One would have a tough time finding anyone who would argue that Nail Yakupov and Ryan Murray wont be the first forward and defenseman taken Friday, but there’s no true consensus as to who will follow.
The second forward and defenseman taken is anyone’s guess and Future Considerations’ went out to try and find a consensus among our followers.
To open Future Considerations’ Question of the Day series leading up to the 2012 NHL Draft, we posed the question: who will be the second defenseman and the second forward taken at this year’s draft?
As expected, the answers from both our writers and Twitter followers were across the board.
Montreal native Arnaud Hudon-Turgeon (@arn24habs) got the Twitter responses started with believing Red Deer Rebels defenseman Mathew Dumba and Leksand’s forward Filip Forsberg will be taken behind Yakupov and Murray. Corey Bartell (@devilzrule27) agreed with Turgeon in regards to Forsberg, but picked a dark horse in NTDP’s Jacob Trouba to be the second defenseman selected. While Bartell believes Trouba could a be dark horse, Trouba is ranked as Future Considerations’ second best defenseman available in the final 2012 Draft Rankings.
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Philippe Lupien (@GGpx) went in a completely different direction—believing Griffin Reinhart and Alex Galchenyuk will be the second wave of talent taken at each position. OHL follower Diana Campbell (@8soup) agreed with Galchenyuk second, but added the fourth defenseman to receive a vote with Morgan Rielly going behind Murray.
FC writer Andrew Weiss agreed with Campbell and selected Galchenyuk and Rielly as well. Weiss stated that how well Rielly did the second half of the season solidified himself as a worthy candidate to be selected as the second defenseman in this year’s class.
Scout Brain McGee backed another Twitter follower, taking Dumba and Forsberg. McGee believes Forsberg presents the best package with good size, a good track record in international competition and because of his play in the Swedish Elite League despite being one of the youngest in the league.
Finally, upper-Midwest scout Dan Shrader believes it is a closer race than one may think at the forward position and that Yakupov will be the second forward taken. Rielly gets yet another nod as the most popular defenseman in our poll with Shrader’s final selection of the Moose Jaw blue liner.
The censuses forward was a tie between Galchenyuk and Forsberg so we will have to wait until shortly after 7pm EST Friday to determine who was correct from both angles.
Future Considerations’ QOD is a seven part series leading up to the draft with FC’s Twitter followers and writers weighing in on some of the draft’s toughest questions. Would you like to have you opinion heard? Tweet @WeissFC or @FCHockey in response to our question of the day!