SBNation 2019 NHL Mock Draft: Picks 3 - 5

The SBNation 2019 Mock Draft continues with three selections today. Yesterday, you voted for Bowen Byram as your number three choice, let’s see what the Chicago fans did.

The Draft so Far

1. NHL Mock Draft 2019: New Jersey Devils Select Jack Hughes with No. 1 draft pick - All About The Jersey
2. NHL Mock Draft 2019: New York Rangers Select Kaapo Kakko with No. 2 Pick - Blueshirt Banter

Today’s Picks

NHL Mock Draft 2019: Chicago Blackhawks select Alex Turcotte with No. 3 pick - Second City Hockey
The center will play for his hometown team.

Chicago fans picked your second choice, Alex Turcotte.

Turcotte scored 12 goals and 34 points in only 12 USHL games for the United States National Development Program. That’s a 2.15 point per game average for the team’s second-line center. In the other portion of the schedule, Turcotte racked up 27 goals and 62 points in 37 games. Turcotte’s promising numbers could’ve been even better if he didn’t miss time due to a hip injury early on and from having mononucleosis in March.

Well, when you can draft a guy who had mono, you have to do that. The Second City article goes into detail on why they picked this NCAA centre. That’s always the fun part of a mock draft, when people tell you why they made their choice.

Next up with pick number four, the fans at Mile High Hockey went with another centre, Kirby Dach.

NHL Mock Draft 2019: Colorado Avalanche select Kirby Dach with the No. 4 pick - Mile High Hockey
Have the Avalache locked in on Ryan Getzlaf 2.0

It is pretty hard to miss Dach when he steps on the ice. Standing at 6 foot 4, he is a tower of a man, and as the season progress, he started to use all 6 foot 4 200 pound frame. It took time, from the slight pushing players off their mark, but by the back third of the season and into the playoffs, he was man among boys. Players couldn’t force him off the puck, he was hit to hurt to get the puck and his puck protection really started to elevate to another level. With that puck protection and extra time, he managed to increase the scoring chances for himself and his teammates.

They call Dach a “future 2C” for the Avs, and that’s an interesting conundrum to have with a top pick and franchise centre in Nate MacKinnon who is only 23. Do you want to spend a fourth overall on your future second line C, no matter how good he turns out to be? Draft for best player available might be the right idea in the top half of the first round, but it can give you headaches where you don’t expect them in a trad-shy league.

At fifth overall, the Kings fans picked yet another centre, Dylan Cozens.

NHL Mock Draft 2019: Los Angeles Kings select Dylan Cozens with No. 5 pick - Jewels From The Crown
For the annual SB Nation NHL Mock Draft, we put on our GM hats to help bolster the Kings’ center depth.

While players like Cole Caufield, Peyton Krebs, and Trevor Zegras were all still on the board, ultimately, our choice narrowed down to two players: center Dylan Cozens of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and defenseman Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants. The Kings will likely have seen plenty of the two WHL players as they are known to frequently scout the league for both draft picks and free agent signings of overage players.

Jewels from the Crown also profiled Cozens in an earlier post.

Cozens is a pure goal scorer aided by his excellent top-end speed with a superior first step. He would be a good fit in Todd McLellan’s “accountability system” as his 200-foot game is among the best in this draft class.

Today two more picks will be made by our closest enemies, the Red Wings and the Sabres. There’s some players still on the board at six and seven who most prospect watchers have slated to be gone by then, so the field is wide open.

Who do you rank as the next man up?

Who would you take at fifth?