ARTHUR:
The International Scouting Services Top 30 list for June is out now; you can find it here. It isn't too different from April's rankings, though Granlund, Howden and Pysyk managed to pull a dosey-do.
That means Austin Watson is still 12th, and Johan Larsson is still 29th (the now official position of the Ducks ' second pick). I've never seen Larsson play, but he climbed out of the late rounds on the strength of a solid World Under-18 performance. Ross MacLean has a good breakdown here, with the summation excerpt:
Larsson is physically solid and uses his strong 6-foot 198-pound frame well along the boards and when jockeying for space around the net. His offensive skills have an exclamation point next to them right now, but when an NHL team calls his name at this year's NHL draft in Los Angeles, it will be for his all-around game and ability to kill penalties - the promise of that offensive potential is just icing on the cake. -
Ross MacLean for THN.com
If the board goes according to plan, Larsson sounds like a solid pick, though his stock rose recently enough to where I can see the Ducks reaching into the early second rounders for a player or player type they like more.
In Draft related news, I'm participating in the SBN Mock Draft for the first time, and I have my thoughts on the process after the jump...
For the record, when Anaheim had two picks last year, I was completely off Madden's board. With Jordan Schroeder and John Moore falling to the Ducks TWICE, I thought it was a good opportunity to take one of them. Schroeder was a risky pick as a smallish forward, and Moore was maybe an overly-safe pick as a strong skating defenseman, but both certainly proved their 10-15 value during their seasons (and have since, for the record). Madden went with Peter Holland and Kyle Palmieri, two players valued about where the Ducks picked them. Not 'absentee ballot' picks (as Murray had traded the second pick down), but definitely picks that showed little or no concern for who 'fell' into the Ducks' lap.
That being said, I made some attempt to emulate Madden this year. I tried to like a guy in the 10-15 range and stick with him no matter who fell to me. Specifically, I wanted a speedy goal scorer, something that seemed so scarce last year after Scott Glennie was selected. At 12th, I had my eye on Alexander Burmistrov with Emerson Etem a rung below him, but a funny thing happened on the way to the theater: someone indeed fell out of the Top 10. Someone who specifically lacked impressive speed and shot and gained his consensus Top 10 status at the end of the year, but a Top 10 pick nonetheless.
And this is where the realism of the Mock Draft simultaneously came alive and fell apart. It came alive because this is EXACTLY the situation that may confront the Ducks. Someone 'better' than the player they want will be there, either at 12th or 29th, and they will have to consider not only that player but the fact that they have another first round pick to get what they want. Unfortunately, the realism of that moment was ever so fleeting, as I'm NOT Martin Madden, and I haven't done the legwork, the face-to-face time and the face-to-ice time on all of these kids. That fact was particularly glaring because the player that fell to me was a rookie whom I'd never seen play.
You'll find out what I did when SBN releases the final picks in the week leading up to the Draft, but it's an interesting exercise so far, and I've locked in my 29th pick regardless of what happens . . . maybe.