2021 NHL Draft

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by Moneyhands23

I don't understand how that works

Maybe I worded wrong with 'below' instead of 'above' but as Damage mentioned if Philly, Rangers or Stars get one of the lottery picks, we go from 12 to 13.

[Sandman]

RHD Aleksi Heimosalmi, 5'11" 170lbs (Assat U20, Finland): Here's a pretty polarizing player, but I kinda like him (thought I already did a write-up on him). First of all, he's one of the youngest players in the draft, and prior to the U-18 tourney, he wasn't really on anyone's radar. Most Finnish players see time in the Liiga or Mestis in their draft years, but Heimo has only made it as far as the U18 League there. This year, he put up 21pts in 35 games for Assat, but his big coming-out party was the World U-18 tournament, where he was named the best Defenseman in the entire tourney with 2 goals and 8pts in 7 games, tying Corson Cuelemans.

Heimo is a highly cerebral, competitive, two-way guy, who plays in all situations. Defensively, he can deftly separate man from puck with his active stick, and smart positioning. He can corral opponents to the boards, protects his goalie well, and when he has the puck, few can pry it off of him. Smart, heads up, and knows where to be. His transitional game is quite good, and was on full display in the tourney-he gets the puck, and one way or another, it in the other zone. High IQ and vision, great passer and shooter.

Heimosalmi is a smooth skater, but definitely not the fastest. He has deceptive quickness to get around opponents, and get to loose pucks, but he has work to do. Despite this, he never seems to get beat, and has an awful lot of rushes through the neutral zone-but it's heavy.

This is a guy who you might call high risk/high reward. Many are picking him to go in the third round, but I'm not sure I would use that pick on him. If he has this type of production with sub-par skating, imagine what he could do if he fixed it?

[Sandman]

LW Zack Ostapchuk, 6'3"198lbs (Vancouver, WHL): Don't know a lot about this kid, except he was a first-round pick of the Giants. There's not a lot out there written about him, and not much video. Doesn't turn 18 until May 29, so he's young. 22gp/7g/9a/16pts, 26 PIMs. What I know from watching video is that he's big, and skates very well. Great hands and wrist shot too. Saw him in a mock draft in the 5th round.

[Wolfman]

For me its Matthew Coronato

https://www.eliteprospects.com/playe...tthew-coronato

[ForeverFlameFan]

@Sandman, do you have anything on Ryker Evans? He’s my first cousin. Overager, but he had a hell of a season with the Pats before the shut down. I am hoping with his stellar play he’s a 4th-7th round pick.

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

For me its Matthew Coronato

https://www.eliteprospects.com/playe...tthew-coronato

No more New Yorkers going to Harvard please.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by Major Major

No more New Yorkers going to Harvard please.

Hahaha fair enough.

I get Kyle Connor vibes from this guy in terms of play.

[Poe969]

so I just did the tankathon mock draft 5 times...I got the Flames with 1st overall 3 times, 2nd overall once and then the rangers won the last one pushing the Flames down to 14th. It also has Sillinger at 14th overall. This year it changed a bit, it's not always the same order. They've had Wallstedt going as high as 12th and as low as 17th

[FCAV]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

@Sandman, do you have anything on Ryker Evans? He’s my first cousin. Overager, but he had a hell of a season with the Pats before the shut down. I am hoping with his stellar play he’s a 4th-7th round pick.

We just had a single-game report roll through on him a few days ago. Here's a snippet:

Overall, I’d say Evans has certainly become bigger, stronger, and faster, but I’m still not sure I’d expend a higher draft pick on him as I think he’s still got those same hurdles to continually jump over as he moves along.

https://nhlentrydraft.com/reports/2863/

[Tkachukwagon]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

@Sandman, do you have anything on Ryker Evans? He’s my first cousin. Overager, but he had a hell of a season with the Pats before the shut down. I am hoping with his stellar play he’s a 4th-7th round pick.

https://nhlentrydraft.com/players/ryker-evans/

Calgary kid? Let's pick him up!

[Hanna Sniper]

Originally Posted by Poe969

so I just did the tankathon mock draft 5 times...I got the Flames with 1st overall 3 times, 2nd overall once and then the rangers won the last one pushing the Flames down to 14th.

It's more advantageous to the site to give results like that. It isn't a realistic generator

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Long time coming, but seeing the finality of it is a bit defeating.

This team appears destined to be mired in mediocrity. The Ducks have stepped on our throat in two of our last competitive windows (05-06, 2015, 2017), have a Stanley Cup to show for it, and will soon have the young foundational talent to surpass us in the standings once again.

It's so painfully obvious that our path is the wrong one, but the wheels of mediocrity keep turning.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Long time coming, but seeing the finality of it is a bit defeating.

This team appears destined to be mired in mediocrity. The Ducks have stepped on our throat in two of our last competitive windows (05-06, 2015, 2017), have a Stanley Cup to show for it, and will soon have the young foundational talent to surpass us in the standings once again.

It's so painfully obvious that our path is the wrong one, but the wheels of mediocrity keep turning.

Yep.

We've got teams like LA, Anaheim, and Chicago (thanks to some luck in the lottery) ready to cycle right back up and we're still just here...floating around in the squishy middle of irrelevancy.

[Poe969]

But winning every game matters!!! I guess that's why Treliving is ok with trading away picks, they're always average picks anyway. I guess if they aren't going to draft someone who makes a difference, they'll trade away the pick and try to get someone who will!

[shutout]

THN Top 40

https://www.si.com/hockey/news/top-4...kings-for-2021

[Ashes]

I'm hoping for one of these forwards but I'm fully preparing myself to see us trade the pick or draft a Defensemen

Kent Johnson
Dylan Guenther
Fabian Lysell
Mason McTavish
Chaz Lucius

[timbit]

Originally Posted by shutout

THN Top 40

https://www.si.com/hockey/news/top-4...kings-for-2021

FYI, that’s a month old.

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Yep.

We've got teams like LA, Anaheim, and Chicago (thanks to some luck in the lottery) ready to cycle right back up and we're still just here...floating around in the squishy middle of irrelevancy.

Flames are easily at the bottom of the league in terms of future potential. We have no prospects and in 2 years time it is very possible were without Gaudreau and Tkachuk.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

@Sandman, do you have anything on Ryker Evans? He’s my first cousin. Overager, but he had a hell of a season with the Pats before the shut down. I am hoping with his stellar play he’s a 4th-7th round pick.

There's not a lot out there about him to say what he is as a player, and not a lot of video, but I can tell you what I see by looking at the numbers, and his highlights (not a pro scout, just my opinion, lol):

First of all, Ryker is playing on a very mediocre team-there's not an abundance of talent, other than him and Bedard, so to put up 28pts in 24 games is quite impressive. The next highest scoring D-man on the team has 11pts. Evans was named Player of the Year for the Pats as well. I like the fact that he leads the team with 37 PIMs too-shows that he's likely not soft. He had 81 PIMs in 63 games last year, I really like that. EP says he's physical when he needs to be.

From the little video that I can find, he looks pretty mobile, but has a little hitch in his skating-looks a bit "knock kneed"in his extentions perhaps? Not getting the most power out of his stride, but still moves well. Has a good shot from the point, and of course-he likes to pinch. He's 6'0", 190lbs according to the Pats, so he's grown and bulked up over the last few years-size isn't a huge issue here. Unfortunately, there's nothing to show things like: how he distributes the puck, first-pass, breakouts, defending, running the PP,etc-all very important attributes for a defenseman.

I did read a little blurb from a writer (can't remember where), who said that he was surprised that Ryker didn't get drafted last year, and that he thought there was a good chance he'd get picked up this year. If the qualities I mentioned are adequate in his play, I could definitely see him being taken later. If he doesn't get drafted, his chances to make it are by no means over.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Thanks! Yeah, it’s hard to find some stuff on him. He seems like a guy that absolutely doesn’t excel in any aspect, but is above average in all categories. But I’ve had very limited viewings on him so take my word with a grain of salt.