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2019 NHL Draft Thread

Draft is this Friday/Saturday, so time for some speculation.

We're sitting with 10 picks, tied for most in the league and holding way more than the other three "final four" teams.

Those three second-rounders are like money as the return for GM face-saving "no salary in return necessary" cap-dump trades. But two of them are high enough to take the picks for value including taking some gambles on high upside prospects.

And despite Dundon's naive "we won't be picking defenders" talk about the first couple of rounds, I'm hoping that BPA rules the day when it actually comes to making picks.

Doubtful that we have all the right-shot D we currently have under control about four seasons from now which would be about the time that a 2019 pick would be ripening into a NHL defenseman at age 22 or so.

Forwards we probably need to acquire via trades to add to our thin core at their age group. Defensemen we need to feed from the bottom via the draft and give them time to develop.
 
OK ... thinking medium ranger depth here, we need scoring, centers and a goaltender. You NEVER say no to a good value in the first round though, and I'm fairly sure Dundon is pragmatic enough not to mess that up. Because this draft pool looks heavy on quality D in the second half of the first round, and if Knight is there for our pick I do think it would be dumb to pass him over. Just don't pick some tiny little forward when there's quality D sitting on the table. Not unless you're totally convinced the kid is worth the risk.
 
There are some smaller-ish forwards that will be available in our range that some are hoping we will take a chance upon at least one of them with our clustered first-round and two upper-second-round picks.

All have everything you would want except size: hockey IQ, speed, great hands w/scoring touch, two-way game.

Hard to say where Knight might go. Again, lots of models have him falling to us as an option. But I've seen some sound reasoning that says Colorado with 4OA and 16OA might take him at 16 to satisfy their goalie needs.

However, if they don't take him early like that, we'll have a chance at him. And, if he's gone, there are other good goalie prospects out there. Surely we will grab at least one of them, although the others may be there in later rounds than one and two.

And, despite what Tom said, there are strong arguments that a right-shot D-man would be a good acquisition to seed into the system for maturation about the time that one or more of Hamilton, Faulk, or even Pesce might have to go.
 
Spencer Knight is being called a sure fire NHL star that is pretty much a slam dunk starter at the NHL level, I really dont see Knight lasting past the first 10 to 15 picks. Top caliber goaltending is so hard to find, this kid will not slip in the draft, he is going to make a team in the first 15 well worth the pick.
 
Yeah ... I suspect anybody serious about drafting Knight is going to have to position themselves carefully. You don't want to move up TOO far because the cost goes up, but yeah ... somebody is gonna want that before we get to the late 20s.
 
It's too painful for me to watch highlights of Spencer Knight playing goal. I want him so much. :crying:

But, hey, there are other good goalies out there.

Mads Søgaard is invoking Pekka Rinne comparisons. Huge Danish goalie (but playing for Medicine Hat in the WHL): 6'7" 196 lbs.

Ranked #2 goalie by Central Scouting he may take a while to fill out and develop, but supposedly is flexible, agile, and moves fluidly with an athletic game. And he's going to be hard to screen.
 
Elsker said:
It's too painful for me to watch highlights of Spencer Knight playing goal. I want him so much. :crying:

But, hey, there are other good goalies out there.

Mads Søgaard is invoking Pekka Rinne comparisons. Huge Danish goalie (but playing for Medicine Hat in the WHL): 6'7" 196 lbs.

Ranked #2 goalie by Central Scouting he may take a while to fill out and develop, but supposedly is flexible, agile, and moves fluidly with an athletic game. And he's going to be hard to screen.
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I like that option also with one of those second round picks as a consolation prize if the Canes cannot get Knight...Sogaard is a monster in net, but all the scouts seem to say they have never watched such a big man move so well in goal.
 
And remember, the reason most of us are thinking goalie in this draft is a good thing for one. Carolina's best goalie in the development pipeline actually looks ready to graduate to the big club ... or is at least very close to ready. It's been a WHILE since you could say that with a straight face ... Pete Dog was the last and that was 10 freaking years ago. Booth is fairly well regarded as a prospect still, but Helvig gets lukewarm reviews and nobody else is actually in the system. Time to go find another one.
 
It's hard to get excited about the draft when your team had a good season, and is drafting late. Nothing is guaranteed, and those 2nd rounders are better trade bait.
 
TheBigKahuna said:
It's hard to get excited about the draft when your team had a good season, and is drafting late. Nothing is guaranteed, and those 2nd rounders are better trade bait.
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Always fun to watch the draft as much for the trades sometimes as the actual drafting on the floor...I like the chatter around the league right now that says the GM's up against the cap are ready to do lots of wheeling and dealing!
 
I don't know that we hit the jackpot last year, but we at least got five out of six plus the powerball. And as Sara elaborated in her latest, we have a decent prospect pool in Charlotte. So this one should be good just for entertainment.
 
Well, it looks like we hit the jackpot with Svech, at least. Everything after that seems solid enough but it's all gravy when you get a game changer in the 1st.

Without that option really on the table, this should be a much lower key draft. Barring any trade fireworks, of course.
 
jeffbear said:
Considering that the owner said that we're going to pick forwards ... umm. Yeah. Hardly a stretch.
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lol tough crowd (again).

My point is we're discussing the goalie issue, fair enough, but not much about if we don't go the draft route for a goalie. I wouldn't hold my breath that Knight will be available.
Anyways some of the forwards discussed in the mock draft were enticing.
 
JamesNorthern said:
lol tough crowd (again).

My point is we're discussing the goalie issue, fair enough, but not much about if we don't go the draft route for a goalie. I wouldn't hold my breath that Knight will be available.
Anyways some of the forwards discussed in the mock draft were enticing.
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It will be fun to see how many of those first four picks (28, 36, 37, 59) in the first two rounds the Canes use on actual kids in the draft vs trade chips for NHL players that can play now. I suspect if Spencer Knight goes early to Florida or Colorado as forecasted, the Canes would likely go best player available at 28 with hopes of a center and then perhaps use one of the early second rounders on a goalie like the Danish monster who's 6'7". If somehow Spencer Knight is still around at 28 I think the Canes would take him in a heartbeat, or even if he's still there in the early 20's they might move an extra second rounder to move up a bit in the draft to take him.

There is an interesting Swedish winger named Simon Holmstrom that apparently has fallen to the very late first round or early second round territory because of an injury but has mad skill and should have been an early first round pick before he got hurt. The scouts are calling him a possible stealth pick that flies under the radar but has so much upside and skill that he may be another Aho type of player that goes in the second round but is truly an early first round talent. When you pick late in a draft, those are the kind of home run picks you hope to make.
 
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CanadaCanes said:
It will be fun to see how many of those first four picks (28, 36, 37, 59) in the first two rounds the Canes use on actual kids in the draft vs trade chips for NHL players that can play now. I suspect if Spencer Knight goes early to Florida or Colorado as forecasted, the Canes would likely go best player available at 28 with hopes of a center and then perhaps use one of the early second rounders on a goalie like the Danish monster who's 6'7". If somehow Spencer Knight is still around at 28 I think the Canes would take him in a heartbeat, or even if he's still there in the early 20's they might move an extra second rounder to move up a bit in the draft to take him.

There is an interesting Swedish winger named Simon Holmstrom that apparently has fallen to the very late first round or early second round territory because of an injury but has mad skill and should have been an early first round pick before he got hurt. The scouts are calling him a possible stealth pick that flies under the radar but has so much upside and skill that he may be another Aho type of player that goes in the second round but is truly an early first round talent. When you pick late in a draft, those are the kind of home run picks you hope to make.
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Him. Yeah he really is interesting.
 
JamesNorthern said:
lol tough crowd (again).

My point is we're discussing the goalie issue, fair enough, but not much about if we don't go the draft route for a goalie. I wouldn't hold my breath that Knight will be available.
Anyways some of the forwards discussed in the mock draft were enticing.
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Meh. We always discuss crap that's never gonna happen in the buildup to the draft. Bottom line ... it's not gonna matter any time soon because nobody projects any of that 3rd layer of kids as anything other than long term projects. Pick one you like and let's see how it goes.
 
I just want one of our first four picks to be a goaltender... but only use the first round pick on the goalie if he's Knight. Sorgaard, Kochetkov or Saville in round 2.
 
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