Yesterday, Sports Blog Nation’s mock NHL Entry Draft continued, as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars and Ottawa Senators sites selected three NHL bona fines for their respective teams.
Pension Plan Puppets (the most aptly named of SBN’s sites) started things off in a blogger consensus manner, similar in fashion to past Leafs regimes who gathered organizations brains together to reach a conclusion. To that end, Chemmy and PPP, after much consternation, make their pick while mourning the loss of Brian Burke types Jared Cowan and Brayden Schenn.
The Puppets selected Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson for two main reasons – possibly to give Bob Cole a heart attack, and because they felt he had the most upside of the available players remaining. While I have my doubts this would be Burke’s guy in a similar scenario, Svesson has all the makings of a top line forward in Toronto’s projected plans. PPP lays it out this way:
“Magnus provides the Leafs with the top-end talent among the forward ranks that has been missing since his countryman (eventually) decided that he wanted to see what all of the “Vancouver is so rainy” was all about. No, he didn’t put up over a point a game last year but he also wasn’t playing against boys. Some of the highlights include his work to improve his ability to create offence at full speed, his love for everything that the NHL game offers, and a thoughtful response to whether he’d be ready to come over next year. It’s certainly tough to know how things will play out at the draft but this is one scenario that I would be happy seeing firsthand. If he’s as good as the last highly touted Swedish forward the Leafs picked up I’ll be glad to worship him as I watch him re-write the team’s record books before hating his guts for at least five years.”
Brandon Worley at Defending Big D feel the Dallas Stars would be getting a steal of a pick by landing Oliver Ekman-Larsson of the Leksand IF team of the Hockey Allsvenskan Swedish League. Quote Worley:
“Potential is the key word when evaluating OEL. He’s just 17 years old, and most like won’t play in the NHL for at least another year. But his potential to be a dominating defenseman in the NHL is so high, teams are more than willing to use a high pick on him to secure him for the near future.”
The Ottawa Senators, represented by the Silver Seven site, selected a player they feel will make mature into solid second line pivot behind Jason Spezza in a matter of years. Silver Seven’s Peter R is quite enthused to see Kitchener Rangers center Nazem Kadri in a Senators uniform. Offensively skilled, but still filling out, Kadri has a solid package of pro tools to develop from.
“Kadri is a skilled centreman with good moves, even if he is a little undersized at 6’0” and 175 lbs. Still, considering the kid’s only 18 and still has time to fill out his frame, Kadri may very well develop into a top-line, or at least a top-six, forward in the NHL. He also injects some much-needed offensive depth into the Senators’ development system, which had focussed on defencemen at last year’s draft and looks pretty strong on the back-end today. It seems unlikely that Kadri will jump into the NHL for next season, and almost as unlikely that he’ll even play for the Binghamton Senators of the AHL. Still, when he does take the step into the professional ranks, he will offer Bingo another offensive weapon to use, and eventually offer the Senators a second-line scoring centre that the franchise has never really had–assuming Jason Spezza sticks around as the first-line centre.”
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