Kapanen 22nd overall
Things starterd off great, and Kasperi Kapanen is one of the biggest potential steals of the first round. The son of Sami Kapanen seemed to fall after a rough under 18, but was great before that tournament, so we feel that it was two big a fall based on a rough two weeks. He should have been a late lottery pick. However, he’s the only player in our top 100 that the Penguins managed to land, as they were without 2nd and 3rd round picks. The fourth round saw Pittsburgh take high school forward Sam Lafferty. While we haven’t seen him play, we do know he’s headed to the BCHL before going to Brown in 2015, so he’s a long term project. Anthony Angello has underwhelmed us in all of our viewings and we’re not sure what the Penguins see in him other than the size. Jaden Lindo is more of the same, another big body forward who just isn’t all that noticeable on the ice. Overall we love the Kapanen pick, but hated day two for Pittsbugh. Add in the fact that we feel they lost the trade for James Neal, and you have one of the most disappointing drafts in the league.
San Jose Sharks
2014 NHL Draft Grade B
Best Value Pick: Alexis Vanier 102nd overall
The Sharks had a roller coaster of a draft, but overall things turned out pretty well. The Sharks got things off on the right foot taking a chance on an extremely talented forward in Nikolay Goldobin. We love this as a boom or bust pick, as he has huge upside. Julius Bergman was a reach, he’s got two-way potential, but he’s a long way off in our opinion and was more of a mid round pick than a second rounder. Noah Rod is a gritty Swiss forward with offensive potential, but again the second round seemed about a round too early. Alex Schoenborn just missed out on our top 100. He’s got good offensive potential but hasn’t played big minutes in Portland on a deep team. Things got back on track with the selection of Dylan Sadowy, a forward who really does a great job in front of the net, and reminds us of a Tomas Holmstrom type. Alexis Vanier was a huge steal on the blue line, we compare him to Sam Morin (last year’s 11th overall pick). Now he isn’t as good as Morin, but in our opinion he’s close. Morin went too high a year ago, and now the opposite has happened with Vanier falling too far. Rourke Chartier is another good value pick, as a hard worker who never stops moving his feet and has put up points in Kelowna.
St. Louis Blues (includes trade with Toronto).
2014 NHL Draft Grade: A+
Best Value pick: Ivan Barbashev, 33rd overall
First round pick Robby Fabbri was the OHL MVP this year, a big honour for a draft eligible player. He’s undersized, but our statistical analysis shows him as a potential steal. Ivan Barbashev surprisingly fell out of the first round, and is another excellent pick for St. Louis. Jake Walman is another steal, he played in an undercovered league in the OJHL, but made a smooth transition from forward to defence, and shows tremendous potential. Maxim Letunov might have been drafted a little early, but as he’s surrounded by steals we can’t criticize the pick too badly. Ville Husso was our top ranked European goalie in this draft (and third overall). Austin Poganski is one of the biggest hitters in this draft and has some offensive potential, he’s headed to University of North Dakota to develop that part of his game. Jaedon Deschaneneau was passed over in last year’s draft. He’s small, we get it, but the kid just keeps going to the net and putting up points. He’s not a bad porject late. Add to all the solid picks a trade with the Leafs that was a major steal. The Blues get the better player, plus the pick they used on Husso, plus the Leafs retained salary. Win, win, win here.
Tampa Bay Lightning (includes Garrison Trade)
2014 NHL Draft Grade A-
Best Value Pick: Brayden Point 79th overall
Steve Yzerman had a very good weekend in Philadelphia. The Lightning got a ton of pure talent in Anthony DeAngelo, and we don’t disagree with Yzerman when he says he’s the best offensive defenceman in the draft. Defensive play and attitude are big issues though, and so its a real boom or bust pick. In Dominik Masin and Johnathan MacLeod the Bolts took a pair of defencemen who are physical and take care of their own end of the ice. Brayden Point is an extremely talented and high scoring forward, if he was a little taller he’d be a first round pick. In Ben Thomas they get another defenceman with offensive upside, and at extremely good value. Add in a trade for Jason Garrison and the Lightning have really done a great job of addressing their need for depth on the blueline, both now and going forward.
Toronto Maple Leafs (includes trade with St. Louis)
2014 NHL Draft Grade B-
Best Value Pick: William Nylander 8th overall
William Nylander is a tremendous pick, and addresses the Leafs longstanding need for a #1 centre. If the grades were handed out for the first round only, the Leafs would get an A for landing a stud player in a position of need. Its Saturday’s work that hurts Nonis and company’s draft though. Rinat Valiev is a good skater and passer, and plays a decent defensive game, but there were better defencemen available early in the third round. J.J. Piccinich and Dakota Joshua have some offensive potential and are good long term projects. The picks aren’t that bad, but all three were taken earlier than they needed to be selected. Add in the trade with St. Louis which was absolutely brutal, as the Leafs get the worse player, give up a pick and retain salary, and this wasn’t a banner weekend for Dave Nonis. However if Nylander is that stud centre they’ve needed since Mats Sundin left, the draft will still be seen as a good one.
Vancouver Canucks (includes various trades)
2014 NHL Draft Grade B+
Best Value Pick: Jarred McCann, 24th overall
Jim Benning was the talk of the NHL draft. The Canucks lost talent in the Kesler and Garrison trades, but Kesler really handcuffed the team with his trade demands, and Garrison was a redundant piece on the Canucks blueline. The pickup of Dorsett was a solid move. The team might not be better today after all of these moves, but they are ones that needed to be done. Word out of Vancouver is that the Canucks have been in love with first rounder Jake Virtanen for a long time now, and the pick isn’t a bad one even if its not necessarily the way we would have gone. Later in the first round the Canucks got the best value of the round taking Jared McCann with the pick. He’ll be a nice one-two punch with Bo Horvat down the road. Thatcher Demko was our number one ranked goalie in the draft, and getting him at 36 was good value. In Nikita Trymakin and Gustav Forsling the Canucks take two polar opposite. One is an absolute Giant (6’7″) on the blue line who uses his size and reach to play strong defence but needs to work on his awkward skating. Gustav Forsling is an undersized defenceman with very strong skating and offensive skills including a rocket of a point shot. Some people (including Canucks fans) have been rough on this draft, but we think Jim Benning made the best of some bad situations, and then made some solid pickups for the Canucks future.
Washington Capitals
2014 NHL Draft Grade D+
Best Value Pick Shane Gersich 134th overall
Washington had the worst draft of anyone in our opinion. They reached in the first round taking Jakub Vrana at 13th overall with more skilled players on the board. They did even worse in the second round taking goaltender Vitek Vanacek at 39th overall. He wasn’t in our top 10 goalies in this draft, and we weren’t impressed at either the World Junior A championship or the Under 18s. There was a run of goalies early in the second round, but it felt like Washington really panicked here. Third rounder Nathan Walker is a 20-year-old born in Wales, who grew up playing hockey in Australia, and played for the Caps farm team (on an AHL contract) in Hershey this past season, and was basically a 3rd/4th liner there. We get that the Caps wanted him, but he could have been drafted a lot later. Shane Gersich is a small but speedy third line centre on the US NTDP who showed some potential but didn’t get huge offensive minutes on a team where he was stuck behind Jack Eichel, and Dylan Larkin. Steven Spinner didn’t wow us in his short time in the USHL. Overall, a forgettable first draft for new GM Brian MacLellan.
Winnipeg Jets
2014 NHL Draft Grade A-
Best Value Pick Chase De Leo (99th overall)
Nikolaj Ehlers arguably had the best second half of any draft prospect, and was nearly as good as Jonathan Drouin for the Halifax Mooseheads this year. Getting him at 9 was great value for the Jets and he’ll look great on Mark Scheifele’s wing one day soon. Jack Glover was the best defenceman on the US NTDP and we were amazed that he was available in the third round. We thought that he might go in the first round if some team wanted a defenceman at the end of that round. Chase De Leo was another steal in the fourth round as he was great for the Portland Winterhawks this season, and has the skating skill that will overcome his lack of size. Nelson Nogier is a rough and tumble defensive defenceman with the Saskatoon Blades who adds another dimension to the Jets blueline prospects. C.J. Franklin is the type of player who does all the little things right and will go through a brick wall if he thinks it will help his team win the game. Overall, a great draft for Winnipeg.
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