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Helsinki's S70 Draft Recap


McLovin

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(S70 Helsinki Titans Prospects)

 

As we draw S69 to a close and wrap up the draft for more off-season preparation, let's take a look at the players drafted by Helsinki in this past draft and see where they'll end up on the team. Let's just cover the players as of now, that being the success they've found so far, and potential going into their pro careers with the Titans.

 

Round 1, Pick 8 - Jared Spaz:

 

The first pick of the Titans S70 draft had them taking RW Jared Spaz 8th overall in the first round. The Italian winger has had an explosion of growth in the last few weeks, propelling him into a top 10 pick, and for obvious reasons. Spaz has great offensive awareness & shot, though only being 5'10'' he's not much of a physical player and needs a bit of time to work on skating and defensive positioning. Beauty of Jared and all the players mentioned here is that they're young, and have a long time to get much better, so those'll areas will only improve. Playing with Yukon in the VHLM this year, Spaz had 24 points in 54 games, split evenly among goals and assists with 12 each. Putting up an amazing 20% shooting accuracy as well, Spaz looks to spend at least another year in the minors now with his new team in Philadelphia lighting the lamp and being an offensive threat wherever he plays. If he continues this success, I expect to see Spaz in a top 6 role with Helsinki in a few years for sure.

 

Round 1, Pick 11 - Kyle Andersen:

 

Another Philadelphia Reaper draft pick, Kyle Andersen is an absolute behemoth of a player standing at a staggering 6'8'', 250lbs. Drafted 11th overall, it was obvious why management wanted a shutdown defenseman like Andersen. In a full season with the Reapers, Andersen put up 65 points, including 21 goals and a +33 in the +/- category. In the playoffs he especially showed up, scoring 2 goals and assisting 10 more in just 6 games. The great Dane put up an impressive enough season to have Helsinki want to pick him as they notice their defensive core is getting older, and Kyle Andersen is going to be a great shutdown d-man on the blue line for many years to come, though might require another year or two of seasoning in the minors to really take off, similarly to Jared Spaz. A nice fact though, Spaz & Andersen will be playing with each other no matter what next year, as they were both drafted by the same two teams in the VHL & VHLM respectively. Just a neat little thing I thought I'd bring up.

 

Round 2, Pick 17 - Ike Bennett:

 

Ike Bennett is a very similar to Jared Spaz in the sense that he's an offensively gifted player with a bit of trouble defending in his own zone. 27 games in the VHLM allowed Ike to produce 8 goals and 9 assists for 17 points, with a strong 4 points in 5 games in the playoffs. In the regular season, he didn't shoot the puck too much by a forwards standard, but still held a shooting percentage of around 16.6%, which is still pretty good. Ike unfortunately though is a long way out of being a regular on a VHL roster, though we have seen instances of growth that would suggest maybe Ike reaches a previously unseen potential and becomes a regular on Helsinki. For now though, the road is long and hard for Ike Bennett, but isn't it for all at some point? All I'm saying is don't sleep on this guy, I feel like he'll surprise some people.

 

Round 2, Pick 20 - Vladimir Shaposhnikov:

 

Yet another winger, Shaposhnikov is nearly identical to Ike Bennett in that he's a project player and is a ways off from regular VHL ice time. Only major difference separating the two would be Shaposhnikov slightly favors a two-way game over a solely offensively mindset game. 55 contents in the VHLM with San Diego had Vladdy put up 23 points, with 9 goals and 14 assists respectively. Playoffs weren't too much to mention as only he put up a goal and a blocked shot in 5 games. It's tough to say where Vladimir's career will go as his growth is minimal as of late, though there's a chance by next year his production will take off. Honestly I'm not quite sure, but I think similarly to Ike Bennett, these two players have a chance to prove doubters wrong and really turn on the jets on production & growth.

 

Round 4, Pick 46 - Julian Dalvao:

 

Not sure how much can be said about Dalvao. In 34 games with Las Vegas, Dalvao put up 6 goals and 9 assists for 15 points, but unfortunately also had a -23 in addition to that. Glimpses of offensive potential can occasionally be seen, but Dalvao isn't a player I'd get my hopes up for. His growth has been rather slow, with the last few weeks showing not much growth at all. Maybe he turns on some crazy potential, pots 100 goals and wins the Founders Cup some day, but I don't see that day coming for a while.

 

Conclusion:

 

All-in-all, this draft did it's job for Helsinki in acquiring the players the team will need down the line, but some players pose more questions than answers in the later rounds of the draft and look to be projects for Helsinki. As I mentioned before though, don't count any of these players out. These guys are young and will only get better. Fortunately too, free agency is starting soon, and Helsinki will have chances to fill holes they have in their team now instead of needing prospects to step up into roles they're not quite ready for. To wrap up this long read, the future is bright, and look forward to these players to come into the league in the next coming years to do big things with the Titans

 

 

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1,008 words claiming for weeks ending 1/26/20 & 2/2/20

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