Sports Blog Nation will be covering the upcoming NHL Draft in a huge way. First of all, several bloggers from our network will be attending the event and have been given credentials so that they can report back to their readers with more information than ever before. (Unfortunately, I can not make the trip this year). We will be watching closely though and will give updates as the draft approaches.
Also, James Mirtle's site, "From the Rink", has an ongoing mock draft in process right now. James has this set up so that he reveals three picks each day. Every team is represented by their corresponding blogger. There are no major surprises yet, but of course the choices become more difficult as the draft progresses. Canes Country will be making the Hurricanes selection sometime next week when number 27 comes up.
Speaking of mock drafts, Cory will be posting our own version right here on Canes Country early next week. He completed one of these already in March, but obviously the order of the teams has changed since then so he needs to do a bit more tweaking.
A site called DC Sports Report has a nice database of several mock drafts to review. Let's see which players some of these sites have the Canes drafting.
- Sports2debate - Dylan Olsen, D, 6'2", 206
- DC Sports Report - Carter Ashton, RW, 6'3", 205
- TSN - Carter Ashton, RW, 6-'4", 205
- My NHL Draft - Calvin deHaan, D, 5'10", 170
- Heated Skates - Stefan Elliot, D, 6'1", 180
- SNY Rangers Blog - Stefan Elliot, D, 6'1", 180
- The Hockey Program - Jeremy Morin, C, 6'0", 189
- The Fantasy Hockey Geek - Jeremy Morin, C/LW, 6'0", 190
- Islanders Info - Landon Ferraro, RW, 6'0", 170
- Fire the Cannon - Nick Leddy, D, 5'11", 175
- Red Light District - Jeremy Morin, C, 6'0", 190
- Western College Hockey - Peter Holland, C, 6'2", 185
The ISS ratings have skater Kyle Palmieri rated as the 27th best player in the draft. Palmieri is smallish at 5'10", but personally reminds me a bit of Zach Parise.
It's always interesting to look at the wide variety of different choices and ratings that are out there. After the first few picks, you really don't know what is going to happen until the actual selections are made. Sometimes teams go off the map completely when making their choice, although that usually doesn't happen in the first round.
Paul Branecky of CH.com has 10 players to watch on his blog. Cory will be throwing out a few more names when he completes his final mock draft next week. But I thought we could go ahead and continue the conversation now. (Some of us have been talking about this already) Who do you want the Canes to draft? Who do you think they will draft? Who is the sleeper, the promising player who is under the radar? Who is over-rated?
We will have plenty of discussion concerning the draft right up until "D" day.