BUFFAO, NY – Just when you thought it was safe to do another mock draft, the NHL scouts and General Managers those some pucks at your head. With the exception of the top two picks in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, who were held by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets, the Columbus Blue Jackets ruined mock drafts everywhere by selecting Pierre-Luc Dubois third overall.
Most, if not all mock drafts around the hockey world had Jesse Puljujarvi going to the Jackets, but for whatever reason Columbus decided to take Dubois instead. The Edmonton Oilers were fourth overall and took Puljujarvi in a heartbeat despite the dire need going into the draft looking for defensemen.
The domino effect continued throughout the draft and mock drafters could be heard crying all over North America, and the world. PHN of course was effected but only in terms of getting direct hits such as the top two picks It is hard enough to predict who gets picked by whom but knowing which players will even be taken in the first round is as much a chore as anything.
PHN set a personal best for having only five players not make it in the first round. Usually teams will take a reach on a player and someone who was expected to go higher in the draft falls dramatically and ends up going in the second round of the draft. This time around PHN’S only misses were Alex Debrincat, Carl Grundström, Nathan Bastian, Boris Katchouk, German Rubtsov, and Pascal Laberge.
Besides the top two picks, PHN did however get a couple two more picks right when the St Louis Blues moved up from #26 to 28 to select Tage Thompson and the New Jersey Devils flipped picks with Ottawa and moved down a spot from #11 to 12 to select Michael McLeod.
PHN did get close a couple of times when Montreal took Mikhail Sergachev at #9 instead of at #10 to Colorado and Charlie McAvoy went at #14 to Boston instead of to Minnesota at 15. Carolina selected Julien Gauthier at #21 could have gone higher had Philadelphia not traded down from 18 to 22 but unfortunately we will never know if he still would have been taken by the Flyers had they stared at 18.
