If I Only Had a Brain: Revisiting Every 1st-Round Pick I've Made

[Gustav 6,093]

I thought about just picking a random draft season and running with that with a full redraft. S70 came to mind, where Davos had three first-rounders and ended up with one bust and two players who were immediately traded for what effectively became 2nd overall in S72, where I eventually drafted Robin Winter--basically turning three firsts into one player who I eventually traded for one first--but I've already done redraft articles, and even though S70 was a pivotal moment in the Davos rebuild which had disastrous consequences and arguably significantly contributed to us being where we are today, it wasn't even a good draft class. Assuming the two players who were drafted and subsequently traded are not to be included on the list of "people it would be in our best interest to draft", there isn't much to be seen outside of the top 5. So, I'm going to take the more difficult but also more interesting road and review every 1st-rounder I've ever picked up, from S71 to the present.

 

 

S71

2nd Overall: Roque Davis | D | 382 TPE | @Josh

Alternate Reality Pick: Stone Wolski | G | 366 TPE | @DollarAndADream

 

One of the things Davos was criticized for in its past competitive (or, I guess, "we should be competitive, why isn't this working") period is the lack of a true top-level talent in net. For most of that time, we relied heavily upon Joakim Bruden, who peaked out on the lower end of average, and even though I loved him we just simply didn't have a high-TPA player there at really any point (save for one season of Rayz Funk in S74, pun intended). We actually picked Bruden near the start of the 2nd, and I held out hope that he'd peak out at a higher point. Davis has actually gone on to be one of the league's top defenders, so I'm not saying he was a bad pick--but he did (understandably) leave in free agency after four seasons. With Wolski, we solve the goalie problem and potentially put ourselves in a better situation, where we'd actually be able to convince our big picks to re-sign with some success. If we retain Wolski into S75, that's one more solid player--and that can make a big difference in our little sim world. 

 

 

S72

1st Overall: SS Hornet | C | 379 TPE | @McWolf

2nd Overall: Robin Winter | LW | 325 TPE | @Sonnet

 

Alternate Reality Picks:

1st Overall: Andrew Su | C | 247 TPE | @Da_Berr

2nd Overall: Latrell Mitchell | D | 305 TPE | @dasboot

 

I spent pretty much all of S72 being hyped that I was potentially in position to make picks 1 and 2 the way I eventually ended up making them. Sonnet and McWolf are two of my favorite people here, they'd both reached out to me wanting to play for Davos, I knew I was getting high earners and loyal people who I really liked, and life was great when I won the lotto twice. And, in fact, these were two of the main players in our last run, so these weren't bad picks either. Simon just wasn't very kind to them (or us), and after a lot of disappointment we saw them both shipped out for the draft capital that would soon become the main part of our current rebuild.

 

My alternate picks are purely stat-based. There was no reason to suggest that I should have gone for Su early on (especially that he'd jokingly hinted at going inactive just before draft night), and I'd already picked Davis in S71 so there was no reason for me to want another high-profile defender in Mitchell. In this scenario, though, I haven't picked Davis in S71, and I already know that Su is going to be the draft's best forward (as well as Mitchell being the draft's best defender), so into the future we see and I make a couple picks that would have drawn some ridicule given the availability of Hornet and Winter.

 

 

S75

3rd Overall: Kunibuni UnGuri | G | 236 TPE | @Berocka

9th Overall: Taro Tsujimoto | C | 309 TPE | @GustavMattias

 

Alternate Reality Picks:

3rd Overall: Cabe McJake | C | 235 TPE | @RedSus

9th Overall: Taro Tsujimoto | See above

 

S75 was when we finally got our goaler. But in this article, we already have Wolski, so that doesn't matter. Instead, I go for the best earner I can find at #3 with McJake, who's climbed up to #2 in the class in TPE. Later on was everyone's favorite player who I won't shut up about in Taro, who is the obvious choice given that this was the last season GMs had their players tied to their teams at all. As to the "but now you have three Cs" thing that someone might raise (because stuff like that has been brought up quite a bit), Taro has no problem with playing on the wing if his GM decides that's the right thing to do.

 

 

S77

2nd Overall: Reylynn Reinhart | D | 301 TPE | @Ricer13

13th Overall: Miles Johnson | LW | 190 TPE | @Midnite

 

Alternate Reality Picks:

I like them both!

 

Short of one of the above going inactive, there's very little that could happen to make me say that I made the "wrong" choice after less than a season. Reinhart is up with the big squad and seems to be with us for the long haul (which is certainly a bonus), and Johnson is a steady earner with not many better choices behind him in the draft who will be joining us next season. It's exciting to see some more high-profile names make their way into Davos with this draft, as we start laying the foundation for our future yet again, and I certainly hope these picks work out!

 

 

So that's it! Surprisingly, I haven't picked any actual busts in the first round in my time as GM. What's left to judge is based on opinions and sim luck, but that doesn't mean some degree of reflection isn't healthy nonetheless. What do you think? Have I made good choices? Bad choices? What should I have done instead?

 

 

1,007 words. I have an article I'm in the middle of claiming now, but I'll loop back to the capped part of this in a few weeks when I'm through that one.

[Enorama 1,980]

Way to steal Al's media spot idea

[Gustav 6,093]

Just now, Enorama said:

Way to steal Al's media spot idea

 

I was actually going to shout out to @bigAL at the end but forgot. So consider this a belated shout-out.

[bigAL 2,176]

6 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

 

I was actually going to shout out to @bigAL at the end but forgot. So consider this a belated shout-out.

We creative types inspire each other, collaboration not competition

[Banackock 7,637]

2 minutes ago, bigAL said:

We creative types inspire each other, collaboration not competition

[Gustav 6,093]

Well I got through my last run of claiming...so week 2 time!