2016 Draft: Round two… Fight!

It’s day number two of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo, New York. Teams once again will gather to take turns in selecting which players are forced to go through their organization if they wish to hold a NHL career (unless traded).

The Winnipeg Jets get ready to make the rest of their selections as we head into the second round.

Regardless of how the Jets do, this will likely still be a big year for the Jets with the addition of a potential elite goal scoring machine. It is going to be pretty exciting in Winnipeg when Laine comes into town for Development Camp in July.

We wrote a whole bunch of things on Laine you should check out:

Let’s be fair; Stanley is real prospect and one that I view as better than what the strict and blind numbers would suggest (which would be 4th+ round talent). The issue was that I thought that there would be, and in my opinion there were, players more likely to impact the Jets in a positive manner in the short and long run.

That said, Stanley is now a Jet, and because of this we are going to cheer him on and hope he beats the odds. Speaking of which, I wrote an article on Stanley (and one on Laine) showing that I do know a bit more about hockey than just the statistical end, and giving you a deeper understanding of who these players are.

Here is that article and more on Stanley:

There were some interesting selections in the first round, from bold moves to head scratchers.

Nashville Predators got a high scoring defender at 17 with Dante Fabbro and the New York Islanders got a high scoring forward at 19 with Keifer Bellows. The biggest reaches in terms of scoring was Winnipeg Jets at 18 with Logan Stanley, Dallas Stars at 25 with Riley Tufte, and Boston Bruins at 29 with Trent Frederic.

It is interesting to see where players went relative to how well they score points and how there are still some significant point scorers available to be taken in the draft.

The Winnipeg Jets lost their second round in the trade to move up in the team’s drive for Logan Stanley. They did receive a third round pick in return, so the Jets will not have to wait all the way until the fourth to make their selections.

It should be noted that historically speaking, the Jets lost the trade, in terms of what the market historically gives in pick return for the 22nd and 36th overall selections. Obviously the Jets feel that Stanley is worth more than the 18th overall.

Without a second round pick the Jets have only five picks left, one in each round. The Jets will select at 79, 97, 127, 157, and 187, provided that there are no more trades.

If there are some trades, hopefully the Jets play it smart and trade back to accumulate some quantity in the back end of the draft.

All players in the later rounds are long shots and there’s not much drop in quality throughout. The Jets could accumulate quite a few lottery tickets by moving backwards, especially since teams trading backwards tend to get more bang for their buck.

The Jets got size and skill with Patrik Laine, and they got super size with the potential for skill in Logan Stanley. Hopefully now they can accumulate some more skill depth and gun for as many high scorers as possible.