MubbleFubbles Media Spot

[MubbleFubbles 1,299]

Mocks are cool, drafts are cool. I figured I'd do a thing where I look at mocks from the past and compare where players went in the mock draft in comparison to the league draft and talk specifically about the player who dropped down furthest from the mock and the player whose stock rose the most and see how their careers played out and if they justified the rise and fall in stocks.

 

I'm starting with the Season 38 Mock Draft written by Mike as that is the closest record I could find to a Mock Draft that was completed close to the draft's completion. I know Kendrick used to do some mocks but I think those got deleted after some things happened with his account and there was a Season 37 Mock by CowboyInAmerica that was obviously a good read as it always is with him, but also was written over a month before that draft so was a bit too far out to be an accurate gauge of draft stocks heading into the draft.

 

Season 38 Draft
Season 38 Mock by Mike

 

Mike called all first ten players selected in the first round correctly (which wasn't as impressive a feat back then as it would be closer to now as there were sub-30 players in a draft class for many of the older classes) and half of those were picked exactly where Mike had predicted. There were only two players whose selections fluctuated by more than two draft positions and that was Dimothenis Vlasis (who rose from 7th in the Mock to 4th in the VHL Draft) and Ashton Galbraith (who fell from 5th in the Mock to 8th in the VHL Draft). 

 

The Mock Draft itself actually covers good reasons for why these players went higher/lower than they were predicted. Vlasis was the third best defenseman prospect heading into the draft, but the question was if Helsinki would go defenseman with both #1 and #3 given that they already had STZ's Season 38 defenseman and Hall of Famer Jake Wylde on the team via the GM rule. While the mock predicted against this (although did say there would be a possibility of it), Helsinki did wind up picking first-gen defenseman Don Draper at third overall having already taken Vojczek Svoboda first overall. Helsinki going with Draper at #3 absolutely wound up being the right decision as Draper wound up being one of two players taken in that draft (along with Hall of Famer Bruno Wolf) to surpass 1000 TPE and made up for Helsinki's first selection of Svoboda who was incredibly disappointing and lasted only three seasons in the league before retiring after Season 40, way earlier than had been anticipated. 

 

With Draper no longer available at #4, Cologne still looked to find the best defenseman available which is what led to Dimothenis Vlasis being taken three picks before the Mock had predicted. This was the right move as although Vlasis was not a star, you would likely have to say he had a better career than all of the skaters selected afterwards and goalie would not have made sense for Cologne here as they'd taken a goalie in the first round in the previous season's draft. Vlasis started off very strong, winning Rookie of the Year honours in Season 39, however after a down year the following season, they were traded to the New York Americans for a second round selection in Season 42. The only skater that perhaps rivaled Vlasis was Kachur's Chris Raymond who was selected seventh overall by Helsinki. Funnily enough though Raymond would make his way to Cologne via trade and was part of their cup-winning roster for Season 42 making him one of only three players selected in this draft to win a cup (the others being Vlasis and Percy Miller).

 

Ashton Galbraith's career post draft more than justified his later selection than the Mock Draft anticipated. The user was marshall_222 who had previously managed the Hall of Famer Jochen Walser, however that Hall of Fame work ethic was not there with Galbraith unfortunately as Galbraith didn't earn a single TPE post VHL Draft and ended their career with 122 TPE. That did not stop them from playing in the VHL however as the Season 54 Bears snapped him up for 54 games, however they only played Galbraith for a grand total of 45 minutes, only having a chance to get a single VHL assist before never being seen in the pro leagues ever again. Despite that though, it'd be difficult to say Galbraith was much of a bust pick as there were only two players who got over 200 TPE that were selected after him, one of which Cologne drafted at ninth overall anyway in Leo Tesla, and both Tesla and Percy Miller were early retirees as well so Galbraith was not a big miss on Cologne's part. 

[Victor 11,143]

Damn that was not a good draft.