PHILADELPHIA, Pa – Well, it’s that time of year again. No, not the Stanley Cup playoffs mind you, but the time of year when PHN begins its efforts towards this year’s NHL Entry Draft which this year will be held in Montreal on Friday June 26 and Saturday June 27.
As we have the past two seasons, PHN will present our own mock draft, predicting which player each NHL team will pick in the first round of the draft.
Last season, PHN was the third best web site in terms of “direct hits”, meaning we correctly predicted which player would be drafted by a team at that draft position. As most every publication predicted Steven Stamkos would go first overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning. That of course was a direct hit, and an easy prediction at that. PHN also predicted that Drew Doughty would go second overall to the LA Kings, but PHN also predicted that Zack Boychuk would go at #14 to Carolina, and Tyler Cuma would go to the Minnesota Wild at #24.
Only TSN and Fox Sports did better in terms of direct hits than PHN. This year we hope to do better. One of the things that we’ve received positive feedback on is the way we do our mock draft. Most web sites just post their mock draft all at once and show their entire mock draft with every prediction the week leading up to the draft. Not to mention they don’t really go in-depth as they why that team would pick that particular player.
At PHN, we start our mock draft roughly a month before the start of the draft and go pick by pick on a daily basis. We go in-depth in article form and describe who we think that team might draft a player at that spot in draft not only based on that persons skill, but why they need to draft that player based on how our mock draft is going, and of course based on that teams strengths and weaknesses.
This year we would also like to do something that no other web site will be doing, and that is challenging our readers to do better than PHN at predicting each draft pick. How many times have you said to yourself: “Man, I can pick better than these guys can.”
Oh really? Well then, let’s see what you’ve got!
Just send us an email with your name, mailing address, and predictions up until one hour before the start of the draft to (mockdraft2009@prohockeynews.com), and we will see who does the best against us and post who does for all the world to see. Who knows, you just might get something in the mail for your efforts.
Also, keep in mind that teams make trades during the draft, but your mock draft should not account for them unless they take place before the draft. Our deadline for submitting your picks to us will be at 6 PM EDT on Friday June 26. The draft will take place at 7 PM that same night.
PHN is also doing some additional fun things leading up to the draft and after the draft. As an example, last year PHN held a live online chat during the draft as each pick took place. That way everyone could chime in on the draft and how it was going. PHN are currently working on doing things such as that so stayed tune for upcoming live events with PHN staff.
As we did last year during our pre draft special we will be having some special guests chime on how they think the draft will go for the team they cover. We will announce those guests in the upcoming days.
In the mean time, to get you ready for the draft, we highly recommend the following links.
NHL.com
The NHL had set up the above web site to get fans ready for the draft.
TSN.ca
TSN in Canada does a great job of covering the prospects and the draft so if you really want to read some great stuff on the prospects this is a great place to start as well.
Hockey’s Future
HF is a very good web site for seeing who is a current NHL prospect on every team, and it does have a list of the prospects with a ranking system.
USAToday
The Red Line Report’s Kyle Woodlief does work for USA TODAY and can also get you caught up on some of the prospects heading into this year’s draft.
Also, The Hockey News has already come out with their prospects reports for all 30 NHL teams called FUTURE WATCH so pick up a copy, and they will be releasing their annual DRAFT PREVIEW issue which should be coming out very soon.
We do hope you join us in this for-fun venture. One behalf of PHN, we thank you for being a part of PHN and as fellow hockey fans all over the world, we salute you.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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