-My draft preview was launched a little prematurely earlier this morning (by which I mean I accidentally hit “publish” half way through), but other than a few tweaks it is now essentially done and for those interested in where the collective scouting body believes various players will land you can check it out.
–Bruce Garrioch unloads a big article on the draft where he quotes a couple of people who dislike the talent pool in this year’s draft, “It’s (bleeping) terrible. This year’s draft has to be the worst draft in 12 years. There’s all kinds of factors involved here. No. 1 is the Russian factor because they’ve got lots of options with the Kontinental Hockey League offering big money. No. 2 is the lack of depth factor because there isn’t much here. No. 3, this draft is unpredictable. I get the sense that you might see teams go off the board after No. 10. There is a huge dropoff and that’s when teams might decide that they want to take a chance on another player. Not saying it will happen, but it certainly could. There are just a lot of warts on a lot of the players. There’s just not as many slam-dunk guarantees as there normally are right from the top. If you take some of these guys, you wonder what you’re going to get out of them. Some of these guys could be superstars, but there are nights when they’re completely invisible. There’s a lot of guessing going on — and more than there normally is. Any time you’re going in a draft, it’s always a guessing game because you’re dealing with kids, but you really have to roll the dice in this one here.” For those with the patience to read the entire article towards the bottom you discover that the sun is still shining for other unnamed sources, “It’s not as deep as some previous drafts, but I really do believe that if you do your homework and follow your scouting model that you increase the probability of having a successful draft. The players are there. You’ve got to find them. You’ve got to nurture them. You’ve just got to do your job. I’d say after No. 10 or No. 11, it’s not great. It doesn’t go off the cliff. Depending on your needs, it seems to me there are going to be players there for teams. Sure, not all these players have the high probability to play like many did in other years, but there are still players who are going to be taken after No. 10 or No. 11 that are going to play. You’ve just got to make sure that you go find those guys.” Garrioch then tries to say that not everyone is sold on Nail Yakupov…accept virtually every reputable scouting agency has him as their #1 overall pick. That doesn’t mean he’s going to be the first overall selection, but it’s generally accepted that he’s the best talent in the draft. What’s important for Garrioch is that Yakupov is Russian. For those of you who missed it, Garrioch wants to make sure you know Russians can’t be relied on or trusted (guys like Slava Voynov don’t win the Cup). All you can really take from the gigantic article is that the draft is seen as being not particularly strong. If that perception is widely held than expect a lot of trades as teams dump picks to make moves.
–Sportsnet‘s Ottawa draft preview is posted and they believe the Sens need to add defenseman. Their mock draft has Ottawa selecting Olli Maatta, which if correct would be the first Finn the Sens have taken since 2005’s bust Janne Kolehmainen. Ian Mendes suggests that along with blueliners we should expect the Sens to pick a goalie as well. All in all, there’s no much new.
–Stefan Noesen has been invited to take part in USA Hockey’s summer evaluation camp in advance of the 2013 IIHF world junior championship.
-I’ve deliberately ignored the speculation about Rick Nash coming to Ottawa because I don’t think he has any interest in coming here (the Sens aren’t mentioned in the list of teams who have talked to Columbus). The only interesting thing to come out of the speculation is the following from TSN’s Darren Dreger, “Bryan Murray is in a position to wheel and deal and he will go to the goal and has made it be known that Robin Lehner and Ben Bishop are available. Now what’s the asking price? That’s hard to say. He paid a second round draft pick for Ben Bishop and (Murray’s) not giving him up for less than that, so Ottawa could be a player this week.” I agree with Nichols that this makes little sense and I believe there’s no chance that Lehner will be moved. Perhaps the return to Nashville for Anders Lindback has Murray excited (as Varada discusses).
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