GMs wrestle with ‘screwed up’ draft

Ain Chicago s young Gabriel Vilardi slowly buttons up the pinstriped Chicago Cubs jersey he has just been handed, it’s not the shirt on his back that has a leather-lunged fan in the stands voicing his playful displeasure. It’s the hat on top of his head. Here he is on this sunsplashed Wednesday afternoon, along with fellow NHL draft prospects Nolan Patrick and Casey Mittelstadt, standing on the sacred dirt of revered Wrigley Field, a place oozing with history thanks in part to the past heroics produced by names like Sandberg and Sosa, Banks and Bryant, Rizzo and Russell and, of course, the pride of Chatham, Ont., Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins.

They’ve been brought here to promote the upcoming NHL Draft, which will be held at the United Center on Friday and Saturday. As part of the festivities, all three are conducting interviews behind home plate prior to the Cubs-San Diego Padres game, a tilt that is kicked off by Patrick tossing out the first pitch.

Through it all, Vilardi’s lighthearted heckler certainly has no issue with the kid wearing the ceremonial white Cubs jersey he’s been given.

The same can’t be said for the Blue Jays cap he’s sporting.

“Hey kid, don’t you know where you are?” the fan says with a chuckle. “What’s with the lid? That’s screwed up.”

Screwed up? Really, pal? You don’t know from screwed up.

That’s not nearly as screwed up as trying to figure out how Friday’s draft involving these three teens is going to play out, given how close many of the top prospects are when it comes to skill level, not to mention all the swaps being pulled off by Vegas general manager George McPhee involving draft picks coming back to the Golden Knights.

You want screwed up? Just ask some of the players involved where they think they’ll go, both in terms of draft order and potential landing spots, and the response generally comes in the form of a shrug of their young shoulders.

Even at the top of this draft, this is no clear cut case of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel being No. 1 and No. 2 — in that order — two years ago. Or, in the same vein, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine 12 months ago in Buffalo.

It’s generally accepted that Patrick and Switzerland’s Nico Hischier will be the top two players taken Friday night, but which one is plucked first overall by the New Jersey Devils remains a guessing game, at least to those outside of general manager Ray Shero’s inner circle. There are reports Hischier has nudged ahead by a nose, but nothing is certain. After that? Chaos. The Dallas Stars hold the third pick and are expected to take a defenceman. Or maybe a centre. If they don’t trade the pick. Maybe they have already. On and on it goes from there. You get the idea. “Maybe Patty and Nico know a little bit about it but other than that, I think it’s pretty wide open with all the trades,” said Mittelstadt, the third-ranked North American skater courtesy of NHL Central Scouting. “It could go any way to be honest. I really don’t have much indication.

“I try not to think about it too much because it’s pretty much out of my control. Whoever wants me enough, that’s good enough for me.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Vilardi, who is ranked just one spot behind Mittelstadt in fourth. In fact, the self-proclaimed Jays backer acknowledged the Vegas factor has injected an even more chaotic element into the draft.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen or where I’m going to end up,” he said. “There’s trades that are possibly going to happen with expansion here. It’s a real exciting time if you’re a fan, that’s for sure. Wherever I go, I’ll be happy.

“I’ll be relaxed either way. Wherever you go, I’ll be happy and the real work starts afterward.”

On this day, the only thing Vilardi is certain of is this: he has no regrets about his choice of headgear.

“I’m from Kingston,” he says. “I grew up close to Toronto so I’m a Jays fan, obviously.”

Vilardi, by the way, did not appear to hear the verbal jabs coming his way from the stands regarding his cap. If he did, he tuned them out.

“We’ll cut him a break about the hat,” laughs Mittelstadt, a native of Edina, Minn. “He’s Canadian and he comes from the area. I think most Canadians have a Jays cap.”

When it comes to wardrobes, we know what Vilardi’s go-to chapeau is. When it comes to the NHL jersey he and his two Wrigley Field colleagues will be donning come Friday night, well, that’s still well up in the air. nationalpost.com