Today we enter day two of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which will cover rounds two through seven. This time teams only have two minutes to make their pick, instead of the five minutes they were given for round one — although it felt like 30 minutes.

Okay, so let’s get the boring but still sort of interesting things out of the way first:

1) LA mercifully prevented us from having Byfield go to Ottawa

2) Ottawa mercifully prevented us from having someone like Marco Rossi go to Ottawa, instead taking Sanderson 5th overall

3) Buffalo hilariously passed on Rossi’s teammate and had our first significant reach of the night by taking Jack Quinn.

4) Minnesota, Winnipeg, Nashville and Florida can go to hell for taking all of the players I either wished would fall to Toronto or taking someone I never expected to fall beyond 4th (Perfetti).

5) The Leafs took Rodion Amirov, the best player available and best suited for the Leafs.

You can read the rest in Elseldo’s first round recap.

Now, to the juicy bits. There were two absolutely jaw dropping reaches in a row, one right after another. First, the New Jersey Devils took Shakir Mukhamadullin, a LHD out of Russia who most scouts were pretty low on. Even Bob McKenzie had him ranked 42nd. He’s not without his upside — he’s a good skater, he’s big, and at least decent at offense. But scouts almost universally question his decision making both with passing and defending in his own zone. It COULD work out, since there are some nice tools there. But that can be said about far better and less risky defensemen that were also on the board still.

Right after that, as people were still buzzing about that “bad reach”, Columbus said hold my beer and picked someone many rankings didn’t even include — even Bob McKenzie didn’t have him ranked in his top 100, not even as an honorable mention. They took overager Russian winger Yegor Chinakhov. Now I will say, Chinakhov had some buzz to start the KHL season this year. He is a good goal scorer, but he is technically now in his Draft + 2 season right now, he isn’t such a great goal scorer that you couldn’t take someone else with far more pedigree (Perrault, Foerster, Brisson were still on the board), and outside of goal scoring he doesn’t seem to offer much.

Their reasoning was... something.

Their drafting, especially from Europe, has always seemed unconventional but overall they’ve done pretty well. Even if they’re right about Chinakhov though, and he winds up being this huge hidden gem, I question if they couldn’t have waited until their next pick even in the third round to still get him. Just baffling to me.

DRAFT DAY TWO THOUGHTS

Hardev and I talked about what prospects we’re interested in for the Leafs’ picks in rounds two through seven. You can read that here. I also wrote a draft primer that will include a lot of relevant thoughts and information concerning  day two here.

Some other general thoughts I’d throw out there:

  • The big name still available is John-Jason Peterka, but I assume he’ll be gone by 44th. Noel Gunler has some hype too, but I’m wary about him.
  • I think there could be a very good defenseman available at 44th. Helge Grans is still on the board, as is Topi Niemela, William Wallinder, Brock Faber, Lukas Cormier, and Emil Andrae. I think the way the first half of the second round shakes out, the Leafs will wind up with a defenseman here.
  • For forwards, I love the idea of Marat Khusnutdinov, Jan Mysak, Roni Hirvonen, and of course Tristen Robins./

Okay, so a lot wound up happening yesterday even outside of the draft. Let’s run through it quick...

Roundtable: The Leafs want to be harder to play against | by us PPPers

Rumours surface of Maple Leafs interest in Wayne Simmonds | by Katya

Assessing the state of the Maple Leafs prospects on draft day | by Katya

Kyle Dubas had a post-draft day conference, where we got some tidbits:

Kings’ Byfield makes history as highest-drafted Black player in NHL history | by Sportsnet

While I’m at it, I’ll drop a link to this mini-special by TSN on another Black prospect in this draft: Zayde Wisdom.

Montreal Canadiens acquire Josh Anderson for Max Domi, third-round pick | by Habs Eye on the Prize

Oilers’ Holland: Athanasiou, Benning will not get qualifying offers | by Sportsnet

For those who missed this late Monday night...

Stay safe out there...

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