How many Danes will be drafted in 2011?
 

5 Danish players on the mid-term ranking:

NA:
Nicklas Jensen - 20

Europe:

Nikolai Meyer - 83
Thomas Spelling - 84
Patrick Russell - 94
Jonas Sass - 120

I think Jensen will be drafted 10-15 in the 1. round.

Meyer and Spelling could go in some of the last rounds (Meyer with better chances than Spelling). I don't think anybody else has a good chance.

What do you think? Any long-shots/surprises?

Well, by the looks of it only Jensen will be drafted. Meyer and Spelling have outside chances too, but are far from guaranteed.

I see Jensen as being picked around #20 at this point. For the rest, they really need to shine at the U18 World Champs in April as not many NHL scouts will go to Denmark to scout players. This may also give Meyer a slight advantage over the rest now that he's playing in Sweden.

My current percentage of these players getting drafted:

Meyer: 25 %
Haven't seen him play much but he doesn't strike me as an NHL type player.

Spelling: 15 %
I could see a team taking a flyer on him, but he needs to show it outside the Danish League.

Russell: 10 %
Again, being in Sweden could be an advantage and he did well at the U20, but he strikes me as being wildly inconsistent.

Sass: Less than 5 %
His injury from the traffic accident is still setting him back IMHO. In fact, I think he was playing way better at this time last season than he is right now. Being the Captain on the U18 team should mean that he'll at least get a chance to prove himself at the U18 World Champs.


But, as you can see, so much hinges on the U18 Championships in April so it's too early to tell.

All in all, I'd probably say that there's less than 50 % chance of anyone other than Jensen getting drafted.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, andersej.

If Meyer can continue his 2 ppg in superelit he might have a chance.

We should probably also mention Jesper Jensen as a longshot, but unfortunately he is not playing for the seniors in Rögle right now. But if he breaks out in the senior World Championship he might have a chance.

Jensen got his streak broken last night. Hopefully he can start a new tonight.

Meyer got 1 a in a 4-5 OT loss. He now has 3 p i 2 g in Superelit.

Sebastian Ehlers also got a goal in that game.

Spelling had 2 g 1 a in a 6-0 win against Odense. He is on line with veteran Kim Staal and fellow 1993 Patrick Bjorkstrand.
He now has 13 g 10 a in 29 g in the best Danish League.

Perhaps 2 of them, while Meyer or Spelling are 4th-rounders at best.

Prospects Jesper Jensen (1991) and Felix Maegaard-Scheel (1992) played Superelit for Rögle today.

Jesper Jensen (D) had 2 g 1 a, and Scheel had 2 a in the 4-7 loss.

Scheel now has 5 points in 2 games in Superelit and is among the scoring leaders.

Patrick Russell had 2 SO goals for Linköping U18 in a 2-1 win.

To the best of my knowledge, Denmark unfortunately did not qualify for this tournament, at least not for the A Group at the U18 taking place in Dresden/Crimmitschau.

You are correct. But I am confident that there will be NHL scouts at the Div II level as well. The last time the Div II U-20 was held in Denmark I ran into a number of NHL scouts. I can only assume that they would be similarly interested at the U-18 level.

Nicklas Jensen's production has gone considerably down the last couple of weeks. He now has 42 p (22+20) in 37 g.

Nicolai Meyer had 1+4 yesterday and now has 11 p in 9 g.

Jesper Jensen is playing with Rögle in Allsvenskan again.

Spelling has 26 p in 36 g

Nicolai Meyer now has 13 points in 11 games in J20 SuperElit. He is 3. in points!

He must have good chances in the draft.

Nicklas Jensen has 25 G 25 A in 48 games

Bump....

With the 2011 Season over and done with and the Entry Draft closing in, has your opinion changed on how may danes that will be drafted?

Im guessing atleast three of them will have their named called on June 24-25th.

Nicklas Jensen will be the only selection on day one. Could go anywhere between 12-25pick in the first round.

Thomas Spelling and Nicolai Meyer are the two Im expecting to get picked. Most likely in the later rounds (5-7th round).

Carolina Hurricanes have been said to have shown interest in Thomas Spelling. Sounds fair enough, as I expect them to have followed the Danish League a tiny bit after selecting Frederik Andersen at the 2010 Draft.
They also seem to lack depth at wing so he'd be a late round pick for them. The Hurricanes currently have all picks except the 5th round pick.

Nicolai Meyer, has to much talent to be passed by. Only major knock on him is his size but that doesn't seem to matter to much in the later rounds. However, being one on the youngest in this years draft he still has time to grow.

The rest:

Jesper Jensen (D-men played for the senior national team durring the past World Championship. Currently plays in Rögle, Sweden, Allsvenskan)
Patrick Russell (Disappointing season for the danish Forward, but had some redemption at the U20 worlds div.1.)
Sebastian Feuk (Big goalie, transfering to Timrå U20 next season)
Markus Lauridsen (Brother of Oliver Lauridsen, Following in his brother footstep and moving to St. Cloud next season).

One never knows, but both Spelling and Meyer are ranked in the 100s amongst Europeans alone.

The others are even behind them. Some team (could be Carolina) could have some love for one of these kids.

Still, in general, even if teams like them, they'll often simply denote the names and see where they are as undrafted UFAs at a later juncture.

But you never know for certain...

By the way, is Russell heading to Frolunda or something next year?