As the IceCats began to celebrate their first Kelher Cup, the Loons front office started to discuss the team's future. Once we decided to rebuild, the 2020 draft became our top priority. At the beginning of April the Loons held just 12 picks, best of which was the 44th overall. After meeting with our scouts we decided that no one on our roster was safe, this year's draft was worth the investment. We added the 18th overall for Atkinson, then picked up the 7th overall for Dubois, and then Turcotte was sent out for the 8th overall. After some more wheeling and dealing we soon had the 4, 5 & 22nd. We then made a decision which will end up making or breaking the Loons franchise and will be debated for years to come. After packaging the 4 & 5 to move up to draft phenom Quinton Byfield - Bob McKenzie came into our lives and forced us to take a deeper look at Tim Stutzle.
Without a doubt, Byfield may end up being the best player from the 2020 draft. However some of our scouts expressed concers that there was also a substantial bust factor with Byfield. There were questions about his effort, questions about how he fared against top competition, and questions over if just his size alone allowed him to dominate the weak defense he was facing in the OHL. Tim Stutzle on the other hand was the opposite. He doesn't possess the size and pure potential that Byfield does, but Stutzle's strengths are his effort and his performance against top competition. Stutzle thrived in the World Juniors and was thriving in a mens league at the age of 17. Ultimately, the tie-breaker came down to our love of Trevor Zegras. The fact that Stutzle has been playing LW would be a perfect fit for a future top line of Stutzle, Zegras and Zadina ; the Z line. After three months of rebuilding and blowing up the transaction list; Tim Stutzle was the first of 38 Loon draft picks.
We won't bore everyone with all 38 names, but the Loons drafted 20 forwards, 5 defensemen and 6 goaltenders. The other 7 picks were used to reacquire former 4th overall pick Jesse Puljujarvi, to move up in the draft and to acquire future draft picks. Coming over with Stutzle from Germany are Lukas Reichel (29th) and Max Glotzl (222nd). Glotzl is a player that we consider the steal of the draft at 222. Like Stutzle, Max was playing against men at 17 and is considered Germany's best defensemen outside of Seider. Many general managers snickered at us jumping up in the draft to take goaltender Drew Commesso at 37. Drew was someone that we were not willing to risk missing out on. After Oettinger and Vehvilainen goal-tending is a weak spot in our system and Commesso will definitely strengthen us there. Drew is a local Mass kid that had a fantastic year for a weakened US National team: 2.05 gaa & .920 save %. He was rated as the second best goaltending prospect in the draft for us.
With this investment in the draft the Loons jumped to third in the CCHL in prospects with 80. Our post draft top 20 prospect list:
1. Trevor Zegras C
2. Filip Zadina RW
3. Tim Stutzle LW
4. Jake Oettinger G
5. Jake Bean D
6. Matt Boldy LW
7. Oliver Wahlstrom RW
8. David Farrance D
9. Egor Afanasyev RW
10. Brayden Tracey LW
11. Zac Jones D
12. Janne Kuokkanen LW
13. Jacob Perreault C
14. Calen Addison D
15. Shane Pinto C
16. John Beecher C
17. Alex Beaucage RW
18. Jakub Lauko C
19. Veini Vehvilianen G
20. Lukas Reichel LW
and honorable mention ... Max Glotzl D
I can't wait to see how the Loons draft compares to the upcoming NHL draft. Maybe I will tune in for more then just the Bruins picks this year!
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