Want to be an armchair GM? Of course you do. We've got picks #25 and either #29 or #30 and we've got a list of kids to think about. Follow me over the jump and let's set the stage.
Currently Chicago is on the clock with the 18th pick and the following players are gone (they're alphabetized to let the blogs who've just picked keep their secret):
Taken:
Arnia, Bartschi, Beaulieu, Biggs, Couturier, Hamilton, Huberdeau, Landeskog, Larsson, McNeill, Murphy, Oleksiak, RNH, Schiefele, Siemens, Strome, Zibanejad
Looking at Puck Prospectus' rankings I'd identify our targets as:
Forward:
Rocco Grimaldi, Alexander Khoklachev, Vladislav Namestnikov, Zach Phillips, Boone Jenner, Nikita Kucherov, Dmitrij Jaskin, Ty Rattie, Brandon Saad, Matt Puempel
and
Defense:
Joe Morrow, Scott Mayfield, Jonas Brodin
Ranking them by NHL equivalent Goals per 82 game season goes: Grimaldi, Puempel, Khokhlachev, Saad, Namestnikov, Phillips, Jenner, Rattie, Morrow. Our other targets don't have data for me to do NHLe.
That said Scott Mayfield is 6'4" and skates at an NHL level already. Zach Phillips had a solid Memorial Cup run with the Sea Dogs and using CHL playoff data to predict future perfomance made a lot of people say Jeff Skinner would have a big season this year.
Where do you rank these guys PPPers? Who should we pick at #25 and who should we pick at #30?