A Way Too Early Mock Draft - Picks 6-11 [1/2]

[Tagger 2,722]

So yesterday, I submitted a Mock Draft for picks 1-5 in the upcoming draft and to be honest, I felt bad. I knew and could see all these great first-gen players building up their players in the lead-up to the draft and I'd stopped my article short of the picks where the first-gens were to be taken. So I thought, "Fuck it, let's carry on, do the next six picks and give these guys the coverage they deserve", and so I did. So here's the next six picks to be taken in that draft, and they're all first-gens:

 

Note: TPE counts are as of July 23rd

 

6.       HC Davos Dynamo – Dan Montgomery (C ) @BarzalGoat  - 134 TPE

 

Out of the remaining first rounders that I have left to cover, this is probably the one that I think is most likely to be traded; Helsinki are probably going to have to enter a rebuild after many seasons of competing due to the current goalie market and Riga are not in a position to make a push with their current goalie situation either. The Dynamo on the other hand have a goalie, albeit an inactive one, and plenty of players still under contract to make a run for the cup in S62, so they may wind up using this pick to secure an asset that will help them achieve that goal. Nonetheless, I will review this pick as if it were to be held by Davos and I’ve decided that they would take Montgomery.

 

Already up past the 130 TPE mark, Montgomery has taken a big early interest in the league, securing himself as the VHLM GM of the Yukon Rush franchise. While it may be a bit of a concern that he’s currently only doing the 4 TPE welfare rather than a 6 TPE point task every week, it seems like he’s willing to do a lot of the other point tasks around the league to make up for that and the extra TPE per week he’ll gain as the Rush GM will only help him further. He isn’t the highest TPE forward available, that honour goes to Oleksiy Revchenko, however it’s important to point out that Revchenko created his player over a month earlier yet only has 5 TPE more than Montgomery, showing that Montgomery has the greater TPE earning potential. This was very close between Montgomery and Jake Davis, and initially I favoured Davis as I believe his player build is more suited to success in the VHL, but I wound up going with Montgomery as he’s had one point task week less to earn TPE than Davis and also to reunite him with Smarch, the man who he took over from as Rush General Manager.

 

 

7.       Helsinki Titans – Jake Davis (RW) @Reives - 131 TPE

 

Out of all the “TPE races” in this draft, the one that intrigues me the most is the one between Dan Montgomery and Jake Davis, both are first-gens that are progressing at a very solid rate, have good jobs and are willing to do more than the minimum to progress, but at the same time while they have proven capable of writing and making graphics, they both prefer to submit welfare for 2 TPE less per week. If one of those players were to make the jump to submitting point tasks instead of welfare on a regular (or at least intermittent) basis, that would give them a good advantage over the other that would surely pay dividends come draft day and throughout their VHL careers. One thing that works in Davis’ favour is that he has one of the better, low maintenance jobs in the league which should be easy enough to keep up with for a solid TPE reward every week. Even if Davis continues submitting welfare, he’s currently averaging around 9 capped TPE per week which shows he has the potential to be a very good player in this league, but if he were to move to submitting point tasks, there’s every chance he could become elite.

 

Previously, I had considered Johnny Havenk Carison (who is the highest TPE player still available at this point) at this spot, and he’s definitely a possibility to be taken here given that Helsinki don’t currently have a goalie. My reasons for not having him taken here though is that the Helsinki Titans GM Mitch Higgins has a tendency to create his GM players as goalies to fill these holes (Think Tuomas Tukio and Jacob), so I’m anticipating that he will do the same here, but that doesn’t mean Carison will be without a shot at a starting spot with a team as you will see later…

 

 

8.       Riga Reign (From Calgary) – Dylan Nguyen (D) @Dtayl - 98 TPE

 

This is the point where the draft gets really interesting. There’s going to be so many players at this point that have a similar amount of TPE and the vast majority of them are first-gens with no sim league history to really go off on. Seriously, there’s nearly ten players that haven’t been picked in this draft yet that are making a case to go in this first round. One player that won’t be picked here though is the highest TPE player available in Johnny Havenk Carison, but that is not a knock on him, it’s purely down to the fact that Riga are going to be automatically bringing a goalie in come Season 63 in Kallis Kriketers, so they’ll be making sure they’re using this draft to get the best available skaters.

 

While there are actually six prospects still available for selection that have more TPE than Nguyen (although one of those prospects is the currently inactive Lukas Novacek), he has some things going for him that I think make him a really appealing prospect to close out the first round. For one, like Jake Davis and Dan Montgomery, he’s gotten himself involved in learning the VHLM GM job as an assistant which will give him an extra layer of involvement with the league that the other players still available currently don’t have. He’s also shown a willingness to continue to do Point Tasks rather than resorting to welfare and I think he’s shown enough talent with his writing that he’d be able to participate in even more point tasks (like press conferences) without too much trouble. Specifically aiding the Reign, he also fits a positional need as the Reign currently don’t have a VHL quality defenseman and Jesper Stromberg has not participated in as many point tasks since the change to his updater job took place. Like I said before though, this pick could have easily been several other players, the main contenders I had for this pick were Lando Baxter and Cayden Saint, two other talented defensemen.

 

9.       Toronto Legion – Johnny Havenk Carison (G) @Donno100 - 149 TPE

 

While Carlson’s TPE earning to this point has been strong (and has only gotten stronger since the introduction of his SSN job which nets him an extra 3 TPE per week), his draft stock has fallen victim to a number of the General Managers recreating as goalies, reducing the amount of teams that would potentially be interested in recruiting Carison. Luckily though, the Legion General Manager Travis Boychuk has already brought in defenseman Sebastien Ironside as his franchise player, leaving the goalie role open for a prospect like Carison to fill. This is a perfect fit for both the Legion and the player; Legion secure a consistent earner at the goalie position while Carison finds playing time on a team that’s not going to immediately throw him in at the deep end and will allow him to experience his rookie growing pains under no pressure of costing the team’s chances of success.

 

 

10.       Riga Reign (From Seattle) – Ryuu Crimson (LW) @SlapshotDragon - 95 TPE

11.       Riga Reign – Lando Baxter (D) @Elhandon - 116 TPE

 

Very much like when the Reign picked at number eight, this could be a whole host of different players, and they’ll be helped here by 1) having the following pick and 2) not having had a prospect they were interested in taken out from under them with the previous pick as Carison didn’t fit the team’s needs. I’m going to say that the Reign bring in one forward and one defenseman, which would set them grab a defenseman to accompany Dylan Nguyen on the blue line while giving solid depth to Podrick Cast, Edwin Preencarnacion and Vesto Slipher on offense. While at this point Revchenko is the clear TPE leader at forward, I feel like his updates for the last month or so have made it clear that he’s predominantly going to rely on affiliate PTs and little else for his career and while that certainly won’t prevent him from being a solid contributor to a team, it’ll be a struggle for him to be spectacular. Ryuu Crimson on the other hand has submitted several PTs on the VHL since joining in late June, participated considerably more in discussions on the board and has shown willingness to do some of the extra point tasks and I think once he finds a VHL team, then they’ll be able to help him expand on his potential and perhaps we’ll see even more extra point tasks (such as press conferences) out of Crimson. Roctrion King is another solid forward prospect, but he’s been in the league a bit longer than Crimson, but is not that much further ahead and will probably be losing some TPE in the near future as it looks like some of his TPE as been added in error (claimed 12 points from donation doubles weeks, but hasn’t done the point tasks required to go with them).

 

As for the defenseman Reign takes, it’s very close between Lando Baxter and Cayden Saint while Shawn Glade also has enough time between now and the draft to make his case for selection here, but for now I’m going to go with Baxter. While Saint has had less time to earn TPE than Baxter, it seems like Baxter has been more willing to participate in the extra capped point tasks than Saint currently is. It would not surprise me though one bit though if whoever Reign didn’t take out of Saint or Baxter went with the very next pick to the Quebec City Meute.

 

Note: @Beketov, I'm going to be away/busy all next week as I'm on vacation, so is it OK if I can use this for next week's Point Task? 

Edited July 24, 2018 by Tagger

[Beketov 9,140]

51 minutes ago, Tagger said:

Note: @Beketov, I'm going to be away/busy all next week as I'm on vacation, so is it OK if I can use this for next week's Point Task? 

In the future I’d prefer if you ask in advance but yeah, that’s fine.

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

Thanks dude! Plus Dylan is on here too! I hope I get drafted to the Reign!

Edited July 24, 2018 by SlapshotDragon

[Tagger 2,722]

8 minutes ago, SlapshotDragon said:

Thanks dude! Plus Dylan is on here too! I hope I get drafted to the Reign!

No worries! I'm going away on vacation for a week and a half, but when I come back, if you ever need any help or advice with anything, you can send a PM my way and I'll be more than happy to help!

[Beaviss 4,958]

@Tagger going to finish off the 2nd round? 

[Tagger 2,722]

Just now, Beaviss said:

@Tagger going to finish off the 2nd round? 

Since the next time that I'll be free to write a media article will be Mon 6th August, what I'll probably be doing instead is a revised full 2 Round Mock Draft based on the outcomes of the lottery and the playoffs.

[ShawnGlade 1,010]

Was sad that I wasn't in this thread, but I get a mention at the end! Shawn Glade will make his case to the Reign

[Beaviss 4,958]

3 hours ago, Tagger said:

Since the next time that I'll be free to write a media article will be Mon 6th August, what I'll probably be doing instead is a revised full 2 Round Mock Draft based on the outcomes of the lottery and the playoffs.

 

Thats my birthday (Aug 6th) better make it Quebec Meute heavy lol

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Review:

You definitely got Carison right in going to Toronto....just a lot higher than people thought.