[bigrangy]

Bigrangy's 2017 mock draft 1.0

This is my first pass at a post-lottery mock. I'm pretty confident about the top 6 but after that it gets a little wonky. More research must be done.

1 NJD Patrick All-situations center, NJ prefers him because they already have Hall for the speed
2 PHI Hischier Heiskanen could be picked here, if it was any other team, but PHI is stacked with D prospects and goes with the forward
3 DAL Heiskanen Obvious #3. BPA. Could be traded if they want to accelerate their mini-rebuild while Seguin and Benn are still young
4 COL Vilardi They want a defenseman but none of them are close to BPA. Vilardi will complement their existing forwards very well
5 VAN Glass The Nucks would be absolutely stupid to pass on Glass here (though you could make a case for Pettersson), so expect them to do just that
6 VGK Mittelstadt Skilled forward will put butts in seats and help win hockey games for the league's newest team. Helps Vegas pull off a slow build, since he will definitely be in school for a year or more
7 ARI Makar Go big or go home for Arizona. Makar is an excellent player and fits their biggest need on RHD
8 BUF Tippett Goal scoring winger to play with Eichel or ROR. Evander Kane without the issues if he develops properly
9 DET Pettersson Their highest pick in a generation, Pettersson projects as a super skilled forward. Proven pro production is a plus
10 FLA Suzuki I weep, because there is no way that Suzuki will fall to the Flames. Just another good piece for the growing group of talented forwards in Florida
11 LA Hague LA is in need of a bunch of things, but they look at Hague and love his combination of size, skill, and nastiness
12 CAR Vesalainen Huge u18's rockets him up the board (and past the Flames, sadly) right into the hands of the Canes. He joins a growing group of Finns.
13 WPG Valimaki Best LHD available
14 TB Liljegren Yzerman salivates at a potential Hedman-Liljegren pairing in the future, if any team can make up for Liljegren's many deficiencies, it's Tampa
15 NYI Poehling This one just seems right. I could see this pick traded to VGK in order to help with NYI's expansion situation though.
16 CGY Rasmussen Big, goal scorer, hurr durr truculence
17 TOR Necas The Czech center has been falling after underwhelming at the u18's but Toronto snaps him up here. They'd prefer a D but Necas has skill they can't pass up
18 BOS Thomas Boston goes slightly off the board again with the talented London center. Everyone will laugh at them but this is a solid pick
19 SJ Andersson They're shocked that he is still available and rush to the podium to pick him up. He should make an excellent top-6er longterm alongside Hertl, but the Sharks will need a gamebreaker for the post-Thornton era. They won't find it here
20 STL Tolvanen Slips a bit to 20. St Louis needs all the offensive help they can get and picks up the talented Finn
21 NYR Foote RHD is not a strong suit in the Rangers organization, so they decide to go for the Kelowna product here
22 MON Kostin The Russian invasion of Montreal continues
23 ANA Ratcliffe Big winger impressed at u18s, fits thee Anaheim mold, this pick could be traded for expansion considerations as well
24 MIN->ARI Brannstrom Arizona continues their YOLO tendencies and goes for the small but very skilled Swede
25 CBJ Anderson-Dolan After getting blown past all series by Pittsburgh, Columbus wants to add some speed to their lineup. Anderson-Dolan has serious wheels and is not bad at the rest of the game either
26 CHI Timmins Chicago sees their future #4D here and snaps him up. They could look at Oettinger as well for the post-Crawford days
27 WSH->STL Robertson St Louis's defense pipline is plenty full, so they go with the BPA who also happens to be a forward. Robertson was pretty much the entire team for Kingston at times this year and this could be a great value pick.
28 OTT Lind Ottawa makes the conference finals and they still end up with the guy they wanted at 20. Lind should be a decent middle sixer for them and he should probably be ready to play before their window is completely closed
29 EDM Yamamoto Yeah, gross, I know, the grease make the conference finals. Yamamoto is seriously talented and they need some cheap talented replacements for their 6 million dollar busts. Yamamoto will look very good playing alongside a top center though
30 PIT Norris Pittsburgh just likes talent, Norris has the most of anyone left
31 NSH Vaakanainen Nashville wins the cup and takes another defenseman. It's worked for them so far so why not keep going

I want to put Oettinger in here somewhere, but I don't think he goes before 20 (because goalie) and I don't see any teams past 20 looking for a goalie. Chicago would be my best bet but I think he makes it to day 2. I imagine Colorado scoops him right up at 32.