OffThePost.org

http://www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm?lo ... draft/2012

Mock Draft

Rankings

I know mock drafts are totally pointless exercises, especially since the regular season hasn't ended, but meh...they're still fun.

Good Lord, Dumba looks like he's 12. Would the Oil seriously bypass a whole slew of scorers just to snag him at #2? I would have to think they'd trade down if they were merely aiming to address a need at D instead of just taking the best player available.

Talks still abounding that the Jackets will trade their pick which at this point won't be any lower than #2. Apparently getting burned by Zherdev and Filatov and watching the whole mess with Radulov/Kuznetsov unfold, they're scared to death of drafting another Russian.

Cool. Looks like the Habs could end up with a 6-7 pick, I wonder what they would have to sweeten that with to move up to #1?

eta: Sharks in 2007 traded a #13 and a mid-2nd round pick to move up to 9th to grab Couture. So would cost more than that to move from 6-7 up to 1-2.

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Here's something to munch on: THN re-ranks the players picked in the 2011 draft.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/4 ... round.html

I really thought the Hawks had a great draft--heard a lot of good things about Saad and was shocked he was still available in round 2. Time will tell of course.

Siemens dropped 11 spots. Whoops.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6267 ... L|NHL|home

The Fail for Nail it is. Final rankings.

Murray edges out Grigorenko for the #2 spot.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=626226

Lottery is tonight

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"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." -Orson Welles

Draft order the same except for 1 and 2. The Oilers nabbed first pick....AGAIN!

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"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." -Orson Welles

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Nail Yakupov

Is this the first-ever true Lottery Line?

Potentially of course. IMO, hell with it, the Oilers should do it and shop lesser talents (Paajaarvi Not Svensson) for defensive help. Incidentally, has Tambellini gotten anything out of his lower draft picks? There's the potential in Klefbom and all, but apart from that I don't even see much in the way of role-players on this squad.

BTW, Columbus just breathed a huge sigh of relief. They most definitely did not want to be under the pressure of having to take Yakupov or trading down. Now they can take Murray or any variety of forwards.

Lame.

I guess Burke will have to field questions about the Oiler model next season.

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Might as well make it official now. We'll only have 29 picks in this year's first round. The Devils pick is now in the 27-30 range after being in the top 5 range last year. So I think they'll forefeit their pick this year as per the terms of their Kovalchuk cap circumvention punishment.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

http://thehockeywriters.com/future-watc ... al-nieves/
I played pick-up hockey against this dude the other day. Skinny as a rail, but the author here is dead on: The kid can skate like nobody I've ever seen.

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I say let Bettman & Fehr have a duel. The one standing wins for his side, then must quit.

http://nhlnumbers.com/2012/5/10/2012-nhl-mock-draft

First 2 rounds mocked up based on consensus picks.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

Sounds like Lowe and the Oiler brass are leaning towards Ryan Murray: http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/0 ... op-player/

Murray's made a big splash with Team Canada at the Worlds. Lowe, of course, is that team's GM.

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If the Oilers choose Murray, it will be a phenomenal mistake. He doesn't have the offence to demand first overall selection. He'd be the new Chris Phillips.

They should trade one of their young assets for a young NHL d-man to build around rather than hope Murray grows into that in 5 years time. But, being the Oilers, expect them to make a ridiculously dumb move that sets them back several years and be praised for it.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

Also, Ryan Murray has played 8:45 a game at the Worlds and is tied for last on Canada in +/- (at even). Luke Schenn, who sucks balls, is at 14:38 a game and is +3.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

I sure as hell hope that mock draft doesn't actually happen. The Isles taking Galchenyuk!? They don't have enough injury-prone forwards!?

I'm doing a Mock Draft with SB Nation, in charge of the Habs picks, going through the first two rounds. Just made a pick at 33 that I had at 16, and my #18 is still on the board. Interesting in the sense that if such a scenario came to fruition, I'd be telling my GM to trade up using next year's 2nd rounders or guys like Weber to get this pick. Habs have pick 51, I wouldn't be holding out hope that he's still on the board through 15 more picks. I think this player is a high end talent with very little risk, has no major red flags as he has NHL size and speed, isn't Russian and is playing major junior so there's no signability concerns either. He also plays a position of need in the organization depth wise. I was targeting him at 33 but was quite surprised to see the player we got still on the board there. To get both of these players plus Mikhail Grigorenko, our pick at #3, would be a phenomenal haul IMO.

Really interesting doing this with a list you're using as a final guide and then seeing how it all unfolds. I'll do a piece on the process of sitting on a pick you really like for a long time.

Not saying I wouldn't trust Timmons' choices, he's better at this than I am, just saying if I were in his position and had a list that unfolded to this type of scenario this is the move I'd make.

Maybe he falls to 51, but right now I'm not risking that chance. Too bad we can't do trades in this.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

Didn't I read Grigorenko's stock is taking a Cam Fowler/Sean Couturier-esque plunge? They're saying he might not even be in the top ten at this point.

Yeah, because those two deserved that fate. Amazing what a drop in production late in the year caused by an ankle injury and a bout of mono does to your reputation.

If the Habs pass on him I'll be very pissed.

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I will smash your face into a, into a jelly!

The Grigorenko hatefest has gone into overdrive. What a fucking ridiculous old boys club the NHL can be sometimes.

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