conundrumed

This is what I like about drafts. You don't need top 10 picks to strike gold. Having more bullets in the chamber in rds 2-4 is the ticket. There are as many current great players selected after the first round as there are top 10 world beaters. There is more certainty in the top 10, but there are also enough tales of caution to not over-amplify a top 10 pick vs an 80 pick. Your 5th pick in any given draft could be the next Pavel Datsyuk or Pekka Rinne. Odds are just stats. Defying the odds has been proven many times over. "Playing the percentages" is really not all that it's cracked up to be in drafting 18 yos. Don't trade everyone for better odds. Waaay too much risk. It's just a list of Top 200 18yos in the World that changes pretty drastically when they all put 5 years behind them. As I said earlier, I break it into blocks of 50. Even that seems small to me.

Finishing 6th worst would be fun. Should I maybe keep the inevitable upcoming 6 game burner to myself? lol

@cross16 for sure. I'm in no mood for practicality watching the Wings completely implode. TDL: Okay, we've got a chance, let's keep Perron, Ghost, etc... let's crank this biatch up boys, with a .292 win %!! Only SJ and Anaheim have been worse. Watching just how awful they've become depicts that. Don't talk to me about rebuilds... Oh wait...what were we talking about? Yeah it was cross.

Sergeev had a much better 2nd half of his season with UConn. Not sure about the Russian we took last year.

Dude. We have 2 picks in the 1st rd. This dream of 3-4 in the top 15 is just ramblings and unrealistic. I hate to be the stick in the mud, but 3-4 in the top 15 isn't even a maybe. We have 1. That's way too much weight of expectation. Let's just go with, "here's what we know we have, right now." I'm not trying to be insulting, but let's stay in our lane here. We can't trade everyone for an 18yos potential. If you want to trade Markstrom and Andersson, you HAVE to get NHL players back, not teenaged potentials. I had potential once. lol

I'm relatively dismissive of the USHL in the 1st rd. For the most part, minus playing for the US U18 team, the high end USHL guys were shredding that league at 16-17 and are drafted from their freshman U years. Just to put it into perspective. The avg talent that you're up against in the USHL is a decent handful below the CHL. So I'm pretty dismissive of him as a 1st rder, where I can see many others aren't. The top states in the US for hockey dev are Minny, Michigan and Massachusetts, in that order. Their commitment to having USHL teams in their states is fleeting, at best. Muskegon, Michigan? Really? lol Chicago is a rarity, in that they're actually in a city. It shows, most years. Just not this one.

Is anyone ready to talk about Nashville yet? It's not just the run that they're on, but how they're doing it every way under the sun. After a hard fought 1-0 win over the Wings, Vegas is in cruise control leading 4-1 after 2. Cup champ Vegas. The streak is over, right? Not so fast. Three 3rd period goals and the winner in OT. Wtf is happening here? 15-0-2 in their last 17? Sign Ryan O'Reilly. Bahaha he's aged out and washed up. 25g, 35a. Wait. What? Perennial Backlund-like journeyman Gustav Nyquist, he's about done, right? 20g, 45a. Will they ever lose in regulation again this year? I can think up at least 24 other teams. If they were tearing through everyone like hot butter, it's a media sensation. But it's Nashville, it only gets mentions. Who doesn't love media parity? I hope they just tear through everything that everyone thought they knew.

Although I should add, I'd much rather us land Helenius rather than a dman if that dman isn't Dickinson. Maybe not even then. Buium is really good, but I'd take Helenius personally. A potential Sebastian Aho is just way too enticing for me. Cs are near impossible to find. I think you can D by committee worst-case, whereas that's not the case at C. I'd also target Sam O'Reilly in the 2nd round. Grab a couple that have different talent strengths. I think, for examples, Makar has MacKinnon and Rantanen, Qughes has Miller and Pettersson, Fox has Panarin and Zibanejad. Exceptional dmen, but they're hardly on an island. I think we need to get high-end talent up front. Elite D with middling talents at forward isn't going to make them look like elite D. They need teammates at a matching level.

I've seen a fair bit of him via the Big Ten Channel (BTC). He still has work to do defensively, but I'd say it's currently adequate when you take into account the rest of his game. Dude is a boss on the ice. Excellent skater in all facets, stunning O-qualities. Literally drives the offence. Good shot, though he is always finding lanes to attack the net or making a good set-up. You definitely wouldn't think, "freshman" watching MSU. He's their best player. Consider this: He waltzed into the USHL at 17 (late birthday) from Belarus, threw up 42pts in 62 games as a new arrival to NA. Pretty much, "Blockchain this league" considering his circumstances. Waltzes into NCAA Div 1 at 18, 34 pts in 36 games and counting, "Blockchain this league" AGAinnn...even against the top teams he's one of the best players on the ice. There is zero chance he goes beyond 3. Pretty much nobody, but nobody, comes to adjust to NA ice and wipes his feet on the top leagues. Dude is going places, he's already too good for the US' top "amateur" league. He has literally made his 2 seasons of highly competitive hockey in NA look like child's play. You draft him and try to convince his agent that there is zero reason to go back to MSU, hockey development-wise. We have no idea what his ceiling is, because the leagues he's visited so far don't seem to be challenging enough. He's already yelling at his teammates. lol Seriously need to consider that this cat needs more challenging leagues...already being the shocker. With already possessing solid IQ, skating/edgework and O-smarts, some solid work on his defensive play, and I'd say that you're getting close to Seider with him. The difference being Seider will be a bit more physical, Levshunov a bit more O-flair. Seider's a boss, and Levshunov is already bossy. lol

I feel the same about Yakemchuk and feel he's the last of those 6 dmen, how I'd rank them, at least. Something like Levshunov, Dickinson, Buium, Parekh, Silayev, Yakemchuk. Jiricek, Hutson and Mews not too far removed around the Van pick.

Oof, I totally forgot. We could finish 8th worst, then have the lottery go Detroit Red Wings on us and knock us down. Buzzkill moment.

So, perhaps this thread should just be facepalm gifs.

Clear evidence...

I'm thinking about 6 of them are likely top 20, which that list implies. If we would just lose out and let SEA and PITT beat us, than we'd be right there. Then of course ARI shows up in their ugly Christmas sweaters and gawd only knows where that'll go.

Uhmmmm, what are you saying, exactly??😭

The latest consolidation situation. Helenius works for me! https://thewincolumn.ca/2024/03/26/consolidated-2024-nhl-draft-rankings/

Suniev's season is still alive as UMass slips into the Frozen Four this wkend, and will unfortunately be up against Denver on Thursday at 2pm EST. Zeev Buium is the 2024 draft prospect to watch for Denver. Don't confuse him with his brother, Wings prospect Shai!

Best case is Tij has already been selected. They will make it a circus either way. If we don't select him, well, here come the vultures with ridiculous slants that social media will recite as factual. lol Never fails. RD, should we just start referring to you as PG? Pool God? lol Or Wolf - winning all of the awards?

I was shocked that they didn't opt for one of the fine defenseman on the board. If they'd have taken Gavin McCarthy, I'd have been far less shocked. I don't know why the Leafs constantly focus on forwards and leave D until later. It's so apparent with them. Outside of Tavares, they are reasonably young and set at forward. Liljagren(sp?) is the exception...but damn there is little else for D anywhere around that org. "fix it later"...well, it's later...

Easton Cowan was not a good pick at that particular time in that particular draft. But the Leafs were worried he'd be gone before their next pick, which is fair. Whether I agree on the target is neither here nor there. lol He was their target. He's a wonderful jr player, we'll see how he transitions to pro. But they already struggle getting young players the top 6 icetime that they likely deserve.

It really does. Bonus points for not taking bad contracts back. Maybe none of these guys make the show, but that's where we were regardless. She's an uphill struggle, but I applaud Conroy for starting at the base and correcting the lack of D prospects. It's the right place to start, imo. The alternative of constantly having to sign AHL vets to deals is painful. Make it a prospect team. Scoreboard barely matters. Under 25 team is perfect.

My own personal opinion is that we should be taking a real hard look at Sam O'Reilly and think about if he'll be there at our Van pick. He oozes potential when I watch the Knights. I don't mind if all the "professionals" think that we're reaching. They're all a few years away from seeing any potential come to fruition regardless. He's a riser. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/911102/sam-o-reilly

Very well said. Let prospects be prospects, rather than band-aids for the big club. Could literally call up Sutter to cover 4th line duty for a non-playoff team. Coronato needs meaningful minutes, not grunt work.

I was working with one of Iggy's buddies since childhood. He wasn't lying because I accidentally interrupted a conversation on his truck speakerphone. lol He said, "say hi", so I did and that was definitely Iggy saying "how's it going" back. He said, "I'll give you a call back, this stupid Lames fan (he's an Oilers fan) is going to give me more bad news", which was absolutely correct. That job was a nightmare for them, I was just the messenger, so it was fun for me. Biggest make-work project I've ever been on and that's saying something. There's been many. He told me leaving Calgary was a massive relief for the Iginla family, as the fame had virtually made them house-bound. Take that for what it's worth, but I definitely believed him. He said it's not public knowledge, and no way did Jarome want it to be. But they were really happy to find anonymity in the US. He was with the Avs at the time.

No question they were clearly outmatched once BC got rocking. Suniev had some nice chances. Big body and great skills, not a lot on that team to help though by comparison vs that stacked monstrosity. Decision time for him and Sergeev. Particularly intrigued if Sergeev makes the jump. Have to assume there's a big hole at G in the A next season.