The 2012 NHL Draft

Blog — By PuckCentralHQ on July 9, 2012 2:38 PM

Here we are three days (I know we’re WAY past that, but I forgot to publish this and I’m too lazy to change it all, so I apologize) after the 2012 NHL Draft and every team has some brand new shinny prospects to get excited about. I think just about every team drafted one or more players they can be excited for but that’s a lot of writing and I’m not really up for it (It’s summer break cut me some slack), so I’ll talk about the Canadian teams, and if anyone has a request for other teams I’ll do a post for every team that is requested!

Edmonton Oilers: It’s sort of hard to lose the draft when you have the first overall pick and take a guy like Nail Yakupov. I’ve said it in just about all my blogs, Yakupov is an elite talent and he’s going to be a star very quickly. However they dropped the ball a bit in the second round passing up on some very good players, especially Matt Finn (Projected to go in the first round) to select Mitch Moroz, a member of the hometown Edmonton Oilkings, but who am I to say he was a bad pick, the Oilers obviously have faith in their scouting. They also got a great pick in another Russian, Daniil Zharkov. He’s a big skilled forward, and with the right coaching and development he could be a very solid player down the road.

Montreal Canadiens: Since I’m a die hard Leafs fan this pains me to say but the Habs must have been power hitting last weekend because they hit a lot of home runs (Bad baseball joke, I know). It started off by drafting a highly skilled AMERICAN, Alex Galchenyuk. He’s a big highly skilled centre who has great two-way game. Some scouts say Galchenyuk has potential to be just as good or possibly better than Sarnia Sting teammate Nail Yakupov. Next up they took a great player by the name of “Sebastian Collberg” at 33. Collberg was another player projected to go in the first round but fell out for whatever reason. He’s still a few years away but he has the potential to be a very good top 6 forward in the NHL. Then they managed to get another potential first rounder in Dalton Thrower. Thrower doesn’t have a lot size but he’s a strong two-way defenseman who can play in all kinds of situations and isn’t afraid to drop the mitts and pound someones face in. It doesn’t stop there either! They also managed to pick up a fantastic prospect named “Tim Bozun”. He needs some work but there’s tons of skill and a hard work ethic, so he has potential to be top 6 goal scorer in the future.

Toronto Maple Leafs: The Maple Leafs had limited picks but managed to do alright. Their best picks were defensemen, so they didn’t exactly meet any organizational needs but they have some great prospects. They passed on big skilled centers Mikhail Grigorenko and Radek Faksa to take highly skilled, puck moving defenseman, Morgan Rielly. This kid is definition of smooth, so the Leafs could have hit a home run with this kid but only time will tell. They also managed to pick a highly regarded “Matt Finn” in the second round at 35, which I’m sure was a pleasant surprise for them. Many had Matt Finn in their top 30 and some even had him in their top 20, so this was a great pick up.

Winnipeg Jets: The Winnipeg Jets picked up a big,hard-nosed, rugged defenseman named “Jacob Trouba”. Trouba is an American who can punish his opponents and shut them down but also had a lot of offensive potential with his cannon of a shot from the point. They also got a hard working beast of a player name Lukas Sutter (Yes, another Sutter).

Ottawa Senators: The Sens couldn’t have had a better first round. They got the hometown kid Cody Ceci of the Ottawa 67′s. Ceci grew up in Ottawa, and played his Major Junior here as well so it’s only fitting that he got picked by the hometown Senators. The Sens are getting a hard working, skilled, two-way defenseman in Ceci, and it could end up being a steal for them at 15 (Remember the last steal they got at 15?).

Calgary Flames: The Calgary Flames traded down in the first round so they could select long term project, Mark Jankowski. This was a great move by them in my opinion. He’s years away but he has so much potential, so that’s a very smart move on their part.

Vancouver Canucks: The Vancouver Canucks got yet another great, late first round pick up in Brendan Gaunce. He’s a hard working two-way centre who can play in all situations, and many had him ranked inside their top 15.

So this concludes my post. I have a long boring summer ahead of me so if there are any requests for posts just let me know, whether you want to know about how your team did in this draft, or how their prospects look in general, I’ll do a post for it, as long as Gongshow will post them of course. Remember to follow me on twitter at @PuckCentralHQ and check out my personal blog at puckcentralhq.blogspot.com