jjgallow

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.

In my search for D who fell off the map, I came up with Noel Fransen. Ranked anywhere from 1st round to 3rd round depending on who you go by. And sometimes not ranked. mentioning here as I haven't seen him mentioned before

don't believe the hype, they're just letting him score those goals because of his Dad.

Sharangovich and Kozmenko look like the real deal. Kylington was ok Those guys all poised to mess with our rebuild lol. Some positives. We don't really want a 19 year old winger to emerge as a star right now, I feel like it wouldn't be the right time and we'd have to ship them off if they did.

yeah his Dad was okay I guess.

A lot of parallels to that draft, I feel. The assist-heavy "D-strength". The general weakness. The Iginla. lol. Obvious differences too. No Celebrini. I "like" to think this draft is a Little stronger but we really don't know that yet. I really do believe this draft has a few future legends in it. But it most likely doesn't have 10 legends in the top 10. It has like maybe 2. History suggests we should tread carefully, and go for high, high skill. Put extra weight on intelligent players. And not too much weight on giants. I really would almost entirely ignore position, and make sure we are one of the teams that doesn't land one of the dudes, which there will be. I think you can filter a lot of them right away by avoiding the top 10s who can't score goals (even in junior). There's an exception to every rule but Most of that group i feel will disappoint. Even if they do end up NHLers (which they most likely will). Playoffs matter. Need to know who has an extra gear. Yell at them later for not using it in the regular season. Unfortunately this is why Tij may actually be out of our reach, unless we literally lose every game going forward or win the lotto and downgrade.

Nobody wants this one, I'm biting. lol. To zero in a hurry. More because of his contract than him. but yeah. But we're not entirely without trade pieces. there rest are just more painful.

I actually think there's a good amount of dead weight above him. I have him in top 10 no problems at all. Unfortunately I don't think I'm the only one. It's not guaranteed that he'll be available

what are the negatives? we lost a totally meaningless game to the regular season fairy, move up in the draft, didn't injure anyone, and we still get to watch them fizzle out in the playoffs when it matters. It's not like beating the Oilers is anything to write home about anyway.

Like Lafrenier?

His first bone-related and foot-related injury with the Flames was Nov of 2013, so, pretty sure it didn't help his skating and pretty sure missing 2 games after skating on it for several games and it getting worse, wasn't the best way to introduce a 19 year old into the NHL. Shots are harder, expectations are higher. Dude's career started and ended with leg injuries, all of which he played through. Even after they finally scanned it, they didn't allow enough time for it to heal. All I'm saying man, is if they'd given him more time the Flames would not have any Less cups and his career would not have been any shorter.

They rushed literally all of their high 1sts. The only one that was actually ready was Iginla. And the most evident way to show that, is what they looked like compared to Iginla at that age. Next closest was Tkachuk, and I still think they rushed him. Biggest problem though, is they were all forwards. never drafted that elite D up there. I don't entirely fault them for it. Dunno who else I would have drafted in Bennet's class. Obviously Nylander or even a single-position upgrade were the way to go in that draft. And again, that's going for skill and de-warting later, is what would have looked good there. But to be fair, Bennett was also pretty skilled. Just injury prone. It's more of a development/health story than a drafting story. As is Monahan. We will never decisively be able to conclude that they were rushed and that was the problem. But I can say with certainty that giving them an extra year to develop certainly would not have hurt anything. That rebuild was in fact messesed up by Giordano, as @The_People1 suggested. we drafted a couple spots too low, for too many years. And then we rushed them. Jankowski didn't help either. it was also a tough time to rebuild in terms of a lack of quality D. But not impossible.

lol you need to try driving west, that is a man-made stress reliever but sure it's okay. Coolest thing there is a massive network of underground tunnels. but i will tell you now it's not on alltrails.

by who? you? You're entitled to your opinion but the consensus is currently first line, has been for a bit now. Actually players who change their projection from 2nd line to 1st line...that's exactly what ya look for. He's his own person, so he will be asked. that's how it gets solved.

My best bud lived there got nothing against it. Spent a good amount of time there. The park itself is actually just a water reservoir. But anyhow, Tij won't go away. Unless he flops, and odds are he won't. His brother will enter the scene, and then things will be all that much more. Their Dad will re-enter the hockey scene with them grown up. This is a tiny, tiny thread in a tiny, tiny chat group with small number of people who think 4-5 years ahead. it will not...go..away, it will almost certainly do the opposite no matter who drafts him and his brother lol. A little thing to keep in mind, everyone comes from a different background and not Every kid wants to escape their Dad's shadow at 17, or plan their familly. Iginla took his kids to Lake country for a reason, one that you alluded to, money can solve a lotta problems, sucks for us peasants to hear but there's just no way this kid's like super jealous of the people at confed park. A little something about Iginla, he did not get the dream parental upbringing that many of us take for granted. And, it certainly looks like he's made up for that with the familly he made. We can't assume to understand the values he's instilled in his kids, or how they think. But we can be sure that they will tell the scouts what they need to know in the interview. which is all that's needed here.

on purpose, I mean

Nobody is ever going to conceive a child based on their proximity to confederation park, ever.

I was being semi-sarcastic, but given that the 6th round can and does span 6 years without a single impact player, I don't believe anyone would take you up on that 17oa. If they did, I can confirm that Tij would be taken lol

Yeah I'm not hating on all small players and I Do hope we draft one or two. Some high-scoring 5'6 kid. Gotta do that now and then. It paid off with Gaudreau, and it might pay off with Wolf, we'll see. Gaudreau was really exceptional though, because he was a true small player. Didn't have the Mangiapane physicallity...didn't have the Martin St Louis tree trunks. He needs space to operate and there is not a lot of space in the playoffs. You might be right, maybe he would be great in the right environment. But I feel like it would need to be a team of fast-skating giants. We just weren't that, and you don't see it much either.

basically imho this is about building out from the net. I mean not only that, but a few punk wingers can make you look a lot better than you are and won't be able to reproduce it in the playoffs when teams are serious. those young punk forwards should be the last add, and when they are added they should be the very best of the best and be able to reproduce in playoffs, otherwise not much point to them.

Scouting and prospect analysis is improving. We gradually see less and less surprises. In this kind of debate people bring up the Gaudreaus a lot. Love Gaudreau. But imho he is not a core piece of a playoff team. He is a regular season player. As such, he should have been traded during one of his peak value seasons. Elite players Can be acquired in later rounds and even undrafted. But it gradually is becoming less and less common, and when it does there are usually big caveats. You need it all. But I would take 1 first rounder for 200 6th rounders.

Here's my rules: The GM can dump the end of season (after TDL), and this is okay. He's a manager, not a player. Conroy did this I would say 50% of the way. I wanted him to trade Markstrom but I'm not even sure that would have created more losses. I just wanted the picks. Conroy also made a couple really good trades (still bitter about Markstrom, but..)... that I think will look better and better over time. So yes he sold at the TDL but I don't know that the team actually got worse. I see a lot of positives in what Conroy did, but I think he could have dumped a bit harder actually, and still slept at night. Players and coaches should never dump. This, is never okay. There's a line. I've wanted this team to rebuild for years but I've never wanted the players to take that on, ever. Or even the coach. Don't do stupid things. This is where we've got caught in the past. Most specifically, playing guys injured into the end of a meaningless season. Or for that matter, playing guys injured, Ever. Playing guys inured is a vicious cycle. On average, you shorten their careers, and their primes. Thus, playing guys injured leads to a talent shortage. So what does the team do? Well they make up for it by...yeah....playing guys injured. Just....it is everyone's responsibility...coach, gm, doctors, players...to get the most out of their careers and their primes. Do that, and you won't have shortages all the time. So. I think this is where we've often seen these late-season runs...bad decisions being made to go for that "playoff spot". So you win 5 meaningless games and lose 10 more the following year. I haven't seen it this season. Fingers crossed.