2014 Dallas Stars NHL Draft Primer

2014 NHL Entry Draft
6:00 p.m. CT | June 27, 2014
Rexall Place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TV: NBCSN , TSN, RS

So, the draft is upon us. The day has come where the process of selecting the upcoming talent in hockey to their various teams. Over the next two days 210 players will be selected by the 30 NHL teams.

What do you need to know about this particular draft class? Well. It isn’t particularly highly valued compared to last years draft and looking forward to next years draft. That’s not to say there aren’t some high end players available at all in 2014 but that the drafts on either side of it look to be some of the deeper drafts since the famous 2003 crop. The draft itself is overall about average for a draft but thats mostly due to the depth of the second tier of players rather than the top players being generational players.

There is currently no clear cut prospect who must be drafted first overall. Its going to be a three way battle between Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett.

This draft is a bit of an odd one and almost impossible to predict, though that doesn’t stop people from trying. There’s a feeling that the talent level doesn’t particularly drop off between around the twelfth pick to the fiftieth pick. It means that someone that one team might have in the 40s will get pick in the mid teens and vice versa.

There has been a lot of buzz around the possibility that the top pick could be traded as the Panthers look to get immediate help and it seems that a lot of teams are willing to move their first round pick. All the teams in the top five appear to be listening harder than usual to trade offers. Most teams will be thinking more of moving down than up, something that points towards the fluidity of the picks and rankings between 12-50.

We’ve been building up over the last month with draft profiles of some of the top prospects in this years draft and some of those who could still be around when the Dallas Stars, currently, pick at 14. I have a feeling that the Stars will be listening to offers for that 14th pick which involve moving down several spots and picking up another pick in the second round. They might still be able to get the player they want in the process. The Blues look tempting with the 21st and 33rd picks. But it takes two to tango so we will have to wait and see. For now, they pick 14th.

This isn’t a year which will see a lot of defenseman drafted early in the first round. Only Aaron Ekblad will hear his name called within the first few picks while the next highest ranked defenseman, Haydn Fleury, won’t hear his name called until the picks hit double digits.

It seems likely though that there will be plenty of defenseman who will be available in the late first round of second round. There are definitely some interesting names there, interestingly this draft does seem to have an unusually high number of right shooting defenseman.

It looks like it will be an interesting year for the US development leagues and plenty of them should hear their names called in the first two rounds of this draft. Something that points towards the growing quality of some of the players that are regularly coming out of the USHL and various other leagues.

You can find all of DefendingBigD’s draft coverage here. We’ll be covering the draft in its entirety from the Dallas Stars first pick to their very last. It will take a few years until we see the next crop of Dallas Stars prospects put on the Victory Green at the AAC and its quite possible it will never happen at all.

For now we can wait and see Jim Nill truly in charge of his first NHLDraft, a full year with his scouts and his vision. Who will they pick? Will they work out? When the draft ends in just over 24 hours time we will know the answer to one of those questions, the other will take a few years to decide.

A brief reminder where the Dallas Stars pick.

Please use this thread as the main discussion forum during the draft.

The Draft begins at 6:00 p.m. CT; still lots of time for negotiating.