Nashville Predators: NHL Entry Draft 2018 Additions

The Nashville Predators didn’t value the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. That much can be told from the fact they traded their first three draft picks. Did they get anything out of it?

Let’s be honest. The NHL Entry Draft isn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world. The Nashville Predators didn’t seem especially interested in this year’s draft, as they traded out of their picks in the first three rounds. This could be a bad thing if the 2018 NHL Entry Draft ends up being one of those legendary draft classes.

Hopefully, David Poile didn’t gamble wrong there, and we end up seeing that the draft was very mediocre. The Nashville Predators did make some additions in the later rounds. Let’s take a look at them.

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Jachym Kondelik
4th round, 111th overall pick
Height: 6’7″ Weight: 227 lbs
Position: Center
Nationality: Czech Republic
Previous Team: Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)

It probably won’t register with you until you see the later picks, but it’s obvious that David Poile made this pick based on the size of this individual. I may be wrong, but there aren’t many 6’7″ people walking around in this sport. Every single draft sees picks made on people that are much taller or heavier than the average bear.

The size is great, but the accounts I’ve read suggest that he needs to improve his foot speed to make it at the NHL level. This will be incredibly difficult at his size. It seems like his ceiling is on the 3rd or 4th line as a guy you look across at the line and go WTF am I gonna do? You’ll take that from a 4th round pick. He’ll be playing at the University of Connecticut this season, so we’ll see how it goes.

Spencer Stastney
5th round, 131st overall pick
Height: 5’10” Weight: 179 lbs
Position: Defenseman
Nationality: United States
Previous Team: U.S. NTDP (USHL)

Stastney also plays at the University of Notre Dame, which he got into because he’s super smart & stuff. He’s not very tall or heavy for a defenseman. That could be a bit of a problem. Also a bit of a problem…the fact he plays for Notre Dame makes me automatically not trust him. Which may seem weird as I’m a confirmed Catholic, but we just lived through the whole Jimmy Vesey thing so I don’t trust anybody that wants to play a ton of college hockey.

Don’t act like that’s crazy. Any Predators fan with sanity will agree with that assessment. The longer a man stays in college, the more likely they are to want to go to the New York area, or somewhere that isn’t Tennessee.

Vladislav Yeryomenko
5th round, 151st overall pick
Height: 6’0″ Weight: 176 lbs
Position: Defenseman
Nationality: Belarus
Previous Team: Calgary Hitmen (WHL)

I’m already a little partial to Yeryomenko due to his status as a member of the Calgary Hitmen. How can’t you love a team named after one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Bret “Hitman” Hart

The Hockey Writers describe Yeryomenko as a fun, exciting player that’s good on offense as a defenseman. He excels on power plays. Unfortunately, the weaknesses of his game seem to be on defense, which isn’t great when you’re a defenseman. He’s not very physical & he can’t keep up with fast offensive attackers. It almost sounds like he’s miscast as a defenseman.

If the 2018 NHL Entry Draft ends up standing out as filled with talent, the Nashville Predators are screwed. They traded away their top picks for other current & future talent, and each of their picks they took in later rounds seem far from sure-fire bets.

Next: No cannonballs this summer

Fortunately, David Poile is a lot smarter than people like me. So hopefully some of these folks will end up being pieces of future Predators teams.