2022 Dispersal Draft - New Teams Take Shape!
Jun 13, 2022 5:32:54 GMT
Josh - Dallas, Dave - Calgary, and 4 more like this
Post by Lou - Buffalo on Jun 13, 2022 5:32:54 GMT
The 2022 off-season marked a monumental time in the DHL where 6 new teams would take shape from a huge dispersal draft pool loaded with super star talent. The top end boasted names like McDavid, Mackinnon, Matthews and Draisaitl, there were high end young future stars like Stutzle, Raymond and Sorokin, there were numerous 1st round draft picks available as well as tons of strong NHL players and budding prospects. An exciting time for the league and especially the 6 teams taking part in the dispersal draft!
The Teams and Draft Order:
1. Vegas Golden Knights - Ethan
2. Seattle Kraken - Darren
3. New Jersey Devils - Jon
4. NY Islanders - Brent
5. Detroit Red Wings - Kyle
6. Tampa Bay Lightning - Andrew
This group was a nice mix of 3 new owners looking to create their team for the first time and 3 veteran DHL owners who traded in their teams for a chance to build a new one. Everyone came in with a plan and their own philosophy so let's take a look at how the teams have turned out so far and some of the highlights of each roster as we speculate about their plan and futures in the DHL.
Vegas started out with the envious position of 1st overall and not surprisingly took the best player in the world Connor McDavid, already a huge win for this new team and owner. What he probably didn't expect was Johhny Gaudreau and Artemi Panarin being available when it came back to him at pick 12 and 13 but he wasted no time in selecting the two superstars and put together a truly dangerous trio. Great start for Vegas as he's obviously looking to win right away, he then added Brayden Point and Elias Lindholm at 24 and 25 two more star players with a lot of great hockey ahead of them. This top 5 is very strong and Vegas continued to add great NHL players like Marchand, Teravainen and some value picks like Seguin and Doughty later on who could be steals. Vegas is looking very strong at forward and that was obviously a focus on their draft. Get the best forwards available first, then look to grab a key goalie in Binnington and a couple solid D in Doughty and Barrie. If there's any question marks on this team or work to be done after the draft it will likely be bolstering their defense and possibly adding some goaltending depth. A lot is riding on Vanacek and Kahkonen in net, but if they can get enough starts alongside Binnington then this team has a real chance to win in their first few seasons. They definitely have the talent up front and it appears as if new owner Ethan has a plan. Great job with your new team!
If you can't have McDavid then the next best thing is Mackinnon is not a bad consolation prize for Seattle! I'd say deciding to enter the dispersal has already paid off for Darren! Great way to start his new team, Mackinnon is an absolute beast, we're all jealous and will be making you offers, especially Chris at least once a week for the next 3 years until he eventually wears you down. With Mackinnon inked in Seattle, they enacted what looked like a pre draft plan taking goaltending with their 2nd pick Darcy Keumper at #11 as Darren knows the importance of goalies on good teams for DHL success. Seattle then made great picks in Mikka Zibanejad followed by JT Miller before going back to goalies and grabbing Bobrovsky with his 5th pick. So that's 3 great fantasy forwards and 2 goalies from two of the best NHL teams in his top 5, pretty solid as he clearly had a plan on what he wanted to be the core of his new team. He later added John Carlson and Kris Letang on Defense, two of the top guys in the position over the last handful of seasons along with some other good veteran fantasy players like O'Reilly, Hyman and Fleury before grabbing some prospects and picks and some other veterans. Seattle looks to have a solid foundation at each position and if they can build on that and add the right pieces during the season or even if not they should be a playoff team for the forseeable future. Great job Darren!
Jersey won the league this past season and after reaching the pinnacle veteran owner Jon decided he wanted to take on the challenge of building an entirely new team and trying to do it all over again! Well drafting the league's best goal scorer Auston Matthews is a great way to do that! What a steal at 3 if there is such a thing! Matthews is ridiculous and Tyler GM of Toronto, a renowned Leafs fan, would probably trade half his team and his first-born child to get him (We'll have to track that in-season). What a great way to get started though for Jersey who like Darren quickly snatched up one of the best goalies on the board with his next pick taking Frederik Andersen at #10. Then he saw Jack Eichel fall into his lap in the 3rd and wasted no time selecting him at #15. I know Eichel only has half a neckbone left but feels like he should have gone earlier, could be a steal for Jersey. They followed this up with Lehner, Hintz and Robert Thomas with their next 3 picks, all solid and then grabbed a nice mix of Kyrou, Evander Kane and Cozens before deciding Detroit was going to be bad next year and taking their 2023 1st rounder with pick 58 and then their 2024 1st rounder just 12 picks later. It remains to be seen if new owner Kyle will take this personally but Monteal owner Chris tried to get a rivalry going between them or maybe that was the game within the game by Chris trying to throw Jon off his game during the draft. Either way it was fun and we love that sort of thing in the DHL. All kidding aside Kyle had a plan and put together a strong young team as we will see coming up. Jon then continued to round out his roster taking everyone else's 1st round picks also and a few good prospects. Jersey looks strong and we all know Jon is active making trades so we don't doubt they will be a playoff team by the end of the season. Great work Jon!
Yes you're seeing that right.. Leon Draisaitl went 4th overall to the Islanders! Pretty insane to think about but that shows you how strong the top end of this draft was! Islanders owner Brent tore himself away from his bbq rib eating contest to enact a great plan for this draft and it started by taking one of the best players in the world in Draisaitl! He then took two of the best goal scorers in the world in Ovechkin and Stamkos with his next two picks! Tbh this is pretty scary.. I'm not looking forward to going up against a team that has THREE players capable of scoring 50 goals! Congrats on winning goals, gwg and shots every week Brent! What start to the draft for the Islanders, they then added a great young goalie in Swayman along with slough of strong NHL'ers in Buchnevich, Trochek and Faulk, all solid picks. Brent then decided he wanted some toughness and added Marcus Foligno before rounding out the roster with some other solid NHL vets like Varlamov, Pulock and Burns with a few younger guys like Verhaeghe, Mikheyev and Formenton. The Isles have a good mix of studs at the top of the roster, solid NHL guys and some young players with upside. They don't have a much in the way of picks or top prospects outside of 10th overall in 2022 and Jack Drury yet, but we imagine they'll add some futures with their remaining picks. The new Islanders roster is looking good and should be a playoff team, we imagine Brent is pretty excited about it and is happy he entered the draft after finishing near the bottom last season. Great job building your new team Brent!
Franchise goaltenders are hard to find in real life and especially in the DHL, new GM Kyle made a great pick locking up one of the best young goalies in the game today Ilya Sorokin with his 1st pick. A nice foundation for a team that would decide to focus on youth throughout this draft. Detroit quickly added the two most elite young players available with his next picks in Tim Stutzle and Lucas Raymond at #8 and #11. Great choices and it quickly became clear Kyle was going for youth early and had a plan to build a team of younger players who could peak together down the road. His next pick he locked up Stutzle's linemate in Drake Batherson and then took two of the best prime aged defenseman in Ekblad and Reilly. He then made what I think is a pretty big steal taking Barzal at pick 41, kind of awesome tbh. Detroit continued the trend of youth by taking Seth Jarvis, Necas, Farabee, Clarke, Dach and Kotchetkov, some really great young players in that group and Kyle clearly knows his prospects, he continued to add more in the later rounds. From an outside perspective it was interesting to watch a team go for mostly youth as in a way it kind of forced most of the other teams to go with the NHL guys and at least the 4 above in this article don't really have overly strong prospect groups yet because of it. Kyle and to a lesser extent Andrew in Tampa snatched most of them up. With Detroit and Tampa being next to each other it was an interesting trend to watch, 4 picks in a row mainly focusing on youth I think perhaps made the other teams adjust to more of a win now strategy. Who knows but was fun to watch play out in a draft like this. No question Kyle put together a great young team and had a plan coming into this draft, we think Detroit will be a powerhouse down the road especially if he can continue to add to his core and make some key moves along the way. Great job Kyle your team is very exciting!
Starting out with a perennial Norris Trophy candidate is a great way to build your new team and new owner Andrew wasted no time making star defenseman Roman Josi the first member of his team with the 6th overall pick! He then took one of the fastest and talented players in the league Kyle Connor who I always think doesn't get enough press, the kid is a superstar and a great pick. Tampa then made a great decision in locking up still young star goalie John Gibson and I'm sure some other owners will be knocking on his door trying to pry him away (stay strong Andrew!). Young star Jason Robertsen was the next player to go and he's a star in the making as well. Tampa then turned their attention to a couple youngish NHL players with upside in Nurse and Tage Thompson before stealing two great players in our format in Landeskog and Trouba with picks 42 and 43, love those two picks for Tampa! After locking up few more NHL guys for a solid core Tampa turned their attention to prospects adding a lot of upside with guys like K'Andre Miller, Hagel, Kaliyev, Chinakhov, Knies, Raty and continued this trend to build what looks like a great prospect group. So where Detroit went full youth, Tampa seemed to go with a little more of a mix at the top then primarily focus on youth from the midpoint on. We like this philosophy as well and it should be interesting to see how Tampa's roster develops over the next few seasons. They have a core where they could move a few young pieces and push for the playoffs if they wanted or let things develop over time. Really great job Andrew!
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Hope you guys enjoyed this! Obviously I had some fun with it and have no idea what any of your plans really were but it was fun to speculate! Everyone's teams look good and it's been enjoyable to watch the draft from an outside perspective. Great job building your new teams!