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Malmo S66 Draft Performance Reviewed

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Advantage

Advantage 2,891

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The Malmo Nighthawks first season is over and while the opening portion of our season was a shocking success, the rest of our season left a lot to be desired.  In reality, the result was expected as Malmo finished outside of a playoff position.  With that being said, it was a positive year for the team that saw a lot of its players performing and still sees no shortage of young talent on its way up.  For this lengthy article, I am going to look at my first draft as the Malmo Nighthawks.  I want to take a look at the Season 66 Dispersal Draft a year later and see how the group we drafted have been doing since.

 

7th Overall – Jerry Garcia [D] – Malmo Nighthawks – 390 TPE

The purely defensive Garcia had a fairly successful campaign with the Malmo Nighthawks.  It is generally pretty challenging to play in the VHL the year after being drafted, and even more-so for a defender who provides little offense.  Defensively he proved to be rather solid on the Expansion squad with 119 hits and 145 blocked shots.  While he was a -10, this was a pretty decent plus/minus considering he was on the second worst team in the league and played top minutes as someone who doesn’t offer much offense.  He did still finish with 31 points mainly due to some decent puck-moving and will continue to look to turn into a top two-way defender down the road.  There were some excellent players at seventh overall, and Garcia projects to be one of the best and is on pace to become a tremendous top pairing defender that Malmo can count on.

 

17th Overall – Rusty Shackleford [D] – Saskatoon Wild – 305 TPE

There is something about Malmo and shutdown defenders it seems.  Rusty Shackleford is a purely defensive defenseman that hits as much as he can in the defensive zone.  His season resulted in 56 points, 162 hits and 108 blocked shots to go along with a +21 rating on the much-improved Saskatoon Wild squad.  He is improving his skating and passing as the year goes on which could make him a similar player to what Garcia projects as.  In a league where top defensive defensemen can often make a team very tough to beat come playoff time, Shackleford will be a worthy addition to a defense that already features both Basaraba Moose and Jerry Garcia.  With his abundance in practicing since the draft, he looks like an excellent pick where I got him and I couldn’t be happier that I selected him.

 

37th Overall – Nacho [C] – Halifax 21st – 205 TPE

Nacho had an excellent sophomore season in the VHLM, recording 79 points in 72 games for Halifax.  This was a steep improvement from his 45 point rookie campaign that saw him get passed over in the first couple of rounds.  Nevertheless, Nacho has showed decent improvement for much of the season but has slowed down of late.  Much of his future potential will depend on whether or not he can get back to his previous practicing, but nevertheless he still projects as a jack-of-all-trades center who can fill in on either a second or third line.  If he starts improving his work ethic he could move his way up into a first line role while in his prime and a second line center until then.  Still a decent pick where he was selected to say the least.

 

38th Overall – Juan Jaundice [G] – Saskatoon Wild – 219 TPE

Jus is one of my favourite members in the league honestly.  He’s a great dude and his personality is literally the reason I was thrilled to select him with the thirty-eighth overall pick in the VHLM Draft.  After talking to him for the first time on Discord, I immediately took him two days later in the VHL draft just based off that interaction alone.  Jus has been living a bit of a busy life lately but is slowly improving and projects to be a solid netminder down the road.  Jaundice showed vast improvement in his sophomore season jumping from 34 to 50 wins, going from a .871 save percentage to .893 and improving his GAA from 3.7 to 2.62.  His development is probably not indicative of a future Hall of Fame goaltender or anything, but in a league that seems to be moving to just needing a solid goalie to win the Continental Cup, with consistent improvement he may become a good option down the road.  Add in a great teammate and member of our locker room and you have someone I am very proud to have on Malmo.

 

47th Overall – Blake Laughton [LW] – Ottawa Lynx – 206 TPE

When I took Blake Laughton at 47th overall I was pretty surprised to see him still available at that pick.  He was about the same amount of TPE as my previous two picks, but I suppose that showcases how deep this draft was.  Laughton is a goal-scoring power forward who played a key role in Ottawa’s success this season.  The young forward recorded 41 goals, 39 assists and 261 hits in 72 games this season.  He was a consistent offensive threat and someone who played the other team incredibly physically, making him one of the hardest players to play against in the minors.  This attitude will need to stay the same in order to continue his success, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that does happen.  Since the draft, Laughton has been solid when it comes to practicing and is projected to be a future top six winger in the near future.

 

57th Overall – Morpheus Destructious [D] – Las Vegas Aces – 176 TPE

What has become very clear since this draft is that Morpheus Destructious was the best player available when I took him with the 57th overall pick.  Others in his round like Clements, Hafkey and Clarke are still slightly higher in overall practice hours, but none of them have out-earned Destructious since the draft.  Additionally, no one taken after the great physical behemoth has earned more overall.  Destructious is a 6”8, 250 lb monster that possesses tremendous physicality and excellent defensive credentials.  Projecting as an old-school shut down defender ala Scott Stevens during his New Jersey years, Morpheus is banking on his consistent growth and development to serve him well as he moves up the professional ranks.  While he may not be up with Malmo next season, he has grown as much as any prospect on the Nighthawks, which is quite impressive given where he was taken.  Last season saw the defender record 27 points, 337 hits and 137 blocked shots as a key member of the Las Vegas Aces.  Sadly, while Morpheus did his job each and every night, his team struggled to win which put him in a very difficult position.  The aging defender projects as a future defensive second pairing defenseman and the Nighthawks certainly cannot wait for his arrival.

 

67th Overall – Eeli Harju [C] – Mexico City Kings – 81 TPE

While Harju has not worked out (not that I expected him to as he was inactive come draft time), I do take some solace in that I only missed out on one player that is still active.  Sadly it was a player that I had looked at for both of my last two picks in Thomas Kennedy, but nevertheless it’s not the end of the world either way.  Harju likely will be a career VHLM player as will the majority of those that were left.

 

77th Overall – Finn Theismann [D] – Houston Bulls – 54 TPE

This one actually kills me because it was literally between Finn and Kennedy (who now sits at 194 TPE) and I chose Finn.  While I know a lot of people have praise for my draft, I am someone that expects perfection and the fact that I chose Theismann over Kennedy will probably haunt me for a while.  Good for Seattle though cause that was one of the biggest steals ever if he keeps it up.  Nevertheless, not the end of the world that I didn’t hit here given that it was one of the last picks of the draft.

 

Draft Grades

Jerry Garcia -> A

Rusty Shackleford -> A

Nacho -> B

Jaundice -> B

Laughton -> B+

Destructious -> A-

Harju -> F

Theismann -> F

 

All in all, I think it was an excellent first dispersal draft for Malmo and it has helped set them up for years to come.  In addition to all these picks, we also traded for Blake Gaudette who was drafted 34th overall by Davos and will be playing on the Nighthawks this season.  He looks like another good one in the same vain as a Nacho or Laughton.  If everything works out, the Nighthawks should boast much of their core from this draft and given the already young crop they drafted in the Expansion Draft, Malmo has a lot to look forward to.  Given the history of Sweden in our great league, this is a welcome notion for the newest VHL franchise.

 

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Walter Fizz

Walter Fizz 84

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1 hour ago, Advantage said:

This one actually kills me because it was literally between Finn and Kennedy (who now sits at 194 TPE) and I chose Finn.  While I know a lot of people have praise for my draft, I am someone that expects perfection and the fact that I chose Theismann over Kennedy will probably haunt me for a while.  Good for Seattle though cause that was one of the biggest steals ever if he keeps it up.  Nevertheless, not the end of the world that I didn’t hit here given that it was one of the last picks of the draft.

I was so excited cause I thought I was gonna be a hawk. Also great spot

 

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Abaddon

Abaddon 37

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MORPHEUS will be with Malmo soon enough, and once he is the VHL will tremble as a whole.

 

(Also, thank you, MORPHEUS is a player I'm letting myself have fun with. After max earning in the SBA and endlessly test simming both builds and for my team as a gm it's nice to come over here and be a caveman that eats children.)

Edited by Abaddon
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