<div align="center"></div> I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread about this already. The NHL Entry Draft will take place for the next two days. There's 7 rounds, so there'll be a lot of players picked that nobody really knows about towards the end, but the first few rounds are where its really intriguing. Steve Stamkos is clearly the premiere prospect this year and the no-brainer for the Lightning. After him, there's an excellent group of young defensemen that could go quite early. I'll update the first few posts with a summary of how the draft has commenced so far. The subsequent posts will have some previews, scouting reports, and mock drafts. Let's try to keep all our discussion about the draft in this one thread. <div align="center"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><u>TEAM PREVIEWS</u> </div></span> Anaheim Ducks draft preview Atlanta Thrashers draft preview Boston Bruins draft preview Buffalo Sabres draft preview Calgary Flames draft preview Carolina Hurricanes draft preview Chicago Blackhawks draft preview Colorado Avalanche draft preview Columbus Blue Jackets draft preview Dallas Stars draft preview Detroit Red Wings draft preview Edmonton Oilers draft preview Florida Panthers draft preview Los Angeles Kings draft preview Minnesota Wild draft preview Montreal Canadiens draft preview Nashville Predators draft preview New Jersey Devils draft preview New York Islanders draft preview New York Rangers draft preview Ottawa Senators draft preview Philadelphia Flyers draft preview Phoenix Coyotes draft preview Pittsburgh Penguins draft preview San Jose Sharks draft preview St. Louis Blues draft preview Tampa Bay Lightning draft preview Toronto Maple Leafs draft preview Vancouver Canucks draft preview Washington Capitals draft preview
<div align="center">Crop of defensemen grabbing attention</div> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>OTTAWA - It might surprise some hockey fans that Steven Stamkos is not the prospect the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau believes is most ready to step into the league. He's been receiving all the attention heading into the NHL draft and for good reason - the Tampa Bay Lightning have all-but said they'll select Stamkos first overall and many believe he's destined to become a star. However, there are also some good players behind him who might also be ready to help an NHL team as soon as next season. Defencemen Zach Bogosian and Drew Doughty each think they'll be ready to take that step with the team that calls their name on Friday night (7 p.m. ET).</div> <div align="center">Source: Yahoo!Sports</div>
<div align="center">Stamkos' smarts winning scouts over</div> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>What fans like about Steven Stamkos shows up on score sheets and highlight reels. What NHL scouts like about him fans might not notice. You don't have to watch many Sarnia Sting games to appreciate what Stamkos brings to the table. Pick any game, and he'll have a couple of sensational shifts that justify his status as the top-ranked player eligible for the 2008 NHL entry draft. Sarnia opened the Ontario Hockey League playoffs on the road against the surging Windsor Spitfires. Stamkos set the tone for the series in the first 20 minutes of Game 1 with the stuff you can't miss: two goals, both on breakaways. The first was a roof job on the backhand side; the second, short-handed no less, was a deke going the other way. Each silenced the crowd. After the game, scouts were talking about Stamkos' other shifts, about what he did without the puck. "Most top junior forwards have to learn how to find their end of the rink," one Eastern Conference scout said. "They're ranked at the top on the strength of the offensive game, but Stamkos is the rare kid who also knows what to do defensively and is willing to do it. People are going to go home thinking about those goals, but what stuck with me was the way, in a close game, he skated back to break up a 2-on-1. He passed everybody on the ice, like he saved an extra gear for his defensive responsibilities." Scouts give Stamkos the highest possible marks for his hockey smarts -- you'll wait all game long for him to make a bad decision or mental error. He also gets the points for book smarts, winning the OHL award as the league's top student-athlete last season. And then, there's the social intelligence, what sometimes passes for character, but is a matter of understanding the character of others. He figured out by fifth grade what some pros never do.</div> <div align="center">Source: Espn.com</div>
Awesome job, Chutney! I'm going to check this thread at work tonight. This is like the MLB draft. Except for a very few NCAA players, I've never seen any of these guys play.
<div align="center"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><u>MOCK DRAFTS</u></span></div> <div align="center">Hockey's Future's Mock Draft ESPN's Mock Draft My NHL's Mock Draft Draft Nation's Mock Draft The Hockey News' Mock Draft TSN's Mock Draft National Post's Mock Draft</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ghoti @ Jun 20 2008, 10:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Awesome job, Chutney! I'm going to check this thread at work tonight. This is like the MLB draft. Except for a very few NCAA players, I've never seen any of these guys play.</div> Thanks ghoti. I vaguely remember some of these names from the Juniors, but I'm like you for the most part. The interesting thing though, is that the draft is similar to the trade deadline: team's will go crazy with the wheeling and dealing. Here's a couple links about that (from Yahoo!Sports and ESPN).
I decided to create a separate thread where I would list the picks, to make things less cluttered. You can view that thread here. This will still be for discussion.
For the first time in ages as a Pens fan, I don't really care about the draft. Not only are the picks low in each round, but they traded away their top 3 picks. All those years of top of the draft picks finally paid off.
Every year I find myself being more interested in what the LA Kings are going to do. It hasn't yielded tangible results yet, but they've built a strong minor league team with a bunch of great young players that should come up soon (search for their team review on Hockey's Future to get a sense of it). And for yet another year, they've got some high draft picks. The Maple Leafs are still fuckups, but I'll give credit to Fletcher for moving useless pieces for 2nd and 3rd rounders in the draft. After the first round, they've got quite a few picks to work with. Our media's all hung up on what they'll do in the first round (pretty typical), but what they do in the later rounds will determine how good a draft this will be for them.
THey just said 4 OHL players got picked allready. I didnt know that there was that good of talent up here.
Alex Pietrangelo plays for my cities OHL team, the Niagara Ice Dogs and dates one of my friends. Daultan Leveille also plays here but in Junior B for the St. Catharines Falcons and went in the first round. Big day for our city. Oh yeah, Alex Tanguay for us Canadiens!
11 defencemen taken in the first round. Only two goalies too. Luke Schenn is being treated as the next Sundin on TV haha.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BasX @ Jun 20 2008, 11:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Ice DOgs!!</div> No Niagara Falls Canucks?
