VHFL Number One Pick: Duncan Idaho; Who's Number Two?

[scoop 3,309]

We have 18 VHFL groups this season, and in 15 of them, Duncan Idaho was the number one selection. He was picked second in two of those groups and fell all the way down to third in the other. Considering he is the best two-way forward in the VHL, and one of the best players altogether, it's not hard to see why he's such a popular pick. Sure, he was only the fourth highest scoring skater, and second highest forward, in the VHFL last season, but the season prior, he was first overall. The season before that, he was in the top three forwards. Even if he isn't the very best, he certainly won't be a disappointment.

 

After Idaho, however, it becomes a decision, one which there does not seem to be much agreement on. Again, Idaho was taking in the top three in 18 of 18 groups. The next highest mark in terms of top three selections was defenseman Hard Markinson, who was picked first in one group, second in five, and third in two more for a total of eight. For a complete breakdown of how many times each player was selected in the top three.

 

	1st	2nd	3rd	Top 3
Duncan Idaho	15	2	1	18
Hard Markinson	1	5	2	8
Taylor Mourning		3	2	5
Alex Johnston		3	1	4
Battre Sandstrom		2	1	3
Jerome Reinhart		1	2	3
Vinny Detroit	1	1		2
Reylynn Reinhart			2	2
Jonathan Ori			2	2
Xavier Booberry	1			1
The Seabasstard		1		1
Aurelien Moreau			1	1
Saku Kotkakoivu			1	1
Brendan Telker			1	1
Bogdan Trunov			1	1
Henry Tucker			1	1

 

It goes beyond just top three selections, however. There is not a single other player who was selected in the top two rounds of every VHFL group. You could say that Hard Markinson is clearly the second most sought after player in the VHFL, as he is the only other player who averages out to be a first round selection. Additionally, he was picked in the first two rounds in 17 of 18 groups. He is yet to be drafted in one group, but they are only 14 picks in thus far. Just looking at how far some of the other more popular picks fell in certain groups:

 

• Alex Johnston and Battre Sandstrom, the only players selected in every group at the time of this article, each fell as far as 16th
• Taylor Mourning was selected 14th in two groups, and is yet to be selected in two groups that are currently in the third round
• Jerome Reinhart fell to the fourth round in two groups

 

That is just some highlights for those who were more popular top picks, and with many groups still just a couple rounds in, we can't really point to the lows for many of the players on the above table or discuss average draft position. I can say, however, that in the one group that has finished, The Seabasstard, Bogdan Trunov, and Henry Tucker were not selected at all, yet they were each a top three pick in one of the groups.

[Shindigs 1,771]

3 hours ago, scoop said:

He is yet to be drafted in one group, but they are only 14 picks in thus far.

Did Spartan just put out a survey for STZ haters and put them all in the same group or something?

[JardyB10 4,839]

I'm fairly surprised to see how forward dominant this list is (not including J. Reinhart)! And half of them aren't even Checking forwards.

[scoop 3,309]

6 minutes ago, JardyB10 said:

I'm fairly surprised to see how forward dominant this list is (not including J. Reinhart)! And half of them aren't even Checking forwards.

Keep in mind this is players who were selected top three in at least one group; it doesn't necessarily mean that they were common high picks. Guys like Seabasstard, Telker, Trunov, and Tucker were not really common high picks and in the case of Tucker and Seabasstard, were not common picks in drafts altogether (averaging about 20 picks done in each group at the time of data, Tucker was only selected in one and Seabasstard in two).