BigG is going to be taking over the running of these polls for at least the next week in my absence, so don't be alarmed. Keep voting away, the participation has been great so far.
Finally time for Faksa I believe, which means I gotta pick another guy next time... And next in line will be Nemeth for me. For me he's Grossman 2.0... Similar in style but has potential to be better than Grossy in almost every single aspect. As long as he keeps on developing the way he has and learn how to not take so many penalties I view him as an ideal number 2 D-guy in the future.
Faksa is the last guy I can see a legit case for being voted number 1 so from here on out things could get wild.
My next pick is Reilly Smith. I think he is going to be a pretty good scorer at the NHL level as he has a tremendous shot and is good at finding openings.
I guess I'll follow the heard. I'm not as sold on Faska's offense but his upside is probably greater than Dillon's so voting him here is a good compromise. Dillon is up next for me followed by Eakin and Nemeth.
4. Dillon
5. Faksa - He was just drafted and is probably two or three years away from being a NHL player, but he's a center with quite a bit of potential. Worst case he turns few out to be Martin Hanzal 2.0 and anchors the Stars' third line. The reason I don't have him ranked higher is that it is going to be a seasons before he make it to Dallas and starts having an impact.
Faksa here, looking like the whole idea isn't working for these threads.
#5 seems to have a log jam of players. Eakin's pretty unknown, R. Smith is a good choice, but I think Dillon and Nemeth are gonna be #5 and #6, similar to Chiasson and Faksa at #3 and 4. I personally went with Nemeth because he's got top pairing upside, but Dillon isn't a bad choice at all either.
The next big logjam: Nemeth, Glennie, Faksa, Fraser, and Smith. I suppose Dillon and Eakin could be thrown in there, but I'm not counting them since they seem to have a spot locked up on the NHL team. After that would probably be Guptil, Ritchie, Stransky, and Besko.
Next three could be Dillon, Eakin, Nemeth in no particular order. Dillon is more ready than Nemeth as of now, but personally I think the Swede is going to make a bigger impact on the Stars over the next decade. Just a gut feeling coupled with observations of excellent performances by Nemeth. Both played a good season with some nice development and hopefully we'll see them both dress up for the Stars sooner or later.
Stars staff is scouting the WHL very well, so I guess they know exactly what they got/wanted in Eakin. He must be high on their 'list' as well.
Probably going with Nemeth, Dillon, Eakin in that order.
Next spot is down to Dillon, Eakin, Glennie, and Nemeth for me.
I put Dillon ahead of Nemeth at this point even though I'm actually a bigger fan of Nemeth. I like his attitude and compete level which endears me to him, but Dillon probably has better offensive upside. That's not to say there is anything wrong with Dillon's attitude. Nemeth seems like more of a character .. a guy that can win over the fans like Steve Ott did. I still recognize that Dillon seems to have slightly better upside though. I think they're pretty much equal in defense, size, and skating. Nemeth might be a tad bit nastier, but Dillon is mean enough.
Between Glennie and Eakin I think I'm giving the edge to Glennie. They both share solid speed though Eakin seems to be touted to be slightly better in that department. Since their offensive and defensive games seem to also be fairly similar I think it's a wash. Eakin's stats are slightly better, but he was also on a significantly better team that scores much more as a group than Texas. Hershey is always a pretty dynamic, offensive team. It comes to down to a tie-breaker for me on size. Glennie is built a bit bigger. That said, I should probably count him off just as much for the injuries. Really ... it's a coin toss, and I'm going with Glennie.
So do I go Dillon or Glennie? I'm still pretty excited about Glennie. I think he'll end up being a good pro. Will it be with Dallas? That I'm not so sure about. In this instance, I'm going with Dillon being closer to the NHL even though that's probably pretty razor thin. I'll say the same for Nemeth ... I really like this guy, and he's probably going to make a bigger impact sooner than Glennie. That's more the nature of Dallas' roster though IMO.
My next tier is, in no specific order:
R. Smith
Stransky
Nemeth
Eakin
Dillon
Glennie
Then you have this years second rounders:
Winther
Shore
Bystrom
I think a reasonable case can be made for elevating two of those prospects above the rest, Smith and Bystrom. After that everything just goes haywire for me. I guess I'll wait until I get there and hope the fact that Smith is perplexingly underrated will enable the rest of you to vote some of them in before him and make the decision for me
My list looks pretty friggin weird, so I won't post it at this point. Two things are really gonna stick out whenever I do though, expecting a lot of flak for both.
Who voted for Glennie...? Pretty curious as to why.
My list looks pretty friggin weird, so I won't post it at this point. Two things are really gonna stick out whenever I do though, expecting a lot of flak for both.
Who voted for Glennie...? Pretty curious as to why.
