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+---- Thread: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) (/showthread.php?tid=104545)
The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - Sean - 03-17-2020
[2346 words x2, ready to grade]
MAKING THE CASE FOR EVERY PICK IN THE DRAFT
Part 1 - Picks 1 to 10
Part 1 - Picks 1 to 10
You know, sometimes it's a lot easier to be negative than positive. I myself have fallen into that trend to just get a word count out on some of these draft review articles. As much as I want to make a little money from this article I also want everyone reading it to see their name and see something positive linked to it. No one wants to read that they're a bad pick, no one wants to read that they made a bad pick. I can guarantee you the only bad picks in this article are going to be the poor choices of words I use like when I write your instead of you're and there instead of their. Without further adieu (get it because it should be ado) let's get into it.
1. Winnipeg Jets; Pick: Magnus Liljeström; User: roastpuff
With the first overall pick the Winnipeg Jets selected Magnus Liljeström from the Detroit Falcons. The second overall pick in the SMJHL jumps up one spot to take over the role as the most valued prospect from season 53. Roastpuff is a new user who had amassed nearly $40,000,000 in the bank at the time of the draft. Roastpuff looks to be a future power user on the site already posting over 400 times on the site and has written multiple media articles consistently since coming to the site. The draft class seems to love roastpuff so his locker room presence will surely be enjoyed in Winnipeg. His collaborations with other users Nhamlet and MarlinManiac4 where they evaluated the draft class and came up with a new metric in P.U.B.E.S. was extremely entertaining and informative. It's that kind of interesting media and willingness to work with other users that makes roastpuff the kind of user that can go first overall in a Reddit draft. Congrats Winnipeg on the great pick and good luck to Magnus on his long and prosperous career in Winnipeg.
2. Tampa Bay Barracuda; Pick: Ambacas Cuddles; User: cptrella
This pick makes me sad. It's an absolutely outstanding pick for the Tampa Bay Barracuda but on a personal and emotional level, I can't help but feel a sense of loss when I see it. cpetrella has been a long-standing member of the Edmonton Blizzard organization and he was there long before I ever was. Once the centerpiece of an "extremely lopsided" trade that Edmonton made he soon proved that he was more than worth it. Teddy Cuddles won two cups with the Blizzard and nearly took home a third. While he's still in our locker room we're going to miss the presence that Cuddles had on our team and I truly wish we had the assets to make a move up the board and grab this player. Now, we are happy for Trella and we wish him all the best in Tampa Bay. They're getting an extremely loyal member to their team which will likely play every career game in a Tampa Bay uniform. That's the kind of guy he is. Now that I've gotten my emotional speech out of the way, he's got a damn fine player too. Leading the TPE rankings going into the draft and having a $60,000,000 bank makes this a great pick for number 2 overall. Tampa Bay also gets the comfort in knowing he has been through it all before and knows what goes into making a great player. Good luck @cpetrella and maybe we'll have a high enough draft pick to get your next player
3. Buffalo Stampede; Pick: Steve Harrington; User: NeonLime
Everywhere I look on the site I see Steve Harrington and NeonLime. He's an updater, he's always posting on the forum and every time I see his avatar I start doing this uncontrollable little shake thing dancing along (I should probably get that checked out). It seems wherever I look NeonLime is there to say something funny. So in my opinion, Buffalo right off the bat gets a great locker room presence in Lime. As I look at his post count, the guy has already amassed 600 posts on the site. That's just ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. His $30,000,000 bank is also something to behold and gives him the tools to start building a truly elite player. Lime does articles, he does graphics, he's an updater, he does it all. Buffalo gets to add to their embarrassment of riches and Lime gets to join an already strong locker room that I think he'll fit right into. Great pick.
4. Texas Renegades; Pick: Edward Williams; User: Aephino
Edward Williams is yet another great pick in this draft. He's also a testament to how deep this draft truly is. Edward Williams is exactly what you're looking for in a first overall player and Texas gets him with a 4th. Now I mention this because Texas had the first overall pick in this draft originally and chose to move down to 4th while getting their pick between Winnipeg's first in S54 or S55. I think this was a great move made by Texas that was supplemented by a great pick. Now, I'm not here to debate trades but I had something positive to say, so I thought I'd say it. Let's move onto Aephino. He's another user that had over $30,000,000 heading into the draft and likes to make his money through media. One of the things that may have set him apart is he made a really cool Detroit Falcons hype video in addition to writing media and submitting graphics. He may not have the same site presence that some of the other players picked before had but he has time to build it and at the end of the day he's doing everything he needs to do to build a top-tier player for the SHL. I can't help but feel like I'm repeating myself but he's a great pick!
5. Los Angeles Panthers; Pick: Jimmy Wagner; User: Sve7en
Another can't miss pick and guess what? Los Angeles didn't miss! Jimmy Wagner is another member of that top group of elite talent in this draft. Wagner had over 250 posts and $20,000,000 in the bank at the time of the draft. I feel kind of silly not having mentioned TPE up until this point but yeah he and all the other guys picked before him are earning TPE at that elite, nothing gets by them whatsoever, level. From what I can see Wagner has a role in the leadership of the DACH world junior team and he's written multiple pieces of media and submitted graphics on the regular. Los Angeles gets a player who's shown a high comfort with the site early in his career. Sve7en has already found himself starting a Thunderdome, while it was just a light-hearted jab at Eggy/Slash to get the IIHF WJC awards posted (Which I don't know if they ever did, WTF guys, maybe it's time for round 2 in the Thunderdome). Wagner seems to be hitting a media trend with his Player Tribune style articles. Consistently finding your style to earn money is a great idea (like draft reviews, nobody does draft reviews).
6. West Kendall Platoon; Pick: Ethan Duncan; User: mastersheep
We here in Edmonton have a bit of an affinity for people who have animal-related pictures/usernames so right off the bat I'm a fan of mastersheep without doing any research at all. Mastersheep dropped a 4500 hundred word article before the draft which may have been the difference-maker for West Kendall at this pick. Going into the draft mastersheep was a little behind his classmates with around $7,000,000 in the bank but I'd rather have someone making media now than making media a month and a half ago and sitting on a big bank. One day that big bank disappears (believe me, I know). His article about the top-30 prospects was informative and well thought out. Maybe mastersheep is the kind of guy who makes money as he needs it, I am and I hit 2,000 TPE. I saw him talking in the rookie discord (which I am now no longer in again, it would have helped with this article) whenever I checked in so I'm sure West Kendall is getting a high-quality player for many seasons to come. Also, as an aside, while I'm being positive. Shout out to West Kendall for having 2 parts to their name, every little bit of that word count counts. You guys are helping a brother out.
7. Buffalo Stampede; Pick: Jaska Seppala; User: ZombieWolf
How can I not say this was a great pick? Many seasons ago Zombie and I were picked in the same draft S33(?) and he became a million times better the player than I ever did for Buffalo. Zombie is an extremely loyal member who's going to bring so much back to Buffalo. He's a top-earner in this class and knows how to build a player who can last a long time in the league. Now, there was some potential controversy relating to this pick. Many people were worried Buffalo was going to let Seppala slide to the second round as they were confident that no one else would feel comfortable picking Seppala due to his demands to play in buffalo. It takes a lot of character to make a decision that might not be the most optimal for your team but is the fairest for the league. It's a great show of Buffalo's character that they made this pick. All that aside, Seppala was in the running for top TPE earned in the class and is going to continue to make Buffalo's locker room great. Congratulations to both on continuing your relationship for hopefully another 20 seasons.
8. Toronto North Stars; Pick: Jack Kanoff; User: Jeffie43
I've only heard great things about Jeffie43. Now, I in the past might have looked at his $2 million in the bank and said this was a bad pick because he doesn't have the ability to transfer into the high-cost SHL. Current me is able to take a step back and look a little deeper into the pick and see where the greatness lies. Future me will be scrounging for every last TPE I can get my hands on when the SHL market crashes due to the uncertainty of these trying times but I digress. Jeffie originally made it clear he had his eyes on only one team and maybe that scared off some other GMs. ML had his ear to the ground and realized a once strong-willed opinion was slowly dwindling and he took advantage. Now to counter my money point. Jeffie43 can make graphics and he's good at it. He had 4 high quality 2x graphics waiting to be graded and that will make his bank jump up in no time. When he keeps creating graphics at this level he'll be raking in the money. I also have it on high authority from a member of my scouting team that he's a great guy. I trust that source with my life so Toronto you're getting a top-earner great guy. I think you know what that means... Great pick!
9. Calgary Dragons; Pick: Bradley Barkov; User: MarlinManiac4
The good picks just keep on rolling (Note: This will be the last time I say something good about MarlinManiac4 until he is no longer a member of the gross Calgary Dragons). Barkov was drafted from the great state of Colorado coming straight from the best team in the SMJHL, the Colorado Raptors. Don't @ me. Marlin is the second member drafted of the draft round table trio that wrote the great article relating to the S53 draft. He's also involved in the leadership of world junior team Finland. He's a man after my own heart tending to focus on draft related media but he's also been known to write about some other things including his "1-on-1 sitdown with Bradley Barkov" and "A Dream Pursued". Marlin has yet to dip his toes into graphics but as long as you're pumping out the articles you're going to be making the money. Marlin entered the draft with nearly $14,000,000 in the bank and that's not including the draft articles that have yet to been graded. Also with a name like Barkov and being a Marlins fan, could we have a Miami Native? Calgary management is thinking ahead so they have a place to stay when they make some trips down south in the winter. That's the kind of foresight that makes this a great pick.
10. Manhattan Rage; Pick: Jukka Timonen; User: Smalinowski7
Manhattan made a move up in the draft to pick their guy. Their guy was none other than Jukka Timonen from the Newfoundland Berserkers (taking everything in my body not to write the Newfoundland Growlers). Timonen is the perfect prospect for Luke, I'm just going to get that out of the way. All of Smalinowski's articles are chock full of charts, graphs, and analytics. I'm worried they might be like two rotating black holes that will cause mass destruction when they finally collide, nothing has happened yet but I'll be checking my gravitational wave detector in the coming days. In all seriousness though, you could make the argument that Timonen was the best defenseman available in the draft. He obviously has the interest to really deep dive into SHL related topics and maybe we'll get some even more interesting information out of FHM. Getting into the nitty-gritty for anyone who reads this actually cares about the stats (I feel like not including them for Smalinowski would be a shame), he walked into the draft with $18,000,000 has over 100 posts and as I said, writes some very high-quality media. I may even go so far as to say this wasn't just a great pick, it was a steal of a pick. I think that's the first time I've said that this article (I'm not proof-reading to find out)
RE: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - trella - 03-17-2020
I love u ur gonna make me cry <3
I’ll forever cherish my time with the blizzard. I’ll always be around
RE: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - Nhamlet - 03-17-2020
Fun and exciting read, looking forward to however many parts it ends up being!
RE: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - karey - 03-17-2020
I'm happy we took zombo early, but I hope the the same level of sportsmanship is present league wide regarding future drafts.
RE: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - Sean - 03-17-2020
03-17-2020, 02:20 AMkarey Wrote: I'm happy we took zombo early, but I hope the the same level of sportsmanship is present league wide regarding future drafts.
I hope you're right, it's easy to say you will do something like that but in the moment teams would be very tempted not to. Huge respect to Buffalo.
RE: The case for every pick in the draft (1-10) - Sean - 03-17-2020
03-17-2020, 02:04 AMNhamlet Wrote: Fun and exciting read, looking forward to however many parts it ends up being!
I'm going to try and do every single one (I really need the $$)