S88 VHLM Draft Grades (Part 1)

[Pifferfish 597]

Howdy VHL, its Pifferfish back with another installment of me ripping apart the boneheaded draft moves of my fellow M GMs (just kidding, I love y'all). This time around I'm going to be going in reverse order of the current standings at time of writing. Let get to it!

Ottawa Lynx - (19. D Celise Pereira, 39. *G Michael Perk Lund, 40. F Davis McLirath, 43. F Harry Callahan, 48. *F Danill Henriksson, 49. F Lucky Mitts, 69. *F Alex Carlson.)

Ottawa was admittedly hurt by a lack of picks early in this draft with their first selection 19th. This is however not much of an excuse considering they had a 1st round pick but traded it for 2nd and a defenseman who went IA immediately. That 2nd rounder they then flipped for 3 late picks. Overall the trade shook out like so: Ottawa got McLirath, Callahan, an IA Dman, and an extra 5th for the 9th overall pick. I think at the time I would have said these trade were completely an L for Ottawa but they could end up with 3 total contributors for their team next season. The Lynx still did manage to nab up a solid Defenseman at 19th. Celise has shown a willingness to earn more than Welfare and will be a likely member of the Lynx next season. He is at nearly a point per game pace with a solid defensive build going. The -12 is also pretty promising considering this is a team in dead last. The next set of picks for the Lynx came at 39 and 40. Lund has been off to a rough start despite being a pretty high TPE goalie this season, none of that will matter though because tonight he is officially going IA which only means more trouble for Ottawa down the stretch. McLirath was on Ottawa as a waiver player and seems to be a consistent clicker. Currently is one of those very unfocused builds which can slightly reduce a player's value but overall not a bad player here. Callahan is a pretty exciting prospect so far. The build isn't perfect but we shouldn't expect that in the M from our first gens. The part of Harry that is nice to see is the Welfare Plus earning style. At 48, Henriksson was selected and this was quite surprising considering the couple still available earner on the board. Maybe @Grape had some interview that gave him hope Danill would earn but alas, this player went IA. At 49, we got the steal of the draft maybe with Mitts. This is a player one the welfare plus train as of late and with a decent build. Alex Carlson sadly (or not, depending who we ask) succumbed to that Achilles injury (:/) and would not return to action after his selection at 69 (nice one Grape). 

Trades: S88 OTT 1st (9) for S88 MEX 4th (40), S88 LVA 5th (43), S89 LVA 5th, and *D Xiaoping Benguin Dinghao Aland.
Projection: 3 IA, 4 Returning, 0 Graduating 
Team Performance: 10th; 10-24-2

GRADE: C-
-

Saskatoon Wild - (1. **F Rip Wheeler, 5. D Tord Yvel, 11. F Montgomery Burns, 14. D Ben Laas, 21. F Otis Boudreaux Jr, 25. G Joseph Reed, 34. F Scuff McGruff, 41. *F Volt Sparks, 45. *F Thijs Mooij, 51. *F Michael Bell, 61. *D Perry Winkle)

The Wild entered this draft with a war chest of picks and at the time I thought we could be looking at the next S86 Marlins type season. Sadly for the fans things have quite shaken out as planned. First overall pick, Rip Wheeler, ended up jumping the M to the VHLE leaving Saskatoon empty handed from their top draft selection. The next 4 picks for the Wild were splendid though. All of them are for the most part max earner week to week. The main concern is this is a team low in the standings and a lot of these guys are at risk of moving up as early as next season. Be on the lookout for some of these guys to move at the deadline. Yvel, Burns, and Boudreaux have all also managed an impressive combined -2 despite this roster's woes.  Reed in goal hasn't been a total disaster but should he continue to earn we Saskatoon is set in net next year. McGruff was a waiver play for SSK last season so a face the fans loved to see return despite the results thus far. The final four picks for the Wild all currently are or are a day away from being IA. 

Trades: None
Projection: 1 VHLE, 4 IA, 2.5 Returning, 3.5 Graduating
Performance: 9th; 13-19-4

GRADE: F

Thanks for reading. I will hopefully see you all back for part 2.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Pifferfish

[Pifferfish 597]

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[Pifferfish 597]

the factors i use for grading by the way are:
pick quality
performance compared to expectation
next year outlook
trade quality


if anyone wants clarity on what each of those means to me you can feel free to ask.