Arctic Ice Hockey’s First Annual NHL Mock Draft: Pick #22

Hey all! Welcome to Arctic Ice Hockey's first annual NHL Mock Draft. Over the next thirty days, Ryan, Tim and myself will attempt to telepathically channel the minds of NHL General Managers as they complete their final rankings in preparation for the 2012 NHL Draft being held June 22, 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA.

In some instances, our analysis will require less insight than others *cough* *Edmonton* *cough*.

So without further adieu, we present our loyal readers with the twenty-second overall pick of Arctic Ice Hockey's 2012 Mock Draft.

Ray Shero: With the twenty-second overall selection in this years draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins are pleased to select…

Rankings: CSS (22 NA), ISS (34), TSN (30), Hockey Prospectus (53)

The Skinny: The Pittsburgh Penguins are absolutely stacked in terms of defensive prospects — stockpiling the likes of Simon Despres, Philip Samuelsson, Joseph Morrow and Scott Harrington over the past three draft classes. While management might also want to address their goaltending pipeline, it’s an area that can be addressed in the later rounds. With the selection of Di Giuseppe, the Penguins will be getting a skilled forward who can provide depth to their top nine forwards.

Hockey Prospectus:

Di Giuseppe had a fine freshman season for the Wolverines and showed desirable traits as a toolsy physical scorer, but he still has some work to do. He’s a solid skater with fine speed and impresses more in that regard with his balance in the cycle game, on top of having very good agility and edge work as he can be pretty elusive from a standstill. Di Giuseppe is very skilled with the puck, flashing plus ability in that regard. He’s can dangle in open ice while being checked in tight and I’ve seen a few instances where he’s made a couple of nice coordinated plays handling the puck from his knees. Di Giuseppe also has good technique on his passes and will regularly make above-average feeds. He does have good vision, but his hockey sense is his one major issue. Much too often, he rushes plays, overreacts to pressure, makes passes to nobody, and looks like he’ll need a good number of years to iron out the kinks, although he does play decent defense. Di Giuseppe does a solid job attempting to be effective in the physical game, but he has a pretty skinny build and will need to put on a lot of muscle before his power game becomes something that can translate to the pro game. – Corey Pronman

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