Welcome to 1st Ohio Battery's inaugural prospects mailbag.
This is the first of what we plan to be a bi-weekly feature here on the site. You can submit questions in the Forum and I’ll do my best to answer them.
BIGDUBOISFAN: Alright, so I don't follow prospects much or even draft strategies, so these may be dumb questions. With that said, are the Jackets in a position where they take "best available" or do they target a certain position, assuming they draft around 20th? Also who are some of the names that could realistically end up being a Jackets first round pick?
Don’t worry – there are no dumb questions here. In the first round, teams should always be looking for best player available. Positional needs can change year-to-year; if you end up with too much of one thing you always have the option to trade. We’ve seen Nashville do this for years; they load up on young defensemen and have had no problems trading them for impact forwards.
Now with that being said, as you get later in the draft, it starts to open up and you can look at your prospect pool and see where you might have some holes. The Jackets system in 2015 was really light on defensive prospects. Columbus then went out and used six of their nine draft picks that season on defensemen. With the current state of the Blue Jackets prospect pool, they need talent at all positions. The system is light, particularly at the top. They should be aiming for high upside with their pick.
A couple names to keep an eye on in that 20ish range: defensemen Rasmus Sandin, Ty Smith, Alexander Alexeyev, Ryan Merkley, and forwards Dominik Bokk, Jack McBain, and Ryan McLeod. Merkley is a player I am very interested in. He’s an undersized defenseman but he’s has the talent of a top five pick. He’s an elite skater and puck-handler. He has serious problems in his own zone, but if he can figure that out he can be an impact player.
MONGOOSEED7: What do you make of prospect Kevin Stenlund? What is his realistic ceiling? His size and speed is an interesting combo.
He definitely has a very interesting tool kit, but I wonder about his skill level. He hasn’t been much of a scorer in the SHL. He’s had two seasons of 20 points and has hovered around 0.5 points per game. I understand offense isn’t necessarily his game, but this was his third full season in the league and I would have liked to have seen more progression offensively from him. Take a look at the Jackets third-line center prior to this season, William Karlsson. This year not withstanding, he’s a solid 20-point defensive center. When he was in Sweden he had two seasons better than what Stenlund did this year, at a younger age.
That’s not to say Stenlund can’t develop further. Getting him to Cleveland was a good move. He can get accustomed to the North American ice, and be ready for a full AHL season next year. I’m taking a wait-and-see approach with him.
FRITSCHEPLEASE: Is Brady Tkachuk similar to his brother and dad or is he his own beast? Where could he possibly be drafted?
"The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree" is an appropriate metaphor here. Brady is just like his dad and brother; big, physical and loves getting under the opponents' skin. The talk around him at the World Juniors was that he may be even a bigger jerk on the ice than his brother Matthew. Like Matt, Brady isn’t the most dynamic of players but he’s skilled enough and combined with his tenacity on the ice, he can be an impact player. Most scouting services have him going around pick No. 5.
0HIOAN: Has Abramov improved since his last season? I thought he was going to make the opening NHL roster...
I was hoping for that as well. Watching Abramov in the pre-season it was clear though he wasn’t quite up to NHL speed just yet. He went back to the QMJHL and even though he was the MVP of the league last season, he found a way to improve. He put up an identical 104 points, but this season did it 56 games – 10 fewer than last season. He raised his points per game from 1.58 to 1.86. He was able to play for Russia at the World Juniors and struggled for one of the first times in his hockey career. That was a big learning experience for him. He’s definitely ready to make the jump to the AHL, and who knows? With a big summer, he could be ready to make the big club out of camp.
Follow 1st Ohio BatteryFacebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
