Guess on top-4

[jRuutu 2,464]

 

Season 70 draft lottery results were published last week, Riga won and they will be drafting first overall in the upcoming draft. Davos picks second, Seattle third and the fourth team to pick is New York. We here in Guess - radio decided to take a quick look at those four teams and see if we can figure out what players they might be picking.

 

This segment has been brought to you by Guess - could get it right, but could also not get it right.

 

Let's start with Riga and the first overall pick. Riga is a team that has a solid looking group of players, young players like Sasakamoose, Tate, and Hackett leading the blueline, so we can assume defense is not the number one option for Riga. Old man Kastelic is retiring, which leaves only Martin for center option, could they pick center? Similar situation in net with Davison, but he has one more year left after this one, but who knows when they can pick a goalie? They can now with the first overall pick and for that reason, we reckon they will take Stone Wolksi first overall.  Ranked first among goalies in this draftee group and would be an excellent choice to guard the Riga goal after Davison retires.

 

Second overall is Davos  who is not in as good position as Riga is, but they get to add a great piece with this pick. Davos has multiple potential VHL players in the minors, mainly for the center and defense positions, also have solid young defenders in the big show right now. They could use a winger as Materazo is retiring and in general that position lacks depth - who will they take though? Thomas Landry II is an interesting choice, team-first type of player, likes to hit and he can also score goals, a rare combination these days. Centers like Vikingstad and Oferson could be good picks, not too strong in the faceoffs yet, so you could ease them into VHL hockey by having them play in the wing, but even then our guess will be Landry II - he will bring much-needed versatility into the Swiss team.

 

Seattle Bears  is picking third overall, they are one of the better teams in VHL right now, quality players in every position, which also means the cap might be a problem for them, but when looking at it right now they could be interested in taking a winger, Lynch announced his retirement earlier, which opens a spot for a winger. A similar case in a way as in Davos, but we think Oferson is the man who goes to Seattle, he is a natural scorer who could be as dangerous as Lynch was right away. If the Bears can keep the whole roster together - they are once again among the favorites to win it all next year.

 

Fourth and certainly not least we have New York. Continuing the trend of teams who are not as bad you would think for a team that picks early. Not much of a difference between New York and Seattle in all honesty, New York is just younger, but they also have the quality players on each position. McWolf in D is an old man and the sad news from Elmebeck camp means that New York more than likely will be looking at drafting a defender at fourth overall. Roque Davis and Hugh Jass are the top two ranked defenders, but is it possible that player like Davis drops all the way to fourth overall? Maybe, but also maybe not. A lot depends on what Seattle will do, do they try to trade one of their top defenders to make room for cap and in result take Davis at three, is Davos happy with their defensive group and will take top-level forward? Does Riga need a defender to stack the blueline or do they play it safe and they take a goalie to replace Davison when they 100% surely get one?

 

Two things are certain though, one: New York more than likely is taking a defender and two: we here in Guess - radio can only guess, that is what we do.