• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2018 NHL Draft Thread

Kral’s biggest asset is his skating. He’s got great mobility and uses his acceleration (and awareness) to open up opportunities on the ice. It’s probably unfair to characterize his playing style as “European,” but he skews heavily towards the puck-moving, finesse game. He has strong awareness in the offensive and neutral zones and distributes the pucks well, particularly transitioning through the neutral zone.

The challenge for Kral is that his defensive game is arguably his weakness, and the physical aspect of that in particular – he can get nudged off the puck in the corners. His defensive zone awareness isn’t quite where his offensive awareness is – at times, he seems a bit impatient with the puck in his own end, as if he’s trying to generate some offense before he even leaves his zone. It’s an aspect of his game he might eventually grow out of, but it’s a gap he’ll need to fix. His consistency is also a work in progress, as his offensive production came in fits and starts.

A few online publications had him going in the 80's, so getting him at 149 appears pretty good on the surface.
 
DgZNHgeU8AAUJL_.jpg
 
i like the sandin pick a lot.

i always look to goals as a proxy for a defenseman's nhl (edit: offensive) potential. guys who can't score in major-junior almost never become good offensive dmen. not an exact science but a 15 goal pace (in the 68 game major jr season) seems to be a pretty good indicator.

this kid was right in that range. and that was (Apparnetly) without first unit pp minutes.

factor in strong skating, talent with the puck and the fact that he played increasingly difficult minutes as the season progressed and this looks like a real nice add for the leafs.

and, again, moar swedes pleeze.

willy, johnsson, engvall, rosen, borgman, timmay, rasmus....
 
Last edited:
what's the different between entry/exit % and entry/exit success %?

As I understand it, if you get it in/out of the zone but you turn it over it's not successful. So if you get it in/out and retain possession it's "successful", which is why it's going to be a lower percentage.
 
As I understand it, if you get it in/out of the zone but you turn it over it's not successful. So if you get it in/out and retain possession it's "successful", which is why it's lower.

thanks.

so, kral profiles like..... zaitsev.
 
Adding two picks and going after some nicely skilled players, it sure looks like Dubas is trying to refill the pipeline with some skill after 2 years of heavy emphasis on low ceiling picks ... Middleton, MacGregor, O'Donnell, Mattinen, Walker, Scott, et al.
 
I'm not sure what Zaitsev's numbers say, but yeah Kral's % is not great. Sandin and Hollowell look better at it.

ya. just an assumption.

but zaitsev skates well enough to initiate some good entries, but i'di magine his exit success % is garbage. always gets the puck out, but never on his own team's stick...
 
Only pick i was iffy on was the Holloway pick. Midget overage defender from the Soo. Meh. The Durzi pick looks decent as well.

Sandin looks like a good one. Added that extra pick by moving down 4 spots got us a lotto ticket in SDA.

More Swedes is right!
 
Back
Top