Thoughts (to be charitable) on the 2016 NHL Draft, Day 2.

--No picks in the second round, nothing much happening.  Killing times until the Canadiens pick in the third round.

--Columbus grabs Vitaly Abramov at #65.  Huge skill, but not sure we can take a smallish forward and add him to our pile on the farm.

I wonder if we’ll take Vladimir Kuznetsov? Big strong scoring winger out of the LHJMQ, first pick in the import draft last summer.

--Cliff Pu gone one pick before ours. Wasn’t sure about that guy, his name.

--We get Will Bitten. I’m vaguely familiar with his name, could play wing or centre, some thought he had a chance to sneak in the first round.

Whenever I’d hear him being batted around on TV or radio, I’d get excited, then realize he wasn’t Paul Bittner, the giant forward out of Portland, so I’d stop paying attention.

--Interesting picks:

78 NSH FREDERIC ALLARD D CAN 6′ 0″ 183 QMJHL CHICOUTIMI
79 WPG LUKE GREEN D CAN 6′ 0″ 186 QMJHL SAINT JOHN
80 NJD BRANDON GIGNAC C CAN 5′ 10″ 170 QMJHL SHAWINIGAN
81 NYR SEAN DAY D BEL 6′ 2″ 231 OHL MISSISSAUGA

Frédéric Allard is a guy I thought we’d take in the second round, nice puck-carrier who was one of four or five defencemen drafted by Chicoutimi a couple years ago in a massive rebuild.

Lucas Green was another defenceman I hoped we might pick up in the second round, first overall pick in the LHJMQ draft a couple years ago. More of a do-it-all type.

Brandon Gignac is an overager, a really good skater, buzzing all over the ice. Didn’t put up a tonne of points, some thought he sufered because Anthony Beauvillier got all the PP time and favourable matchups. I don’t know though, if other teams tried to match up the Cataractes’ star, wouldn’t that mean he plays against weaker opposition? I hoped we could scoop him up in the fourth or fifth round.

Sean Day, one of the exceptional types out of the OHL, after John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad et al. Apparently really gifted, huge, but maybe not in the proper sense of huge.

--Vladimir Kuznetsov is still available, about ten picks to go.

C’mon, Kuuuuznetsoooooooov!… Daddy needs hisself another Russian…

--Goddamn it. Victor Mete in the fourth round. 5’9″ defenceman out of the London Knights.

Dale Hunter still quashing my dreams, decades later…

Hmmmffff…

Let me sulk…

--Some talk on the blogosphere about Mikhail Sergachev, whether he's ready for the AHL next season.

Next season is either OHL or NHL for him.  He was drafted out of the OHL, he can't play in the AHL for the next two seasons.

His team will host the Memorial Cup next year, they have Logan Brown and might add Clayton Keller, so to me that’s a great opportunity for development. Guaranteed high-stakes playoff experience.

So next season, keep him in the NHL if he warrants it, for the 9-game tryout, then send him down.

Then, he plays for Russia at the WJC, in Montréal.

Then he plays OHL playoffs.

Then Memorial Cup.

Then he starts for us in 2017, wins the Norris.

--Chicago grabs Nathan Noël, a 5’10” forward out of St-John, was invited to the Canadiens prospect development camp two years ago. He’s an overager, never scored quite as much as some of the hype led me to believe he would, some were advocating for him to get a contract as an undrafted free agent.

--The NHL fines Canucks GM Jim Benning for tampering, relative to the comments he made about P.K. Subban and Steven Stamkos.

Jim Benning did cross the line, in expressing interest in a player under contract with another team. But I think it’s merely a technical, piddling breach, ultimately it doesn’t have much of an effect.

There was no intent, Jim Benning was just being his usual forthright self, answering a direct question from a journo, wasn’t sending a smoke signal or anything. It’s not as if Steven Stamkos is now going to decide to go UFA based on that, based on a GM saying he was interested, whereas before he wouldn’t have, because he didn’t know other GM's might be into him.

Same with P.K. The TSN boys were beating the drums about a trade, about him being on the market. Jim Benning didn’t blow the cover off a covert operation.

We all know that Marc Bergevin hates leaks, when he announces a trade we usually had no idea anything was cooking. So this would rankle, he’s talked in the past about having to talk to a player whose children were being taunted in the schoolyard about their dad being no good, being dumped by the local team.

So yeah, Jim Benning will get fined, but it’s no big deal, it will only mean poorer radio hits for TSN 1040 Vancouver, he’ll be more reluctant to answer questions plainly.

--My word. Casey Staum, at the start of the fifth round, using the pick we got from the Canucks in the Brandon Prust trade.

Casey Staum.  Never heard of him, but at least he’s 5’10, and had four goals last season.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Kuznetsov waits, unclaimed.

My perfunctory research conducted over the last few weeks leads me to conclude that this is a crock.

--BOS JOONA KOPPANEN LW FIN 6′ 4″ 192 FINLAND-JR.

Boston gets one of Craig Button’s two sleepers, he was very bullish on this kid, great skill and size, but played only one game in the senior Finnish league.

--STL CONNER BLEACKLEY C CAN 6′ 0″ 192 WHL RED DEER

The Blues take a chance on Conner Bleackley.

--MTL MICHAEL PEZZETTA C CAN 6′ 1″ 204 OHL SUDBURY

We pick Michael Pezzetta.  Another player I never heard of, with underwhelming production.

Really weird that Vladimir Kuznetsov fell so far down, I was thinking third round for him. 25 G, 33 A, for 58 points in 68 games. His size and style of play made me think he’d be snapped up.

--TBL OLEG SOSUNOV D RUS 6′ 8″ 230 RUSSIA JR. 2 LOKO-YUNIOR YAROSLAV

“We’ll see your 6’8” defenceman, and raise you…

“Never mind. We can’t see your 6’8″ defenceman. We do have a lot of 5’8″ defencemen though…”

--MTL ARVID HENRIKSON D SWE 6′ 3″ 176 SWEDEN-JR. U18 AIK U18

The Canadiens traded with the Jets to get back into this draft.

Ranked #86 by NHL Central Scouting (Euro skaters)

Good point production this season, PPG in the U18 Swedish league.

--NYR TY RONNING RW CAN 5′ 8″ 167 WHL VANCOUVER

Cliff’s kid goes to the Rangers. I’m surprised the Canucks didn’t take a chance in the 7th round.

--Is it weird that beside Mikhail Sergachev, I’m most stoked about our 7th-rounder? A player with some size, and point production? As opposed to most of the other picks?

If we snap up a kid who’s a buzzsaw, a little Energizer bunny who racks up goals, I get it. It makes sense.

But drafting a 5’10” defenceman who scored 3 goals in 12 high-school games just doesn’t raise my pulse.