jjgallow

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I never root for them to lose. Not even me, not even now. Awesome seeing Kuzmenko find himself. but I do feel like it's ....you know... "our turn". To not go on a random bs hot streak for no reason. to get lucky at the lotto. something. it's gotta be our turn soon.

wow.

Yup. with you on this. I mean, it's not black and white, there's some grey. but basically, it's this. You go for your top talent. Some of it flops, okay. Some of it doesn't live up to expecations but fufills other key rolls. I would say Backlund is a good example of going for elite talent, not quite translating it, but still ending up with great value. The flip side of the arguement: You can't build a cup winner off of top 10 picks alone. It's true. You need the rest of it too. Just, get more creative in how you acquire those other picks, players. Just acquiring them by pawning off franchise picks, is equally a cop-out. Rehab some players. Take on some projects. Show up to the TDL with some value, get some picks. Draft well. Develop well. lol. It's All important. there would be nothing wrong with having the best scouting and development staff in the NHL. We talk a lot about trading picks on here, but, it's these other things that really do it.

I got hopes for him. We'll see. I do feel like one of the scouts, probably a Kipper fan, was like "let's just start drafting all the red-headed goalies"

He looks a lot like his Dad along the boards to me, which was really a big strength of Jarome. The day of 12-round fights for star players, is probably over and probably should be for all players, that's not what the first round is for if any of them. I don't really get the Marchand comparison because I don't think Jarome would be racking up the penalty minutes the same way in today's game either. to me I see a LOT of his Dad, playing in a diffferent era.

As oft mentioned by @cross16, draft picks are expensive at draft time. Just like average players are expensive at TDL. Historically, teams have often done well selling high, high picks IF they are Very smart about it and don't just sell it for a quick patch solution. The Lindros sweepstakes do come to mind. I'd be okay with a Small downgrade, yes, to either first first top D, or Tij, or better yet somehow both. But that's not what I'm talking about ha. I'm talking about Tij 1st overall, done deal, with familly pics and smiles. Oh yeah. lol

I like looking at the rarities, because they can help win cups. Like, let's be honest, I want like 3 cups in the next 10 years. Is it a fair ask? Probably not lol. But I'm pretty set on it, so... the rarities are good for seeing what was done right. Of interest: -They drafted 3rd overall. Not lottery style. Like, All their picks were high. -They had two 1st rounders, and a very high 2nd rounder. They were not far off from having 3 first rounders. -They started by drafting a D. GMs are always afraid to do this because of the development time. But if you go bpa, you will see defencemen and you will have an advantage if you don't pass them over. -They drafted a G in first round. This is the same as with D, but like, x10. -For their winger, they drafted a 42-goal scorer in junior with warts. Now the warts are gone, and they are left with a 47-goal scorer in the NHL. Lesson: Sometimes, take the skill, de-wart them later. But yeah. You're right. For us to replicate it in 2024 would be Quite, quite hard without extremely good scouting, GMing, and a lottery win, lol. Because our situation is Close, but we are like 5-10 draft spots behind what they had, and their outcome was also optimal. All that said, if we get One hall-of-famer this year, none of the above matters and none of the other picks matter. You just do your best.

99.999 %

Dare to dream man, dare to dream. We haven't picked that high... YET. lol.

I'm in agreement here, the reality is that we have completely gutted ourselves in this "retool". And I'm not complaining. Andersson is probably our last card. Or a combination of Andersson plus previous/future first rounders -(Coronato, Zary) You can do it, but you need to really want it. There would have to be pain. If you draft Tij, then imho you ...Have...to do something because we cannot start our rebuild with a bunch of wingers. Sorry I mean retool. If you don't draft Tij, it's optional but it would still be better to start fresh drafting D. It is actually quite funny that we are calling this a retool when in fact we don't have enough pieces to trade for a first rounder anymore. But it's not a bad thing, it means we are near rock bottom and things aren't going to get That much worse. It's probably the last season for a while where our GM talks about "battling for the playoffs" in January, but otherwise pretty steady. In a situation like this it Does make sense to go heavy on picks right away (if drafting D and G), so imho we should try our best to do so. Even if it means Putting up great pieces like mentioned above. And we should be a seller at each trade deadline for next few seasons. Best way to do that is reclamation projects. Hello Kylington. Hello Kozemenko. We need to sign more Younger high ceiling reclaimation projects in the off-season, rehab them and see who sinks/swims. Put the swimmers up at TDL. Be up front about it. "Hey man, get your act together and you could be hoisting a cup by end of season". Second best way is eating salaries, but I won't get my hopes up.

I was trying to think of a scenario that would actually piss off every single one of us, but is still plausible. I've come up with: Winning the lottery, and picking Tij. watch for it.

It's most likely this. But I still do my best to bring him up in every second post because I know some in here Really appreciate the added content.

I really thought Zary was done. But it wasn't a drafting rant. I just didn't think he'd come back from that concussion. Glad he did. Jury's still out on Ortio, way to soon to make a call.

thanks for taking this too far with me.

Francis has had a big bounce back in the echl this year

he just signed a pro contract, way too early to make any conclusions

Or Terry Ryan?

To us it looks like a small gap. But if the organisation thinks it's a small gap, then they need to ramp up their scouting. Rest assured a couple of these guys will become legends, half will have decent careers, and the rest will be flops. Getting that right supercedes our positional needs right now. but I Do agree that either strategy has a high chance of landing a D. Or Tij, though. Or Tij. Then you need that post-draft trade.

Where is Jiricek in your rankings bro? before getting into philosphy, I ask this. philosophy and such: They have needed this for quite a few years now, but passed them over, as you know, under a relatively impatient GM with short term goals (stepping stone to Toronto). I don't deny that. It's tricky because I also don't know if drafting positionally is wise. The only thing that could make it wise is that they've positionally avoided D for some time. BUT. If one guy projects to be a 2nd liner and another guy projects to be a hall-of-famer, you take the higher ceiling no matter what position they are. I don't agree with stacking them like this as a top 8 ranking, because I don't agree that these are the 8 best players. Not by a long stretch. But I DO agree that if we Simply followed BPA, we would Highly likely end up with a D in the first round. Mostly because many impatient GMs overlook them and let them drop. The Flames need a top D prospect. Yes. The should have drafted them in the first round last year, as they were clearly BPA, and I would suggest the two years prior as well. You are suggesting that we "fix" it in this draft. I just don't know. If it happens it happens, but it should not be rash or hasty. Maybe Tij goes 3rd overall and maybe Demodov lands to us. Or maybe we win the lottery and ...then we....pass on Celebrini? It's hard man. So many possibilities. The best thing you can do is make a REAL-Hash Rate list. Not a pretend list. Make a Real list. and yeah more than half the time, a D will land to you anyway. there's no need to go further than that. But I do want Tij and I actually think he is better than better. I actually think he might be ranked a bit lower Because of his Dad. At the end of the day, we need an elite D prospect. Straight up. Preferably two of them. I would propose that acquiring them through a trade, though, is also an option. So I would play this draft cool, personally, and get as much value as we can. And if we still need an elite D after the draft, Make that trade.

Too many. Highly unlikely they all live up to expectations, need a filter. With regards to Demidov, Levshunov, maybe Buium, definitely Silayev, I have a little rule. If they can't score goals, something is amiss. Now granted, some of this is obscured because a few of these guys are playing pro hockey already so it's not clear cut. but usually there are at least samples of them in junior. I get a little, tiny bit concerned when I see an assist-heavy group. I already know this will piss a number of people off lol, and I get it, sorry. Not an NHL goal scorer? Okay. fine. It's not a death sentence. Applying this rule could mean missing out on a Zdeno Chara or a Mark Giordano (although a number of these guys scored less goals than even Giordano, who went undrafted). Just, odds-wise, generally one Should be able to put up goals. Even if they're not an NHL goal scorer (you can be a first-line NHL D without being a goal scorer). The thing is, The Zdeno Charas and the Mark Giordanos, for every one of them who becomes a star, there are maybe 200 that don't. Not very enticing odds for a first round pick. I prefer to take my risks on guys who can't put the puck in the net in later rounds.

I would say Sutter as a GM. lol. but if we want to blame players, then yes..Giordano

I'm with you. We were never terrible. If that was the goal, we achieved it. But there's a reason cemeteries aren't filled with that slogan on tombstones.

So for me, the whole "trade for Askarov/Wallstedt" thing was based on: Derisking (what if Wolf flops) Them being the next thing (possible but not clear right now) The chances of Wolf being the real thing are going up. The chances of Askarov/Wallstead being the real thing...I won't say they're going down, but they didn't go up this season. I would absolutely trade for them, but not with a 1st. I'd trade for them with a 2nd. After Kipper, we drafted maybe one goalie every 2 years. We should have drafted twice that, with significantly more scouting. And we should at all times, with or without Wolf or Askaraov or anyone. If Wolf continues to impress, it negates the need for us to do something "drastic". We can simply go into maintenance mode there. imho. Which means 2-3x more drafting,scouting, development than we've done in the past.