travel_dude

There is a run on D it seems.

The interesting names are going fast.

Yes, but it's still slow. The player gets to walk up and get a jersey, but they quickly move to next pick.

I would say that 99% of the top 32 were expected to go top 32. The guy who goes 33 is likely no more a projected top 32 than the guy that goes 34-41. It's funny that way. Fallers seem to fall hard and eventually get snapped up. Your 2nd sentence is absolutely true. They call it pedegree, but it's BS. Stankhoven is no less deserving of that than some of the reaches.

We opted to not take the safe pick in Dickinson. Maybe one of the players with the highest upside. Parekh plays LD like Weegar does, no? Haven't watched him other than a few highlights.

The two top D in the OHL for scoring. We signed one so far. I believe Breezer can play in the AHL this season, but he may have an opportunity to get 9 games in if not. Pretty sure he can play in the AHL. He ain't stupid. He knows we are in transition. He knew we would be drafting D. He knows what we have. He has no rights to be traded. We have 3 years of him and still retain his rights with him having little leverage. I have to think he will be motivated to show he can play in the NHL, so a future prospect wouldn't worry him. He was more concerned he would never crack the VAN roster. That seems weird now. Zadorov walked. They signed Myers again, but they don't exactly look young in the NHL. They have a ton of prospects and AHL D though.

We can for sure dispute who we think is BPA, but when it comes down to 3 or so D-men to choose from, we are talking about a longer runway to the NHL. They are going to develop at minimum another year in junior and are highly unlikely to get 9 NHL games in before age 20. In the case of a D-man committed to university, they can't do that at all unless they leave college and sign. We are not desperate like Buffalo to get a top player into the NHL. And we also don't have that NHL ready D-man to use. So the choice was a player in junior (London), another one in junior (Saginaw), a player in the NCAA (Denver), and a player in the KHL. Two of them are risks (one playing in a counttu at war). Two come down to a choice of style and value.

And this was more how we saw the draft unfolding, or at least that's how I did it. To see Demidov drop to 5th was shocking. Obviously I had no clue what teams saw. Brew rocked it with 5 out of 6 to start. Uncanny. I have no idea how I settled on us drating Parekh.

Maybe they will and maybe we pass on them. It's a lot less clear when you get into the 2nd round. In the past we passed on what looked like the BPA remaining after they fell. Same scouts, but maybe the GM stays out of the convo more now. I got the sense that BT used to have final say in consensus. Probably not that true, but scouts all make their pitches. SOmeone has to write the names down.

I find it odd that you didn't have a top 30 list compiled for the last few months. You of all people. Anyway, I'm not complaining because honestly I don't scout or even watch highlight packages, They are like the best of reels. Is that all they are reduced to? I would gain a better picture of a player in 5 games over the course of a season. I'm thinking that's what we have teams scouting for. LOL. No Janko's in this draft. The GM was no smarter than his best scouts. He asked who is next BPA and picked them. Maybe we were on Demidov until he got picked, but I don't think they expected it. The guys picked 21-32 all seem like they would be good choices. We picked a Russian in a US system. We know that system. We now seem to know Russians. Good pick.

Imagine if those players didn't end up where they were drafted? Who knows if they turn out different. Bennett ended up a certain way because we drafted him. As far as picks go, we get 4 over the next 2 years The nuumber per year depends on how three teams place in the draft rankings after lotto results. FLA outside top 10 we get it. NJ outside top 10 we get it. Ours outside the top 10, MTL gets the better between ours and FLA. That's the easiest scenario to explain. Cross did it a few times, and quite succinctly.

I have said this a few times, but I think Kuzmenko is a guys we should be holding onto. We lack skill up and down the lineup. The guy is a fun player on the bench. He seems to really understand the ice. It only makes sense if we aren't overpaying him. In two years time, the current salary is not a big drain. I compare this to Mangiapane. We didn't have room for two wingers that are better scorers than playmakers. Mangiapane was more a fiesty guy, so he took dumb penalties. Kuz stays away from the useless scrums after the whistle. We have guys for that. If all you get is a 2nd at best, how is that great asset management? He was initially a cap dump, so a free player, but he did as well as Mangiapane did. Dare I say better than Huberdeau? At least he could score on the PP. We only had one or two others that could. So, I'm inclined to not trade him. Not while we are re-tooling. Maybe down the road.

You know it's kind of weird that Kuz is a 2nd year NHL pro. Has that Makarov feel to it. DO you think it's odd we traded Mangiapane before Kuzmenko? Mangiapane makes $300k more but same term left and almost exactly same age. We are building a team that has several Russian players now and will have more in the next few years. Kuzmenko is a god to them. LOL

A shutdown D is always a huge risk. Think Kuz on the Wranglers. They don't all end up as Tanevs. Silayev after Parekh? DIfferent beasts. I can't say we have had much luck getting Euro D here. We still have rights to the vet Russian.

I have no concerns with either pick. I thought we would pick him at 9 long before players started dropping like they did tonight. The 28 is nobody I know, but anyone else I had any eyes on went before 28. A defenseman and a RW. Nothing to complain about. No LW selected.

This is the post Holland draft for EDM. And they gave up either a 11-32 overall in 25 (or a lotto pickin 26) for a 32 in 2024.

O'Reilly projected as a shutdown C. Just what EDM needs after Nuge is in a rocking chair. Oops, Nuge isn't a shutdown C, he's a winger to the stars.

Gotta love US fans. "Oiler suck. Oilers suck."

I suspect it's top 10 protected, so 11th would be gone. LOL

If he's in the same trajectory as Coronato, he would be one year at university. Darn, the Oilers just can't get away from the 1st round picking. They have to have one.

Just repeating what the talking heads said. Then again they might have been talking about someone else, or perhaps out of their butt.

Think one said he is going to need to go back to USHL for another season first. I don't see it.

TOR should trade the 31 for another set of picks.

The board is out the window. Teams are picking the guys they like.

Well, one is a LHS and the other is a RHS. I don't mind LHS RW. Think Kuzmenko. Edit - scratch Kuz being a LHS. I was thinking of someone else. Sharky.