Calgary Draft Picks:
#16 – Juuso Valimaki
#109 – Adam Ruzicka
#140 – Zach Fischer
#171 – D’Artagnan Joly
#202 – Filip Sveningsson

Calgary needed a top-four defence prospect who can quarterback a powerplay in a few years, and managed to find just that with the sage selection of Juuso Valimaki at 16th overall.

Valimaki is dangerous in the offensive zone thanks to his puck skills, vision and cannon shot. He has lots of options when he has the puck, and utilizes all of them, especially on the powerplay. Despite playing on a Tri-City team with few natural scorers besides Michael Rasmussen, who missed the final two months of the season, Valimaki managed to collect 22 assists on the powerplay and helped turn Morgan Geekie into a 35-goal scorer. Look for that assist total to reach 30 or more next season as Valimaki quite likely becomes the top-scoring defenceman in the WHL in his final junior season.

It’s Valimaki’s play without the puck that will still need refining before he’s ready for NHL action as the sturdy blueliner has issues with his lateral agility that were especially noticeable at the U-20’s when he was facing the fastest junior players on the planet and was prone to being caught flat-footed. He can also run around too much in his own end, and that’s a habit that will hopefully get broken with experience.

Calgary’s remaining four selections all came after the top 100, and considering how late in the draft they were picking the Flames managed to get good value with those picks.

Sarnia Sting center Adam Ruzicka was one of the draft big droppers as last summer many considered him to be a first-round candidate. Despite being able to score some flashy goals this season and demonstrating his offensive skills to the scouting world, Ruzicka struggled to take care of the defensive part of his game, largely because he did not compete at a level that he will need to reach to one day earn an NHL spot.

Justifiably passed over in the previous two drafts, it’s safe to say that fifth-round pick Zach Fischer blossomed into a power-forward prospect as a 19-year-old. After compiling 23 points and 38 penalty minutes in his first two WHL seasons Fischer scored 34 goals and added 145 penalty minutes in a breakthrough season in Medicine Hat.

Fischer used his size, strength and shot to overpower WHL defencemen and goalies this season, and the Flames will be hoping that he can step into the WHL next season and do the same. He may need a year at the ECHL level to work on his skating unless he has a very good offseason in that regard…there will need to be a significant improvement in that department before he’s close to competing for an NHL job.

D’Artagnan Joly has the wingspan, skating, shot and puck skills to develop into a decent pro prospect if he can put on the requisite muscle and learn to compete at a much higher level. Skinny and weak, scouts would like to see him get much stronger and start showing a willingness to go to the dirty areas.

Filip Sveningsson is yet another prospect with above-average skills that will need to get stronger and work on his defensive game and competitiveness. Despite putting up good numbers in Swedish junior the skilled winger was never invited to play in any U-18 events because of those concerns about his willingness to play a 200-foot game and be responsible away from the puck. Well worth a seventh-round pick considering his skill set.

Grade – C : As one of the few teams with just one pick in the top 100, Calgary nevertheless was able to address a huge need on defence with that one high selection in Valimaki. He will step into a top-four slot on Calgary’s defence as soon as his lateral agility is up to NHL standards and pile up a lot of points as one of Calgary’s offensice defencemen. He also has the size, competitiveness and work ethic to work on his defensive game enough to become a force on the defensive end as well.

With the exception of Fischer, Calgary focused on skilled players late in the draft who need to learn the work habits necessary to be trusted by NHL coaches enough in the future to earn a spot in the lineup. Ruzicka is the best best as he already has a pro body and skills…there will have to be huge gains in his effort away from the puck, however.

Arizona Draft picks:

#23 – Pierre-Olivier Joseph
#44 – Filip Westerlund
#69 – Mackenzie Entwistle
#75 – Nate Schnarr
#82 – Cam Crotty
#108 – Noel Hoefenmayer
#126 – Michael Karow
#128 – Tyler Steenbergen
#190 – Erik Walli Walterholm

The Coyotes entered the draft with a prime opportunity to fortify the young core on the wing and defence. Gabe Vilardi was available at seventh overall and would have been a nice addition on Arizona’s top line in a couple of years alongside Max Domi and Clayton Keller. Instead the Coyotes chose to trade the pick for yet another center with top-two upside in Derek Stepan, the only difference being that this one was already well established and is expected to step into the first-line center role to take the pressure off of Clayton Keller and Christian Dvorak, and presumably allow Dylan Strome to spend some time in the minors working on his skating.

With Stepan’s addition the club is quite loaded at center, and a sign that GM John Chayka wasn’t prepared to be patient in allowing the young core to go through some more growing pains – he wants the club to compete sooner rather than later. It may help the team win more now, but the move may hurt the club significantly in the long run. Next year’s draft will be loaded at the top with high-end defencemen. If Arizona misses out on the elite ones because they become a competitive team that still misses out on the playoffs, it may help at the ticket office…but five years down the road they may still be in that situation – missing out on the playoffs as a treadmill team. Alas…Chayka is a young GM in a market where rumours of the team moving have been rampant for years due to an tenuous southern fan base in a non-hockey market that’s supposed to support a team that has had one good playoff run.

On the positive side, the Coyotes did address a major need as the club added five defencemen in the top 126 picks, with the peach of the bunch being Pierre-Olivier Joseph, a smart puck-moving defenceman who needs to add some beef to his slender frame before he can compete for an NHL position. Expected to go anywhere from 20 to 35 as he’s very raw and you have to hope that a lot of things go well in his development in terms of getting the strength to improve his speed enough to defend capably at the NHL level. His poise in making a smart, no-nonsense first pass out of his own zone will endear him to his pro coaches.

Filip Westerlund was a curious selection for some at 44th overall as he’s a 5-11 defenceman with limited offensive upside who will never be a physical defender at his size. As a rule, players taken in the top 50 have more long-term upside, but he’s a pretty safe pick who has the smarts and mobility to procure a bottom-line position on the Coyotes in a few years given how the game has changed in recent years. No longer do third-pairing defencemen have to be big plodding bruisers as teams are looking for mobile puck movers throughout the lineup. Westerlund has already proven that he can play against men as he was a regular on Frolunda’s blueline for most of the season, so he’s a good bet to play for Arizona some day – just don’t expect much offence or edge to his game.

Arizona got good value with the selection of Mackenzie Entwistle in the third round as he has the raw physical skills and competitiveness to play at the NHL level, perhaps in a third-line role. Given that the Coyotes are stocked at center he may ultimately end up on the wing, giving the team another option to take faceoffs and play center on the penalty kill. Much like Westerlund, Entwistle has limited offensive upside but was a safe pick as he’s expected to be able to play at the pro level.

Nate Schnarr in the third round looks like a bit of a reach given how disappointing he was in Guelph, the Top Prospects Game, and in the U-18’s. A player once touted as a first-round possibility, Schnarr simply underachieved and disappointed this season….the sum doesn’t appear to equal the parts. That said…Arizona will hope that it was just a poor season and that the rangy center will find his way in the OHL as a 19-year-old.

Cam Crotty at 82nd overall may have been their best value pick in the draft. Ranked ahead of Westerlund on Recrutes draft list, Crotty is a long-term project with excellent mobility and decent hockey sense who will be given lots of time to develop at Boston University. What makes him more intriguing than players the Coyotes picked ahead of him is his upside…he may turn out to be the best player drafted by Arizona with the possible exception of Joseph, but there is also some risk of course. Well worth the gamble midway through the third round.

Noel Hoefenmayer is a smart, competitive junior defenceman who anticipates the play well and will keep producing at the junior level, but he is undersized and has definite skating issues that will need plenty of work before he can defend at the pro level.

Michael Karow is a solid defender who, along with Crotty, may end up being the best value pick of the Coyotes’ draft haul given that he was chosen in the fifth round. He brings good size and skating skills, defends well and has decent competitiveness. What he lacks in offensive skills he makes up for in his own end…he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes and keeps it simple. Don’t be surprised if Karow ends up competing for a bottom-pairing role in Arizona after attending a great program at Boston College.

Tyler Steenbergen was another solid pick in the fifth round after an eye-opening 50-goal campaign for Swift Current in his second year of draft eligibility. A little on the short side, Steenbergen is a sturdy winger who won his coach’s confidence in all situations both offensively and defensively. His shot is his main weapon and what will perhaps one day give him a decent shot at the NHL level as teams are always in need of goals.

Draft Grade – B- : The addition of Derek Stepan undoubtedly helps the team in the short-term, but at what long-term expense? Arizona is not likely deep enough to compete for the playoffs next season, so what will the addition of Stepan achieve other than perhaps making the team strong enough to finish ahead of the NHL bottom feeders and miss out on a good shot at adding Rasmus Dahlin? The odds of teams outside of the bottom three once again winning the draft lottery next season are infinitesimal.

One more year of growing pains as Keller and Strome develop was likely the best way to go, but GM Chayka faces some pressures in regards to pleasing a tenuous fan base and a relatively new owner that may not look kindly to having a GM that showed little if any improvement in his first 2-3 years at the helm. The bottom line is that a team which entered the draft with a top-ten pick and two selections in the top 25 did not leave the draft with a player ranked in Recrutes first round. Chayka refers to Stepan as a “true first-line center”, yet it would not be surprising to see Keller assume that role within a year. On a contending team Stepan should be no better than a second-line center.

The Coyotes chose one player in Recrutes top 50 and two in the top 60. Crotty presented the best value in Recrutes rankings, being chosen 20 spots after he was ranked, and the only pick that represented true value among their nine selections.

Here is a look at Vancouver’s organizational needs and possible draft targets:

Draft Picks:
#5
#33
#55
#64
#95
#112
#188

Vancouver joined Colorado as one of the big losers in the draft lottery as the club fell from second overall and a sure shot at one of the two coveted centers in the draft in Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier down to the fifth overall selection.

On the positive side, the third-rated center prospect will likely be on the board when the Canucks pick, and it just so happens that the club has a pressing long-term need to fortify that position as Henrik Sedin is getting a little long in the tooth. If, as expected, the top two defencemen join Hischier and Patrick as the top-four selections, Portland center Cody Glass will be a terrific consolation prize for a club that could look forward to a solid one-two punch of Bo Horvat and Glass down the middle in a couple of years.

Glass was 5-9, 138 when Portland drafted him in the first round of the WHL 2014 bantam draft. He has sprouted to almost 6-2 and is still growing into his body. Scouts are confident the speed issues he has are strictly a matter of strength as his skating mechanics and stride are solid. He is expected to become a decent skater, and when that happens, Vancouver will have a well-rounded prospect with terrific smarts, vision and puck skills who is one of the elite playmakers in this draft.

The Canucks have three more picks in the top 65, so they will be hoping to add at least four prospects who can play in Vancouver some day. At 33rd overall a prospect the team ranked in the first round will most assuredly be available, and it’s anybody’s guess who that might be. There are several wingers who could go anywhere from 20 to 35, and the Canucks would have no issues adding another forward piece who could vie for a top-six along with Glass in 2-3 years.

If Kailer Yamamoto, as many scouts suspect, falls out of the first round, the Canucks may consider taking a chance on the 5-7 winger who does nothing but produce, having accumulated the most points of any draft-eligible prospect (170) in the past two seasons. A late birthday who already has three WHL seasons under his belt, it may appeal to the Canucks to grab a player who will turn pro after one more junior season and compete for an NHL roster spot in 2018-19.

Other wingers who would be serious candidates to end up in a Canucks uniform if available at 33 would include Eeli Tolvanen, Filip Chytil, Jesper Boqvist, Isaac Ratcliffe and Klim Kostin. It’s unlikely that all of them get selected in the first round as defencemen and centers always hold more value, and if any are still on the board at 33rd the Canucks may indeed be adding a winger.

Tolvanen and Kostin are the least likely to drop to the second round, yet there are plenty of NHL scouts who contend that they would not take a chance on either in the first round. In the second…teams are more likely to look at a riskier player, and while both have solid offensive upside, they are not without their warts and concerns. Tolvanen is undersized and one-dimensional, but that dimension is scoring goals, and a club like Vancouver will welcome that if he falls out of the first. Kostin brings the risk of being an enigmatic Russian…and for those prospects the KHL option is always in the picture, and something that may scare off teams in the first round.

Defence is the other serious option for Vancouver at 33rd overall if any are at the top of its list when the second round gets underway, and possibilities could include Nicolas Hague, Cal Foote, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Henri Jokiharju. Hague and Foote were once thought to be top-ten prospects and are the least likely to be available as teams may forgive the skating issues and draft them because of their size and smarts. Both put up good stats and may have some powerplay potential if they can improve their footwork, and Foote is already decent on the defensive end when he’s not pressured by speed. Hague has a cannon shot that should get him goals at any level, but he will have to keep working on his agility and own-zone play.

Joseph and Jokiharju are the most likely candidates to be available at 33 who could end up in Vancouver, and both also have enough offensive ability to compete for a second-line pairing on the Canucks after three or four years of seasoning. Joseph’s main issue is a lack of girth; at 6-2 and 166 pounds he’s got to get stronger before he can play at the pro level. Jokiharju stepped into the WHL as a rookie and by season’s end looked like a three-year veteran. Smart, skilled and poised, he will be Portland’s go-to defenceman next season in all situations.

At 55th and 64th overall the Canucks will most certainly go with the best player available regardless of position as there is a good bet that a player in their top 40 will still be on the board as NHL draft lists are always quite varied. There are a number of defencemen ranked 40-60 by Recrutes that could interest the club at 55 an 64, including Ian Mitchell, Dmitri Samorukov, Cale Fleury, Mario Ferraro, David Farrance and Dylan Samberg.

Forwards in the mix may include Matt Strome, Nikita Popugaev, Mackenzie Entwistle, Zach Gallant, Grant Mismash, Jack Studnicka, Alex Lipanov and Jonah Gadjovich. Each has their warts – forwards with good offensive potential like Gadjovich and Strome have major work to do on their skating as does Popugaev, who also has to overcome issues with consistency and work ethic. Mismash and Studnicka are pretty good all-around prospects who should vie for third-line duties in the NHL, and Entwistle and Gallant both project to be shutdown-type centers with good intangibles.

Here is a look at Toronto’s organizational needs and possible draft targets:

Draft Picks:
#17
#59
#110
#124
#141
#172
#203

Since Mark Hunter has joined the organization the Leafs have done a tremendous job of rebuilding a team that has been in dire need of injecting young high-end talent into the lineup since Wendel Clark was chosen first overall.

It wasn’t overly difficult deciding on Auston Matthews first overall or even Mitch Marner at four given how well Hunter knew his former London Knights’ player, but the club had 20 draft selections in 2015 and 2016 for the first two-year period since 2001-02, and while the jury is still out on a lot of those picks, there are at least a half dozen who should help the team down the line, and any time you can get three or more future NHLers from a draft, including first-liners, you have been successful.

It will be tougher to get three or more future Leafs out of this year’s draft as the club only has two top-100 picks, but at 17th overall Toronto should be able to fill a long-term team need, and the one which stands out at this time is defence. Toronto had nine picks in the top 70 in the last two drafts, and only used two of them on defencemen. Other than Travis Dermott there are no defencemen in the system who are decent bets to be top-four blueliners, so the emphasis may well be on finding one in the first round of this draft.

Working in Toronto’s favour is that odds are high that there will be at least one or two of the second tier of defencemen still available at 17. After the top two defencemen (Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar), it is expected that there will be a run on forwards as Recrutes has no blueliners ranked between five and 15.

The most likely candidates to be taken at 17 would be Urho Vaakanainen, Timothy Liljegren, Conor Timmins and Juuso Valimaki, with an outside chance that Cal Foote and Erik Brannstrom are also considered. Vaakanainen rose to the third slot of a lot of NHL scouts’ defence lists after a terrific showing at the U-18’s, and he would add speed, smarts and a sound two-way game to the Leafs lineup in a couple of seasons after he gains some more muscle. One of the safer defence picks in this draft, he also has the upside to challenge for a top-three spot on the Leafs blueline down the road.

Liljegren is another possibility given his skating ability and previous reputation for being an offensive threat even if he didn’t show that side of his game often this season. Once thought to be a top-two consideration for the draft, the talented Swedish blueliner struggled for most of the season after returning from a bout with mononucleosis, and there is a decent chance that he will be there at 17, and give the Leafs’ scouting staff a strong reason to debate on whether he will be worth the gamble. If he can get his game turned around there is certainly the physical potential in his game to be a top-three defenceman, but a Leafs team with just two picks in the top 100 may lean towards a safer selection.

Timmins is a pretty safe bet to be a top-five NHL defenceman, but also has the smarts, vision and passing skills to be a top-three if he can gain some quickness. The OHL blueliner made huge strides this season, and if the improvement continues there’s no reason to believe he can’t be a solid powerplay contributor who fits into a second-pairing in the NHL in two or three years. Working in Timmins’ favour is that Leafs’ assistant GM Kyle Dubas was the GM of Sault Ste. Marie when Timmins was drafted by the club, so he will have intimate details on the players’ character and upside.

Valimaki may have the most offensive upside of any of the second defence group, and there is certainly no question about whether he will be able to see powerplay time in the NHL. His shot and passing skills are elite; it’s his play without the puck and agility that will have to be developed before he’s trusted to play a significant role 5-on-5 at the NHL level.

Foote is another defenceman who dropped in his draft year, and it’s unclear where exactly he will end up being drafted, but the Leafs may feel his skating deficiencies can be overcome with time. If that’s the case, he would be a good addition to the club as a 6-4 shutdown-type defender with smarts who could also see some powerplay time on a second unit.

Later in the second round the Leafs will look to add the BPA to a farm system that has been well restocked in the past couple of drafts at every position with the possible exception of goal. There are several defencemen with top-five upside that may still be on the board at 59 including Mario Ferraro, Dmitri Samorukov, Dylan Samberg, Cale Fleury and David Farrance, so it would not be a surprise to see the Leafs add a rearguard with both of their top picks. The parent team is well stocked with young forwards and there are several others on the way, so defence could, and should, be a priority for the club. As the old hockey saying goes…you can never have too many defencemen.

Fleury is the highest-ranked defenceman by Recrutes in that group, and if he is still there at 59 the Leafs would be well served to select him as he has top-four NHL upside. Fleury is flying under the radar in a lot of scouting circles because he played on one of the worst teams in the CHL in Kootenay, and received very few scouting views in comparison to other WHL prospects. His -61 plus/minus may scare off a lot of teams but that most certainly was more a product of his environment than of his skill or hockey sense.

Toronto will have five picks in the mid and late rounds, and the hope will be to add a darkhorse prospect or two that can beat the odds and challenge for an NHL spot with time. Don’t be surprised to see the club add another goalie or two with those picks. There should still be some decent ones on the board at 110; perhaps Tomas Vomacka, Matthew Villalta or Dayton Rasmussen is still available, and any of those three would be a nice addition to a club that could use the depth.