NHL Draft Night for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Tonight was the NHL Draft, and I stuck around since NHL Network has been pried from me somehow by Direct TV and followed the picks online a little bit. This draft definitely seemed to lack the 'sizzle' of a generational prospect, but I am nonetheless interested to see who the Maple Leafs added.

The Hischier kid the New Jersey Devils took #1 overall is dubbed as a Mitch Marner clone.

The Maple Leafs took a kid who is classified as an 'elite' skating defenceman. His name is Timothy Liljegren, and I will undoubtedly fuck up the spelling of his name for years to come. The brass says he's probably going to be with the big team this year.

Director of Player Personnel Mark Hunter talks about the @MapleLeafs drafting of @Timmeliljegren. #NHLDraft #TMLTalk pic.twitter.com/g2VlYFFR51

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) June 24, 2017

More posts to come tomorrow night once the Maple Leafs have compiled more picks.

Twitter seems to think the Maple Leafs hit a home run:

"What in the hell was everyone thinking letting Timothy Liljegren drop that far" is something you'll hear a bunch in the coming years.

— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 23, 2017

Not to overhype the kid, but Timothy Liljegren is now the best Swedish defenseman in the province.

— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) June 24, 2017

#Leafs select D Timothy Liljegren at No. 17 from Rogle, a player many thought would be the No. 1 pick at some points in 2015-16.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 24, 2017

NHL Draft Day 2017

I know nothing about the NHL draft. I am not going to pretend to. But tonight; Friday evening in Chicago, is the NHL draft. 

The Maple Leafs hold selections 17, 59, 110, 124, 172, and 203. That's not a bevy of selections where you're really going to make hay and you just hope that the Leafs hit on the first two picks in the first and second rounds and then maybe find a serviceable guy later there. 

A kid named Nico Hischier is expected to be taken #1 overall by the New Jersey Devils as a Centre. The same mock has the Leafs taking Erik Brannstrom, a LH defenceman.

It's just good to be writing about NHL hockey.

5-14-16-1

On a night like tonight, you can't watch this enough times:



Lots of conspiracy theories out there about where McJesus landed.

VIDEO: Full Connor McDavid Pick

I felt this deserved to be forever in the archives:

Connor McDavid Selected #1 by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2015 NHL Draft

Connor McDavid was selected #1 overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2015 NHL Draft tonight. I have the draft coverage from NBC Sports on my television and I'm trying to take in as much of this draft as I can. 

The Edmonton Journal Cult of Hockey Blog is already asking if McDavid can save them:

It was a transformative moment for the franchise, easily the single-most important move the team has made in more than a decade. It trumps the acquisition of Chris Pronger, a move which brought the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2006. Likely it even trumps the flurry of exits by Pronger and others immediately following that playoff run, the associated moves which launched the current epoch of darkness in Edmonton.

Ah. I cannot wait to watch this kid start to pile up the stats.

Taylor Hall with the Funny

Welcome to Edmonton, Connor. Don't mess up everything we've built the last 5 years! #FutureIsBright

— Taylor Hall (@hallsy04) June 26, 2015

Connor McDavid energizes HNTB

 

Connor McDavid is going to be a generational talent in hockey's heartland up in Edmonton. He's going to save the franchise we love up in Canada, and therefore we're going to start writing about hockey again.

The kid from Richmond Hill, Ontario is going to be fun to watch. With it, we'll pick up his Imports Dragon NHL Figure, NHL 16 for Playstation 4, and probably NHL Gamecenter next season. We will also do some nightly NHL on Fanduel. McDavid is "going to spark a lot of interest in the collectability of hockey cards" according to one hobby shop owner.

It's going to be a fun run, none of which would have been possible if McDavid had not ended up in Edmonton.