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***Air Crou*** · 08-20-2021, 06:15 PM

As is tradition every season, we are tasked of making a mock draft for the first round of the SHL draft. What better than dissecting my own mock draft, seeing what I got right, what I got wrong, why my pick would make sense, and why the actual pick made sense or not. Also, coming into realisation with how much TPE I am getting out of this is also a good thing. The format of this is simple, the header of each paragraph is the pick of my mock draft, followed by the actual result, and some mumbo jumbo about it. That being said, let's get started!

1. Manhattan Rage - Melvin Majestik-Moose
Actual result: Melvin Majestik-Moose
2. New Orleans Specters - Atticus Hale
Actual result: Atticus Hale
3. Montreal Patriotes - Leons Briedis
Actual result: Leons Briedis
4. Manhattan Rage - Adelie de Pengu
Actual result: Adelie de Pengu
I will talk about the top four picks in one paragraph, as they were the consensus heard around the league DAYS if not WEEKS before the draft. It was plain as day that these four picks would go in that exact order even from the playoffs. To put it into perspective, it was Hale or trade out for New Orleans at two. It was obvious that Melvin was the BEST prospect in the pool. It was obvious that Briedis would fly out of the shelf after Melvin, and only depended on what NOLA would do with #2. With de Pengu following right after. In my eyes, the success or not of this depended on whether Manhattan would pick Melvin or Atticus Hale at #1. As soon as the dust had started settling and "Melvin Majestik-Moose" & "S61 #1 overall" started becoming synonymous, the top 4 was a success story waiting to happen. But this is where the obvious picks stop and it becomes a crapshoot.

5. Calgary Dragons - Landon Fischermann
Actual result: Grogu Mandosson
Here, both Landon and Grogu make sense. Calgary's scouting was unusual. In my eyes, it was horrible. It felt lazy. A coach messaging in the middle of the season, and then a forum message with a "Interested Prospects" thread. I cannot think how they managed to sell their team to a player, but that is just me and wanting a more personal approach instead of the "en masse" method. Anyway, By the time I made my mock, Fischermann was the theoretical #1 for Calgary. I still do not know what happened in the way, but Grogu is NOT a bad pick here. I may be biased also, as Landon is one of my Vancouver teammates.

6. New England Wolfpack - Grogu Mandosson
Actual result: Darwin Koff
This was my "Wait, what?" moment of the mock. I mean, Landon was at the same level as Grogu in my eyes, so I basically flipped a coin to where I put each of them. Even though I went bias for Landon at #5 and Grogu at #6. I did not have Koff in the first round. I did have two Vancouver players, but one was me, and the other was Landon at #5. Seeing Darwin here is a surprise. A positive one. it is always a happy moment seeing a teammate get rewarded.

7. Philadelphia Forge - Darwin Koff
Actual result: Hans Graf
By that point, it had all gone south. This would be 100% wrong, but still above 50%. I really do not know the thought process behind it. I did not have a good scouting interview with Philly, so I do not really know what the team was looking after, so mocking someone here was hard to begin with. This does not feel bad for Philly. Solid pick whatsoever.

8. Tampa Bay Barracuda - Tomas Zadina
Actual result: Tomas Zadina
YAY! A RIGHT ONE! I mean, even though the pick was traded to New Orleans, it counts! This is a recreate in Caltroit. The league was buzzing that Zadina would go here. Solid dude, "Fair Rubs Movement" starter in ISFL, and an immediate callup out of it all. I really want to see how that will go for Caltroit and New Orleans, where I was drafted as well, but more on that later.

9. Hamilton Steelhawks - Patya Perevalov
Actual result: Gabe-Gooney-Waters Harrak
And here comes the wildcard. We all knew that the draft from here on out would depend on where Perevalov is picked. Patya picked here, rest of round like I mock. However, Hamilton decided to hit it with a wrench, picking GGG Harrak, derailing any chances for something good in this draft. Oh well!

10. Seattle Argonauts - Hans Graf
Actual result: Landon Fischermann
This one would be wrong, as Graf was already off the board a few picks above, but Seattle gets a solid guy here. Landon is a first-gen, but he is active in the Vancouver locker room. He is chill, laid back, all qualities a team would look on a player, on top of his activity.

11. Manhattan Rage - Eddie Kastrba
Actual result: Eddie Kastrba
Only thing I know about this pick is that it was a consensus one, and considering I had no alternate option, I went with it. Happy to get this one right.

12. Seattle Argonauts - Willie Miller
Actual result: Willie Miller
Here is the goalie ladies and gents. I do not thing this pick is the goalie for being a goalie, but Sebster for being who he is. A recreate here, known active player, solid boost to the team. But they do need a backup goalie, as their current backup is not as active as Seb. That is the over 9k IQ move of this draft. Just watch it.

13. Edmonton Blizzard - Vincent Fox
Actual result: Conner Snooks
This came out of the blue. I would never mock this one in the first round. Fox was just the word on the streets here for Edmonton. But it was actually hard for Edmonton this time around with the GM issues, so we should have expected the unexpected from them.

14. Minnesota Monarchs - Petr Svoboda
Actual result: Patya Perevalov
And here goes Patya. After BURYING everyone's mock, Perevalov is drafted. Svoboda seemed a solid pick here, weirdly enough, they fell of the first round in general. All comes down to effectively scouting, which seems to be a very huge issue here. I spotted this in the SMJHL draft, when only three or four teams even reached out to me. Scout better, for real.

15. Hamilton Steelhawks - Gabe-Gooney-Waters Harrak
Actual result: Big Newff
This one was busted from a mile away. I would doubt putting Nour here before, I still doubt it now. I would put him higher up, but I WAS feeling confident for the other picks, so I followed the consensus here as well

16. Hamilton Steelhawks - Donald Jr Trump
Actual result: Jay Cue
This one does not make sense at all. This is the "Let's post the mock now, and I will come back to it later with a clearer mind". Well, that did not happen. Would I put Cue here? Maybe. Would I mock Trump in the first round? Well, I did it. I can blurb about it all I want, but facts are that I mocked him 16th overall. Only pick I would 100% change from my mock if I could do it again.

17. Atlanta Inferno - Jay Cue
Actual result: Towelie
Cue was gone here, but Towelie? This one was my "Wait, what?" moment while watching the draft stream. But Atlanta did not scout me at all, so I will not be so judgemental about it.

18. Calgary Dragons - Giannis Kroustis
Actual result: Duncan Mackenzie
This is where I put myself. I should have changed this one to someone else and just have Kroustis out of the first round, but my pride would not let me. And I had myself to a team whose scouting is a "Interested Prospects" thread. This one was a blunder, could have easily been avoided.

19. Manhattan Rage - Max Manning
Actual result: Clem Fandango
20. Seattle Argonauts - Duncan MacKenzie
Actual result: Max Manning
Here, I really do not know what happened with these two. So many near misses. So many. But again, it all comes down from scouting. In the ideal scenario where we know what team every prospect has been scouted from, we would get closer to a perfect mock. However, some solid scouting can find you diamonds in the rough in the later rounds, or lets you know whether a player will be there when you are picking or not and why.

21. Recreates in top 6: Under
Actual result: Under
This one was a shot in the dark in my eyes, but it seemed easy the more logic you were applying to it. The line was set at 2.5 recreates in the first 6 picks. My mocked top 6 had one, at #6. The actual draft had only one, at #5. Unfortunately for me, it was the guy I had mocked at #6, so half a TPE is lost on that. But with the way the draft went, the under was the obvious choice, especially considering that the top 4 were locks days before the draft. I mean, there is no way three recreates are selected with two picks, so that is half a TPE that was an easy one.

22. Division of the first team to pass: North East.
Actual result: Tampa Bay Barracuda (Atlantic) or Toronto North Stars (North East) or Los Angeles Panthers (Pacific)
This one is very ambiguous. I think I got it right. Especially since the pick Tampa Bay passed on for the first time was a forfeited pick. Unless the pass depends on when you submit it, not when your pick is. But that would mean that Los Angeles is the first team to pass, as they didn't even draft or trade anything. They only passed this draft. This one is a weird one. I won't count it in my tally as correct. Let's see if a PT team member knows about it. If I get an answer in due time, I will edit this. If I do not until it gets graded, I will make sure to post a comment about it so you do not get caught lacking when the results are posted in the claim thread. I am working overtime for you all!

23. Round 1st goalie is selected: 1
Actual result: Round 1, Pick 12
This was a no brainer. Everyone was mocking Willie Miller in the first round, so this is not up for debate. Is it a surprise? Maybe. But we saw it coming. Free TPE right there.

24. SMJHL team with the most first round draft picks: Kelowna Knights
Actual result: Nevada Battleborn, Carolina Kraken, Kelowna Knights, Colorado Raptors - 3
Initially, I thought it would be what team would have the most draftees total, as there are passes and undrafted players. The thing is, it would be a runaway for the Knights if that were the case, but that is the case I chose them here. So many draft picks, we only needed three or four to be first round talent, and we got just that. What's impressive here is the fact that there is FOUR teams with three first round selections each. Then you have Anaheim, Vancouver, and Maine with two each, and only Anchorage and Detroit with one first round selection. Basically two thirds of the SMJHL teams have at least one first rounder, almost half have two, and a third have three, which means that the job the minors GMs are doing is not to be ignored. I really thing I got this one right, as the team I picked did have the most picks in the first, although it was a tie with another three for God's sake!

Correct choices: 10/24 (41.7%)
Total TPE: 8/15 (53.3%)
I do not know how this could be any better. The info available out there was limited. Even if people tend to speak publicly about things, even though leaking draft info is a thing here, there were so many wildcards. There are the consensus picks, and then there are the bombs. I mean, there were Hamilton prospects mocking me at #16, when Hamilton did not even bother scouting me. Which brings me to another thing. Scouting. Or the lack of it. It is to my surprise that people either do not scout here, or they do not know how to do it. I had scouts ghost me. I had to reach back to them, and got ghosted again. There is first round talent missing on being chosen first round, just because of poor scouting. Take some effort to reach out to every prospect in the draft class. You do not know what you will get to see and know about the prospect. You may find a diamond in the rough. But you have to look for it. It will not fall on your lap just because you want it.
As for me, I went immediately after the first round ended. How do you not scoop the updater that will not ask for big contracts in the first round? Especially if you did not even bother scouting him to even know about it? I was scouted by another updater. He did NOT know we were on the updating server together. Anyway, I am happy I got picked up by NOLA. They may be one of the worst teams in the league right now, but every rebuilding team I have been in ended up getting to the top of the league. So I feel really confident at it.
Well, that is all for this one. I may post another thing by the end of the day, depending on whether I can stay up or not, as it is slightly past 1 am when I am writing this. See you around! Take care!

Code:
2320 words. I assume I maintain my "2x first media" bonus to use in another article as I am taking advantage of the double draft media bonus, right?

Huck24 · 08-20-2021, 08:19 PM

Solid idea for an article! Really enjoyed the read!

the5urreal · 08-20-2021, 08:36 PM

This is what I did in my head immediately after the draft. Why didn't I think to type it all out...
Nice takes!

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