Van s72 redraft

[Da_Berr 219]

S72 was a great draft year with a lot of depth and some great first-gens entering the VHL. Durning the S72 draft, there were also a lot of busts and steals that happened, especially in the first round. One such team that had an equal amount of steals and busts was the Vancouver Wolves. Funnily enough, their first-round picks ended up falling short of expectations, whereas their second picks ended up as steals. Even with their sub-par draft, the Wolves were able to win a cup two seasons later during S74. Now, what would happen if we would turn back time and change who VAN picked with their #4 and #7 picks. The way I'm doing this is I'm going to say that the top 3 picks are still the same, with SS Hornet, Robin Winter and  Latrell Mitchell off the board. We'll also say that VAN's second-round picks of Andrew Su and Greg Stallion will also remain the same. If I remember correctly GM reserved players were still a thing in S72, so players like Valtteri Vaakanainen will stay where they were initially going. All right, with the rules set let's get going.

 

First off, originally VAN picked Gino DiGiannantonio with their #4 overall pick. This was viewed as a large gamble pick by most GMs in the league at this time, but VAN still took the risk. We all know how that turned out, with Gino being out of VAN within 2 seasons and never really developing as a prospect. This time we'll be drafting Timothy Brown 4th overall. With VAN's second first-round pick they decided to go with Jungkok. Now despite Jungkok killing it now, he just simply did not fit into VAN's lineup and had limited minutes in the seasons he was in VAN. Instead, we'll pick Spencer Elsby for a nice boost to the defence.

 

With these two changes, I honestly think we do worse in the first season after. After all, Gino did contribute a decent bit in S72, and Elsby and Brown would still be in the M for this season. The next season would be pretty tough also. Despite Brown and Elsby coming up, they would still be stuck behind the ageing core that VAN had. But, during this time I think we would do marginally better as Elsby would provide some much-needed depth to our defence. Brown would possibly be in the same situation that Jungkok was in, stuck behind a lot of vets. Due to the team Struggling, the HHH and Freeman trade still goes through and VAN enters their retool season. With the addition of Brown and Elsby S74 cup run still happens, and they finally move up to have a major role on the team. With Downey, Griff, and Louth being the only veteran players still on the team Brown and Elsby play on the second lines and bolster the already strong S74 VAN team. From there VAN continues to grow and perhaps brings back more cups in the following seasons.

[KC15 340]

Review - Always fun to rethink a draft.  Such a critical part of a team's success.  Appreciated the analysis of why two picks were suboptimal and who would have been a better choice.  7/10