SBN NHL Mock Draft 2018: Rangers select Akil Thomas with No. 26
With the 26th overall pick in the SB Nation NHL Mock draft the Rangers selected Akil Thomas. Yes I was pissed when Berggren went off the board. It was just as bad when Bokk got enticingly close and then went right before the Rangers came to the podium.
Anyway, here’s the board as we picked.
1. Buffalo - Rasmus Dahlin (Ranked #1 in the BSB Profile here)
2. Carolina - Andrei Svechnikov (Ranked # 2 in the BSB Profile here)
3. Montreal - Filip Zadina (Ranked #3 in the BSB Profile here)
4. Ottawa - Quinn Hughes (Ranked #4 in the BSB Profile here)
5. Arizona - Brady Tkachuk (Ranked # 9 in the BSB Profile here)
6. Detroit - Adam Boqvist (Ranked #6 in the BSB Profile here)
7. Vancouver - Noah Dobson (Ranked #12 in the BSB Profile here)
8. Chicago - Oliver Wahlstrom (Ranked #5 in the BSB Profile here)
9. Rangers - Evan Bouchard (our story here)
10. Edmonton - Martin Kaut (Yet to be ranked in BSB profiles)
11. Washington (via Islanders) - Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Ranked #8 in the BSB Profile here)
12. NY Islanders - Ty Smith (Ranked #11 in the BSB Profile here)
13. Colorado (via Philly, via Dallas) - Joe Veleno (Ranked #10 in the BSB Profile here)
14. Dallas (via Philly) - Joel Farabee (Ranked #16 in the BSB Profile here)
15. Florida - Bode Wilde (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
16. Philadelphia (via Colorado) - Rasmus Kupari (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
17. New Jersey - Barrett Hayton (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
18. Columbus - Isac Lundstrom (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
19. Philadelphia - Vitaly Kravtsov (Ranked #14 in the BSB Profiles)
20. Los Angeles - K’Andre Miller (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
21. San Jose - Ryan Merkley (Ranked #13 in the BSB Profiles here)
22. Ottawa - Jonathan Berggren (Ranked #17 in the BSB Profiles here)
23. Anaheim - Grigori Denisenko (Ranked #20 in the BSB Profiles)
24. Minnesota - Dominik Bokk (Ranked #15 in the BSB Profiles here)
25. Philadelphia (via Toronto) - Nils Lundkvist (Yet to be ranked in the BSB profiles)
26 Rangers - Akil Thomas (Ranked 18th in the BSB Profile here)
Same thing as the Bouchard review, there’s not much more I can say with this pick that Adam and the gang hadn’t already. Here’s the Thomas profile linked again, but a small blurb if you want a quick hit.
There are available players who have a higher upside than Thomas. There are also available players who are more polished at the moment. In combination, though, I think Thomas offers a really enticing package. On a mediocre team in which he was the leading scorer, Thomas already put up very good numbers - 81 points in 61 regular season OHL games, though it should be noted that he had a high number of secondary assists. He also has already earned the coach’s trust in tough, perilous assignments. There is certainly reason to believe he could be a top-six playmaking forward, either at center or on the wing, and if not he’s a pretty good bet as a bottom-six checker as well.
Thoughts? We’ll be back with pick 28 later this afternoon.