As we head into the Season 53 Draft, it will be interesting to see how Edmonton retools for the beginning of the Franchise Hockey Manager era. The transition to Out of the Park’s hockey simulator makes the Season 53 draft all the more interesting as all teams, not just Edmonton, will have to identify how its current players will adjust their builds. With more variations in builds, it will be important to identify how the builds for potential draftees will fit in the best with the adjusted builds of current players. While I clearly cannot say what all the new builds will be I can at least provide a Draft Pre-Cap based upon what Edmonton loses this offseason and what in retains in terms of overall personnel and positions.

While Season 52 did not end how Edmonton would have wanted with the team bowing out in the Four Star Cup finals for the second season in a row, the season was overall a successful one. Edmonton earned the number two seed in the Western Conference with a 29-18-3 record and had the best defense in the league, giving up only 130 goals all season. Additionally, Edmonton’s offense became more balanced during Season 52 as eight players accumulated 30 points or more. Importantly for Edmonton, their continued success has largely been during a relative period of transition for the franchise as the youth movement on the squad is in full effect. Of the eight players that scored 30 points or more, half of them were players from S46 or later. With only eight players on the roster being from S45 or earlier, it is clear that the Edmonton has a bright future with so much of the scoring output being by younger players. Additionally, the Edmonton prospect list appears fairly bright, as four of Edmonton’s prospects have been making solid progress in the minors and could potentially be called up to join the squad in the next season or so. With talented players like Kevin Robinson, Marcus Ohlsson, First-Name Last-Name and Luke McMaster waiting in the wings, the offensive side of the ice appears to be in good shape for the foreseeable future.

What is concerning to Edmonton fans, however, is that while the offense seems to be fully moving forward with a youth movement, the defense is much more lopsided. With two of the top four defensemen, Tor Tuck and Brady McIntyre, being from S39 or earlier, there is a significant dearth of young defensive talent currently on the team or amongst Edmonton’s prospects. While both Tuck and McIntyre have stayed serviceable (in fact both of played exceptionally well and are clearly still amongst the best in the league), they are certain to begin to decline in the next few seasons as regression begins to hit more forcefully. The cupboard is still very full, even with the dearth of quality young defensemen. Karlstrasse Scholz will potentially become the next Tor Tuck and could become a Hall of Famer in his own right, and FR Finn-Rhys, while still young, has shown consistent improvement compared to his rookie season. The concern with the defense primarily is with the available prospects that are developing in the Edmonton farm system. While Danila Zhernov has consistently performed at a high level in the minors and will look to make the jump to the big league club in the near future, he remains Edmonton’s only prospect on defense. Because of this, I would expect Edmonton to heavily focus this draft on finding quality defensive prospects to even out the disparity between young forwards and defenseman and provide a cushion for growth, especially as some of the more veteran defensemen look to retirement. The good thing is, even with a limited number of young players currently in the Edmonton system, this year’s draft offers a plethora of players that could become potential superstars.

With players like Erben Kasius of the St. Louis Scarecrows, Jukka Timonen of the Newfoundland Berserkers and Detroit Falcons products Magnus Liljeström and Jack Kanoff all available in this season’s draft, it would not be surprising to see any of these top rated defenseman don Blizzard sweaters. These four potential Blizzard players are intriguing prospects as they bring a youthful energy to a generally older defense. Erben Kasius is arguably the front runner of this talented group. The Scarecrows rookie was 5th in the SMJHL in rookie scoring, tallying 10 goals and 15 assists while earning over 20 minutes per game. A skilled offensive defenseman, Kasius was able to find himself in all the right spots last season and showed that he can be skilled on the other side of the blue line in addition to providing a spark offensively. Similarly, Jukka Timonen showed almost identical offensive prowess last season. Timonen was 8th overall in rookie scoring, tallying 10 goals and 11 assists while averaging more than 21 minutes a game. The only knock on Timonen is his negative +/- rating as he often played a little more aggressively on the offensive side of the ice than he should have. While that aggressiveness certainly affected his +/- rating, you could expect that with additional maturing and mentorship that Timonen could evolve into a world class two-way defenseman. The third player in this lead group of prospective draftees is Magnus Liljeström from the Detroit Falcons. Liljeström scored 4 goals and added 13 assists last season and may actually prove to be the most well-rounded of this defensive class. In addition to his 17 points, Liljeström also earned a +9 rating and delivered 86 hits, showing that he can be a force to be reckoned with on both ends of the ice. The only concern for Liljestrom will be his ability to adapt to a quicker pace of play in the pros. While he averaged only 18 minutes of ice time per game during the season expect the young Falcon to strengthen his legs in the offseason to earn more significant minutes. The final defenseman in the top flight of the defensive class is Jack Kanoff, another Detroit Falcon. Scoring 7 goals and 13 assists while also earning a +2 rating and averaging just under 19 minutes of ice time per game Kanoff showed flashes of brilliance last season, but also showed signs of being a rookie. He is still a very interesting prospect, however, as he looks to build upon his early success and develop into a more well-rounded player.

Moving on from the cream of the crop, there are three other defenseman that have the potential to be a steals in the draft and could potentially develop into future all stars. First is Bradley Barkov from the Colorado Raptors. I feisty young defenseman who showed no fear last season, he averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game enroute to tallying 2 goals and 8 assists. While his -14 +/- rating certainly shows that he needs continued development, he still showed exceptional potential and can undoubtedly become a solid blue liner in the very near future. The second of the second tier trio is Toki Wartooth, another Detroit Falcons defender. Wartooth is a much more defensive defenseman, showing a proclivity for making big plays when needed and dominating opposing forwards, but also showing an immaturity as displayed by his 64 penalty minutes last season. Those penalty minutes were balanced out, however, by his one goal and 13 assists when he did stay out of the sin bin. If Wartooth can decrease the penalties he takes he could prove to be a diamond in the rough as any team would be grateful to have a dominating presence on the blue line. The final member of the trio of potential defensive draftees is Valentin Kalashnikov. While a recognized name in the juniors, Kalashnikov shows all the potential to actually catapult into the top rungs of this draft class. Despite him showing up in this media report as the last name in the list, he has all the potential to actually turn out to be one of the best two-way defenders in the league given some additional experience and mentorship. Kalashnikov scored 4 goals and had 11 assists last season, showing that he has the ability to provide at least a spark on the offensive side of the ice. Couple that with his 85 hits and almost 22 minutes a game of ice time and you can see the makings of a great all around player. What will certainly need to be worked upon, however, will be his decision making as Kalashnikov accrued 63 penalty minutes and sported a -7 +/- rating. That said, Kalashnikov could find himself being one of the steals of the draft should he continue his development.

Another variable in all of this discussion is the potential for Edmonton to trade some of the prospects listed previously, especially some of the forwards like First-Name Last-Name or Kevin Robinson. Both Robinson and Last-Name offer Edmonton exceptional trade value and could be worth at least a fourth round pick which could then be used to provide additional defensive depth in the prospect pool. Such a move could actually prove beneficial in the long run as it will space out the forward depth that is stacking near the top of the prospect pool and provide options to the Edmonton management to either continue with other trades or stock the prospect pool with additional defensive depth.