{"id":1483,"date":"2017-04-15T14:20:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T14:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2017-04-18T14:21:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T14:21:07","slug":"looking-back-at-the-2016-prospect-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/?p=1483","title":{"rendered":"LOOKING BACK AT THE 2016 PROSPECT DRAFT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/main\/MWHL400.jpg\" alt=\"MWHL400\" width=\"185\" height=\"148\">Last summer each team selected two prospects (players who have never played an NHL game and under 25 years old).&nbsp;In total 40 prospects were selected. This look back will only look at players who played at least 1 game in the NHL in&nbsp;2016&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;2017. 15 of the 40 prospects (30%) never played in the NHL in 2016&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;2017. &nbsp;&nbsp;11 prospects played more than 60 NHL &nbsp;games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Having the&nbsp;1st&nbsp;pick in the draft allowed Corktown to select Austin Mathews, who is not only our best prospect but &amp; already one of the NHL elite. A generational player in the same mold as Conner McDavid, and Sidney Crosby.<\/p>\n<p>The scoring system used was 5 to 1.<br \/>\n60+ NHL games would range from 3.5 to 5.0<br \/>\n30&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;59 NHL games would range from 2.0 to 3.4&nbsp;<br \/>\nUnder 29 NHL games would range from 1.0 to 1.9<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/scouting\/Zach_Werenski17.jpg\" alt=\"Zach_Werenski17\" width=\"145\" height=\"200\">This is not to diminish the potential value of prospects who did not play in the NHL in 2016&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;2017. As an example of&nbsp;planning a year ahead. &nbsp;Indiana drafted Nolan Patrick, who is currently the expected #1 pick in the 2017 NHL draft. He&nbsp;certainly has great future MWHL&nbsp;potential but in this look back he not be a MWHL contributor in 2017 &#8211;&nbsp;2018.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Seven (7) MWHL teams had both of their prospects play in the NHL this past season.&nbsp;It is always difficult to say who made the best pick in the <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/scouting\/Nikita_Zaitsev17.jpg\" alt=\"Nikita_Zaitsev17\" width=\"144\" height=\"200\">1st&nbsp;round. Certainly Mathews was the class&nbsp;of the year but he was a gimme pick. The best pick appears to be 20th&nbsp;and final pick of the 1st&nbsp;round&nbsp;when Alamo selected defense man Zack Werenski. Werenski stepped into a top four defenseman&nbsp;with solid defensive play and an ability to&nbsp;quarterback&nbsp;the power play. Great Pick Alamo.&nbsp;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/scouting\/Auston_Matthews17.jpg\" alt=\"Auston_Matthews17\" width=\"144\" height=\"200\">In the 2nd&nbsp;round the best&nbsp;pick was not even drafted by the NHL, but was a 24 year old Russian Nikita Zaitsev&nbsp;who was selected by Thunder Bay&nbsp;with the 30th&nbsp;pick of the draft. Zaitsev played on Toronto\u2019s (NHL) top&nbsp;defensive pair and help lead a young team to the play&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;offs. Rumor&nbsp;has it that many teams stayed away from&nbsp;Zaitsev because of his age and because his agent told&nbsp;the MWHL GM\u2019s&nbsp;he would not sign&nbsp;with a team where&nbsp;it did not snow. Looks like Thunder Bay was a perfect fit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An interesting fact of the 2016 Prospects draft was that no&nbsp;goalies were selected.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"><strong>Here are the Top Ten 2016 MWHL Prospects:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">10<\/span>.&nbsp;Jaccob Chychrun &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Alamo) [12] 68 &#8211; 7-13-20 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Look Back Rating 3.8<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">9.<\/span> Nikita Zaitsev &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (Thunder Bay) [30] 82&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;4-32-36 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 4.0<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">8.<\/span>&nbsp;Jim Vesey&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Thunder Bay) [11] 80&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;16-11-27 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4.0<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">7.<\/span>&nbsp;Christian Dvorak &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (Hampton) [23] 78&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;15-18-33 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4.1<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">6.<\/span> Mathew Tkachuk &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (Minneapolis) [7] 76&nbsp;&#8211; 13-35-48 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4.4<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">5.<\/span>&nbsp;Ivan Proporov &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (Bathgate) [9]&nbsp;82&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;6-24-30 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 4.5<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">4.<\/span> Mitch Marner &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(New Jersey) [3] 77&nbsp;&#8211; 19-42-61 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 4.6<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">3.<\/span> Zack Werenski &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Long Beach) [20] 78&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;11-36-47 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 4.7<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">2.<\/span> Patrick Laine &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Jagr) [2] 73&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;36-28-64 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4.8<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">1.<\/span> Austin Mathews &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(Corktown) [1] 82&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;40-29-69 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;5.0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"><strong>Team Ratings:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">1.&nbsp;<\/span>Thunder Bay [8.0] Jim Vesey 4.0 and Nikita Zaitsev 4.0.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">2.<\/span>&nbsp;Long Beach [6.1] Zack Werenski 4.7 and Tyson Jost 1.4<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">3.<\/span>&nbsp;Bathgate [6.1] Ivan Proporov 4.5 and Jacob Vrana 1.6<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">4.<\/span>&nbsp;Hampton [5.1] Evgeney Sechnikov 1.0 and Christian Dvorak 4.1<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">5.<\/span>&nbsp;Corktown [5.0] Austim Mathews 5.0<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">6.&nbsp;<\/span>Jagr&nbsp;[4.8] Patrick Laine 4.8<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">7.&nbsp;<\/span>Second City [4.6] Clayton Keller 1.1 and Nick Schmaltz 3.5<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">8.<\/span>&nbsp;New Jersey [4.5] Mitch Marner 4.5<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">9.<\/span>&nbsp;Minneapolis [4.4] Mathew Tkachuk 4.4<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">10.<\/span>&nbsp;Lansing [4.4] Mikael Sergachev 1.1 and Pavel Buchnevich 3.3<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">11.<\/span>&nbsp;Alamo [3.8] Jakub Chychrun 3.8<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">12.<\/span>&nbsp;Columbus&nbsp;[3.5] Kyle Conner 1.7 and Julius Honka 1.8<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">13.<\/span>&nbsp;Scottsdale [3.0] Timo Meier 3.0<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">14.&nbsp;<\/span>Lakeland [1.6] Jesse Puljujarvi 1.6<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">15.&nbsp;<\/span>Ripon [1.3] Dylan Strome 1.3<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">16.&nbsp;<\/span>California [1.0] Mathew Barzal 1.0<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">17.<\/span>&nbsp;Chicago,&nbsp;Brentwood, Indiana and Wausau<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/scouting\/Julien_Gauthier17.JPG\" alt=\"Julien_Gauthier17\" width=\"145\" height=\"212\">No draft review would be complete without a check of the last player drafted.<br \/>\n#40 [Corktown] selected Julien Gauthier&nbsp;Just 19 years old Julien played the first part of the 2016-2017 season with Val d\u2019Or before he was&nbsp;traded to the St. John Sea Dogs. &nbsp;Both teams are in the QMJHL. It should be noted that after the&nbsp;trade St. John&#8217;s gave Gauthier the&nbsp;\u201cC\u201d. He is 6-4 and 225 \u2013 already a boy in a man\u2019s <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.straybaseball.com\/mwhl\/wp-content\/gallery\/scouting\/Nolan_Patrick17.JPG\" alt=\"Nolan_Patrick17\" width=\"145\" height=\"204\">body. Drafted&nbsp;into the NHL in the 1st&nbsp;round of 2016 Entry Draft by Carolina with the 21st pick. He&nbsp;has played well&nbsp;at every step in his development. Injured part of this current season he play just 43 games but was&nbsp;just&nbsp;below a point a game. Most scouting reports project him&nbsp;as a bottom six grinder with a scoring&nbsp;touch in the NHL. His future is&nbsp;still ahead of him. Corktown\u2019s concern will he get his NHL&nbsp;opportunity in the coming season or will they have to let him go per the MWHL\u2019s three year Prospect&nbsp;rule. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>The current top Prospect for the 2017 NHL Entry Draft is Nolan Patrick. Indiana pulled out their&nbsp;crystal ball when the selected under age Patrick&nbsp;to be their 1st&nbsp;selection (#15 overall) in the 2016&nbsp;MWHL Prospects Draft. The 2017 NHL draft does not appear to be a&nbsp;s strong as the last two drafts&nbsp;were, but Nolan is still a stud and Indiana\u2019s willingness to reach&nbsp;deep into the&nbsp;future looks like it will&nbsp;provide a big payoff in the 2018-2019 MWHL season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last summer each team selected two prospects (players who have never played an NHL game and under 25 years old).&nbsp;In total 40 prospects were selected. This look back will only look at players who played at least 1 game in the NHL in&nbsp;2016&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;2017. 15 of the 40 prospects (30%) never played in the NHL in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1483"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwhl.straybaseball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}