It’s Day 9 of Sports Blog Nation’s mock NHL Entry Draft and the Bruins, Islanders and Hurricanes get their turn. Here is where some notable players who have slipped down get happily snapped up by team who will surely suggest they did not expect them to be around.
Stanley Cup Of Chowder’s Evan, on behalf of the Bruins, likely didn’t expect sizable Guelph Storm center Peter Holland waiting to don the gold and black. Here’s the juice on Holland as he sees it:
“Holland is a great skater, who is gifted offensively. Besides being an offensive threat, Holland is a two-way forward, who knows his responsibilities in his own end of the rink. He saw ice time on both the power play and PK this season. He has good size at 6’2″ 195 lbs and is expected to fill out some more. For whatever reason, his draft stock slipped as the year went on, but I think the Bruins would be happy to see this kid available at #25.”
The New York Islanders have a second first round pick at their disposal, which means Dominik at Lighthouse Hockey got to enjoy this mock excercise twice as much as anyone else. For his fun, he gets to select the third son of a former NHLer, Tim Erixon, son of former Rangers defensive specialist Jan, who played for the Rangers in the 1980s.
“He has the proverbial “already plays with men” tag that is affixed to every draft elligible player from the Swedish Elite League. Although it makes me chuckle, I don’t meant to belittle that attribute – it’s no small feat and bodes well for a young player to be able to hack it in what is called the world’s second best pro league. Erixon is one of the big four Swede blueliners in this draft, and the talk is of a solid defenseman who just might have a high offensive ceilling. Of course we won’t know that, but his defensive stability appears to be worth finding out.”
‘Canes County’s Cory Lavalette has chosen to go with consensus #27 pick, center Drew Shore of the U.S. U-18 team. Hockey Spy likens Shore to the Vancouver Canucks Ryan Kesler. As he puts it, “GM Jim Rutherford wants a banger up front, and Shore’s the best one left Shore may never be a first-liner, but he could be a great complement to smaller and more skilled prospects Zack Boychuk and Drayson Bowman.”
Here’s the Hockey Spy outlook:
“The growing forward has good vision and is a good playmaker. He is an all-around enthusiastic competitor with tons of potential who needs to work on skating, toughness (although he’s not afraid of the physical game) and defensive coverage. Shore registered 37 points in 53 games for the USA U-18 squad. He is headed to University of Denver Pioneers next season.”
| Picks 22-24 | Picks 25-27 | Picks 28-30 |
