they have gotten use to the grind, the travel and the speed of the game at this point.
D with little experience:
Stone
Summers
Rundblad
Injury call up
Gormley
Longshot
Goncharov
even without aucoin who I dont mind bringing back you have...
Yandle-Morris
OEL-Klesla
Schlemko-Stone
Summers and Rundblad as extras or first call ups. With that lineup you have five solid guys and one rookie. Its a nice idea to wait and see who pans out but
how is there enough ice time to go around and evaluate them all fairly?
Well, let's be honest. This is a team that has made the playoffs three years in a row, and whatever happens this year, there's going to be an expectation next year to not only qualify but win a round. There's not going to be much time to throw a bunch of young guys out there and see who the best one is. That evaluation is going to have to come in training camp and practice. Game situations will be too important for a sink-or-swim approach.
If somehow they all look too good to keep on the bench or in the AHL, then you can trade away Morris or Aucoin. We all agreed that trading away a young defenseman because he might be too good is a bad idea. Letting a very valuable defenseman walk because those young guys might be good is an equally silly move.
Well, let's be honest. This is a team that has made the playoffs three years in a row, and whatever happens this year, there's going to be an expectation next year to not only qualify but win a round. There's not going to be much time to throw a bunch of young guys out there and see who the best one is. That evaluation is going to have to come in training camp and practice. Game situations will be too important for a sink-or-swim approach.
If somehow they all look too good to keep on the bench or in the AHL, then you can trade away Morris or Aucoin. We all agreed that trading away a young defenseman because he might be too good is a bad idea. Letting a very valuable defenseman walk because those young guys might be good is an equally silly move.
You are right. keeping Aucoin isnt a bad idea. He will need the occassional day off and his salary will be reasonable. Worst case he gets benched because one of the young guys really steps up his game.
You are right. keeping Aucoin isnt a bad idea. He will need the occassional day off and his salary will be reasonable. Worst case he gets benched because one of the young guys really steps up his game.
I think that's the best option. Platooning him opens up 30ish games for someone else, plus others will get hurt. There's room for everyone.
If Aberg is available when we pick I think we can consider ourselves lucky. He's too old for the U18s and was injured for the WJCs so even for the teams that did scout him I'm sure they didn't see as much of him as they wanted to. He could very well be on the same level as Forsberg and Collberg who will both go very high, he just hasn't had the platform to prove it. Reports say he's fast, quick and defensively responsible. He had good numbers in a men's league. And he's not a small fry, seems he has the same sturdy build as Boedker. The only knocks on him that I've read are that he's a puck hog and that he's soft. Neither concern was repeated in more than one report. I think the second concern relates to the injuries this year and I'm not worried about getting a winger that likes to carry the puck.
Yakupov will be a bust. How many superstars have a last name that starts with Y? None. That's how many.
All right, maybe there was one guy. But in his case, the Y was followed immediately by a Z. The craziness canceled itself out. But in Yakupov's case, it's just an A. Pedestrian, Plain Jane A.
"Bust" written all over him. Trust me.
Which is why we trade Yandle over the draft weekend, as he will never be a good enough player...
Watching the Flyers and their talented young players, I wondered if we hadn't struck out in the draft what we could have had. I realize hindsight is 20/20, but it's still an interesting exercise and highlights how poorly Keith Gretzky drafted.
06 - Two picks (Mueller and Summers)
Giroux and Anisimov
07 - Two picks (Turris and Ross) 2 beginning of second (Gistedt, MacLean)
Couture, Subban, Simmonds, Galiardi
Jamie Benn was drafted after Goncharov in the fifth round. Not sure why Keith passed on such amazing tear potential.
08 - Two picks AGAIN (Boedker and Tikhonov)
Karlsson or Eberle, Markstrom
09 - OEL (Easily better than any that came after. Got this one right, though it was a consensus pick like Turris)
Jury is still out on these, but Gormley looks like a good one.
10 - Gormley and Visentin
11 - Murphy
So between 06 and 08 we had a combined 6 1st round picks and whiffed on all of them. Boedker is a serviceable guy, but that's not what you're aiming for with #8 overall. Knickle didn't really do any better during that time period. His best period was from 1998-2004, from which the Predators produced: Legwand, Hartnell, Upshall, Erat, Weber, Suter, Hamhuis, Hall, Tootoo, Klein, Skrastins, Rinne, Radulov. Pretty damn good list. Too bad they haven't done anything decent after that. Not sure how much say he had in recent drafts, but you can see the Predators drafted the core of their entire roster in a short span.
Disagree that OEL was a consensus pick. He was a late fast riser.
Kadri, Cowen, MPS were all much bigger names.
True. OEL was a riser. He had a very strong U18 if memory serves me but he was considered a legitimate top 10 player. It was viewed a slight reach by some experts but I will point out that McKeens (specifically Patrick King who has gone on to Sportsnet) had OEL in the Top 3 and were the ones who were pushing the Lidstrom comparison.
I'll give credit to Gretzky on this selection though. In the Art of Scouting book by Shane Malloy he told a story of a prank played on Gretzky by the LA Kings who just before they went up to select Schenn had indicated to Gretzky that they were going to take OEL just to get his reaction when his jaw dropped. It apparently wasn't a secret that we loved OEL and had him targeted at 6. That is both not surprising and yet troubling at the same time.
Just looking back I don't know if Gretzky had a good feel for other teams draft lists. There is some common courtesy where you tip your hand about a player (like letting LA that you are interested in OEL as you attempt to identify their likes and assess whether or not you need to push up into that 3 or 4 spot to get him) but when you listen to the Maloney interviews at the last few drafts and you get the sense that Gretzky would rather pick a player at their spot than know if they could potentially drop down a handful of spots and pick up a draft pick and end up getting the exact same player they had targeted. Maloney cited this exact scenario when they took Visentin. Gretzky wanted to take him at 22 instead of doing the deal with Montreal. We also traded up to take Tikhonov because of our fear on what LA was going to do. Could we have done that with Connor Murphy as well? It's not inconceivable.
I'll give credit to Gretzky on this selection though. In the Art of Scouting book by Shane Malloy he told a story of a prank played on Gretzky by the LA Kings who just before they went up to select Schenn had indicated to Gretzky that they were going to take OEL just to get his reaction when his jaw dropped. It apparently wasn't a secret that we loved OEL and had him targeted at 6. That is both not surprising and yet troubling at the same time.
Jokes on them. OEL will be the best player out of that draft not named Tavares.
Jokes on them. OEL will be the best player out of that draft not named Tavares.
I'm with you. Have to remember though that OEL was in SEL 2nd division for his draft year and the year after. You can look very good playing against inferior talent (see Kyle Turris who was a superstar in the BCJHL his draft year but was mediocre at the NCAA level the year after). How far do you push a prospect on your draft list because of one tournament? That was the risk our staff took and it paid off. This was a high risk pick and our scouting staff deserves some credit for selecting OEL over a MPS, Kadri, and even Jared Cowen. Of course I do recall some negative comments when I suggested that OEL could play in our top 6 after I saw him play a pre-tournament game for the WJC against Canada. I also slammed Rundblad's defensive game in that thread as well...
How far do you push a prospect on your draft list because of one tournament? That was the risk our staff took and it paid off.
I think OEL was easier to project, despite playing in the 2nd tier. All of the reasons scouts fell in love with him (stick work, world class skating, poise) transfer well across competition levels. I don't think he was much of a risk. Jared Cowen is/was a risk. At worst, OEL was going to end up a mobile 3-4 guy but at the high end he could be a franchise type player.
I think OEL was easier to project, despite playing in the 2nd tier. All of the reasons scouts fell in love with him (stick work, world class skating, poise) transfer well across competition levels. I don't think he was much of a risk. Jared Cowen is/was a risk. At worst, OEL was going to end up a mobile 3-4 guy but at the high end he could be a franchise type player.
Speaking of poise, the poke check he made on the 2 on 1 in OT last night was exceptional. Didn't panic and made a very difficult play look easy. He's so ****ing good.
2012 is going to the weakest draft since 1999. Nothing much to help anyone - including Edmonton.
Having said that, 2011 was suppose to be equally weak and the Top 10 players turned out to be okay.
I can't say I agree with that. One year ago this looked like the best draft since '03. A lot of top players got injured, a lot of top players failed to make quite as large of developmental strides as predicted, and there have been an unusually low number of late risers and out of nowhere dark horses. That doesn't make it a bad draft, just not a great one.
the guy who i keep coming back to as a fallback seems to be Di Giuseppe. Not a center but he's still a top line talent.
I've seen him play four or five times this season, and he never stands out. He seems like a pretty heady player, who doesn't make mistakes and thinks pretty well. He seems patient and poised. There is no doubt that he's a tremendous skater. He's got a real pretty stride and accelerates out of nowhere. Overall though, I always saw a very quiet player. Smooth but quiet. Fairly non descript. Not terribly dynamic and generally fairly passive.
The tools are without question his. They are there, no doubt. From what I've read, his coaches like his upside, intelligence, and maturity. They seem to feel that its inevitable he puts it all together. Me, I was always left wanting more than a physically gifted, clearly heady player, just kind of going through the motions and trying not to make any mistakes.
Kind of like the Mikkel Boedker we've seen so far at the NHL level. Thats what I saw from PdG.
Timothé Bozon is growing on me, too. If we have to take someone from the WHL, I'm thinking it's him or Gordon.
Bozon is a player I just can't understand the lack of hype for. I don't get it. He's six feet tall, apparently skates like the wind, is supposedly super flashy and has quite the highlight reel. Hes got NHL bloodlines, is an agitating presence who will even drops the gloves. The main thing, though, is that he had THIRTY SIX goals as an import rookie in the WESTERN league. Unless you are 5'8'', and/or skate like Hal Gill, that usually gets you top half of the first round hype. This kid is always ranked in the 2nd. I don't get it. He's big, fast, flashy, talented, gritty, productive, and a legacy. Why no hype?
Bozon is a player I just can't understand the lack of hype for. I don't get it. He's six feet tall, apparently skates like the wind, is supposedly super flashy and has quite the highlight reel. Hes got NHL bloodlines, is an agitating presence who will even drops the gloves. The main thing, though, is that he had THIRTY SIX goals as an import rookie in the WESTERN league. Unless you are 5'8'', and/or skate like Hal Gill, that usually gets you top half of the first round hype. This kid is always ranked in the 2nd. I don't get it. He's big, fast, flashy, talented, gritty, productive, and a legacy. Why no hype?
