Seattle Metropolitans - “Year five”

[Jon-Seattle]

Metropolitans looking to build big with 3 picks in top 10 of draft!

Currently Seattle holds significant capitol with the 6th, 7th, and 9th overall picks in Monday’s draft. While the draft has the smallest pool of prospects this reporter can recall the top 15-20 is still star studded with future top line/pairing potential. So what will Seattle do to fill out it’s roster for the foreseeable future?

Currently prospects like Makar, Hughes, and Kaapo Kakko are unlikely to be available by the time Seattle picks but after that there are a number of players deserving of top 10 consideration. The metropolitans could go offensively heavy with players such as Mikheyev and Kubalik who are expected to take on key roles quickly into their GHL careers due to them being some of the most senior players eligible for the draft. They could also pick up younger players who may play well into Seattle’s wheelhouse of draft and develop like Hayton, Suzuki, Dach, and Frost. Though we all know GM Jon loves to load up on defensive talents which are likely to be abundant in the middle of this first round such as Alexeyev, Dobson, Boqvist, and Seider. There may even be a possibility to procure a competitor or backup to future starter Nedeljkovic in net. Regardless the options in the top 10 appear limitless.

Moreover after months of solitude we finally were able to catch up with the elusive GM who provided even less insight with this nugget of information: “there are so many things we can do with those three picks (in the first), not to mention the 8 other picks we have lined up. We have tons of ammo to move up or around in the draft it’s a great situation to be in and we’re really looking forward to doing some fun stuff to round out this team.”

So there you have it folks Seattle could literally do just about anything in this draft. Unfortunately we’ll likely have to wait another 24 hours to find out.

[Jon-Seattle]

Seattle makes draft day splash

In a surprising move Seattle moved up from 7th to 2nd in the draft. The Metropolitans made the shocking move shortly after seeing Cale Makar go first overall. So why would the Metropolitans move up five draft slots to pick a goalie at the top of the draft? Is it worth the actual draft capitol used to move up so few picks? The GM appears to think so.

“We have a ton of (draft) capitol and we knew that we really needed to come away with Shesterkin. We didn’t think he would make it to 6 so we went and got him at two. Ya goalies don’t normally go that high, but we saw it last year with Hart. We knew we didn’t have a chance at him but it didn’t hurt any less to see him get picked up so early by such a good team, so this year we made sure it wasn’t going to happen again.”

So now the Metropolitans have two young, unproven, but considerably highly regarded prospect goalies (Nedeljkovic and Shesterkin). There is no current starter in net however and a few minors type fillers, while the rest of the roster is filled to the brim with boom or bust talent. Will Seattle play it safe from here on and pick up guys who can start now and become pieces to a championship caliber team, or will they be forever rebuilding a team that never was. Stay tuned tomorrow as Seattle still has picks 6 and 9 along with another six picks in the later rounds after todays action.

[Jon-Seattle]

Locker clean out day in Seattle

The luck in the emerald city finally ran dry as Seattle dropped their second game 7 of the playoffs.

“We put ourselves behind the 8-ball too many times, and it finally came back to bite us.” Barkov pointed out as he pulled down his captain jersey to put it inside his belongings box. “We expect to build on this though. I’ve been here my entire career and I can tell you that despite losing this series, this is the most excited I’ve ever been for the next season to start. For the first time I finally feel like we have a great base to build from. If we don’t lose Boro last night we might even be moving on, we were that close and I think we’ll be even better next year.”

Seattle has some decisions to make with UFAs Krejci/Borowiecke/Stalock. Will any of them be back? Word from the front office is that Stalock has a heart issue and may not play ever again. Boro got a match penalty early in the last game, leading the team in penalty minutes throughout the season but also lead them in hits. Krejci stepped up though and looked like the perfect 2nd line center to complement Barkov while Seattle waits for some of their young draft picks to mature.

Speaking of the youth movement, Martin Necas has burst onto the scene in a big way. He lead the team in Goals with 35 during the regular season and 9 goals in 14 playoff games.

Despite the rain, the future looks bright in Seattle.