Pretty much all of the content we’ve produced from the draft is either here on the blog or on the Draft Central page. I’m working on one or two more things and then taking a much-needed break. After I’ve had some time to read over more about the picks I’ll share more of my thoughts.
The Thrashers drafted nine players this weekend. Seven were forwards. Two were defensemen. One is a goalie. Broken down by nationality we got one Swede (Klingberg), two Americans (Morin and Samuels-Thomas), and seven six Canadians (everyone else). Klingberg will play in Europe next season. Samuels-Thomas will go to Bowling Green to play college hockey. Everyone else is playing junior hockey unless they (and by they I mean Evander Kane) make the Thrashers. Morin will join Pasquale, Chiarot, and Sol in the OHL. Kane, Bubnick, and Koper are WHL guys.
Bubnick and Koper were rated as second-round picks by the Thrashers and other scouts so to be able to get them in the sixth and seventh rounds was huge. Klingberg and Morin are both steals as second-round picks. Two of the three NHL.com mock drafts had Klingberg as a late first-round pick. To get both of them along with Kane is a giant win for the Thrashers.
Morin is good friends with Zach Bogosian. Klingberg plays with Nicklas Lasu in Sweden. All of the picks are expected to attend prospect camp, but don’t expect confirmation of that for a little while. Ben Chiarot is a nasty, physical defenseman who Dan Marr says is almost unbeatable one-on-one. I’m really looking forward to seeing how all these guys look at prospect camp in July.
You may or may not have noticed the Don Waddell and Dan Marr recap videos. Both are worth your time in my opinion. Don mentions in his that the groundwork for some trades involving roster players has been laid and he has suggested that there could be some action before free agency starts on Wednesday. Teams know what cap space they have to work with now (the new cap number is $100,000 above last year’s) so some will start shedding salary now. We’re in a prime position to take on some salary so there might be deals to be had that way.
It’s been an exciting weekend and the action should continue through Wednesday and maybe into the long weekend. The traffic and feedback on the blog and the site have been great this weekend. Thanks for stopping by and keep coming back.
Do you think Rick Dudley played much of a role in the picks? Based on your experience with how we have drafted in the past, I’d like to know if there were any specific picks that might have been influenced by Dudley.
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Thanks for all the hard work keeping us up to speed, Ben. Now go get some rest. It’s obvious you need it…7+2+1=10. Thanks again…
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Great job from Montreal this week, guys. The video that followed Evander through the post-draft stuff was really cool. Looking forward to hearing about FA negotiations and everything else we’ve got going on.
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I gotta say Ben, this is perhaps the most optimistic I’ve ever been following the draft on the whole. Just from the draft it seems like we’ve got a few guys who will be significant pieces down the road, along with Kane for the (roughly) immediate future.
Couple that with the strong finish last season and I’d say we just genuinely might be, dare I say? “moving in the right direction” for real this time. I’m looking forward to FA season, even if we stand pat.
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