S66 vs. S65 Draft Comparison: #2 The Meat

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S66 vs. S65 Draft Comparison 

 

#2 The Meat 

 

The VHLM Season 66 Dispersal Draft took place weeks ago, and is now at the edge of the league’s collective memory. However, there are still many comparisons still left to be made, so today we continue the S66 vs. S65 VHLM draft class comparisons with the meat of this draft sandwich.  

 

 

 

57 LW Chett Bandy  HFX | G Sean Dennis  YUK 

Beginning this list is one of the active vs inactive match ups that were so common in the later selections. While Sean Dennis remained inactive since creation, he did play a single regular season game for the Yukon Rush in Season 65, in which he stopped 27 of the 31 shots against him, ending up with a 0.871 SV% and a perfect 4.00 GAA. Chett Bandy, on the other hand, has been very active since being drafted, and is putting up impressive numbers through the first third of the season, making Bandy the definite winner in this comparison.  

56 RW Callum MacElroy  HOU | C Scotty BigShotty  SDM 

MacElroy vs BigShotty is one of the more even comparisons on the list. Both were chosen with the 56th pick of the draft, and both have been very consistent welfare collectors throughout their respective careers. However, MacElroy has proven himself to be reliable over a longer career, and also managed to produce a whopping 56 points in his debut season, while BigShotty has only gotten 2 points through the first third of the season. Scotty will have quite a bit of work to do to prove he is on the same level as MacElroy.  

55 RW Michael McConway   PHI | C Eeli Harju  MCK 

This is another even match up, but unfortunately not for positive reasons. Both players updated only a few times in their careers, but McConway had an incredibly disappointing season leading up to being drafted, while Harju put up an impressive 45 points in his first season prior to being drafted. While Harju has almost doubled McConway in TPE, they are both sitting at 0 points thus far in Season 66, making them equally bad picks.  

54 LW Magnus Pederson  LVA | RW Flash Lightning  MIN 

Flash Lightning is a very solid winner in this one, remaining a consistent welfare recipient and practice facility attendee. Pederson started out with promise in immediately doing a rookie profile and graphic in his first week, but ended up nowhere near as valuable of a pick as Lightning. While Pederson did manage to score 3 goals in the 20 games he played in Season 65, Lightning is just a goal behind at the time of writing, and with how active he is and the defensive contributions he has made for the Storm, he is head and shoulders above Pederson as a hockey player.  

53 C Josh Wilson  HFX  | G Thorvald Gunnarsson  HFX 

Comparing skaters to goaltenders can sometimes be difficult to do, but not in this case. Both players were selected by Halifax with the 53rd overall pick of their respective drafts, but where the inactive Wilson was released just 8 games into his disappointing season with Halifax, Gunnarsson has been having remarkable success as one half of the current goalie tandem for the 21st. While he would probably like to improve his SV% and GAA, he has won 8 out of 10 games at the time of writing, and has created what is becoming a massive goalie controversy in Halifax with Gunnarsson’s surprisingly good play thus far in the season.  

52 G Pekka Pouta  OTT  | LW Koda Adok  HOU 

Many will recognize Pouta as one of the established better goaltenders in the league, and at the time of writing, he is leading the VHLM in GAA, Shutouts, and almost at the top of SV%. While his first few seasons were a bit more rough, that is to be expected from young goaltenders in this league. Pouta has definitely cemented himself as one of the best goalies in the minors, and one of the best 7th round picks ever. Adok is a newer player, but in their short time they have been very active collecting welfare every week, and most recently doing a media spot as well. Adok has a lot of potential, and has been putting up impressive numbers to boot, with 13 points in 19 games played. Only time will tell if Adok can become as great of a player as Pouta already is.  

51 D Robert Burns  LVA  | RW Sami Van Den Dreissche  YUK 

Another comparison between inactives, but Burns is slightly more inactive than Van Den Dreissche. Burns fizzled out shortly into his career, updating only on two non-concurrent weeks and then disappearing forever, whereas SVVD was an active member up until becoming a World Junior Cup GM, at which point he suddenly became inactive. SVVD put up decent numbers last season, and is continuing to help out his team this season as well, making him the better choice among the two.  

50 RW Dick Rash  HFX  | LW Antonio Gonzalez  LVA 

Once again we have two inactives to compare, but there is no contest here. Gonzalez has no record of any updates at all, but has been producing modest numbers for a player with such low TPE. Dick Rash was very active in updating for a few months, but then stopped for essentially all of Season 65. On the surface, it appears that Dick Rash would be the better pick, but both players are surprisingly tied for points in Season 66, making it a very narrow win for Dick Rash.  

49 G Clayton Park  YUK  | LW Tormund Giantsbane  SSK 

Back to another tough match up, we have Clayton Park, currently a starting goaltender in the VHL, and an absolute superstar in Season 65 for Yukon. Park is the player that makes Pouta one of, and not the best 7th round pick ever, which is definitely a title reserved for Park. While Clayton Park has struggled a bit after being called up to the VHL, he still proved himself as a fantastic pick at 49th overall. Tormund Giantsbane is no slouch either, though. He is a welfare collecting player, but gets a whole 6 TPE each week from it do to his veterancy and affiliation with other leagues. He is also rumored to have an interest in an extended minor league stint with Saskatoon, the team that drafted him this season. While both players are steals this late in the draft, Park would have to be the decisively better player for the 49th pick of both drafts. However, depending on the length of Giantsbane’s time with Saskatoon, he may manage the monumental task of overtaking Park in the future.  

48 D Joseph Gagnier  HOU  | D Cody Parkey  OTT 

Gagnier vs Parkey is incredibly lop-sided, with Gagnier remaining active since joining the league, and Parkey being a fairly consistent TPE-earner up until just recently when he seems to have missed a week. Even if Parkey remains inactive forever, he is an infinitely better draft choice than Gagnier. If he returns, which is certainly quite possible given he has only missed a week, he will only further cement what a good choice he was with this pick.  

 

 

47 D Charlie Paddywagon  PHI  | D MORPHEUS DESTRUCTIOUS  LVA 

What may be the best matchup of the middle of the draft, we have two great defenders that have both spent time in Philadelphia and Las Vegas during their VHLM careers. Paddywagon put up phenomenal numbers offensively last season despite being on a tanking Philadelphia for part of the season, and continued to excel after being traded to Vegas. DESTRUCTIOUS has focused more on the defensive aspects of his game so far in Season 66, and while he is unlikely to match Paddywagon’s offensive production, he is still good for other reasons. Paddywagon ended up being one of the best defensemen of his draft class, remaining one of the best two-way defensemen in the league. It will be difficult for DESTRUCTIOUS to match Paddywagon offensively this season, so at the moment the comparison will have to lean towards Paddywagon being the better pick for now. However, if DESTRUCTIOUS is able to pick up the pace offensively and maintain his defensive side consistently, he definitely has a shot of matching Paddywagon.  

46 LW Michael Rasmussen  LVA  | RW Doug Forsyth  OTT 

In this comparison we have another interesting match up. Michael Rasmussen started off active in the week leading up to the draft, making him not a very bad choice at the time, and the same was true of Forsyth, although he was gaining slightly less TPE. However, Rasmussen went inactive within a few weeks, stopping at only 51 TPE. Forsyth was making small updates consistently, up until off-ice events that we will not get into here led to his permanent removal from the league. Rasmussen has been rumored to have become active again, and because he has not done anything to warrant a permanent ban, the match up will have to go his way, even more so if he does return and become active again.  

45 C Nacho  HFX  | LW David Clarkson  SDM 

The one-named Nacho has been a very consistent updater, getting quite a bit of TPE each week since he joined. David Clarkson has also been just as consistent of an updater, but has exclusively focused on welfare and practice facility. Nacho contributed to Halifax with 45 points and 96 hits in his draft season and, after staying down an extra season with the 21st, is set to eclipse those numbers this season. Surprisingly, and despite being at about half the TPE, Clarkson actually has more points and hits this season at the time of writing. This could be a fluke, and also impacted by team lineups, but still an interesting facet of this comparison. Nacho is still the narrow winner in this match up, but Clarkson could definitely change this if he continues to produce on the ice and improves his TPE gathering.  

[Gustav 6,097]

Now this is a VSN article. Good job VSN.

[Beaviss 4,949]

1 hour ago, GustavMattias said:

Now this is a VSN article. Good job VSN.