The Stanley Cup is awarded, the parade is en route, the post-mortems and tear-jerking features are penned…and now we’re at NHL Mock Draft time.
Our team sites on SB Nation are again conducting a mock draft, with Lighthouse Hockey participating again as representative for the New York Islanders for the…14th consecutive year? Something like that.
Each year I have to really stretch to find reasons to get excited about the NHL Draft, a youth meat market that does not particularly thrill me. (I’m more of a “tell me when they’re on NHL teams” kind of fan.)
This year, I’m most excited by the names near the top of the draft, which features more Slovaks and Czechs than recent memory. That means announcers and (maybe) fans will get to learn fun pronunciations like Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec and David Jiricek (or Jiříček, if you’re not into the whole typing-brevity/search-friendly thing).
NHL Mock Draft
This year our mock draft is moving more swiftly than previous years, with six to seven picks per day. Here’s how the first seven picks went yesterday. You can keep up with today’s picks as they appear at our SB Nation Mock Draft hub. Our mock-pick on behalf of the mock-Islanders at 13th overall will post at 6 p.m. EDT.
But to give you something to debate all day, I’ll give you this info: The following players (in random order after #7) will be off the board by the time our pick arrives:
Shane Wright, Logan Cooley, Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec, David Jiricek, Cutter Gauthier, Joakim Kemell, Conor Geekie, Matthew Savoie, Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, Jonathan Lekkerimäki.
Debate away!
Islanders News
- Lane Lambert’s had many believers over the years, and now finally gets his chance to lead his own team at the NHL level. [Post]
- A big feature on William Dufour from Scott Wheeler at The Athletic. It’s been a long road but the kid has transformed himself into some kind of player. “He has matured, he’s buying in, and I think he’s now shifting to a pro mentality.”
Stanley Cup, Hall of Fame and Other NHL News
- Yet five more lessons about the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup. [Sportsnet]
- How Joe Sakic’s methodical “patience for the rebuild” paid off. [Athletic]
- Sakic also made several not-patient trades to augment the roster this season, perhaps none as key as Artturi Lehkonen, who’s gonna get paid. [Sportsnet]
- But Jared Bednar sure appreciated their patience with him. [NHL]
- The Hall of Fame selections have been announced, featuring two Sedins, one Roberto Luongo (hey, another Isles HOFer!) and one Daniel Alfredsson. [Sportsnet]
- Plenty of offseason intrigue affecting many NHL teams and players, from key free agents to the future of Carey Price. [NHL]
- Panthers forward Maxim Mamin has accepted the lure of the KHL yet again. [TSN]
- Nazem Kadri celebrated his journey to the Cup — and in the form of so many forced-redemption stories, turned his past mistakes into just the stuff of “haters.” [Sportsnet]
- One proper outcome of the final is that Pat Maroon fell short of his bid for a fourth straight Cup. I mean come on, the hockey gods finally said, not that guy. [NHL]
- Why Luke “fine line between player’s coach and hard ass” Richardson is the right coach for the Blackhawks rebuild. (‘Cause he bag skates himself? But sincerely, best of luck to the former Isles assistant.) [Athletic]
- The Bruins go all-in on Don Sweeney. [Sportsnet]
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here