My Mock Entry Draft, So Far...

Well, I have been patiently waiting for more teams to be eliminated from the NHL playoffs, since the draft order for June's Entry Draft can still be jockeyed around a little bit yet.  The first team that would follow the Montreal Canadiens in the Pool Outlook posts, if the standings were to follow in order would be the Colorado Avalanche, but given that the four teams in the Conference Finals will occupy the final four spots in the opening round of the draft, the Avalanche could move their way down the order and then Vegas would go next.  Even after the Avalanche going down 2-1 to the Sharks in the series last night, still doesn't mean they can't come back and win, so I continue to wait.

In saying that, it's been a few days since I've had a new post on the blog, so I thought I would throw a quick "how it's gone so far" post together and in looking back at the World Under-18 tournament, I probably would have changed my mind on a couple of those picks below, but I'm sticking with what I have for now.

Team	Player	POS	Pick
	Jack Hughes	F	1
	Kaapo Kakko	F	2
	Vasily Podkolzin	F	3
	Dylan Cozens	F	4
	Kirby Dach	F	5
	Bowen Byram	D	6
	Trevor Zegras	F	7
	Cameron York	D	8
	Philip Broberg	D	9
	Alex Turcotte	F	10
	Victor Soderstrom	D	11
	Matthew Boldy	F	12
	Cole Caufield	F	13
	Peyton Krebs	F	14
	Ryan Suzuki	F	15

After the Under-18 tournament, a kid like Cole Caufield has likely improved his stock quite a bit, tying the goal-scoring record set by Alex Ovechkin, while Jack Hughes, already in the top spot, topped Ovechkin's point record for the tournament, which says something.  But, nevertheless, so far it looks pretty decent and there is some method to the madness, as explained in each of the outlook posts, so if you scroll down, you'll see where I'm coming from, so far.

Week Eighteen Waiver Mock Draft

The moment a lot of you have been waiting for... the kick off to the second player swap of the season, the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft.  Thanks to the All-Star break ending Week Seventeen early, we'll have our order and available players up and ready to go on Thursday morning and we can start kicking off the proceedings nice and early this time around.

Of course, this all can't happen before I post the mock draft... or could it?  I suppose it could, but I have actually found this to be somewhat helpful for a number of teams that have actually read this post ahead of the Waiver Draft, since their indecisiveness has caused hiccups in the past.

Down below are the two mandatory rounds of the draft, which you can swap out any player and pick up a player from the same position and not included in this post is the bonus round, where only injured players can be dropped for players of the same position.  This is to guard against injuries and to have a healthy lineup when Week Nineteen commences on February 4th.  I can't stress this enough... only injured players can be dropped in the bonus round.  Align your strategies as such.

Without any further ado, let's check out what the mock draft has come up with.  I have tried to objectively pick the players that should be dropped and replaced them with the top available player in that same position, no strategies employed at this point.  I certainly won't back this mock draft up, I fully expect it to be completely different.

Round	Pick	Team	Dropped Player	NHL	Pos	Picked Player	NHL
1	1	Scott Gilmore	Nikolay Goldobin	VAN	F	Blake Coleman	NJD
1	2	Brenda & Seward	Jason Pominville	BUF	F	Mikkel Boedker	OTT
1	3	Derek Bell	Martin Necas	CAR	F	Frank Vatrano	FLA
1	4	Benson Greenley	Corey Crawford	CHI	G	Matt Murray	PIT
1	5	Chelsea Bradley	Andrew Shaw	MTL	F	Nick Bonino	NAS
1	6	Eric Wheeler	Louis Domingue	TAM	G	Pheonix Copley	WAS
1	7	Neil Buysman	Tristan Jarry	PIT	G	Darcy Kuemper	ARI
1	8	Stacey Campbell	Marco Scandella	BUF	D	Alex Pietrangelo	STL
1	9	Jeremy Dieser	Brian Elliott	PHI	G	Laurent Brossoit	WPG
1	10	John Preston	Michael Del Zotto	ANA	D	Nate Schmidt	VGK
1	11	Brian Towers	Antti Raanta	ARI	G	Antti Niemi	MTL
1	12	Tony Dourado	PASS			PASS
1	13	Dale Corley	PASS			PASS
1	14	Derek Wilton	Curtis McElhinney	CAR	G	Jack Campbell	LOS
1	15	Jesse Phalen	Dominik Simon	PIT	F	Micheal Ferland	CAR
1	16	Mike Somerville	Devin Shore	ANA	F	Artturi Lehkonen	MTL
1	17	Ryan Miller	Matt Dumba	MIN	D	Cody Ceci	OTT
1	18	Steve Bishop	Austin Watson	NAS	F	Bryan Rust	PIT
1	19	Clayton Corley	Drake Batherson	OTT	F	Alex Iafallo	LOS
1	20	Troy Berkley	Jordan Staal	CAR	F	Colton Sissons	NAS
1	21	Wes Moroz	PASS			PASS
1	22	Kristy & Don	PASS			PASS
1	23	Grant Saskiw	PASS			PASS
1	24	Stacey McDonald	PASS			PASS
1	25	Stuart Greenley	Michal Neuvirth	PHI	G	Anders Nilsson	OTT

The 25 teams we have in the pool had really stripped away a lot of the talent in the player pool already, so Week Nine had a few new surprise names to make the list, while the Week Eighteen list will be a mix of a couple more surprise names and players that have returned from their long-term injury, which was why they were dropped the first time around.

Blake Coleman of the Devils is the top forward available and since Scott didn't really have a bad goalie, I opted to give him a better forward, but that isn't to say he wouldn't drop one of his goalies for the best player available, Matt Murray of the Penguins.  The first team that needed a goalie, according to my list, was Benson's, but there could be some teams that figure that Murray would be the way to go instead of the mock assigned player.

There were a number of teams that were doing quite well, so far, and I wasn't quite sure whether or not they really needed to make any drops, so you saw some passes in the 1st round, which do carry over to the 2nd round as well.  The point totals of the available players just may not measure up to what these teams could be dropping.

Round	Pick	Team	Dropped Player	NHL	Pos	Picked Player	NHL
2	26	Scott Gilmore	Lars Eller	WAS	F	Ilya Kovalchuk	LOS
2	27	Brenda & Seward	Evan Bouchard	EDM	D	Michal Kempny	WAS
2	28	Derek Bell	Brett Howden	NYR	F	Artem Anisimov	CHI
2	29	Benson Greenley	Zdeno Chara	BOS	D	Travis Sanheim	PHI
2	30	Chelsea Bradley	PASS			PASS
2	31	Eric Wheeler	Joakim Ryan	SAN	D	Brian Dumoulin	PIT
2	32	Neil Buysman	Gustav Forsling	CHI	D	Andy Greene	NJD
2	33	Stacey Campbell	PASS			PASS
2	34	Jeremy Dieser	Tanner Pearson	PIT	F	Nick Ritchie	ANA
2	35	John Preston	Maxime Lajoie	OTT	D	Travis Dermott	TOR
2	36	Brian Towers	Nick Bjugstad	FLA	F	Brandon Tanev	WPG
2	37	Tony Dourado	PASS			PASS
2	38	Dale Corley	PASS			PASS
2	39	Derek Wilton	Ondrej Kase	ANA	F	Casey Cizikas	NYI
2	40	Jesse Phalen	Dan Hamhuis	NAS	D	Niklas Kronwall	DET
2	41	Mike Somerville	PASS			PASS
2	42	Ryan Miller	Miles Wood	NJD	F	Pontus Aberg	MIN
2	43	Steve Bishop	Zach Bogosian	BUF	D	Troy Stecher	VAN
2	44	Clayton Corley	PASS			PASS
2	45	Troy Berkley	PASS			PASS
2	46	Wes Moroz	PASS			PASS
2	47	Kristy & Don	PASS			PASS
2	48	Grant Saskiw	PASS			PASS
2	49	Stacey McDonald	PASS			PASS
2	50	Stuart Greenley	PASS			PASS

The 2nd round is littered with even more passes, as teams just try to fill in some of the last remaining gaps in their roster.  Players sent down to the minors or an injured player are the most likely drops in this round.  The injury/news page has been running fairly short of late, so that means things are picking up in the participation levels.

The rush for goalies was mostly in the 1st round, as teams were trying to make sure that they got a little bit more help in the crease moving forward, while defensemen were also at a premium early and now in the 2nd round, they are just picking up the seat fillers at the awards show at this point.

I'm not sure how much of a bonus round we're going to get with this kind of pick selection already having been done, but this Waiver Draft will extend through to February 3rd, so any injuries that are suffered in the week are eligible to be swapped out in the bonus round.

Remember... rule to note!  Any player dropped in any round will not be eligible to be picked until the next round.  So, for teams like Derek B., who may tank his roster for rookies, all of his players that he may drop in said round, won't be available until the next round, just so the bottom teams do have a shot at those players.

Week Nine Waiver Mock Draft

It's that time of year again!  We're only one week away from the start of the Week Nine Waiver Draft and with that, I have done up what the draft could have looked like, using the order from the standings at the start of Week Eight and I just went down the line, using the available players list, making sure that the players were not hurt.

Let's review the rules first, shall we?

We will do two full rounds of the Waiver Draft, the order being decided after the audit on Monday, last place to first place in both rounds of the draft.  Teams will be permitted to drop one player and pick up a player of the same position in each round.  Players dropped in a round will not be permitted to be taken again until the next round, just so everyone has a shot at some players dropped that may have been dropped for mini-game reasons.

There will be a bonus round and the kicker there is that only players who are injured can be dropped in the bonus round.  This round is to ensure that your team is healthy going into the second segment of the season and not to just get rid of some duds.  The first two rounds are for that.  The second round will be a full-on free-for-all, first come, first serve, once the notice goes out, you can have your fun and reboot your roster, assuming that you have a team lined out the door of their local infirmary.

With all of that being said, let's have a quick peek at the first round, as these drops may or may not happen and they are replaced by the next best player available, no mini-game consideration was done.

Pick	Team	Dropped Player	NHL	Pos	Picked Player	NHL
1	Scott Gilmore	Pat Maroon	STL	F	Jason Pominville	BUF
2	Brenda & Seward	William Nylander	TOR	F	Chris Tierney	OTT
3	Derek Bell	Martin Necas	CAR	F	Kasperi Kapanen	TOR
4	Dale Corley	James Reimer	FLA	G	Louis Domingue	TAM
5	Derek Wilton	Mattias Janmark	DAL	F	Travis Zajac	NJD
6	Chelsea Bradley	Cam Fowler	ANA	D	Ryan Murray	CBJ
7	Tony Dourado	Cory Schneider	NJD	G	Casey DeSmith	PIT
8	Benson Greenley	Riley Nash	CBJ	F	Jason Spezza	DAL
9	Eric Wheeler	Malcolm Subban	VGK	G	Mikko Koskinen	EDM
10	Stacey Campbell	Kailer Yamamoto	EDM	F	Anthony Duclair	CBJ
11	Jeremy Dieser	Tanner Pearson	PIT	F	Colin White	OTT
12	Ryan Miller	Scott Darling	CAR	G	Antti Niemi	MTL
13	Jesse Phalen	Troy Terry	ANA	F	Nick Foligno	CBJ
14	Wes Moroz	Mark Jankowski	CAL	F	Valtteri Filppula	NYI
15	Brian Towers	Valeri Nichushkin	DAL	F	Cody Eakin	VGK
16	Grant Saskiw	Michal Neuvirth	PHI	G	Curtis McElhinney	CAR
17	Neil Buysman	Tristan Jarry	PIT	G	Pheonix Copley	WAS
18	Mike Somerville	Derek Ryan	CAL	F	Blake Coleman	NJD
19	Steve Bishop	Tyson Jost	COL	F	Tyler Bertuzzi	DET
20	John Preston	Niklas Kronwall	DET	D	Maxime Lajoie	OTT
21	Kristy & Don	Ryan Spooner	EDM	F	Devin Shore	DAL
22	Clayton Corley	Ryan Donato	BOS	F	Brett Howden	NYR
23	Stacey McDonald	Mathieu Perreault	WPG	F	Nikolay Goldobin	VAN
24	Stuart Greenley	Max Pacioretty	VGK	F	Mikkel Boedker	OTT
25	Troy Berkley	Erik Haula	VGK	F	Phillip Danault	MTL

Jason Pominville of the Sabres is currently the hottest commodity on the market for the Waiver Draft next week, as he leads all available players with 17 points in 20 games this season.  He'll be ending up on the pool coldest team, belonging to Scott, who starts the week 10 points back of 24th and would need some real help to move up that spot and lose out on Pominville.

Top rookie available in this first round of the draft, Ottawa's Colin White, who has had a slow start to his NHL career, but has seemingly started to find his groove this year.  He has 6 goals and 12 points in 20 games and would certainly help any team trying to either improve upon their standing in the rookie mini-game or even get their feet wet in it.  Nevertheless, he will be taken, even for his general scoring talents, 12 points is a good boost to a team.

How about the game-winning goals mini-game?  Devin Shore of the Stars is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but still leads the available players with 3 winners in the first eight weeks of the year.  Eight other players, including Pominville, are rocking 2 winners and could certainly help out a team looking at that mini-game, looking for that clutch goal scoring this season.

The shootout goals is another mini-game that's going to pay this year and as much as we haven't seen nearly as many shootouts this year, but there are still goals going in and we're not cashing in on them.  Eight players have scored a goal in the shootout, still available on the list, so we might not list them all here, but there are a few to look at.  Markus Granlund of the Canucks, projected for the second round, leads all available players with two attempts in the shootout, so that might be something to consider.

Pick	Team	Dropped Player	NHL	Pos	Picked Player	NHL
26	Scott Gilmore	Justin Schultz	PIT	D	Robert Hagg	PHI
27	Brenda & Seward	Evan Bouchard	EDM	D	Jake McCabe	BUF
28	Derek Bell	Danton Heinen	BOS	F	Jake Virtanen	VAN
29	Dale Corley	David Backes	BOS	F	Josh Anderson	CBJ
30	Derek Wilton	Andreas Johnsson	TOR	F	Conor Sheary	BUF
31	Chelsea Bradley	Jesse Puljujarvi	EDM	F	Michael Grabner	ARI
32	Tony Dourado	Ryan Strome	NYR	F	Markus Granlund	VAN
33	Benson Greenley	Zdeno Chara	BOS	D	Mike Green	DET
34	Eric Wheeler	Milan Lucic	EDM	F	Oskar Lindblom	PHI
35	Stacey Campbell	Marco Scandella	BUF	D	Ben Hutton	VAN
36	Jeremy Dieser	Oliver Bjorkstrand	CBJ	F	Vinnie Hinostroza	ARI
37	Ryan Miller	Deryk Engelland	VGK	D	Jamie Oleksiak	PIT
38	Jesse Phalen	Daniel Sprong	PIT	F	Dominik Simon	PIT
39	Wes Moroz	Tyler Myers	WPG	D	Braydon Coburn	TAM
40	Brian Towers	Travis Dermott	TOR	D	Scott Mayfield	NYI
41	Grant Saskiw	Sven Baertschi	VAN	F	Lars Eller	WAS
42	Neil Buysman	Dion Phaneuf	LOS	D	Matt Grzelcyk	BOS
43	Mike Somerville	Bryan Rust	PIT	F	Artturi Lehkonen	MTL
44	Steve Bishop	Nikita Zadorov	COL	D	Cody Ceci	OTT
45	John Preston	Michael Del Zotto	VAN	D	Erik Gudbranson	VAN
46	Kristy & Don	Anthony Beauvillier	NYI	F	Brett Connolly	WAS
47	Clayton Corley	Matt Benning	EDM	D	Dylan Demelo	OTT
48	Stacey McDonald	Ondrej Palat	TAM	F	Frans Nielsen	DET
49	Stuart Greenley	PASS			PASS
50	Troy Berkley	Thomas Hickey	NYI	D	Tony DeAngelo	NYR

I didn't add any players that may have been dropped in the second round of the Waiver Draft, this was strictly dropping players to pick up players from the available list.  I think we'll see a good number of defensemen shifted in the second round, since they are not nearly as valuable than the forwards that are available, but there could be some decent ones in there.

Also, there are a number of teams that do have some more injury concerns and I didn't necessarily want to point them all out, so the bonus round, if it happens, will be a bit of a mystery, until the end of the second round, of course.

Some teams will certainly struggle with some decisions, like whether or not dumping William Nylander is a good thing?  Will Jonathan Quick ever play again and if so, how good could he possibly be?  What is the actual timeline for Andrei Vasilevskiy being out... is it worth dropping him for minutes now?

This Waiver Draft should make for some interesting questions and the answers will take their time to unfold, but make no mistake, we will answer those questions!

My Mock Entry Draft

It's another year and time for another shot in the dark with my mock entry draft.  Now, if you've been following along with the Pool Outlook posts, I have been making picks as I have been going along and this is the first draft of the mock draft, as I rolled through the picking process.  This would be more of what I would do, than what might actually happen and that's what these mock drafts are all about right?

I'm sorry, what?  We're supposed to guess what the teams are going to do?  Well, most of them aren't very good at it anyways (or so I tell myself), so I am going to stick to my method.

If you're curious as to how I got to these picks, check back to the Pool Outlook posts, I do offer a reasonable explanation, in most cases, so have at it!

If there are any deals between now and the draft, where a 1st round pick may change hands, I might revise the mock draft, just for fun.

Team	Player	Position	Pick
	Rasmus Dahlin	D	1
	Filip Zadina	F	2
	Brady Tkachuk	F	3
	Andrei Svechnikov	F	4
	Adam Boqvist	D	5
	Quinn Hughes	D	6
	Noah Dobson	D	7
	Oliver Wahlstrom	F	8
	Evan Bouchard	D	9
	Ty Smith	D	10
	Joel Farabee	F	11
	Bode Wilde	D	12
	Joseph Veleno	F	13
	Jared McIssac	D	14
	Jesperi Kotkaniemi	F	15
	Serron Noel	F	16
	Martin Kaut	F	17
	Barrett Hayton	F	18
	Ryan McLeod	F	19
	Akil Thomas	F	20
	Vitali Kravtsov	F	21
	K'Andre Miller	D	22
	Isac Lundestrom	F	23
	Rasmus Sandin	D	24
	Mattias Samuelsson	D	25
	Grigori Denisenko	F	26
	Benoit-Olivier Groulx	F	27
	Adam Ginning	D	28
	Rasmus Kupari	F	29
	Ryan Merkley	D	30
	Jonny Tychonick	D	31