jjgallow

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.

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?