Kane was 20 when Chicago won the Cup, he would have been pro by then anyway. The Hawks certainly would've liked to have another year of PKane at an ELC cap hit. Instead they had to sell off half of their team.
he would have been pro, but there`s no certainity whether he would have been better off... Risk is he could have been worse off, and not as accustomed to NHL speed.. thus less of a factor in the playoffs.
If the Hawks mgmt can go back in time and keep him away for 1 more year, taking into account contracts, would they ?
I dunno about Gudbranson being better, and I really like Guds.
People are underrating Murray a lot, people will look back on this draft and wonder how he flew under the radar. It's fairly rare for defensemen to make the U18 squad as a 16- and 17-year old, then the WJC squad as an 18-year old, and he managed to do it.
I think he's the 3rd best player in this draft, he might be a bit farther if I had something tangible to work with for Forsberg and Galchenyuk, but it's not because Murray isn't in their class.
Agreed about Murray being better than Gudbranson and it is not even close. It was a stretch to take him third overall but Florida's draft record speaks for itself.
Agreed about Murray being better than Gudbranson and it is not even close. It was a stretch to take him third overall but Florida's draft record speaks for itself.
?
He was projected to go there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Habsolument90
Are you for real? Gudbranson is a ****ing stud. Murray would be happy to be at his level.
Of course Murray would be happy to be at his level. It doesn't mean he can't be better.
People are underrating Murray because of 4 so-called elite forwards being the sexy picks here*. Looking back at 2003, how many of the players in the draft's top 7 would you pick over Suter now? Sometimes, the sounder choice is not the splashiest one.
Are you for real? Gudbranson is a ****ing stud. Murray would be happy to be at his level.
Right now Guds has progressed very well, but at the time of the draft, I remember in Florida's draft thread that they were unsure if Tallon was reaching taking Guds (some draft ranks had Gudbranson has late as 17).
Claude Giroux was. The Flyers brought him along slowly, didn't give him a contract until he was 20 years old. In his rookie season, he put up 5 points in 6 playoff games, leading the team along with Richards. In his sophomore season he scored 21 points in 23 games as the Flyers went to the finals. In his third season, he was lights out dominant. All this on an ELC, as the Flyers spent the saved cap space on other positions.
But our first round pick, even if he plays in the NHL right away or play elsewhere one or two years, will still have the same cap hit. A top 3 pick gets a boatload of bonuses...so for his ELC, he'll be in the millions...
Cap hit and ELC are directly related to the position the player was draft and how good he is.
As for burning a year by letting him play in the NHL earlier, like someone else said, if you're good, you'll get a long term contract before becoming a UFA.
Fischer wasn't a safe pick, and Chipchura was as safe a pick as Beaulieu was.
I think people have just lived off this impression that he's picking the 'safe' guy because of the Chipchura pick.
and that Achilles injury really hurt Chipchura's development... he wasn't the quickest skater prior to that, and what he lost as a result of it probably had a serious negative impact on his NHL potential... He's managed to "stick around" as a depth NHLer, and I wouldn't be surprised if he progresses to the point of being pretty close to the 3rd line "shut down" team leader he projected to be as a junior player.
as for our draft this year, the more I see of Grigorenko, the more I'm liking him as a potential "steal" @ #2 or #3.
If he does become the real deal at the NHL level, an elite #1 centre is more valuable than an elite sniping winger (Yakupov), and for all of the love for Nail, I'm not convinced he's not the surefire 50 goal prospect he's made out to be at times. Hard to know for sure, but it seems almost like the lack of a deep talented pool of top-10 offensive prospects in this draft is making him stand out a bit more than he would if it wasn't so a D-heavy in the top 10 this year (though that could also be biasing my take on him in the other direction as well).
On the flip side, is it really a sure bet that Columbus picks Yakupov at #1 overall?
while they have needs all over, if they are moving Nash this summer (or even if they keep him), rebuilding with Johansen/Grigorenko as their top-6 centres could be too enticing to pass up.
if Edmonton picks ahead of us, Grirorenko could get taken there, though their need on defense might push them to go with Murray/Dumba instead.
very interested to see how it plays out.
at this point, I'm still happy with any of Yakupov, Grirorenko, Dumba... and to a lesser extent, Galchenyuk/Murray
