conundrumed

I just like framing it that way rather than by round. From 1-10 you should get an A+ prospect, but after that there isn't a significant drop off until around 50, usually. Getting a 1st rd pick at 26 is virtually no different from having 45th oa as far as drafting potential goes. Can argue it's 1-15 or whatever, but the back half of the 1st rd is near identlcal to the entire 2nd rd for potential. So I prefer blocks of about 50 best 18yos in the world after the 1st 10, rather than thinking within blocks of 32. Can look at Zary as an example. 24th oa. Afterwards you still have Evangelista at 42, Faber at 45, Lohrei at 58, Cuylie at 60. Good players that are good prospects in between them, so really not much of a drop-off talent-wise. But of course the hockey gurus would have called taking Evangelista at 24, "a real stretch". And that would falsely raise the fans' ire, rather than being realistic. Because clicks.

Just to bring this thing in, if both picks are between 11-32, MTL gets the better pick. If Calgary's pick is within 1-10 and Florida's is not, MTL gets FLA's pick. The other sub-scenario is dead. FLA's 2024 protected pick to Philly is Philly's, FLA's pick isn't top 10. So we have a 1st rd pick next year no matter what happens from here on out. The worst scenario is picking 11th while FLA wins the cup. We'd pick 32nd. The mgrs meeting should think about addressing just how out of hand *conditions have gotten.

Just to frame it a bit differently, we'll have 3 picks in the top 50 and another at least 2, maybe 3, with as many as 4 in the 50 to 100 range. A good player always gets pushed down a bit. A good forward if teams start panicking into a D push. I can see that happening. Just a question of when the 2nd dman goes after Levshunov. I could see a run on Dmen 4 to 6 deep. Likely before our pick.

In that range will likely be Hage, Lucas Petterson Kamil Bednarik Luke Misa whose brother Michael with Flint will be a hot commodity next year Sacha Boisvert ...for starters. Atm I like Bednarik as a guy that's pretty consistently solid at everything but not great at any one thing. Another high IQ guy. edit But Hage I'll be able to watch next year without the eyepatch.lol Big Ten Network is a part of my cable package:) Great semi-final games btw. Michigan @ Michigan State final this wkend. My bar/recroom will be full. I can't hate on Hage for committing to my U of M boys, fu state. We're about 50-50 between those 2 in these parts. More McGroarty, more Brindley, less MSU hype. Suck it Lansing, Ann Arbor kicks your Hash Rate at pretty much everything.

Nope. lol But Liam Greentree's looking pretty shiny for a RWer on an atrocity of a team. I'm not too worried if we're 8th or 16th. The drop off really isn't dramatic at all. Zack Benson (inexplicably) fell to 13th oa last year and is well on his way to playing the entire season with the Sabres. Most drafts teams make you scratch your head, I'm sure this one will be no different. Anybody feel like a 20 yr old in rd 7? Gazizov from the Knights. I expect the Leafs. lol He looks like a late bloomer. Exceptional puck-handler. Last draft. Camp invite would undoubtedly be Toronto or Detroit. It always is. Might be worth a late rd stab in the dark. But they also have an intriguing 3C in Sam O'Reilly. Likely a "safe" pick that everyone loves(/s) in rd 2 or 3. Not getting the stat-boosting icetime. Doing the grunt work. Adjusting to C after being a Dman most of his life. He'll be a solid pick for someone I'd wager. Great defensively, go figure. Plays big and aggressive, though. Likely a big role at C for the Knights next year. He's in great hands for dev. I'm way more intrigued with what we can do after the first pick. There's always good underrated depth in rds 2 & 3, regardless of how strong/weak drafts are treated. That stuff is more about high end "potential". Things that don't always work out.

Pospisil is an almost ideal middle 6 RW. You need the guy that everyone hates playing against but wishes they had. He creates space for his linemates while annoying the crap out of everyone. The real fun is that he's only going to get better at it. Mangiapane is an adequate placeholder, so no rush. Kuzmenko is a snipe but I'd likely lose him first due to little else in his play that is worthwhile. Coronato just needs an offseason training year. She ain't 30 games a year anymore. He's going to be a great RWer, just takes time to adjust to zero down time during the hockey season. In the meantime per Mangiapane, Parker Bell is a prospect that I just can't stop liking. 6'5" doesn't hurt either. lol Still have Honzek too if he is more than constant IR some day.

I'm not sure how to coin it, but just a different build works for me. He has Huberdeau, Kadri and Weegar longterm so not much to do about that but work with it. It's only 3 players, and they aren't a downfall by any stretch. Conroy stated he wants big and fast so you can see already that those elements are being added with Sharangovich, Pospisil and the D prospects. Not taking some plug's lousy contract back to elevate the pick for Tanev, as was rumoured, is tidy work. You can't be mixing mud into your paint, so to speak, it Blockchains your palette up when you need a clean slate to work with. I'm still a little reticent with the $9 for Lindholm and $7.5 for Hanifin extension rumours, if true. Our roster was so capped out yet nothing but vanilla. Like biting into an avocado for the first time after everyone has told you how awesome they are. I had no idea about Pospisil, but that kid has bite. As does Zary in a different way, as his bite is more often than not making the right play. Give me a roster of high IQ guys that make the right play and I feel you can get away without superstars. Smart players can frustrate them. It's pretty much a game of limiting mistakes.

Nightmares of Feaster and that other bloke thinking they're 4D chessmasters is a thing long past, but not forgotten. Conroy knows why he has scouts working for him. He even mentioned his pro scouts just kept feeding him Russian dmen so that's how it happened. So he knows that his scouts know way more than he does. He'll be a great GM, simply by letting those around him do their jobs and give him solid intel. He trusts them, obviously. There are no greater employees than the ones that feel wanted and needed. Let me maybe point out some huge positives: 1. He's added solid pieces to our pro scouting staff 2. Took advantage of expiring contracts to alleviate the cap hell, respectfully towards the players, while not taking pointless contracts back 3. He has begun giving the amateur scouts more ammo, so they feel re-invigorated. This one, I know it's true. So now we've built up a respectable D prospect pool, have $19mil in cap space for next year, and have added a healthy handful of picks at top 100ish range. Add in some come uppance of Zary and Pospisil, perhaps Wolf. The great add of Sharangovich, return of Kylington, Weegar flexing, it's looking a lot better than the disaster that we were likely surmising. It's fun watching Conroy making it his own style and front end staff working as a team.

Well said. Clearly time to give him the ball. Should have happened with Markstrom's first injury. Wins and losses don't matter. Him getting a workload is way more important than draft position. If he goes 10-0, great. We need to know. If he gets lit up, put him right back in. We're past the point of being shy with him. We're growing a team and he has to grow with them.

It must be nearing April and time to get hung up on draft position and the importance of having as many, "can't miss" top 12 picks as we can muster. Until we select Zadina and Kravtsov. Then we forget any of that ever happened and clamour for more top 12 picks in the following years. Then there's the Wyatt Johnson, David Pastrnak, Brock Faber, Luke Evangelista, Jordan Kyrou, Tage Thompson, Brandon Hagel...I mean, those 18yos past about pick #15 almost never work out. But Lafreniere, Wright, Slavkovsky, Dach, Bennett, Juolevi, Turcotte, Kotkaniemi...those guys are going to be bonafide perennial all-stars, just wait and see. Sorry for the sarcasm, but let's not get carried away that we absolutely need to pick within x and need as many picks within x to guarantee success or have a 82.7% chance of it working out. They say 78.4% of statisticians hate their job so much that they entertain themselves by seeing how many people buy made-up ones if they mix them in at 42.6%. The only accurate dataset I've ever seen regarding anything is that if it's raining out, there is a 100% chance of rain. If it's not raining, I've seen 80% chances be wrong. lol Data out is only as good as data in, which never accounts for everything. My one hope is maybe let's pick ahead of St. Louis. Their draft history beyond the top 15 is as good as anyone's. I don't want them in the way!! Beyond our 1st pick, there is quite a bit to be intense about with our Van and rd 2-4 picks. There's a lot of 17yos not getting the stat-boosting reps because older players reduce them to 3rd line roles at this point in time. That's where the scouting happens. There's a specific big LD that I see a lot that I hope everyone hates that I quietly want us to take with maybe Dallas' 2nd rd pick. He's on a terrible team that might be local to me and a great kid/athlete...he's hiding a bit, but he's in this write-up which is decent: The Sting are awful. don't bother scouting us...

Conroy-Stillman was 2000. Fleury was traded for Reggie at the '99 tdl. I had to stretch it out to get everyone in '98.lol Bah I screwed up, no Savard until '99. Andrew Cassels is a big step down!

Well, how about the, "what could have been" 98 Flames? St. Louis-Savard-Iginla Stillman-Nylander-Fleury

I agree, that part gets me too. I worry with O-minded dmen that having them grind away fixing their d warts affects why you drafted them in the first place. One thing that I place the most importance on is skating. The skating is so high end now that avg and "needs work" is about the last thing that I wanna see. Though Mickey Redmond made a couple of great points. One, the speed is why you see a lot of injuries. Flying around with danger out there, everywhere, is how he explained it. That, and why don't they call charging anymore? Only boarding when the recipient is vulnerable. 4 steps to crush a guy used to be charging. They've pretty much done away with that. She's a dangerous league and you have to be great on your skates anymore. The skating and puck control at speed just blows my mind these days. One bad pass and it's gone in a second. Go chase them.lol I chuckle at some PP commentary. By the time they've said a 3-syllable name there's been 2 passes and it's in the net. We need auctioneers and carnival barkies.

You're going to like what you see. Detroit drafted his older brother Shai, 36th oa. Both are at Denver. Zeev was on that great U18 team last year (Dec. birthday). He's a very good skater and dogs pucks noticeably well. Great passer and rushing dman. He doesn't have a great shot but makes up for it with his passing and being deceptive. I think I'll end up with him around 10-15th oa. The downside is his D. He's a pretty good defender, but it'll need work. He's not physical at all, but makes up for it with puck movement. He's close to Dickinson due to his play with the puck. Heavier competition but stacked team, like you say. Yet he gets top minutes as a freshman, so that deserves recognition. He really makes things happen pretty consistently. Yet another product of Shattuck so good dev path. As they say, "you can teach defence", but I'm more of the mind of goading offence out of solid defenders that are great skaters. My preference is at fwd with our first 1st, but Buium wouldn't be a bad pick at all. Dickinson is the only Dman I'd want that high though. If Zeev were drafted last year, which is actually his age group, he'd have likely been a mid-late 2nd rder, so bare that in mind. Can maybe consider EJ Emery (Ray's kid) with Van's 1st if we're D-hunting at that point. RHD that plays a shutdown game with size and dad's aggression gene.lol Maybe he's even there at our 2nd? He's currently Cole Hutson's safety net partner for the US U18 team.

That roster lacks more than a bit of that je ne sais quoi. lol Will we be busy in FA?

"What do you wanna do when you get older"? "I wanna live in my Dad's shadow". - Nobody. Ever.

Any chance we can end the Tij talk already? There's a mountain of great players to choose from. It's just a giant hang-up at this point. He's just another player. Do Tanguay, Reggie, Kipper have hockey kids? Is that what we're doing? It's every conversation. jfc.

Good news. He's a 1st rder in an avg draft year. RSD and he's become really well-rounded. Solid grab by Conroy. I wasn't big on grabbing him at our draft positions, but I think it's fair to consider him someone we could pick in the high 20's of an avg draft class. Detroit boy programs, USNDTP, but then chose the CHL route. He's had a really sound dev path. Really happy to have him as a prospect. Instantly our top RD prospect. I can say first hand that London runs the tightest ship in the O, maybe even the entire CHL, for developing players. There is very little discernible difference between them and Kitchener. Our prospect is in extremely capable hands. He's going to be a big key in the Lindholm deal. I get a little shocked when prospects with London, Kelowna and Kitchener get moved. Those 3 are the powerhouse development programs in the CHL for my money. You need not worry about racing those players into your program. They're in good hands.

One thing that I'd like to point out with Eiserman. Look at last year's rankings. You have an easy 4 1st rders from that u18 team, 5 if you'd put Nelson there, and a plethora in the next 2-3 rounds. Now look for guys on this year's team. Maybe Bednarik or Emery? Maybe? It's a waay weaker team. So teams can focus on Eiserman. Not worrying about multiple guys that can hurt you. Food for thought. There's no Smith, Moore, Leonard, Perrault to also worry about. Just Eiserman. Their results prove that they're having a down year, talent-wise. If he was a year older, he'd be getting completely different consideration. Like those guys did.

From Finnish tabloid newspaper Italehti, using Google translate. Don't get caught up in the poor translation, e.g. "Rönni, who denied the charge, appealed for the girl not to notify the police until 2.5 weeks after the party". That didn't translate well. It was his defence lawyer using that argument. So try not to get hung up on improper translations. I can't translate Finnish, but I do have basic comprehension of language translations. Edit # 17 I think. We have a Finnish poster here @omit555. That isn't me saying he should translate, because he shouldn't, nor should the expectation exist. Just pointing him out, because he's joined us in GDTs over his 6am coffee and smoked salmon and eggs or whatever he's got going on over there. lol That, and he seems like a great person. In my backpacking heyday I can guarantee that Cdns gravitate to Scandinavians and vice versa. On avg, we're almost identical character/personality traits. That everyone scared me away from Finland/Sweden/Norway, telling me, "it's extremely expensive", is a regret I'll long carry, but it's on the bucket list!! But shoutout to omit555, regardless of the treacherous news, hope you're well and enduring the dying grips of winter. edit Tappara has since released Ronni of his contract. The Flames have renounced his rights.

Yeah, I actually liked him as a player and watched him live in Plymouth last summer. Notsomuch as a person now.

If this is regarding Dickinson, I'll weigh in. If Eiserman and Dickinson are available at our pick, I'll be shocked in a good way. Decision time. Do you want a potential top goal-scorer or a potential 1D? For me at least, those 2 are the most potent picks in this draft. Eiseman is really getting talked down by most, which is fine. "He's kinda one-dimensional" they say, but that dimension is the most elite shot/scorer in the entire draft. So if we need one of those...I've seen him live a few times and tourneys/streaming U18. We've got Zary, Pelletier, maybe Kerins eventually, guys that can dart around fishing pucks or playmaking. If you want a finisher, he is definitely the guy. His shot has about 3 different dimensions of release, and all 3 are heavy, heavy shots. He can pull it to his skates and not lose much in velocity. All he wants to do is score and that shot is pretty accurate from anywhere. Dickinson is the best Dman in this draft for me and I hope no one agrees. Although I've generally donated my Sting season's tix to Big Brothers/Sisters this year, I can still watch everything on TV. I use a secondary internet provider based in London so get all Knights games too. I dare anyone to tell me what Dickinson's shortcomings are. I hate when he steps onto the ice vs the Sting. He's exceptional at everything. His skating and IQ are elite. That's his calling card. He's NEVER in trouble anywhere on the ice. Rarely a bad pinch, great control on D. QBs the PP and PK with zero problems. If he doesn't go as the 1st dman or within the top 10 there is no way we can't take him. I think he could make this roster by 20 and takeover any role he wants eventually. With his skating and IQ, I just don't think that it will take him long to transition to much higher competition. Canada not having him on the U20 roster was laughable. But they reward the older players. He should have been a top 4 at the very least. I have very little doubt that he'll end up the best Dman from this draft class. I've read through his scouting reports, seeing him compared to Sergechev, which is fine. They worry about his offence. What I know, is defensively, sure, I get it. But he's smart. London has lots of offence. He makes sure they get the puck. When they need a goal, he's out there, creating a goal. Vs Sarnia in a game earlier this year, we were up by 1. He came out, joined/created the rushes and had 2 goals in no time. That's him. So I hope everyone gets enamoured by Russians, because this kid is a top shelf Dman. Skating, edges etc don't need work, defending, gap control, aggressive on the boards doesn't need work, smart outlet passing, pinching need very little work. He'll just have to get used to everything happening faster. I doubt that will be a problem. You don't get close to what he is in the 2nd rd. It wouldn't shock me if he's gone at our pick. But those are the 2 guys that I want. Potential elite goal-scorer or 1D. If both are gone, I lean towards forwards with size. We have enough playmaking fwds, we need finishers.

Well your timing couldn't be better. We are b2b today in FLA and tomorrow in Carolina. This could be the time. Monday morning is likely the answer. Vegas has Detroit tonight and the sked has killed Detroit in that they just haven't been playing enough games to get in sync. And it's likely Reimer after losing to ARI last night. The Preds have the Wild tomorrow. She's a tall order to take both of our games and we really can't afford losses vs Preds and Vegas wins. We've run out of real estate. Realistically, this b2b should kill us. If it doesn't, well, they'll have huge admiration from me. Onwards and upwards!

That would suck. I'm looking forward to the D getting an overhaul. I'm hoping we get more physical on the back end as well as bigger (wingspan). I know Hanifin is 6'3", but he doesn't play any kind of physical at all.

Those were mainly good moves. Mainly just buying time getting Compher, Lyon and Gostisbehere and bottom of the roster depth. Then DeBrincat, Petry and Kane pretty much just fell in his lap as vets that chose Detroit so their deals are good value. I wasn't really in favour of any of them, but there are quite a few prospects needing dev time so needed bodies. It's been a pleasantly surprising season so it's nice to see them competing for a WC. Larkin being out is definitely a huge hurdle as he drives the bus. Husso being out long term hasn't helped give Lyon more relief, pains of a season. Just competing for a playoff spot at TDL is an awesome change though, while not kidding themselves that they need to add at TDL to put them "over the top". Getting in would be fun. If it's vs FLA it'll be Sutter's "waste" of a week but still a positive step. Larkin deserves to at least play a playoff game in his career. lol But you're definitely right, they still have a lot of work ahead for the next coupla seasons. Hopefully in-house graduating prospects.