Claimed: S58 Dispersal Mock Draft [1/2]

[solas 1,953]

S58 Dispersal Mock Draft

 

With the contraction of Cologne and Stockholm and the removal of conferences, the VHL will be in a very different position next season.  Not only will the league have two fewer teams like it did before Season 30, but the players of those two teams will be picked up by the eight remaining teams in a dispersal draft this offseason.  The order has been randomly generated and the draft is being conducted behind closed doors, with the results likely being revealed this coming Tuesday.

 

So for this article, I’ll be doing a dispersal mock draft (which I assume you could tell by the title) for the 2 extra TPE.  Admittedly, I haven’t been keeping up with the league as much due to finals week and a lull in interest, so I don’t know exactly how accurate this will be, but it at least makes sense to me after looking at player pages and team rosters.  So without further ado, here it is:

 

1.  New York Americans - (S57) C Chase Keller, 423 TPE
Keller and Gretzky are probably the two top players available in the draft.  Keller might be a better fit for New York, who are one of the league’s younger teams.  Gretzky still hasn’t hit regression, but 3 years is a big difference in the VHL.  It’s possible they could theoretically go for the more experienced Gretzky here, especially since they seem to be really stocking up for a cup push next season, but Keller is difficult to pass up.

 

2.  Seattle Bears - (S54) C Shawn Gretzky, 607 TPE
Seattle already has three centers on their roster.  But Gretzky is clearly the best player available at this point (and some might argue the best player in this draft in general), and the Bears don’t have any need for a goalie or a mid-first round pick.  With New York and Toronto both looking strong for next season and Riga and Helsinki likely still competing, Seattle will be looking to add another solid player to help them out.  With Aleksei Federov and Fabio Jokinen in defense already, Gretzky adds more star power to the Bears’ forward group.

 

3.  HC Davos Dynamo - (S57) G Shawn Brodeur, 324 TPE
Seems like the writing’s on the wall with the trade of DeGrath and the retirement of Burger King.  Davos is a young, rebuilding team that is now without a goaltender, so this is a perfect fit.  This gives Davos a great start to their rebuild, as finding the right goalie is usually the hardest part of rebuilding.  This pick allows the Dynamo to start building in what may be the easier positions to find.

 

4.  Toronto Legion - (S53) C Marc-Alexandre Leblanc, 537 TPE
Leblanc might take a bit of a hit from depreciation next season, but Toronto is competing and Leblanc is a useful player to have that could add to their offense.  For a lot of other teams, a first round draft pick might be more useful - either as a piece to trade or simply to use in the draft, but Toronto will be looking to compete for the cup this year so Leblanc will be much more valuable to them.

 

5.  Quebec City Meute - S58 COL 1st
At #5, the Meute probably weren’t expecting to get an elite young player like Keller or Brodeur, so a draft pick is their best bet.  And here they get the best draft pick available in the dispersal draft.  With Apollo Skye entering his final season, Diana Maxwell retired, and most of the key players in Quebec’s competing seasons traded away, the full rebuild is just starting to kick into gear.  Cologne’s first round pick in the next draft, which is going to be 5th overall, gives Quebec the opportunity to pick up a solid young player for their rebuild to go along with Marcel St-Laurent, Keaton Louth, and the various pieces they picked up this offseason.  This pick could prove crucial in the Meute’s rebuild.

 

6.  Calgary Wranglers - S58 HSK 1st
This is where things start to get less clear (although I don’t know how accurate the previous picks were).  There are some solid players still here, but Calgary are rebuilding and a draft pick (albeit a late one in a kind of weak draft class) will likely be worth more to them than a player that isn’t a star.  They wouldn’t be getting anything outstanding with this pick, which is why I’m unsure about this prediction, but they already have the first overall pick and some decent young players so a young depth player isn’t bad at all.

 

7.  Riga Reign - (S53) RW - Motherfucker Sharpe, 504 TPE
Sharpe is from the same draft class as Leblanc and has only 30 fewer TPE, but the build and the two prior teams in the draft order make a difference here.  He’s very much focused on hitting and fighting over passing and scoring, but at this point he’s easily the best player available.  Sharpe can still be a player for an already-solid Reign team that will be looking to build on last season’s Continental Cup victory. 

 

8.  Helsinki Titans - (S56) RW - The Process, 204 TPE
Helsinki’s kind of in a weird spot here.  They’ll still be competing next season - they have too many good players not to - but at the same time they got unlucky in the dispersal draft order here and they’ll be losing Theo Axelsson to retirement, leaving Franchise Cornerstone and Rudolph Schmeckeldorf to shoulder the offensive load - not to mention the retirement of Maksym Barnyashev leaves them in a tough spot with defensemen.  At this point, there isn’t much value left.  A defenseman like Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVIII or Ho Lee Fook could be an alright pick as they have the potential to come back and start earning TPE at a more consistent rate, but right now they’re only 100-TPE VHLM players.  Jake Scheel and The Process are the two best players left, and of those two The Process is probably a better pick - Jake Scheel has been inactive for four months now and is a center (which the Titans already have three of), while The Process is a season younger, a winger, and could earn more TPE.

 

(for Morozov, this is ~1,000 words so I'll be claiming it for the weeks of 12/4-12/10 and 12/11-12/17)

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

Review

Mock drafts might be my fav thing to read. So, it was interesting to re read this. You got the first 3 picks right off the top of my head after that I don't think i paid too much more attention to the draft. Seattle and Davos have been great so far, couldn't have been more happy to go to great former organizations