Am I the only one more than a little perturbed that Conte & Co. have been totally dominated by the Blues in recent drafts? In 2005, the Devils picked perennial AHLer Nicklas Bergfors 23rd. The Blues selected future stud TJ Oshie 24th (the player whom Anaheim wanted for Pronger and the Blues basically said, "are you kiddin' me?"). Then, to exacerbate things, in 2006, the Devils traded the 25th pick to St. Louis for #30. Who does St. Louis pick? Patrick "Sundin Jr." Berglund, who looks like a Swedish version of Zajac, but with more speed. The Devils take the 30th pick and select Matt Corrente. is this just poetic justice after the Devs used St L's pick to eventually get Parise? Whatever it is, imagine the Devils lineup with Oshie and Berglund. They would have the best forwards in the NHL, hands down, for years to come.
I know it is always easy to second-guess draft picks, but because of the aforementioned circumstances (namely, getting fleeced by the same team twice in two years!!), this really sticks in my craw!!
you draft what you need. why woud they draft berglund when they just drafted 2 centers the 2 years prior in the first round? (parise and zajac). we needed defensive prospects so we took corrente
with all due respect, Lou always says you draft the best player available. They drafted two goalies in 1997 and 1999 (Damphousse and Ahonen) with Marty in his early to mid 20's. Plus, Oshie is a wing and so is Bergfors. Days like today only highlight the fact that getting the best talent is paramount -- either of these players could have been used to get a top pair D and pushed the Devils over the top. Bergfors and Corrente get you NADA. These were MAJOR blunders...the kind that separate teams down the road.
with all due respect, Lou always says you draft the best player available. They drafted two goalies in 1997 and 1999 (Damphousse and Ahonen) with Marty in his early to mid 20's. Plus, Oshie is a wing and so is Bergfors. Days like today only highlight the fact that getting the best talent is paramount -- either of these players could have been used to get a top pair D and pushed the Devils over the top. Bergfors and Corrente get you NADA. These were MAJOR blunders...the kind that separate teams down the road.
Bergfors and Corrente are still young, how can you call them blunders? Especially Corrente who is playing his first year in the AHL and has a good shot at making the time next year.
Umm, how can you call a 21 year old a perennial AHL'er? Bergfors is YOUNGER than Oshie, and who's to say he wont be bloody awesome? Get a grip there fellah.
As for Corrente over Berglund; we need bluechip defensemen, we can't just draft forwards every year. I know Lou pulls allstar dmen out of his ass sometimes, but you need to draft them every so often.
Also the Devils hardly ever need to rush their picks to the NHL; look at how long it took Elias to break the roster. I remember when he first played a game in '96, he looked awesome, he didn't play a full NHL season until '98; he was drafted in '94.
Bergfors has progressed at almost exactly the same rate as Elias, except he's even younger than Elias was when Elias made it to the NHL. Nik can play 2 more AHL seasons and still be the same age that Patrik was. That's a lot of experience learning the Devils system and gaining confidence.
So ya, I think you're the only one who would complain about our drafting.
the devils could have snagged Corrente in the 3rd or 4th round. His agent told him not to come to the first day of the draft!! Meanwhile, Bergfors has been given two training camps to make the big club, and didn't succeed in either. Who, from watching Bergfors this season, honestly thinks he possesses top-line potential?? Oshie gives teams fits on a shift by shift basis. Missing a first line player by one pick is a major blunder. Or maybe it's St Louie's scouting genius.
to "you're the only who would complain about our drafting". From 2001 through 2007, how many NHLer players have the Devils produced? Why are the Devils ranked 30th in HF ratings? Coincidence? They hit a grandslam in 2003 with Parise and home runs in 2001 and 2004 with Martin and Zajac. Until this past year, they have otherwise struck out looking. Like you said, Elias looked AWESOME in 1996. When has Bergfors ever looked AWESOME -- or even really good??
how many cups do the top 10 teams in the HF rankings have?
the only goal is to win championships.
having a sweet minors system is cool and all, but it doesn't mean **** if you aren't putting up banners.
the Devils used to do both. in a salary cap league, you need effective young talent. those picks would not have been made at the expense of banners. they would have helped add one this year.
Wow, we didn't draft Ovechkin, we must really be a terrible organization.
If you're going to give up on Bergfors because he's 20 and didn't crack the lineup yet, then you're delusional. It's not like our lineup is anything like the Blues; if we trade Bergfors to some crappy team, I'm sure you'll notice him in their line up right away and producing.
Anyways it's clear no one here is going to convince you of anything. You're not being realistic or reasonable.
I love the Corrente pick. and bergfors is only 22. Give the kid a chance to play before you right him off.
And looking back on drafts are silly. If everything were redone we wouldn't have Parise either.
I compliment Conte for that trade just as I criticize him for the Berglund deal. Looking back at drafts shows the talent of a team's scouting staff. lately, ours has been lacking.
the Devils used to do both. in a salary cap league, you need effective young talent. those picks would not have been made at the expense of banners. they would have helped add one this year.
who says we don't have good young talent. Cormier, Halischuk, Tedenby, Henrique, Wohlberg, Vasyunov, Corrente, Burlon, Zharkov, Frazee all have the potential to be NHL players. Obviously they all won't but if you get 3 to 4 winners in there then that is very solid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJD00
I compliment Conte for that trade just as I criticize him for the Berglund deal. Looking back at drafts shows the talent of a team's scouting staff. lately, ours has been lacking.
you can't judge a prospect before they get a chance to play. Our best prospects are very young and are still in juniors and college.
Wow, we didn't draft Ovechkin, we must really be a terrible organization.
If you're going to give up on Bergfors because he's 20 and didn't crack the lineup yet, then you're delusional. It's not like our lineup is anything like the Blues; if we trade Bergfors to some crappy team, I'm sure you'll notice him in their line up right away and producing.
Anyways it's clear no one here is going to convince you of anything. You're not being realistic or reasonable.
If I'm delusional, how come in ALL RANKINGS, whether it be THN, TSN, HF, etc., Tedenby is the only one of our prospects ever in a top-50? C'mon, take off the Devils-colored glasses!!
And I'm not saying I expect the Devs to accumulate superstar after superstar...2005 and 2006 happen to be two drafts during which the Blues completely outdid the Devils, they picked right after one another or made a trade, and I thought on deadline day it came even more into focus.
If I'm delusional, how come in ALL RANKINGS, whether it be THN, TSN, HF, etc., Tedenby is the only one of our prospects ever in a top-50? C'mon, take off the Devils-colored glasses!!
And I'm not saying I expect the Devs to accumulate superstar after superstar...2005 and 2006 happen to be two drafts during which the Blues completely outdid the Devils, they picked right after one another or made a trade, and I thought on deadline day it came even more into focus.
who knows why people rank things the way they do. What I can tell you is that 70% of those players in the top 50 never pan out to the player they were predicted to be.
Don't get caught up in HF top organizational rankings; I don't even recall Zach ever being ranked very high. I don't think Halischuk is even ranked in the top 50 right now. Does that mean our top prospect is terrible and we should trade him for a bag of pucks? No way.
We have a great system, and the results speak for themselves.
Just compare draft history in the past 10 drafts (of just players currently in NHL that I subjectively think are good):
Devils: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00007066.html
1998: Mike van Ryn; Scott Gomez; Brian Gionta
1999: Mike Commodore
2000: David Hale; Paul Martin; Mike Rupp
2001: Voros?
2002: Cam Janssen
2003: Zach Parise
2004: Travis Zajac
2005-2008: Perennial AHL allstars!
Blues: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/t...r00008187.html
1998: Christian Backman
1999: Barret Jackman; Alex Khavanov
2000: Jeff Taffe
2001: Petr Cajanek; Jay McClement
2002: None
2003: Lee Stempniak; David Backes
2004-2008: The people you mentioned
i really wish we had drafted oshie though, the more UND players the better plus imagine oshie elias and gionta playing together that line would be the ****
Oshie/Corrente would have been good, but I still don't think Bergfors has gotten a legit chance. Now I think he realizes his time is almost up here, and he is putting on a good show down in Lowell.
