By Bobby Bauders
Senior Writer/Editor
We’ll have four team needs stories highlighting the draft needs of the teams in every division. Written on June 23rd, any trades that happened after this story was written will not be mentioned in this story, therefore some draft spots may be outdated.
Carolina Hurricanes:
1st Round Picks: 2
2nd Round Picks: 1
Total Draft Picks: 9
Carolina currently needs offensive prospects in my opinion. All of their offensive prospects are average excluding Victor Rask and Teuvo Teravainen. Their defensive crops are excellent with Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin, and Ryan Murphy.
At 13th, Carolina has a wide variety of offensive players to choose from. If they’re available of course, those include Tyson Jost, Kieffer Bellows, Max Jones, Luke Kunin, and Michael McLeod. All of which would greatly improve Carolina’s prospect pool.
Columbus Blue Jackets:
1st Round Picks: 1
2nd Round Picks: 1
Total Draft Picks: 5
With the acquisition of Seth Jones, Columbus looks set on defense. Selecting Jesse Puljujarvi and Tage Thompson in the 2nd Round could help that.
Unless Columbus trades the 3rd overall pick, which they have gotten impressive offers for, they’ll be selecting Puljujarvi.
New Jersey Devils:
1st Round Picks: 1
2nd Round Picks: 1
Total Draft Picks: 9
New Jersey is in the same boat as Carolina. They have a fairly young, productive defense. They just need that high end scoring forward to get their offense rolling.
Sitting at number 11 they have a lot of control. Lots of forwards everywhere at this point in the draft. Their goal will be to get either Clayton Keller, Logan Brown, or Kieffer Bellows.
New York Islanders:
1st Round Picks: 1
2nd Round Picks: 0
Total Draft Picks: 5
The New York Islanders are set down the middle, and they have a decent, young defense. They should look at wingers in the draft.
With the 19th overall pick, The Isles should hope that Riley Tufte, Max Jones, or Julien Gauthier are available because they’d be fantastic in Brooklyn.
New York Rangers:
1st Round Picks: 0
2dn Round Picks: 0
Total Draft Picks: 6
What a mess the Rangers have become. Can’t really say much about the Rangers because they’ve traded their 1st and 2nd Round Picks.
What they need is a new General Manager. Jeff Gorton has been proving he’s not fit to be running a front office. They acquired Keith Yandle from the Coyotes, and one of the assets moved in that trade was this year’s 1st Round Pick. Well, Yandle is no longer on the team and Arizona hasn’t even used the pick yet. Rangers management has been downright embarrassing for at least 4 straight years.
Philadelphia Flyers:
1st Round Picks: 1
2nd Round Picks: 2
Total Draft Picks: 10
The Flyers have a fairly young offensive core. Other than Shayne Gostisbehere, their defense needs help.
Expect Philly to select Dante Fabbro. He’s a defenseman with amazing offensive ability, like that of Gostisbehere. He once out up 78 points in 58 games. Incredible. Any team would be lucky to have that talent.
Pittsburgh Penguins:
1st Round Picks: 0
2nd Round Picks: 2
Total Draft Picks: 5
Pittsburgh just won the Stanley Cup, so they’re needs aren’t exactly dire. Although, an extra defensive prospect or 2 never hurts.
Currently sitting at the 55th and 61st picks, Pittsburgh may be able to draft Ryan Lindgren. This would be a decent pickup for Pittsburgh. He’s a defenseman that knows how to put up points, at one point posting 88 in Bantam.
Washington Capitals:
1st Round Picks: 1
2nd Round Picks: 0
Total Draft Picks: 6
Washington has needed an in your face scorer since they lost Joel Ward and Eric Fehr.They could get that at the 26th pick.
If the Caps are lucky enough, they could land German Rubstov. He’s in your face and let’s you know he’s on the ice, and he scores points, earning 26 points in 28 games with the U-18 Team Russia. He’ll have to work on his size to fill his role, but that shouldn’t be a problem in development. Tage Thomposon would also be excellent, standing at 6’5”.
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