Looking ahead to next week’s NHL draft
Next Friday in Los Angeles NHL teams will gather for the entry draft. As you no doubt already know, Atlanta has nine picks in the seven-round draft…two in the first round as well as two in the fifth.
Boston, Phoenix and Anaheim also have a pair of first-round picks.
Here is a quick recap of where and when the Thrashers will take their turn claiming new prospects for the organization.
In the first round, Atlanta has the 8th overall pick based on their position in the standings last year. Edmonton, Boston, Florida, Columbus, New York Islanders, Tampa Bay and Carolina will pick one through seven prior to the Thrashers first pick.
As for whom the Thrashers might select with that number eight pick… well, if certain stories and studies on the matter are to be believed, we might hear Rick Dudley announce somebody like Ryan Johansen or possibly Nino Niederreiter. Both play for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL.
If the draft plays out in the order NHL.com’s Central Scouting Rankings place these prospects, Medicine Hat’s Emerson Etem will be the player taken.
Atlanta also has the 24th overall pick during the first round. It was obtained from New Jersey in the Kovalchuk deal last February. The two teams also swapped second round picks and so the Thrashers third turn comes in the second round with the 54th overall selection. The Devils will then use the Thrashers 38th overall selection in the second round to make their first pick of the draft.
The Buffalo Sabres have Atlanta’s eighth pick in the third round and fourth rounds, (#s 68 and 98 overall), by way of the trade that sent Clarke MacArthur our way in March. The Thrashers do have the 87th overall in the third round, obtained when Mathieu Schnider was dealt to the Canadiens near the trade deadline in 2009.
In round number four, the Thrashers received the 101st overall from the Stars when Kari Lehtonen was sent packing to Dallas.
Dudley and Co. will then have two picks in the fifth round…the eighth in that round, 128th overall, as well as the final pick of that round, which is the 150th overall. That selection comes from the Chicago Blackhawks who traded it away in exchange for San Jose’s 6th round pick last year which had been previously obtained by the Thrashers.
Finally, rounds six and seven have Atlanta picking with the eighth selections of those rounds…158th and 188th overall.
A couple of other quick notes on the draft…Carolina will have 11 overall draft picks, three in the second round alone, while Edmonton and the Islanders each have 10. San Jose and Dallas only have 4 picks.
Due to the Phil Kessel trade with Boston, Toronto does not pick until the 62nd overall in the third round. The Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers will also have to wait until the third round to make their initial selections…Calgary with the 64th overall and Philly with the 89th, making them the team that waits the longest before making their first selection.
The Chicago Blackhawks are slated to have the final pick of the draft, number 210 in the seventh round.
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77 comments Add your comment
kracker
June 18th, 2010
5:46 pm
New C Viv blog: Dudley reshaping Thrashers’ scouting
It’s about time! (for better scouting, not a new blog)
HookyBob
June 18th, 2010
5:49 pm
Stroz,..vuvuzela “s”..as in plural? You may be ambidextrous but I would like to know how you plan to make noise with the second one. I’m sensing these could be good fundraisers should the Octocluster mess things up yet again.
There’s a chap that brings a very similar looking horn to games. It is very good at getting the crowd cheering,…but quite obnoxoius if you are sitting directly in front of it. I believe it was Rawhide who noted that vuvuzelas exceed airhorns in decibles. Would be quite a sight (ok hearing) if there were so many in Philips that they sounded like a swarm of bees.
I should add that in some folks book, loud, short, fat & ugly are very distinguished characteristics,…as they are indicitve of smart, insightful, and passionate fans.
I also agree with Stroz’s shell game,..need to focus on the bottom line of all 3 entities net together.
Flagstaff
June 18th, 2010
6:42 pm
YES! I also intend to order a Royal Blue Vuvuzela soon. Hopefully they won’t ban them! (And even if they do, there’s always road trips.)
World Be Free
June 18th, 2010
7:38 pm
kracker-something we have been talking about for some time.
World Be Free
June 18th, 2010
7:38 pm
kracker-something we have been talking about for some time.
kracker
June 18th, 2010
10:36 pm
WBF _ Yes, very true. I think scouting is the life blood of sports franchises in any sort of cap operating scenario. Especially for franchises that must operate at less expenditure than the richer clubs. Baseball is way out of whack rich vs poor teams but it makes a big difference if the Thrashers consistently spend several million below the cap and cut corners on scouting and player development, on coaches such as Weeks who we regard as not a top goalie coach.
Get all that straightened out Dudley!!
World Be Free
June 18th, 2010
11:36 pm
kracker-look at teams like New Jersey and Detroit; they find the gems other teams don’t and miss less often on draft picks than teams that we know. Draft and development is so important in a salary cap based league. we hack on Montreal for trading Halak, but they have opened up an opportuntity to resign a key UFA or go after a tier 1 UFA by shedding Halak’s potential salary. I still won’t have made the deal with Halak, but it may work in the long run.
On another subject-head shots and concussions. You deal with the players who are careless, regardless who they are, with stiff suspensions. Concussing a player is denying them the chance to compete and earn a living for no good reason. Don’t be afraid to suspend players for 10 games and get the player’s union to back it. This was not a problem back in the day, the players as individuals would not stand for it.
R. Stroz
June 19th, 2010
12:03 am
Stroz,..vuvuzela “s”..as in plural?
HookyBob – Yes, it’s part of the Stroz Decibel Stimulus plan, charge them, make noise and allocate the extras to whomever I choose at a later point in time.
BTW, HookyBob – You are a genius, even if you could use a few extra pounds.
Red Light
June 19th, 2010
8:04 am
NHL scouts are mid-level civil servants: they hope they will continue to get paid and hope no one notices how badly they do their job. Scouting in not exactly revolutionary and neither are Dudley’s 3 categories: character, hockey sense and speed.
Filing detailed reports: what a novelty? What did they do before, scribble on a cocktail napkin?
Dwayne
June 19th, 2010
10:14 am
sneak the horns in by shoving them down the front of your pants….:-)
World Be Free
June 19th, 2010
4:02 pm
Before I forget, happy Father’s Day to all fathers on the blogs and everywhere. It’s our day to do nothing, until we get orders to get off our butts and get to work.
World Be Free
June 19th, 2010
4:26 pm
The Devils announced Saturday they shipped right-winger Matt Halischuk and a 2011 second-round draft pick to the Nashville Predators for the 35-year-old Arnott.
Arnott had 19 goals and 27 assists in 63 games last season. He scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for the Devils against the Dallas Stars in 2000.
The Real Thrash
June 19th, 2010
4:53 pm
Nice article on top 25 free agents for July 1st.
Several Thrashers on the list. Want to bet how many we resign?
http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/article/2010-06-18/nhl-free-agent-class-has-star-power-not-much-depth
World Be Free
June 19th, 2010
8:33 pm
You have to hand it to the Flyers. When they want a player, they make the move and go out and get him. Dan Hamhuis is the best defensive defenseman in this year’s UFA crop. Philly gave up nothing from their core and got a guy who will challenge for a top 4 defenseman spot. Philadelphia did the same thing a few years back with Nashville, now they are fleecing the Preds again. Seize the opportunity.
R. Stroz
June 19th, 2010
10:40 pm
Filing detailed reports: what a novelty? What did they do before, scribble on a cocktail napkin?
Threw Darts.
Acer
June 20th, 2010
7:07 am
Kracker, there’s saying among the scouting community: “There’s no such thing as a weak draft, only weak scouting.”
Look at the supposedly “weak” 2007 draft. Several teams were able to find solid prospects. With Dudley around I hope that the Thrashers are part of that group.
Red Light
June 20th, 2010
11:37 am
Clearly, Hamhuis thought he was worth more money than the Preds were willing to pay. As such, they get a young player back when they would have gotten nothing in return in 11 days. Nothing wrong with that move and that doesn’t constitute a fleecing in my opinion. It’s protecting an asset even though Parent wasn’t much of a force late in the season and the playoffs for the Flyers. But, the acquisition of Grebeshkov at the deadline was insurance for Hamhuis’ departure from Nashville. The Arnott deal is more intriguing, because he loved playing in Nashville and has been very productive in Nashville, but the Pred shed an additional $4.5 million in salary for Arnott and that gives Poile even more flexibility come July 1. I think both moves make sense for Nashville and now you have to wonder what Holmgren is up to with his roster. More moves to come?
At the very least, neither team is willing to stand pat and wait for the winds to swirl around them. Proactive is better than inactive.
kracker
June 20th, 2010
12:56 pm
Very good point, Acer. Finding gems in mid to late rounds is huge if you can consistently do it. I’m just so interested in seeing how things play out this summer, what Dudley will try do do. I’d like to know what budget he has been given.
Jameson
June 20th, 2010
4:08 pm
I read that with the Hamhuis pick up, signs point to Carter being the odd man out in Philly.
Tom
June 20th, 2010
6:18 pm
Stroz
I like the thinking on the vuvuzelas. We may not have the best team but other teams hate to play in our arena. Maybe we can sponsor the Waddell Vuvuzela Night.
(I call them Waddell Vuvuzelas because they are annoying and do not serve any real purpose.)
Hokey P. Clisters
June 20th, 2010
9:43 pm
Vuvuzelas…………….Vuvuzelas…………..what’s all dis talk bout Vuvuzelas? My friend Elrod seems to think they are a new European import sedan. I told him it was a horn that makes annoying sounds mainly heard at soccer venues. Elrod says that soccer is quite annoying with or without any horns.
I then simply explained to Elrod……..You mess with soccer and and you get the horns…..and that’s no bull.
Dwayne
June 20th, 2010
9:51 pm
right when its time for the idiots to holler “knights” pull your horn out of your pants and blow it.
Dwayne
June 20th, 2010
9:55 pm
I do not know Duds history while starting to rebuild, but the Thrashers don’t have an identity, no coach, Octotards for owners, he might be overly cautious on how to build this team? You rekon? maybe?
Joe Friday
June 21st, 2010
12:53 am
Greetings from the left coast. Freakin Irishman wins Pebble…Tiger got heckled! Loved it thought it was stroz hecklin Waddell.
Sounds like it’s going to be Torchetti like I’ve thought for a while
Sara
June 21st, 2010
7:56 am
Brendan – As Stroz pointed out, there are a lot more expenses to running a sports franchise than player payroll. Advertising. Coaches, management, training staff. Equipment costs. Scouting. And probably the biggest cost outside of payroll – travel.
Stroz – while there should never have been a question that both the Hawks and Thrashers were making payments to arena side of the equation (and shell game or not, that would be proper business procedure), it is highly disturbing to think the arena only recognized a profit of $10M (presuming we can take these numbers at face value and given it’s all we’ve got to work with, we might as well). Although *that* said, wonder where the money came from for the renovations to the suites??
BTW, on a slightly different topic, Andy Strickland stated on Twitter that he’s been told Torchetti has been offered the HC position, has accepted, and they are getting ready to sign the contract. For those not familiar, Strickland covers the Blues, but he, like Russo in Minnesota, keeps well abreast of the NHL as a whole and is usually a very reliable source … unlike others who as Alan suggested, are best left unquoted and used only to line the proverbial bird cage.
J.B.
June 21st, 2010
9:14 am
What’s stricklands twitter link?
Tom
June 21st, 2010
9:56 am
http://twitter.com/andystrickland is the link for Andy Strickland on twitter.