Don't know if this has been done before, but it's a long lockout so I decided I'd try it. I ran a lottery simulation a while back and came up with a draft order which can be seen here. I decided that instead of coming up with a mock draft myself I would have the fans of each team vote on their pick. I'll post the collective results once every fanbase has voted.
The Capitals have the #11 pick. Thus far, Mackinnon, Barkov, Jones, Monahan, Drouin, Lindholm, Shinkaruk, Pulock, Ristolainen and Domi have been selected. Who would you take with the 11th overall pick?
I'd go with Lazar. Hope he find his offense. I know D prospect pool isn't that great but I have Lazar above the likes of Zadorov and Hägg. Wouldn't be disappointed with Zadorov at all, though.
Morrissey or Lazar... thinking we may need a good D prospect after taking so many high end forwards recently... but we also need a Center prospect if Forsberg or Kuz can't fully make the transition to Center.
Who knows, maybe those are the exceptions to the Chara and...uhhh, Myers? Rule...
Except Zadorov is, just like Nurse, 6'5'' not some 6'7''+ sheer size project. If he was just that he wouldn't be in this conversation, he'd be a borderline first rounder (if that). He is far more filled out than Nurse but he's also further along as an instinctive shutdown presence as well. Burns, Coburn, Cowen and Hedman are comparable as far as measurables and he has the necessary hockey sense/athleticism (unlike all of the bust examples, most of which were selected in an era when raw size was far more highly valued). If he had more of an offensive dimension to his game he would get the sort of top ten talk that Coburn, Cowen & Hedman did.
Nichushkin would be the upside pick but his hockey sense isn't that great. Beyond the lack of increased production, I'd be concerned about Lazar's skating for his size. I'm not sure he offers much more upside over Compher, Horvat or maybe de la Rose.
Which is exactly why we don't need another one in our prospect pool. We already have Forsberg and Kuznetsov... makes much more sense to go with the High potential Dman (Morrissey) or Center (Lazar)
Not to mention... they're both Canadian.
It looks like the Capitals are going to go with Curtis Lazar. Thank you to everyone who voted and shared their opinion, I will posting full results once I have collected votes from all 30 teams
