2015 NHL Draft round-up

2015 NHL Draft round-up

The 2015 NHL draft concluded yesterday in Florida with the completion of the 7th round. A number of trades as usual took place before hand which generated some more interest. Some teams traded picks and Pittsburgh drafted four interesting players. Below is a round-up of the talking points and points of interest.

Starting with Pittsburgh, they took four Europeans in a surprising twist. The Penguins did not have a 1st round pick this year after trading it for Perron. There were rumours of them trading for one, mostly involving Toronto, but there were no deals to be had. This meant that Pittsburgh's first pick came at number 46.

By the time Pittsburgh were picking first two players had fallen quite a way from their original draft ranking. Those two being Daniel Sprong and Oliver Kylington. Sprong being a forward from the QMJHL and Kylington a defenceman from the SHL. With our forward prospect cupboard bare it made clear sense to take Sprong. Sprong had a great second year with the Charlottetown Islanders, scoring 88 points in 68 games. Eliteprospects described Sprong as;

A prolific scoring winger who possesses an elite-level skillset: has dynamic skating ability, is a creative passer, and has incredible puckhandling ability. While he is offensively dominant, he is also defensively responsible. A very hard working player who strives to improve all aspects of his game. Absolutely electric. (Curtis Joe, EP 2014) 

The Penguins have been crying out for scoring wingers and Sprong joins Kapanen as a Penguins hopeful. After Sprong the Penguins didn't have another pick until the 5th round where, at 136, they selected Dominik Simon. Simon is a Czech center who has been playing in the top Czech league for four years. Last year he was with HC Plzen and he scored 30 points in 52 games. He has committed to Plzen for next year but there is potential there to be a bottom six center.

The Penguins had two more picks to make in the sixth and seventh rounds. In the past Shero spent a fair number of picks on NCAA players who were years away. The Penguins selected German winger Frederik Tiffels, a LW from the Western Michigan University. The 2015-16 will be his second so he will have at most, one more season before he comes eligible to play full-time for the Penguins in the NHL or AHL. Some people have been comparing him to Kreider. If he becomes that good the Penguins will have a steal on their hands.

The Penguins last pick was to select humongous center Nikita Pavlychev from Russia. Pavlychev is a towering figure at 6 foot 7. Pavlychev had spent last year with the Des Moines Buccaneers in the United States Hockey League (USHL) but has committed to Penn State. Perfect for the Penguins to keep a close eye on him. All in all, the Penguins can be pretty happy with their picks considering they only had four of them.

Elsewhere the status quo was kept at the top with McDavid, Eichel and Strome going 1-2-3 to Edmonton, Buffalo and Arizona. The Flames gave up their first round pick at number 15 with a big trade that saw them grab Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins for a low fee. The Flames still managed to draft two good players late in the second so they'll consider their draft a good one. I would say that the Toronto Maple Leafs were the most successful team.

Although it is a bit presumptuous to say that at this stage, they took a lot of high quality forwards and have really added some quality to their prospect pool. Lastly, Andong Song of China made hockey history after becoming the first Chinese born player to be drafted. Hopefully, more players can come through not only in China, but in other non-traditional markets.

It was a fairly eventful weekend for the NHL but this coming week from July 1st could be just as manic. Lets hope there are lots of developments.