Retrospective: The S66 Draft's Hidden Gems

[Renomitsu 934]

VHLM Scouting Center, Somewhere, Canada - We'd talked at length about how deep last season's draft was, and the Saskatoon Wild put out a deep dive into their team's scouting algorithm, as well as some (but not all) gems. They singled out four players - now Malmö's Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias, Vancouver's Hans Gruber @TheFlash, Seattle's Clayton Park @leafssteen, and Moscow's Mat Tocco @Matmenzinger as possible steals in the draft. Since that posting, most of those players shot up in the league's rankings, and we've summarized those for you here.

 

D - Jerry Garcia

VHLM - Houston Bulls

VHL - Malmö Nighthawks

Previous Projection - Mid-Late 3rd Round

Draft Position - 1st round, 7th overall

 

Garcia has been featured extensively throughout our media over the last two seasons, and it's become obvious as to why. His agent has become GM of a minors expansion team, the Mississauga Hounds, and Garcia was the second defenseman and seventh overall off the list on draft day; in fact, he became Malmö's first-ever entry draft pick. Though the Nighthawks struggled after a strong start, they have a strong - and very young - core of players to work with, and Garcia is very likely to play an important role in building a championship contender squad in a couple of seasons. He's earned more than the average first-rounder (+85 vs. round average of 80.2), and vastly out-performed expectations even since our hidden gem article. This also fulfills my weekly GustavMattias tagging quota.

 

C - Hans Gruber

VHLM - Saskatoon Wild

VHL - Vancouver Wolves

Previous Projection - Late 3rd, early 4th

Draft Position - 3rd round, 28th overall

 

Though his draft position matches his overall projection, that's likely due to the depth in forwards in S66's draft rather than anything to do with Gruber himself. Even star center Bert Meyers (ranked 9th overall, drafted 15th) fell well beyond his projection, and Gruber was largely viewed as the sixth-best center available. The German forward has since vastly out-earned his draft position (+89 vs. 3rd-round average of 48.4) and has the 17th-most TPE out of all draftees from S66. His impact on the ice has been a little limited - 28 points on 8 goals and 20 assists, overall -11 plus-minus - but we feel that may be natural progression for being in the pros. Vancouver has also struggled to put together strong offense beyond their masterful top three (Louth, Palo, Davis), especially against deeper teams like Davos and Helsinki.

 

G - Clayton Park

VHLM - Yukon Rush

VHL - Seattle Bears

Previous Projection - Early 4th Round

Draft Position - 3rd round, 27th overall

 

Clayton slightly improved on his draft position, but a limited need for goalies pushed most netminders' draft stock down a bit. Like Gruber, who was drafted one spot after Park, he's proven to have excellent value for his draft position (+66 vs. 3rd-round average of 48.4). Though the vast majority of rookie goalies struggle mightily in their debuts, Park has had a respectable 90.1% saves while playing for a very thin Seattle Bears team. In spite of his best efforts, he's managed a 17-30-8 record while facing a massive 2001 shots in 57 games. We suspect his statistics will improve with time - and more teammates over 350 TPE (of which he only has 3, unless you count relegated goalie Iseult). He'll have more high-ranked skater help coming with S67's draft.

 

RW - Mat Tocco

VHLM - Philadelphia Reapers

VHL - Moscow Menace

Previous Projection - Early 6th Round

Draft Position - 4th round, 31st overall

 

Mat Tocco was one of the few players to make a massive leap in draft position between the gems article and the draft - and his recent earning (+76 vs. 41.3 round average) makes it pretty clear that he was a steal even with reporting on his hype. In fact, he's the only fourth-rounder to make it into the top 25 of his draft class by TPE (currently 23rd). He was selected 20th overall in the dispersal draft, allowing him to stick with the Philadelphia Reapers after a trade from Minnesota late last season; his 46 points and 101 hits in 68 games are a promising sign for the Menace, who will be more than happy to bring him up this off-season.

 

How do you feel our scout did last season? Would you want a similar presentation for this season's draft class, or maybe S68's draftees? Leave a comment here!

Edited June 15, 2019 by Renomitsu

[Beaviss 4,958]

Gruber was a steal! Love these articles keep them up!

[Victor 11,044]

When random draftees show up in the Game of Thrones thread before they're even drafted you know they're gonna stick around @Matmenzinger

[Rayzor_7 741]

5 hours ago, Renomitsu said:

Park has had a respectable 90.1% saves

This hurts me. Please... It's .901 save percentage or .901 sv%

[Renomitsu 934]

15 minutes ago, Rayzor_7 said:

This hurts me. Please... It's .901 save percentage or .901 sv%

Sorry to offend - I don't really follow hockey closely and didn't know the convention! I'll keep this in mind for future articles.

[Matt_O 897]

Don't forget Thomas Kennedy, 78th overall pick and currently sits at 192 TPE