Draft Grades

Johnny – D: What were you thinking? With 5 players in the draft who played defense in the past and were capable of filling your defense position, you chose the one who, yes, may be the best defensive defensemen, but has zero upside offensively. Johnny must have watched the Montreal video recently and saw that pass. Johnny’s team is the only team with only 1 offensive threat and that offensive threat has been in the decline and relies heavily on others getting him the ball. Now I understand the pick. Johnny doesn’t play defense and he doesn’t want to have to worry about it, but now Nick has way too much weight resting on his pre-pubescent shoulders and is likely to crumble under the pressure. He’s already been asking his agent for a way out of Rileyville. Having Darrin will help, especially since Darrin loves playing with Nick. So if those two can feed off each other, embrace this monumental challenge and take pride in frustrating the other team’s top players, defense is the only way to victory for them. The only reason Johnny didn’t get an F in the draft is because he ended up with the 2 prater boys. Except what’s puzzling is that he picked Andrew first, who has less points than Elliot in Saugus; Elliot being right behind Johnny in points.

Jared – C+: Really the only decision left to be made in the first round, and most critics agree….he made the wrong one. But that doesn’t mean he made a poor one. Ron proved last year to be the most dangerous weapon on Brett’s team. Speed might not be Ron’s strength but he is still one of the quickest with the puck. Add in his superb board play and he most definitely will be a factor again this year. But here’s why Jared only gets a C+. If Johnny is severely questioned for not taking Eric, why shouldn’t Jared be? Maybe Jared didn’t want a log jam at LW. But that wouldn’t make sense seeing as he drafted 3 offensemen. Granted Ward has played D in the past, but if these past few weeks are any sign, Ward will be in front of the opposing net more often than his own. Now let’s talk about his last pick, Reggie. It was down to Reggie or Elliot and Jared chose to go with Reggie solely for the fact that he’s older than 15. Granted Reggie does have adult strength and that’s an advantage no doubt, but Elliot has energy and, safe to say, more skill. As meaningless as this last round pick may be, it just might be the difference in repeating for Jared. It's a long day Jared. It takes all 5 to win and you have to elders of the game of hockey. Youth may not have been a bad choice in this case.

Brett – B: That’s a bit high for someone who had, what most believed to be, the top pick in the draft fall to him. So maybe he gets this grade for not falling for any of the trades that were thrown at him from other GMs. Brett knew Jared didn’t want Eric, and he was banking on Johnny taking Nick first. Brett did his homework on the draft field, and the captains, and it paid off. Taking Joe, the last defensemen, was another no brainer despite many of his contemporaries calling into question Joe’s endurance. But what they can’t question is his motor. This year, Brett will once again be putting his faith in Tony, the goalie his team rode to the finals last year. Jared described tony the best saying Tony is capable for ruining the game for either side. While that may be true, Tony played average to above average every game last year and there’s no reason to believe he won’t do it again this year….besides the fact that he hasn’t played in a year and Brett had to plead with him to play again this time around. Mike D is actually who I think will be the difference in more than one game for Brett. The question is, can Mike be happy playing offense AND defense through the whole tournament? I’m sure Brett will do what he can to make everyone on his team happy, but it’s foolish to think that Joe will play the whole game on D. Expect Brett and Mike to split time relieving Joe on defense.

Borges – A-: Borges turned, what many thought would be a straight forward draft, into something interesting. Griff can either be a drain on opposing defense while playing wing as he did in Montreal, or he can play stellar defense as he did in last year’s Haverhill Cup. But the surprise of the draft came in his second round pick of Billy Thomas. With Ward still on the board and his team seemingly set on the defensive side of the ice, Borges, in his infinite wisdom, went with Billy, another defensive minded player. Maybe it’s because he knew he’d end up with the last available goalie in Jack, or maybe he knew that goals will be tough to score in games only lasting 10 minutes, or maybe, just maybe, he wanted to snatch up as many defensemen as possible knowing he has 3 months left till the trade deadline. I fully expect a trade between Jared and Borges with Borges being the clear winner in the trade as Jared sells out for a defensemen (just think how much Jared would rather play with Griff than against him). Even if he doesn’t make a deal, his team looks to be the early favorite. Either way his strategy was brilliant.