The NHL season ended on April 10th and for the last twenty days Winnipeg Jets fans have been counting down until this moment when their draft spot would be determined. After a lot of drama Winnipeg drew the second overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. Interesting to note the Jets along with the Blue Jackets and Oilers had two balls verse the Leafs one at the top pick.
An impressive jump considering they were slated to draft sixth overall. They had a 7.5% chance at the top pick and ended up second behind Toronto. With the Leafs expected to take consensus first overall pick Auston Matthews the thought is the Jets should grab Finnish product Patrik Laine. Here is a video on the prospect.
Here is Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff speaking on TSN 1290 about winning the 2nd overall pick:
Here are some highlights from Laine’s year in the Finnish Elite League:
Looking ahead to next season the addition of Laine would give Winnipeg quite the top six: Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor, Bryan Little.
Reminder that the Jets also hold the 22nd overall pick courtesy of the Ladd trade with Chicago. The 2016 NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo is surely going to be very interesting. We will be there so be sure to follow illegalcurve.com as well as our social media Twitter | Facebook | Instagram for all the latest Winnipeg Jets news.
