2017 draft class lacking in superstar talent
No one is talking tank this season in the NHL. Why? There’s no reason. As good as18-year-old centre Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings may be one day, he’s no Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel or Auston Matthews or Patrik Laine.
Patrick, currently injured, is the consensus top pick of a 2017 draft class that is OK but not great. Nothing to get too excited about. No reason to race to the bottom, as teams like Buffalo, Edmonton and Toronto have done the past two seasons.
“I just don’t think there’s a home run at the top of the draft,” said Mark Seidel, chief scout for North American Independent Central Scouting Service. “Nolan Patrick is a good player. He would have gone third or fourth last year. He’s not Eichel, he’s not McDavid, he’s not Matthews.
“He’s not a guy that teams could completely tank for and say: ‘OK, we’ve got a superstar that we can build our team around for a long time.’ ”
The Colorado Avalanche are the cellar dwellers, on pace for about 65 points, four fewer than Toronto amassed last year for 30th overall. But unlike the Leafs of ast year, the Avs are not throwing in the towel just yet.
Team president Joe Sakic recently expressed faith in his core to get them back into the playoff race.
They’re not far off in a season of parity:
Six of the eight non-playoff teams in the East are within four points of a wild-card, and the furthest back is only six points out.
Four of the six non-playoff teams in the West are within four points of a wild-card.
Calling for the tank now would be a tough call. Given it’s a lottery for the top pick, it’s a lot to ask your fans to live with the losing and potentially not draft first overall.
The issue this year is the rest of the top of the field after Patrick is kind of a “Pick ’Em.” A second candidate has not emerged. In recent years — McDavid-Eichel in 2015, Matthews-Laine in 2016 — offered1-2 franchiseplayer punch that gave the have-nots another reason to dive.
“There’s not a lot of difference from two to about nine,” said Seidel.
“They’ve all got a whole bunch of good assets and they’ve all got a coupe of warts. If you’re missing the playoffs and you finish with the sixth pick, you’re still getting a good player. There’s not much difference between picking second and picking sixth.”
Patrick is out with an undisclosed ailment; he had hernia surgery in the summer. He had to decline an invitation to Team Canada’s world junior selection camp, which starts this weekend in Blainville, Que.
Too bad, because at the world juniors can be a spot for reputations to grow.
“He’s a great solid 200-foot guy who can score, who can skate, he’s strong,” said Seidel. “He checks all the boxes. But I don’t think he’s got that extra ‘sells-tickets’ skill. He’s not going to go through guys. I don’t think he’s going to rack up 110 points. He’s one of those guys coaches want, a big centre down the middle who can make plays, be good defensively.
“At the NHL level I see him as being a real good player, but not at the superstar level.”
AROUND THE LEAGUE
FIGHT NIGHT: Kings coach Darryl Sutter says he’s OK with how fighting has evolved in the NHL.
“I’m not one of those guys who’s into taking it out of the game,” Sutter told the Los Angeles Daily News. “Now the guys that fight a little bit can really skate. Your fourth line is as fast as the first line.” ON A RUN: Flyers goalie Steve Mason may be in the best groove of his season, owing to a long stretch of starts made possible only because of an injury to batterymate Michal Neuvirth.
Mason has started 10 of Philly’s last 11 games (6-3-1, .934 save percentage, 2.10 GAA).
“This is the situation I want to be in,” Mason told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s a workload that all summer long you prepare for.”
Rookie Anthony Stolarz started one game during Mason’s run.
COULD HAVE STAYED: Red Wings winger Thomas Vanek might still be a New York Islander if the Islanders were still in Nassau. Vanek turned down in 2014 a seven-year, $50-million (U.S.) contract offer to return to the Islanders, who have moved to Brooklyn.
“When I was here a few years back, I’ve said it before, I would’ve stayed in a heartbeat if we’d have stayed on the Island,” Vanek told Newsday. “It was a good team, a young team. What I know is moving over here has turned some guys off.”
CANUCKS STALE: Demand for resale Vancouver Canucks tickets this season is at an “all-time low,” the lowest it’s been since the late 1990s, according to the Vancouver Sun.
“I didn’t think it would get any lower than the Mike Keenan years that’s when they moved Trevor (Linden) out and brought in (Mark) Messier,” said Vancouver ticket manager Kingsley Bailey, referencing the 1997-1998 season in which Keenan, then coach and acting general manager, traded away fan-favourite Linden to the New York Islanders.
“I didn’t think it would get any lower than that, but it has.”
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: Alexander Steen scored his 200th career goal on Saturday, bringing the Steen family into rare company. His father, Thomas, also eclipsed 200 goals in his NHL career (264). The Steens join the Hulls (Bobby 610, Brett 741) and Parises (J.P. 238, Zach 303) among father-son duos with 200 career goals to their credit.