Draft Insider – November Update
Only one month has passed, yet there are so many exciting things to report, we just don’t know where to start.
After a rather ambiguous October, the dust is clearing and we’re beginning to pick up on the contenders and the pretenders for the draft, so we decided to celebrate our revelation by unleashing a top 100 list, fresh with a crop of names to consider as honourable mentions.
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While comprising the top 100, we faced a conundrum here at McKeen’s – considering that so many youngsters are lumped together in terms of potential, it seems almost unfair to leave off some of the players that were oh-so-close to making the list. So, we decided to give you the heads-up early with an extended number of mentions. We’ve got everyone from Alex Ovechkin to Sergei Karetin, Rostislav Olesz to Lukas Vomela, Robbie Schremp to Jacob Micflikier.
Although we are firmly content with the same top five as last month, many changes were made to the first round rankings. An interesting battle will be between the two top goalies for this draft – behemoth Devan Dubnyk (sixth) now sits only two spots ahead of the unorthodox wunderkind Marek Schwarz. Having a very solid season, the explosive Lauri Tukonen enters the top 10 and now sits in the ninth position. Notre Dame’s hulking no-nonsense rearguard Wes O'Neill makes a big move to number seven. But making a rapid ascent up our list into the first round is the pugnacious Lewiston winger Alexandre Picard.
We have updated our monthly newsletter – Who’s Hot/Who’s Not – where we have the lowdown on roughly forty names in the news for the draft. We have a segment on some of the more promising Russians for the draft, complete with direct quotes from our scouts, we give kudos to the draft’s undersized (yet spunky) gems in homage of last year’s first-round picks Zach Parise and Jeff Tambellini and, as usual, we included the usual dosage of reports on the "hot" and the "not".
A new entry to our newsletter is a segment called "Under the Radar" where we outline the names of the underrated and the unheralded.
Sample: An absolute gem is CSKA’s all-around defender Kirill Lyamin. The rock-solid, instinctive (although somewhat slight for his size - 178 pounds for a 6-2 frame) blueliner is combative, crafty and mature. Smooth skater has above-average straight-away speed and moves well backwards with a good feel of the puck, terrific vision and a crisp first pass out of the zone. Take-charge rearguard is brainy - he has range and reads the play well. Needs to add some meat to the bones and get tougher mentally in clutch situations. Has the tools to become a complete player ...
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