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Froste39 · 09-03-2022, 12:13 PM

Hello there!

Our esteemed AW13 already did a Draft Review for the Monarchs, but as a 2nd year player on the Minnesota roster I was also excited about doing a Draft Review, especially with some of my fellow champions from the Nevada Battleborn entering the fray again.
Minnesota was blessed with the 1OA (granted they got close to it anyways hehe) and 3 other picks in the first round, however they accomplished that. Smart trades? Cheating? Extortion? Kidnapping? We will never know.
Regarding the players I want to shoot a small disclaimer first. I am rather new to the league, only in my first season overall, so the stats I am pulling about the players might not always be correct or as insightful as if a more experienced player would do a review. Apologies in advance.
In the second part of my review I am looking to give insight on the Nevada players that were drafted this year and what we can expect of them going forward.

1st Round - 1st Pick Overall - "Evok" - Nevek Kove - Right Defense

I will be honest and shoot up front that I didn't know Evok before studying the draft prospects and before seeing the SMJHL playoff rosters. I first got a glimpse when I looked at Quebec's roster as they were all that stood between my Battleborn and the Four Star Cup in Season 66. It is no surprise a rookie from QCC would be sought after in the first few picks of this season's draft as Quebec was only stopped in the finals and has overall an amazing roster without a glaring weakness. Added to that Evok seems to be one of the more accomplished users in the SHL. Her profile is bursting from awards and even a Hall of Fame player. Being a GM of one of the best franchises in the recent SMJHL history certainly doesn't hurt too.

It makes a lot of sense that Evok was primed to go 1st OA in most Mock Drafts I have seen. And they have been right.

She already established a strong LR presence. Exemplatory for this should be that the poor european fellow who is writing this review for you woke up to around 200 messages in the LR chat, with her being responsible for a lot of them haha.

Regarding Minnesota's needs I would say that there are problems all around as the statline might suggest, but especially Defense needed help. The Monarchs were pretty much starved on decent defensive talent overall (only King and Flörsch are promising prospects who still need some time though) and Kove should be the perfect remedy for that. As far as defensive talent is concerned, Minnesota can certainly use Kove for their future hockey aspirations as well. Overall, the Monarchs do not have a lot of young defensemen on their roster, so the move was obvious.
Esepcially Flörsch and Kove could compliment each other well with their skillsets and positional prowess. You don't see a GM pairing on defense everyday, too and I am sure the Quebec/Detroit duo will develop great synergy in no time.

The Allowed Goals stat would certainly benefit from it.

1st Round - 11th Overall - LD - Brendan Laroux - Shmurph

This pick was such a no-brainer with Shmurph already being part of the Minnesota LR to this day, as it is to be expected from the former GM. Regarding the scheme fit, everything I said about Kove should also apply to Mr. Laroux. While being young, Minnesota scores another excellent defender with a lot of upside in the long run.

1st Round - 17th Overall - LW - Brennan Kennedy III - bk1689

Unfortunately I don't really know much about them. From their profile I gathered that they have a succession mechanic going on with their player being the third iteration from their Austrian dynasty which is pretty cool. In addition they seems to be very excperienced and just as the two previously mentioned players be a great addition to the LR for sure.

Minnesota has very strong Winger Prospects but struggles with serviceable Wingers for the moment as the prospects need more time. The same will apply for Brennan, but give those guys a few seasons and Minnesota's offense will certainly be capable of peppering the net with shots.

They were the the first offensive players drafted by Minnesota in this draft

1st Round - 19th Overall -RW - Alexi Piastri - vbottas17

The pick I was understandibly the most excited about. Enter my linemate Alexi Piastri. Minnesota adds a very experienced user and multiple champion to their ranks. I have known Shane for a season now, but he is a very stable presence in the Nevada LR and played a big part in our success in the J this year.
I think he was mostly being used as a Center with us, but as a RW he should fit right into Minnesotas needs. Best case scenario would be that we can be linemates in the SHL again and tear up the league like we did in the SMJHL.

In my opinion it was a huge suprise to see him fall that far in the draft, but other peoples loss are our gain. Very excited about this pick, cannot wait for the great things we are gonna do together!

Final verdict:

I chose to not cover any more players form Minnesota at this point, the reason being solely my lack of knowledge. We got a GM pick in the second round and the other guys I honestly don't really know, so I don't want to bore the reader with some random facts pulled out of my ass.

The mentioned picks alone should be enough to convince you that MIN absolutely ran away again with another draft. The team is now filled to the brim with talented prospects and entered the volatile phase of the rebuild. If every player keeps up their motivated TPE gaining and LR banter I see no reason to believe that Minnesota will be a pushover in the next seasons. Let's see where the path is leading to in the future. If they still fail to meet expectations in a few seasons, blame the coaching kappa.

And what about the other Nevada players?
I got you covered!

C - Paul Peterson - TheDangerZone - 9th OA - Winnipeg Aurora
I gotta be honest, I am still shocked to see Peterson fall to 9th overall. Here is the guy with the hottest chance imo to win RotY and 8 teams pass up on him, wierd. I think it is safe to say, that withput Peterson Nevada wouldn't win the Cup in S66. He filled our biggest need, being Center and outscored EVERY.SINGLE.PLAYER. on the team while being a first year rookie. I don't know how many newborns this dude sacrificed or what kind of ancient sith teaching he adopted, but this guy is a Nevada legend already. We are blessed to have around 3 more seasons of Peterson at Center and since the NBB team is overall rather young I could see us run it back next season and be a contender again, if we are able to fill some holes at other positions.
The Aurora acquire an absolute winner with this move and should consider themselves lucky to do so at 9th overall. I would not be surprised to see the birth of a Winniped legend aswell, if he can keep his performance in the J and later on, the SHL.

RW - Alexi Piastri - vbottas17 - 19th OA - Minnesota Monarchs
See above.

RW - Foxy - samsung virtual assistant - 54th OA - Tampa Bay Barracuda
Another Battleborn joins our second branch off ice in Tampa! After taking Boom Stick in the 2nd round last season, Tampa decided they want a another winger from Nevada and boy were they lucky to claim them this late. Foxy is a well accomplished user with tons of experience dating back to the 20's seasons of the league with two players who retired in Minnesota. On a team that has a surplus of decent left wingers with Djarin, Froste, Laraque, Graves for example Foxy also had to fill in on the other wing or Center, depending on the need at the time.
Unfortunately they seemed to have lost interst in their player, although they had some activity bumps around hte playoffs in the LR, but it looks like they might have given up already with only two updates done since July. This would explain the late draft position.
Maybe the LR in Tampa can revitalize some of the love.

LD - Chamal Malachi - guku - 73rd OA - Tampa Bay Barracuda
The next Battleborn going south to Tampa. I could copy & paste what I wrote abpout Foxy in the latter paragraph, because Malachi is a newgen who startes out strong for us, in a much needed position, being defense, but recently fell out of an activity streak and seems to struggle to get back on track.
After having not updated for a month now, it is probably safe to say that we will not expect a legendary career out of them, but at 73rd overall the pick definetely wasn't a reach and in the worst case, a depth signing. Overall Malachi is still a Four Star Cup champion, that has to be good for something, no?

Thanks for reading!

vbottas17 · 09-03-2022, 12:31 PM

Great article, enjoyed reading about the current & future teammates!

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