Draft Day 2011

The NHL draft begins tonight with the 1st round selections taking place and the remaining picks going tomorrow. And this has recently become one of the busier drafts in a while, with tons of trade rumours and a deep draft class that keeps people like me stuck to Twitter and the rest of the Internet trying to find news. In is blog post I'm going to make my top 5 player selections based on where each team sits now, not factoring any potential trades amongst the top 5 picks. Since this draft is so deep, the ultimate order will be decided on which position needs to be filled by the team drafting, and not as much on which player is "the best". I'll also offer my thoughts on the Philadelphia Flyers big moves yesterday and speculate on what happens next for them.

The 1st overall selection for the second time in a row is the Edmonton Oilers. Last year they took Taylor Hall, and also added Jordan Eberle, Magnus Pajarvi and Linus Omark to their offensive push. So this year I think they need to focus on defence and will take Adam Larson with the 1st pick. He is being compared to Nick Lidstrom and that is exactly what Edmonton needs right now. He is a good skater, very offensive and experienced having played in the top league in his home country of Sweden. This guy is who Edmonton wants and needs and expect his name to be called first tonight.

The 2nd overall pick this year goes to the Coloado Avalanche. This is an interesting team. Two years ago they drafted Matt Duchene with the 3rd pick, made the playoffs and then fell all the way back to 29th again. Snce they traded away big forward Chris Stewart to St. Louis at the deadline, they will be looking to replace him with another big winger. That player is Gabriel Landeskog. Another Swede, but a player who has played for the OHL's Kitchener Rangers, Landeskog is big, skilled and a scorer. If they have him driving the net and Matt Duchene feeding him passes, their offence will improve greatly. So that's who will go at number 2.

The 3rd pick belongs to the Florida Panthers and this is where we see that the best players won't always go first. In this case he will go 3rd. Almost every scout has rated Ryan Nouget-Hopkins as the best player in the draft but he doesn't really fit with what Edmonton or Colorado need. He will however, work in Florida. They need a young star center to score highlight reel goals and draw crowds in. Nugent-Hopkins can do that. Though he is not very heavy, he can still score a lot and should be a big help in the Panthers' rebuild.

The 4th pick belongs to the New Jersey Devils who probably weren't expecting this when they signed Ilya Kovalchuck to a monster deal last summer. But they are here now and are going to select the next best defenceman available Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton is a good two way defender which was greatly missed by the Devils when Paul Martin signed with Pittsburgh last summer. Their weakness last season was goals against and Hamilton should help fix that.

The 5th pick this year belongs to the New York Islanders and I think they are going to take Jonathan Huberdeau. Last year they took Nino Niederreiter, a big winger, so with this pick they will take a center and complete their 2 forward lines. Huberdeau is more defensive minded than John Tavares but he can still score which is always good. He was also named the Memorial Cup MVP a couple weeks ago so you can be certain he has skill.

So that's my top five for this years draft. Like I mentioned above, look for teams to draft more on position than talent because the pool is so deep. It will be exciting to watch it all unfold tonight in Minnesota.

But besides the draft, many teams and especially the Philadelphia Flyers, have been busy mixing up their rosters. Yesterday, less than an hour apart, both Jeff Carter and Mike Richards were traded from the Flyers. Carter was sent to the Columbus Blue Jackets where he is expected to help Rick Nash with the offence that team needs. And Richards went to the LA Kings, who gave up prospect Brayden Schen to get him. Then they signed recently acquired goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a new 9 year contract. It was a flurry of action and a very exciting time to be a hockey writer but now that the dust has settled it's time to see where Philly sits now. They acquired the 8th overall pick from Columbus and certainly will use it to try to get another forward, but what happens next season? After the Carter trade, which they also acquired winger Jakob Vorachek in, I thought they were destined to win it all next season. But then Richards was gone to and it suddenly seems like there is a gapping whole in their offence. Sure Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyke can provide some scoring but I'm not sure how much. I am sure long term this team will be good again but I don't know if a massive dismantling like that was actually needed. Speculation is that their was a conflict of interest in the dressing room but both and brand new long term deals. I know both LA and Columbus will be greatly improved by acquiring those players but it will take longer to determine if Philly made the right moves.

I hope to have another post on Sunday talking about happens at the draft, including trades and the draft itself. You can follow me on twitter at jbenny15 where I will be providing instant updates throughout the weekend festivities. Until next time, thanks for reading.