el cangri

this is a mock draft compiled by mynhldraft.com

http://www.mynhldraft.com/

top 5 look like this.

1) LA Kings - C Steven Stamkos
2) Tampa Bay Lightning - D Drew Doughty
3) Toronto Maple Leafs - C Kyle Beach
4) Chicago Blackhawks - D Alex Pietrangelo
5) NY Islanders - C Cory Hodgson

the projected draft has been updated as of February 8, 2008.

Canuck

In my opinion I think the top 5 should be

1. Stamkos
2. Schenn
3. Doughty
4. Pietrangelo
5. Filatov

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hockeyboy14

I wonder if LA would pass up Stamkos and draft a defensemen (Doughty).

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el cangri

they all ready have jack johnson but having 2 good defenceman is pretty good for the team as well.

hockeyboy14

You can never have too many good defensemen. Ask Anaheim. But you can have too many good forwards... ask Tampa Bay.

If TB gets numero uno, they draft Doughty or should in my opinion(unless one of the big three are traded).

Leafs want a forward.

LA is debatable, dont forget Dean Lombardi goes off the board a lot ( i.e Thomas Hickey last season... another defensemen, so I guess Stamkos+Kopitar isnt a bad duo)

Chicago will probably go for a defensemen... top 3 of Barker, Seabrook and Alex Pietrangelo looks pretty great to me.

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gordfish

Myself, I think the biggest mistake GMs make on draft day is drafting for needs. As a rule, you take the best player available, period. Whether he fits what you need at the moment is irrelevent; most players take a few years to get to the NHL anyways, and by then your needs may have changed dramatically. You take the best asset available and move on.

hockeyboy14

I completely agree.
The best player should be taken. However, as we have seen in the past, theirs too many veritables between using the best and a lot of talented players, end up in the later rounds because people pass up on them (i.e Bergeron).

Futhermore, the agreement between the NHL and the IIHF has a big influence in the draft (i.e Cherapanov).

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Canuck

I think the leafs need a guy like Luke Schenn back on D but if they get the first pick I dont think theres anyway they would pass on Stamkos.

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hockeyboy14

Anaheims pick (EDM) would result in Schenn...

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gordfish

I think that happens because some GMs draft for need, and I can cite three of Vancouver's recent first round picks as examples.

In 05, Nonis took Bourdon over Kopitar because apparently he felt the club needed defensemen.

2004 may be the best example of all. The Canucks used their first round pick at the time to address an immediate need with goaltender Corey Schneider. While it was probably the best decision at the time, 2 years later the Canucks had Luongo and went from being one of the best offensive teams in the league to one of the worst. And the barb in the this sting? The next three players taken in that draft were Jeff Schultz, Mark Fistric and Mike Green, all of whom are defensemen playing a regular role with their respective NHL clubs. Meanwhile Bourdon is still only an injury call up on the Canucks.

The team now has a serious lacking at centre, which could have been fixed by drafting Kopitar, which would have been possible by taking any of three defensemen that went after Schneider, and with Kopitar here Nonis wouldn't have had the need to draft a project centre out of high school in Patrick White and could have added a scoring winger directly to the lineup by taking David Perron. Would this team be better right now with Kopitar, Perron and Green instead of Schneider, Bourdon and White? You bet your ass it would.

All that mess because Nonis drafted for need, which in turn left better players available later on for other teams.