conundrumed

18. Has played 68 games, not too shabby.

You can't trade a top 4RD on a value contract for only a 17th oa question mark. Teams would be falling over each other racing up Conroy's stairs.

Zach Benson is currently listed at 170lbs...just sayin'.

Without taking massive strides in his 200' game, he's a winger. Not unlike dear old dad, he is NOT committed to playing D. He's a goal-scorer. He'd NEED a Lindholm-type C with him. Unless, of course, one day he wakes up and commits himself to at least try to play D. That is the knock on him. Just like dear old dad. We need to stop romanticizing. Jarome was lazy af on the D-side of the puck. Nobody ever mistook him as a good backchecker. He floated back, constantly. It's because they deplete all of their energy in the O-zone, not because they're a terrible person. lol You need goals to win, but you also need to offset your goal-scorer with solid 2-way guys. Every Kane NEEDED a Toews, or she's a disaster. Look at Detroit right now. They can't offset both DeBrincat and Kane with 1 Larkin. The guy that you want to be your main play-driver. Rock, meet hard place.

Why? You also need a roster, and I have young, NHL-ready players that are becoming redundant. So my offer is a 2nd, Joe Veleno and Albert Johansson. Basically, a former 1st and 2nd (both NHL-ready) and a current 2nd. So basically, I'm bailing you out here. You need to be a better negotiator. If you only want a single draft pick for a proven top 4 dman, I just shredded you. lol It's still a top 50 pick, suddenly your best D prospect that is an actual dman that doesn't pretend to be a winger, and a real C, not a C/W. Because I'm feeling guilty about Blockchaining them out of real opportunities because, you know, I really needed to add Compher and overpay Ladd, Chiarot etc. And now I have Edvinsson, Sandin-Pellika, Danielson and Kasper to Blockchain them over with. I'm not happy with myself. lol

I wouldn't be concerned. Take him. If he makes the team out of camp, perfect. There's really no safety net left when you select 1st oa. Pretty much forget everything else, just take the best player. It's not very close this year. The injury issue isn't much of an issue, generally normal hockey injuries.

Edvinsson-Andersson has a nice ring to it. lol He needs to understand Detroit drivers a lot better, though. Don't be telling me what to do with your fancy traffic lights...

I've done my research, and that is 100% the undying truth. There's probably no bigger truth. People that deal in truth all of the time, they tell me, your truth is probably better than any truth we've ever seen. I did say that I was being lighthearted and facetious... We'll get a great prospect around 8th and a few beyond, I don't doubt. It'll be fun. As far as the team, keep it stable and pick your spots. Keep building quietly. Keep your options wide open. One step at a time. Guys become available. Eichel, Tarasenko, DeBrincat, Kane etc for various reasons. You need Cap AND assets to be in the conversation in the future. I applaud what Conroy has done so far to buy himself something to manage. He was pretty stuck and we were awfully status quo... Home wasn't built in a day.

I'm not really familiar with him. Has he ever, like, read books from the past? Or frequented a library outside of being homeless? Or is he TAG? Typical American Garbage?

Ghostisbehere and Jeff Petry. Like cutting off my nose to spite my face. lol

lol...really? None of the pre-eminent greek mythology working for you? Joe Rogan never brings it up? lol Being playfully facetious...

Dickinson is the guy for me. If he's there, just take him. He's pretty much really good at everything. Queue the Pietrangelo comps. No complaints with his handlers either. Him or Levshunov, then it's a bit grayer for me. I'm not sure that I'd take Buium ahead of Catton or Helenius. Wasn't Helen the face that launched a thousand ships? lol

It's all speculative. lol @jjgallow mentioned an interesting dman in Fransen. jj's getting busy, I've taken decent looks at him too. I've mentioned Pulkkinen. They say dmen take longer to develop, so does that also not apply to watching for d+1 dmen?

I think when we get to the Dallas pick and our 3rd, so maybe 2 picks in the 60-70 range, him and over-ager Pulkkinen kind of intrigue me. Provided they're still around. Fransen didn't fall off the map, he entered it unexpectedly. Kids and progression...lord only knows. And of course they both shoot left, why wouldn't they? lol The draft fun for me is looking beyond the top 25. We have 2 picks in the 25-50 range and 2 more in 50-75. Maybe 2 more 75-100ish, but that's dicey. Still better than how I've grown used to zero to maybe 1 on a good day. lol

Kind of a solid argument to draft Catton this year. He has top 6, perhaps 1C potential. Then focus on the Van pick and our 2nd for, say, the dmen that round out the top 10 available in this draft. Maybe Sam O'Reilly's still on the board at the Dallas pick? All depends on the Flames' approach of course. Solid dmen are available lower, just that the top 5 dominate the conversation.

Time to go up against your boy Parascak! Will be the end of the line for the Rockets. Hopefully I'm not too hockxausted for late starts. Should work nicely around the Frozen Four sked.

Berkly Catton might be the guy for you! For a dman, Dickinson bleeds 1D potential.

Excellent question. I think I'd have to go with Eiserman. Iginla and Greentree are really a saw off for me. For the long version, lol, I don't think Eiserman has had the talent around him like when they elevated him last year from U17 to play with that great U18 team. As an aside, if Musty didn't go to the O, he likely would have had Perrault or Leonard's spot on that line. That would have changed everyone's perspective. I was told the NDTP was highly offended, yet guys like Matt Tkachuk did the same. Then it was pointed out to me, "they still bring in OHLer Terrance, but they never invite Musty for internationals". So why you mad US? Great players have done it before, why does he get black-balled? But yeah. I'm not buying Eiserman's stock-drop. I'm just not buying it, honestly. Too many eyes and too many swords hyperbolizing negatives. I doubt NHL scouts are buying it either.

I really, really doubt that this list reflects NHL scouts. lol It's not a great list at all, is all I'm thinking. Greentree vs Iginla is high on my future watch list post-draft. I have them pretty much inseparable.

Evidently these guys agree with you: https://www.eliteprospects.com/draft-center/eliteprospects.com

Just call it 8th. The NHL is pretty predictable.

Should have taken Musty. Rankings be damned.lol I'm sure Honzek will be fine. His medical and recovery are in the elite hands of a pro sports team now. It's too early to be concerned. I didn't like the Morin pick, personally. I'm quite anti-QMJHL. Folks can rhyme off lots of players from there. Don't bother though, I understand that point. Just on avg, the level is closer to the USHL than the O or dub. Just my opinion. It's a pretty soft league. I have zero issue with Suniev at 80. That's a nice grab. Then I don't like the Lipinski pick either. See how she goes. We've made some very questionable picks in the last 5 years though. I think a few we can blame on scouting remotely. Other things I'm a little concerned about is that we over-think/over-scout particular leagues/teams. I have greater concern that we lean towards the dub too much. Sutter had that preference, and I think that you maybe start limiting yourself, or have a bit of a skewed and bias view. For me, it is pretty much just population-based. Literally the only reason the O stays head-and-shoulders atop the CHL is the avg competition level, beyond the star players. It's just a harder league due to how good the avg player is. Because, well, population-base.

I had some real disasters. Wanted Buchnevich, got Kyrou. Meier is typically top shelf, but nearly alone, he absolutely devastated me this year. He's picked it up now, but half a year with him and an oft-injured Hughes pretty much crushed me. I bet on NJ and lost. Go figure. Thought Hill solved G for me, but a lot of IR. Anyone else notice that IR was really hard to come by this year? I had guys out for weeks without IR status. On the bright side, Harley, Duschene and Moore were great, for guys that should be the bottom of your roster. Top of mine. lol

As much as I'm against cheering losses, I love Jeff Beck. So here he is, playing toying with the Stones with my current Flames theme song.

Welcome to Ann Arbor I hope!! He wasn't getting starts due to poor performance. Once the calendar turned to 2024, he worked his way back and was UConn's playoff goalie. I believe he sat around a .925 sv% since January (correct me if I'm wrong). I like this news. I hope it's a Big 10 team for selfish reasons. BTC on the telly carries a lot of hockey, every team. Although college hockey has more than adequate streams via ethernet. On another note, I worked through Shreveport for about a week through a bigger project. It's quite a nice city. Louisiana hockey fans are intense.lol It wasn't hockey season, but I'm Canadian, so, you know, once a Louisiana hockey fan senses a Canadian.lol So how does a guy go about getting a hockey-scouting job in Louisiana? And based on the hockey fans that I met in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, will I be getting a bodyguard? I'm not quite certain if they like hockey, or the fact that they get to let fists fly vs willing opposing fans. This may come across as racist if you haven't lived it, but it sounds a lot like following a Nations team in Canada. Cool jersey though. "Crayfish is on the menu", is apparently what opposing fans like to say. @jjgallow traded me 200 6th rders, I desperately need eyes on the NAHL. lol *edit you can't even find a RS mascot these days