jjgallow

I would agree with you if we were talking about a North American forward. The Sam Bennetts etc (but even there it's not clear cut). Outside of NA forwards whoever, which btw I think tend to be overvalued to begin with, there are many exceptions to this. Every decade it seems Russians go through a phase of falling out of favour for non hockey related reasons, as an example. Then you've got players in countries not adequately scouted (like the Swiss a few years ago). Point is, I can show you some pretty massive and indisputable wins by scooping up fallen picks. Can Mews fall into this? Well he's not Russian and he's not Swiss but I will say yes, yes he can because he is a defenceman and a RHS defenceman at that. Like Parekh, he fell for teachable flaws while the talent was there. Defencemen have loads of time to learn those teachable things, time that forwards maybe do not. In a nutshell, we draft players too early. Especially defencemen and goalies. So if a talented player drops because they are behind in teachable things, take them and help them to learn.

Amazing for 3rd round yes. It is conceivable that him and Parekh both turn out, really, which is amazing when you think of where we got him. If those two guys turn out, then we have literally secured one of the hardest positions to secure right at the beginning of our rebuild. That would be a full wow.

Best Flames drafting I've seen in years, I think we'll gradually get threads to close to all of these guys going. Henry Mews is for sure of interest. Cutting to the chase: https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/ohl/stats/2023-2024?position=d&age=u19 He's the only producer like this in the OHL that didn't go in the first round. Point per game offensive but rounded RHS D at 6'0 with some weight. Like other cases, how did we get this guy in the 3rd round?

Here is direct proof that their problem is higher than the GM. Not that we didn't have that evidence before. So it's at very least a Jeff Jackson and Paul Coffee problem and that's being very, very kind to Katz. ... https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/katz-group-edmonton-homeless-charity-in-legal-fight-over-5-million-donation-1.6767839

I like this plan except for one problem, if Marner does really well and all of a sudden we don't have a top 10 draft pick lol. Otherwise it's good.

alternatively, if you don't tear it all the way down you run the risk of never completing your rebuild, never getting those elite top players you need. Like our last rebuild. 9th overall, 9th overall, oh look Parekh's turned out okay let's make a run for the playoffs and sign some guys on bad contracts. That's the risk of not committing. I want those top, top talents that are almost impossible to get. the way I personally see it, Kadri had a good comeback season, a career year...and should be rewarded by being traded to a contender. I am willing to bet that deal was already struck between him and Conroy a year ago. He is Not entering his prime at that age, he just had a good year. take the assets imho.

I would love some of Toronto's future picks. Just saying. Not even so much the 2025 pick, but ones in later years. They still have their 2026, 2027, 2028 picks. It's a toss-up, because 2026 would let us stack for Gavin McKenna. But (not naming names), the leafs should start to have some really high-ranked picks after that. Like, really high. Nothing wrong with stacking for Landon Dupont lol. I am confident any trade with them would have every IF, AND, OR available.

exactly the team i was thinking of

if you check your JS operators you will see that also means I'm right about him never getting us out of the first round as our highest paid player

He was definitely a fan favourite. Numbers don't lie though. Maybe there's a javascript solution but we never made it out of the 1st round with him as the highest paid player. Since we're not on topic: https://www.si.com/onsi/breakaway/news-feed-page/posts/calgary-flames-jonathan-huberdeau-named-nhl-worst-contract

depends what the Flames are willing to spend. He's worth plenty with a little retention.

i know what you meant. It's unlike me to comment because I'm usually very positive and affirming. Don't know what came over me

there were times when i thought ...maybe he really could carry them in the playoffs. but it seemed like he got all his points in easier earlier games and when he was really needed he was not there (the nail biters). He got those 14 points in his last season with us, but yeah we didn't make it very far and his goals, which was his big achievement that year breaking 40, weren't there. Admittedly, it's a small sample size, too small to really condemn him. But then, as our top scorer, if he was really geared towards playoffs that sample size wouldn't be so small.

or maybe it's not a re-tool. It's a rebuild. when there's almost nothing in your pipeline that's NHL ready, you gotta have vets cause what else ya gonna do. And most rebuilds start this way. Vets who do well may be sold off (at trade deadline or earlier) for more picks. And equilibrium is only reached when we have talent coming out of the pipeline that can easily replace them. IMHO that's a couple years out. Like you mentioned earlier, things start to get really interesting 2026. This is a marathon.