Minnesota Wild: Sokolov Could be Best Value Pick in 2016 Draft

The Minnesota Wild might have pulled off one of the best value picks in the entire 2016 draft when they used the 196th overall pick on forward Dmitry Sokolov. The Russian may have some questions about his conditioning, but there is no doubt he can put the puck in the net.

So it is hard to sit here and say you should be excited by a seventh round draft selection, but you should be stoked by the Minnesota Wild selection of Russian born forward Dmitry Sokolov with the 196th pick. If all the scouting reports are true, the Wild got a great value in the last round of the draft. Many thought going into this season that Sokolov would be one of the top 15 players in this year’s draft. So how is it that Sokolov fell so far?

The simple explanation is that his conditioning was suspect and held him back from reaching his full potential in his first season in North America. According to the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo he was considered overweight for most of his rookie campaign for the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL. Still being overweight didn’t stop Sokolov from netting 30 goals and showing strong speed and an outstanding shot. So did Sokolov really fall because he was overweight, or did scouts and organizations just get it wrong?

Making the jump to the Ontario Hockey league is rough for anyone much less a player who is not used to the North American game. Most players who come over from Europe always seem to have some sort of an adjustment period. To expect Sokolov to be completely perfect right away was a bit unreasonable. Being in a situation where he is away from his normal support system and where he might not be able to completely ward distractions is hard for anyone much less an 17/18-year-old kid who is thousands of miles from home.

Also there had to be a ton of expectations for Sokolov as he was chosen with the 3rd overall pick in the OHL draft last offseason. Sometimes when people see so much potential, they want the potential to translate to talent instantly. Drafting a player is about potential and it’s hard not to see Sokolov as having a ton of potential. He didn’t need to start the OHL on fire, he just needed to start another phase in his development. But when you really drill it down, 30 goals in the OHL is still great. Mathew Tkachuk scored 30 goals last year in the OHL and was drafted 6th overall.

Sokolov will be a great player, and this bump in the road is really fortunate for the Wild. With more time to develop he’ll come around and do even greater things. Now that he’s property of the Wild they can help him with any of the adjustment issues, conditioning issues, or anything else he might need. Now that Sokolov has an NHL team to work towards making maybe he’ll work that much harder. There’s no doubt that his power play performance and pure goal scoring from a great shot will help the Wild in exactly the areas they need help.

Next: Minnesota Wild Take Four on Draft Day 2

Watching Sokolov’s highlights you can’t help but see how great of a natural goal scorer he is. The Wild need his scoring in the lineup and soon, so they’ll get him where he needs to be with the help of the Wolves who will be looking to crawl out of the bottom of the OHL and motivated to make Sokolov part of that effort. Perhaps Sokolov himself offers the best idea of what his end goal when he said “The OHL is better than the Russian League, small rink. I want to play in the NHL.”

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