jjgallow

With everything going on in Russia, surely he needs a mental health leave for a few days.

If he keeps making trades like that, we won't need a rebuild lol. But if he's smart, he'll keep making trades that make the rebuild better and more effective. Next Bobby Orr hails from Calgary, and is in the 2027 draft. We either need to be really bad by then or have traded for a lot of first-round picks by then lol I was mad he didn't trade Markstrom. But in hindsight, had he traded Markstrom I don't think we'd have a top-10 pick this year. It's possible that he's smart. If he drafts equally well, he can make up for the difference between 8 and 10. Not ideal, but he can. Dickinson is more a high floor than a high ceiling. It doesn't worry me because I want high ceiling. Tij is a high ceiling. A few others there are too. It doesn't bother me as much about the position because...well... If Conroy can make sensible trades, it will all work out. We need come out of drafts with asset value. You figure the position stuff out after.

It's not a rebuild. It's not a rebuild. It's not a rebuild.

High praise indeed https://www.instagram.com/p/CNCCtfZFlMu/

The AHL is full of former high picks with great shots who can't translate. Not saying he'll end up in the AHL, but does he have the vision to be a 1st line difference maker at the NHL level? He's a safe pick, does many things right and unlikely to fail. A little too safe for my liking. I would for sure take him with the Vancouver pick.

Also he plays for the Oilers

I'm totally with you man

why dey no score goal? They waiting for NHL to score goal? 😅 Still not ready to make my list. but, I have a pretty steep penalty for guys who can't put the puck in the net. defence or not. one of these days I will give my list. I'm trying .

100% on board. However, for consistency, if we do draft him I will definitely create a thread complaining about drafting a LHS winger, it will be a good way to get some of the others on board because they will have no choice but to "rush to his defence" since we won't have any defence see what i did there

Russians are a different story lol. To a point.

travelling right now, but will give this some thought. I'm not fully ready to give a fun list and won't be for another month lol. But I see a lot of players in there who can't score goals, even in junior level. To me, those guys move 10 spots down right away, no matter how advanced they are at everything else, and now matter how gigantic they are. The list gets smaller after that. I still think our chances of a D being BPA are very high. But, the bpa is more important to me than the D. When you look back at past drafts, guys who seemed all very "similar" at the time, ended up wildly different. We win this by finding the guy who becomes a legend. Or at very least avoiding the dud. As long as we make wise asset accumulation decisions, the positional issues can be solved later through trades if necessary. Again, this is all very hypothetical, reality is that we have a high chance of D being bpa.

#1 is so happening

I don't personally have Dickonson as #2 for D, I think there will be good D available at 8. But 6 would sure be better lol, agreed.

I actually thought he was okay in his youth but really went hard on the cherry picking as he got older. Anyway.... You need it all. I dunno why people are worried about centers when we don't have elite D in the oven. We generally need elite prospects. So first and foremost no matter position they are I hope we get that in the draft.

Well you know what they always say, as long as you keep it under 8 you're giving em a solid chance

Very very hard to guage this new US College thing happening in the first round, not as much data points as I'd like. You've got Eichel and Hughes to work with, yes, and that's...about it lol. Neither of which I would describe as being developed properly. He's smaller than Eichel, he doesn't have the RHS advantage. Here's the kicker for me. Like Hughes and Eichel, he's already got an injury history. He has a Sam Bennett style shoulder. That opens up a larger conversation because Eichel, Hughes, Celebrini all arrived as damaged goods from US College. All 3 targeted way too young, and paid a price. I get the whole not wanting enforcers in US College, but then the referees and the administrators need to do their jobs. That's the decider for me. Combine the injury history with starting a rebuild with a forward being a Really, really, really bad idea, and the reality that he's not generational, I would trade that pick for Tij and a top, top D prospect. Like, top. With emphasis on that D prospect, Tij being the extra.

To be fair, it's only very slightly worse than Wolf's record, their stats are not far off...in the NHL. And he's 1.5 years younger than Wolf. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't trade Wolf for Wallstedt. Not now. But, we are talking very small differences. Wolf has Really impressed me. But it also shows just How good a goalie's got to be, like Saros for instance, to come in at 22 and get that .923 in his first NHL year. Amazing. Nobody in this conversation is a slouch.

Pretty much. I mean there's value and price. Mentors are super valuable, but they are super cheap. If you're paying a high price for mentors you're doing something wrong. Of course, if you're not paying anything for mentors...then ...sure...you're Edmonton. I would say we are on the near verge of full out agreeing here. lol. Only thing getting in the way is that I would go for pure picks. But not because I think the current support system is adequate. It's not. At all. But I don't think trades is necessarily the best way to get it. Best way to get a great support system is to let a few guys play 2 more years than they should. off free agency etc, or very minor unrelated trades. Hello Giordano. Seabrook, Staal, come on by ! lol not sure about Brodie. Tanev? bring that guy back lol. why not. Erik Johnson just coming into his own

Ilya Nabokov anyone?

sounds like he's trying a different approach from last year

I'm a big time fan of trading Andersson, strictly because he's one of the only pieces of value we have and...well, it would all but ensure high picks for the 5 years we need. lol. Is Andersson even a good mentor. I remember him being a talented project who took a long time to translate. Has he done anything meaningful in the playoffs? \ Mentors are cheap. Get a 35-year-old mentor with a storied cup-winning history in the off-season. Get 3 of them. I'm Totally on board with the value of mentors but like, if that's what we need then let's get legit mentors. They aren't expensive, you just gotta take on a few guys at the tail end of their career who don't want to let go yet. It doesn't have to be complicated either. Giordano comes to mind. If we want to speed up the draft pick situation, you've got very few options, and Andersson is one of them. Our last couple draft picks, forwards at the wrong time, are another (Coronato, Zary, Honzek etc). We've had our talks about drafting Tij (which probably won't be an option anyway). The only reason I would draft Tij is because I'd be willing to trade these guys to get the picks/D we need.

I find it refreshing when teams let 6'6 D develop rather then sending them immediately into a men's league and letting them play the rest of their youth on the bottom pairing. Interesting for sure, he probably woulda got drafted in 2022 if he were elligible, then not in 2023, and now likely drafted in 2024. Good risk.