The S54 SHL draft has been completed and next season is looming over the horizon. We can now take a last look at every first-rounder and the skill and accomplishements they had at the end of their first seasons.

#1 - Mikkel Asmus Sondergard



The first thing one notices when looking at the first overall pick is how few flaws it shows. The weakest parts of his game are his screening, faceoff, fighting and agression skills. The first two are obviously of little use for a defenseman. The other two are double-edged blades : the famous grit everyone keeps talking about can also put you in quite a pickle when it becomes indiscipline, even moreso when talking about a prime defenseman. Hitting is the next weakest part of his game. Combined with a not-so-high strength, on which he'll have to work to avoid being pushed around with the puck, he'll keep relying on good Positionning, Checking and Defensive Read to take the puck from his opponents.

This well-rounded player can fulfill many Two-way and Defensive defenseman roles with ease, but is also the only one of this draft class to already be proficient in both one offensive role (Quarterback) and one defensive role (Old-school defenseman). He can play in every situation and can do it well.

Sondergard's showed the statistics of a good young defenseman on a struggling. It's interesting to see how significantly better his defensive game was on home-ice, while he showed a bit more of offensive prowess when visiting other arenas. This trends appears in basic stats but also in more advanced stats like GF/60 and GA/60, and even going as far as CF and CA we still see a noticeable difference.


#2 - Ryosuke Sato



Sato's game showed a bit more of lacking areas at the end of the season, his Hitting and Strength make him a similar defenseman to Sondergard. In the offense department, Sato will have to work hard this summer if he wants to get on the same level as the first-overall pick. He'll also work on his skating abilities a lot, which will be a strength for him over Sondergard for the foreseeable future. It is clear that these first two picks will be compared to one another for quite a long time, most likely until both retire.

Sato can play very well as an Old-school defenseman, just as he can be a Mobile defenseman. A more standard way to excel on both sides of the ice. While he can still be a decent Quarterback on the powerplay, he's able to play best as a Two-way defenseman instead of having to be put in a situation where he has to choose between an offensive defenseman role and a defensive one.

Nothing really catches the eye when first looking into the young Japanese's statistics, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. He has been overall good and hasn't sacrified part of his offensive game to improve on his defense or vice-versa. There is an interesting feature when looking at Giveaways and Takeaways : he doesn't have much of either, but has more of the latter. He also is the most penalized player from this first-round.

#3 - Matthew Sawful



Another defenseman who won't be laying out many crushing hits soon, Sawful also specializes as either a Quarterback, an offensive role, or as an Old-school defenseman, a defensive role. He's not quite at the level of Sondergard in any of those right now, but a good summer workout should fix that and bring him close for the beginning of the season.

On a better team as the two previous picks, points came more easily to Sawful. Sawful appeared in a faceoff every other game, a very high number for a defenseman. He did well in that matter, winning almost half of

#4 - Dwigth Knight



Knight is most useful in a grinding role, whether as a Grinder or a Punishing forward. He's not the best skater, but he won't look out of place; he's not the best in his zone, but he'll hold his own; he's not the most skilled offensively as far as shooting and passing goes, but he'll use his size and his strength to retrieve pucks and set himself up right in front of the net.

For a player with a certain physical part to his game, Knight managed to keep out of the box. He got only three minor penalties this season, the most disciplined player to hear his name called in the first round. Taking a deeper look, we also notice something peculiar in the advanced statistics row : the difference between Knight's CF%Rel when comparing Home and Away games. Knight is the second in this first-round to show better numbers when he's not playing before his fans.


#5 - Emilia Bergman



If every player so far didn't show any major specialisation, Bergman definitely focused her training towards defensive roles. She's as suited for her third-best defensive role, Stay-at-home defenseman (following Old-school defenseman and Crease-clearing defenseman) as the all-around players discussed earlier are for their best-suited roles. Sometimes a player needs not be good at everything to have an impact in the line-up, but rather be specialized in a role and do it perfectly.

Bergman also managed a higher CF%Rel on away ice, although her numbers were also quite good on home-ice. She also put up a good chunk of points.

#6 - Mats Marner



Marner has no real weakness, but no real strength either as of yet. He'll grow into them and these strengths will help him find is predilection role in what should be the near future.

Marner didn't play a lot this season with an an average time on ice (ATOI) of barely over 10 minutes. In this limited icetime, he didn't manage to get a lot of pucks on the net, with not much more than a shot every other game. Despite that, he scored on a good fraction of these. More than a quarter of his shots found the back of the net, an encouraging sign for the future.

#7 - Vitek Vitecek



An unilateral offensive forward, Vitecek will do the minimum in his zone, but already has SHL-caliber shooting attributes, making him perfect for the role of Sniper and that role alone.

Vitecek scored most of his goals on away ice, with 10 of his total 13 being scored far from home. He is, however, one of the few in this first round with a better CF% Rel. on home ice, what could be considered a slight statistical anomaly.

#8 - Rotticus Scott



If Scott already has high-level playmaking abilities that make him a good Setup man, they can be put to use in a better way when combined to his speed, making him a very efficient Counterattacking forward.

In what seems to be a trend amongst the first-rounders of this draft, Scott also had trouble at home and still has to score his first career goal at the Prospera Place.

#9 - Daniel Laforest



Laforest, who many projected to go higher in the draft - some even had him as the first pick overall - lacks some muscle. Apart from that, he has pretty good defensive skills and everything one needs to be a successful playmaking center. He has above-average skating abilities amongst the players presented in this list.

#10 - Bork Lazer



First of two Armada players picked back-to-back, Lazer is the first in this restricted group of elite young players to distinguish himself as a defenseman focusing mainly on physical play. His strength, hitting and checking abilities are the main reasons why he is an able Crease-clearing defenseman.

Being on a strong team like the Armada played a part in Lazer's good statistics, but being able to play a precise role made him that much more useful to his team.

#11 - Pojo Biscuit



Biscuit is without contest the most un-specialized player drafted in this first round. Apart from three skills mostly useless for a defenseman and his Passing skill, every attribute shares the exact same level as the others in its attribute category. This makes Biscuit unable to correctly fulfill any particular role.

As a result, Biscuit didn't play much this season. In his few games, he showed an adequate defensive game but little upside. He was, however, one of the few first-rounders who did better on home ice than otherwise.

#12 - Patrick Shepherd



A second consecutive pick for the Platoon, Shepherd is a defensive-minded center who looks like he'll grow nicely into the Shadow role, as his good defensive read lets on. He also excels in the faceoff circle, certainly one of the best if not the best in this whole draft. However, he'll have to work on his physical attributes to be able to contain the opponents' best forwards game after game.

#13 - Jack Klompus



Klompus has good enough skills to hold his own in his own end, but his passing and shooting abilities make him and offensive weapon at the blue line. He's not quite yet the quarterback other highest-ranked defenseman are, but he's not far from there. He's the player who's got the most shots this season amongst the first-rounders.

#14 - Taisto Jutila



The only first-round pick to come out of the S53 SMJHL Champions, Jutila's strength is in his reading of the game. He isn't the quickest, the most skilled or the best defensively, and he's particularly ill-suited to play a physical game. None of this matters as much as it would for another player, because Jutila reads the game better than most, both in the offensive and defensive zones, and thus avoids being in risky situations altogether. An excellent player to put in a Shadow role.


#15 - Linus Grimstad



Grimstad is an agile playmaking center, ideal to fill a role of Setup man or pure Playmaker. The biggest question about the small forward is whether his agility will be enough to make up for a crucial lack of strength.

Another one of the few who played better at home this season, he recorded 5 of his 6 goals in Carolina. It's also a quirky fact to note that his home and away FO% are exactly the same, despite a significant difference in faceoff attempts.

#16 - Simon Takshak



Last amongst the firsts is Simon Takshak, with hitting skills significantly higher than anyone else on this list. He's got decent skating, defensive and offensive skills too, although most are sub-par for this group of elite prospects. He doesn't have any huge, dealbreaking flaws and will make an excellent grinder if he can keep this up.

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