The Five: 5 players Coyotes could draft at No. 7
Jun 22, 2017, 7:53 AM | Updated: 8:22 am
The Arizona Coyotes have two picks in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft on Friday at United Center in Chicago: No. 7 and No. 23. A consensus is starting to form that the top four picks in this year’s draft — belonging to New Jersey, Philadelphia, Dallas and Colorado — will be centers Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, and defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar.
Assuming that the Coyotes don’t trade the seventh overall pick — and that’s a big assumption — here are five potential targets.
• C Cody Glass (18 years old): At 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, Glass has some filling in to do. There were some early questions about his skating ability, but that area has improved significantly through focused training. Glass is considered more of a playmaker, although he had 32 goals (and 94 points) in 69 games last season with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL. Scouts love his motor, vision and puck skills, with some comparing him to Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron.
• C Casey Mittelstadt (18): The left-handed center had 21 goals in 25 games with Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota, and had 13 goals and 30 points in 24 games with the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League. At 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, he has the frame to fill out and handle a top-six role. Scouting reports tout a smart, quick and highly skilled center with a good first-step, deceiving change of pace and excellent stick skills. On the other hand, that Combine workout was, um, unimpressive.
• RW Owen Tippett (18): Some scouts believe Tippett could be the most dynamic player in this draft. He had 44 goals and 75 points in 60 games with Mississauga of the OHL last season. At 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, he has the frame and game to be a prototypical power forward, but his speed, skill and hockey sense add a dimension and his soft hands around the net give him the look of a pure goal scorer. He’s had some injury issues the past two seasons.
• C Gabriel Vilardi (17): Scouts believe Vilardi is the type of player that makes others around him more effective, and the advanced stats bear this out. He had 29 goals and 61 points in 49 games with the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. He missed the start of last season after suffering a knee injury in a collision during Hockey Canada’s under-18 training camp for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament last summer.
• RHD Timothy Liljegren (18): Lijegren (6-0, 190) was once believed to be the top defensemen available in this draft, but his stock has dropped, with some mocks putting him as low as the middle of the first round. He missed two months due to mononucleosis earlier in Rogle BK’s (Sweden) season, and that impacted evaluations, but he plays with calmness, smarts and creativity, and he is the model of the new NHL, puck-moving defenseman. The right-handed shot adds to his stock in a league short on that commodity.
