S94 Draft Day Hauls - EU Conference

[tcookie 902]

HC Davos Dynamo
1.6 - D Felicia Hardy
1.15 - F Matteo Stefano
2.18 - F Johnny Tsunami

 

In an extremely tidy bit of pre-draft business, Davos moved down from second overall to sixth overall in order to acquire Grimgor Ironhide, and then managed to snag the third-best prospect in the draft anyway, selecting Felicia Hardy with the 6th pick. Though they missed out on the chance to draft one of Maverick Goncalves or Jillian Woods by trading out of #2, coming away with Ironhide and Hardy for the second overall pick is absurd value. Davos continued their solid draft season by picking up promising first-gen Matteo Stefano at the end of the first round, a player with extremely high upside. Johnny Tsunami has future VHLer written all over him as well - an excellent draft for Davos, all things considered.

 

Helsinki Titans
1.7 - G The Mighty Ice Wizard
1.13 - F Maple Dogwood
2.24 - D Donald Carlson
2.28 - F Ty Duke
2.32 - F Jerry Box
3.37 - F Captain Nugget Jr.

 

Helsinki made an interesting play with the 7th pick in the draft when they selected The Mighty Ice Wizard as the top first-gen in the draft. It's probably not the way most people expected them to go with the 7th pick, but in the context of the draft, it was actually pretty shrewd: with another first round pick coming up at #13 and several solid players still available, the Titans realized that The Mighty Ice Wizard - likely the only player remaining with future franchise goaltender potential - was actually the scarcest commodity left on the board. They secured their goalie of the future and knew they'd still get the chance to pick a really solid prospect at #13. That ended up being Maple Dogwood, an excellent prospect to be available with a late-first round pick thanks to the overall depth of this draft class. The Titans do have a lack of talented young defensemen, something they tried to address with the selection of Donald Carlson at 24th overall. Carlson will probably play in the VHL one day, but he doesn't have the upside of a true star at the position. The Titans will need to address that in the future, but ultimately, they came away with a pretty solid group of prospects.

 

London United
-- no picks --

 

The defending Continental Cup runner-ups are in line to contend once again this season and have paid the price for it in terms of draft capital, sitting out the entire S94 draft. Of course, nobody was thinking about their draft capital when they were playing for the Continental Cup in Game 7. This team is built to contend and will be in the hunt again in S95.

Malmo Nighthawks
2.19 - F Eugene Ryanheart
3.33 - F Gabriel Finley
3.41 - F Trevon Rider
3.44 - D Dakota Nachbaur

 

Another contending squad, Malmo found themselves with no first round pick but did make a couple of potentially-shrewd pickups in Eugene Ryanheart and Gabriel Finley near the top of the second and third rounds. Ryanheart, in particular, has shown good things early in his time in the VHL, with upside similar to that of Davos' second first-round pick Matteo Stefano. If he continues to develop, he no doubt will end up contributing at the VHL level at some point in the next couple of seasons.

 

Moscow Menace
1.1 - F Maverick Goncalves
1.2 - D Jillian Woods
2.26 - F Nicholas Sunderbruch Jr.
3.36 - F Yuki Ishikawa

 

Any time you go into a draft picking first and second overall - especially when you've already got the roster of a contender - you've gotta be pretty happy with yourself. Maverick Goncalves and Jillian Woods are the best forward and best defender in this class, respectively, so Malmo adds a couple of brand new studs to a very impressive lineup. Nicholas Sunderbruch Jr. is an interesting second-round gamble as well - the senior Nicholas Sunderbruch enjoyed a 359-game VHL career after being drafted 35th overall in S74, so there's good VHL pedigree there. We'll see if the younger Sunderbruch is motivated enough to make it to the big leagues - there is certainly enough skill there if he has the desire.

 

Prague Phantoms
1.10 - D Lazlo Holmes
2.23 - D Kevin Johnathen
2.27 - F Robin Sierra
3.39 - F Hulk Smash
3.42 - F Tommy James Longpre
3.43 - D Mathias Gunnarsson

 

The Phantoms had a lot of picks here, but not a lot of super high-value ones considering they're in a bit of a scorched-earth rebuild after a long run of contending with some of the best players in franchise history who have just hung up the skates. Lazlo Holmes is a very good addition with the 10th overall pick, a future star defenseman. The second pick of the draft may well end up his defense partner one day - Johnathen is a more raw player but has high upside in his own right, an excellent pickup with a mid-2nd round choice. There's some upside to Robin Sierra and even the third rounder Hulk Smash has flashed some good signs on occasion. Prague has a lot of work to do to field a competitive roster even a few seasons down the line, and they're missing their S95 1st round pick as well, so it may be a while before we see what happens for this group of young players in Prague, but they have to be happy with the number of players that have at least shown some sign of being able to contribute at the VHL level one day.

 

Riga Reign
1.3 - F Pierre Marc Bouchard

 

The Reign only made one pick on draft day, but they made it a good one in selecting Pierre Marc Bouchard. Presumably feeling okay-enough about their defense situation going forward (it is at least very good right now, though two players on their D-core are S87s), the Reign passed up on defender Felicia Hardy to take the second-best forward in the class. From an agency that has a track record of producing high-end VHLers, there's a lot of hype around Bouchard and deservedly so. This is a player to pair with Kimi Raikkonen up front and, along with last year's exceptional third overall pick Lucy Leitner on defense, goaltender Red Panda, and whatever comes of the two S95 first round picks, create the core of a very solid team.

 

Warsaw Predators
2.25 - D Toby Cook
3.34 - G Jon Webber III
3.40 - D Leifr Eriksson

 

Warsaw is another team in a win-now mode, especially while Lachlan Summers is still around, and they have not been shy about moving their draft picks for players that can contribute now. It's given them a strong-looking roster and a less-strong-looking prospect pool, about what you'd expect from a team in position to compete. Toby Cook is from the agency that gave us Todd Cooke who enjoyed an exceptional VHL career with the Los Angeles Stars that wrapped up not long ago, but doesn't look like a player with the same upside at this stage in his career. Still, things can change, and if you're looking for someone in this Warsaw draft class who may be able to make an impact at the next level one day, that would be the one.

 

 

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1190ish words, for this week & next

Edited May 18 by tcookie

[AJW 2,157]

All my bulls flying over oceans this off-season @Vice @Cuffy @TJ Longpre

[tcookie 902]

claim week 2/2