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I imagine right now you feel a bit like the Wings, tumbling down the standings? I can read it in your posts. You have the posts of man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth... Do you believe in busts LGW? "No" Why not? "Because I don't like the idea that the Red Wings don't know what they're doing" I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it since the 2018 draft. That there's something wrong with Zadina. You don't know what it is. But it's there. Like a splinter in your mind. Driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me... Do you want to know what it is? Zadina busting is everywhere, it is all around us, even now in this very thread. You can see it when you look up from your phone, or when you turn on your computer. You can feel it when you click on the GDT. When you post lines. When you press the like button. The world has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Unfortunately no one can be told what Zadina busting looks like. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake up back in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland. And I show you how badly Zadina is going to bust... Remember. All I'm offering is the truth... nothing more.

Amazing how the team wins when AA isnt allowing the other team to fill the net.

We lost a 4th rounder for Erne... not great, but not a huge deal We lost a Regula (3rd) for Perlini... worse, but whatever I guess But then we lost DLR (2nd round waiver pick up) for Fabbri... and ALL IS FORGIVEN This was like a turning water into wine trade for Yzerman. I can't remember a Red Wings trade we won this clearly.

He could probably score more goals if he wanted to. I guess he's just bored/sadistic and feels he has to find increasingly creative ways to torment opposing defenses.

His rookie season for Rimouski he tallied 42 goals, and 38 assists - sorta what I'm thinking of when you hear 'goal scoring winger'...Since then his assists have skyrocketed. We really need to win the damn lottery.

Here's a (slightly old) look at Lafreniere:

He's as good a setup guy as he is a finisher. Probably better, tbh. That's one of the things that makes him so dangerous.

Apply my point about the #10 pick to your point about Dahlin and Hughes then. I simply am pointing out that I'm not under any illusion that say the #7 or #10 may ACTUALLY be the best player in the draft. But if we knew that going into the draft then they wouldn't be the #7 or #10 pick! Drafting is gambling. I'm going to put my chips on the trick with the highest chance. Doesn't mean it will be the best hand at the table (we can't know for certain) but logic commands I should do it anyway. I'm not the prospect guru some ppl are, but this Lafren kid has been hyped for a long time. KR knowing about him since 14 doesn't surprise me at all. He's been hyped as future #1 for a while and keeps proving that's accurate. Byfield's season could be a one off for all I know. I definitely hyped him as the best Dman prospect in a long time. Don't think I was ever on the Ekblad train or anything. And I do prefer him much more than Hughes if you''re wondering. I think he's the #1 Dman in his age group. I prefer him to Makar even. Is Dahlin having a bad season??

"Busts can have good careers"

Zadina puts up 55 points in 75 games next season... mackel: "Daigle was on a 50 and 60+ point pace his first two seasons"... "BuStS cAn HaVe GoOd SeAsOnS"...

It's a good point. They do this EVERYYYYYYYYY year. "Could the #2 actual be the #1????" But the majority of the time the consensus #1 does go #1... It''s as much a typical media narrative as hyping the consensus #1 is. Granted I DO think the race between Kakko and Hughes was closer last year than it is this year with Lafren and Byfield.

I still take Dahlin #1 everytime. Completely beside the point, I actually love the way he's playing this year. I dunno if I agree with your logic fully. And I think the argument you're making would better used with the conclusion that completely tanking isn't all that valuable of a strategy. Because of the lottery, and because guys at 2-3 spot often become very good or just as good, and because you could potentially find a Pettersson, or Pastranak, or Larkin, even farther the down the chart, you should still throw your weight into each and every season and not actually TRY to bottom out for the #1. That TRYING to tank could end up hurting you more than it helps after all things are considered. I don't necessarily think one should draft Lafren #1 because he will one day be far and away better than the rest of the draft class. One takes him because he's the safest pick. Draft is crap shoot, but this kid is probably the biggest lock to be a future NHLer. The farther you creep down the chart the more questions arise. Maybe Byfield will one day emerge as the best player in class, or maybe it's gonna be the guy taken @ #10. Either way, at the current time, I have more trust that Lafren will make the league and provide me good value than the #10 will. I think you can lump in more than just age, league, genetics, position, I think you can extend that to personality, habits, education, family history of drug/alcohol abuse, and on and on and on and on. My point being, there are so many different factors that could contribute to this persons rise or downfall that it's almost dumb to look. Almost. Drafting is gambling. For all I know Seider (my fav blue chip) develops a drug problem over the next few years and completely washes out, and Zadina (my least fav blue chip) matures into a hockey/gym freak like a Jagr. Lafren definitely feels like the safest pick to me @ #1, with Byfiield behind. After that it's a total crap shoot to me. Maybe Yzerman has a guy he really likes for various reasons not named Byfield or Lafren that he wants to take at #1. In that case I'll defer to to the expert, but from my POV right now Lafren is the best choice.

I could see Grand Master Y taking him if the Wings are not in the top 3 after the draft lottery.

do you think CHL competition is comparable to the level of the DEL? to score at a .92 ppg rate at the age of 17 in a man´s league is not an easy thing to do and he already lives the life of a professional.

The consensus #1 guy is almost always the safest pick at #1, and for good reason. If you're saying I never entertain the notion that someone taken after 1st overall could be the better NHLer, well, that's a nice straw man, I guess. "bUt YoU sAiD hUgHeS pLaYs ChEsS aNd KaKkO pLaYs ChEcKeRs!" I stand by that. I think he sees the game at a level that Kakko doesn't. I believe he processes the game at a level that Kakko doesn't. I believe his natural hockey sense is freakish. I believe he's a pure scorer who has the potential to be one of the top playmakers in the league for years and years to come. I think players who match his profile are more rare and more valuable than players who match Kakko's profile. Larionov "played chess" while a lot of his contemporaries "played checkers." I would've taken Dahlin 1st overall, but I loved Svechnikov and to this day it kills me that we didn't get him. I would've taken Matthews 1st overall. I would've taken McDavid 1st overall. I would've taken Hischier 1st overall. I'd probably take Lafreniere 1st overall, though I do have some concerns about him. None of this means I think David Pastrnaks aren't a thing. Just a few days ago I said on this very forum that Cale Makar is a great reason why we shouldn't be too disappointed if we pick 3rd or 4th overall. I get your thing. "If Player A and Player B are basically equal, you choose based on perceived positional need" etc. "I like Stutzle, but if he doesn't project as a center, I like him considerably less." To me, that's a boring, reductive, surface-level way of looking at things. My thing is that I'd ideally like to know enough about the two players to be able to strongly feel that the players are not, in fact, basically equal. I watched Hughes and I watched Kakko; I felt Hughes was the better prospect. I felt -- and still feel -- he has a God-given X factor quality that Kakko lacks. tl;dr hughes rules kakko drools

Definitely. But that's not the point I'm making. The point I'm making is that you, and a handful of other people on LGW, get positively moist about every consensus #1 pick every draft year and act like nobody is even close to their skill level. And then two years down the line, when history shows that they weren't the absolute beasts you made them out to be you've conveniently moved on. Remember when everybody around here was drooling endlessly over Dahlin? Remember how he was the best defensive prospect in modern history? I do. EVERYBODY just knew he was on a different level and we'd never seen anything like him right? And then Quinn Hughes and Cale Maker turned out to be better at the same stages of their careers. Nobody talked about those two guys the same way, what happened? I have a theory. Rasmus Dahlin was never that much better, or better at all, than other top of the draft defenders. Neither was Jack Hughes. And neither is Alexis Lafreniere. Why does this matter? Because when people drone on about BPA it assumes that there IS a BPA. And that the differences between players is obvious. The reality is the differences at the top of the draft are pretty small and even consensus #1 picks are routinely outperformed by guys that nobody ever discusses in the same way. So if you choice is between player A and player B (assuming both are highly regarded top picks) you should look at your depth chart and fill holes.

Well said. TBH, I'm kind of tired of agonizing over specific holes in our depth chart and ranking them according to the conventional wisdom re: which positions are more important than others. The Knights nearly won a Cup with a team full of nobodies. The Blues won a Cup with a forward core of O'Reilly, Schenn, Tarasenko, Schwartz, Perron and a defense core of Pietrangelo, Parayko, Gunnarsson, Bouwmeester. I'd love to have a top-tier player at every position, but looking for a special mix of mostly-unspectacular players might be the way to go in today's league. (Credit where it's due: This is something kip has been saying for a while now.) Is Veleno/Rasmussen a high-scoring 1C? Prob'ly not. But put him between Lafreniere and Mantha in a couple of years and maybe he is. Why not. That's no more implausible than Filip "Literally who?" Hronek putting up 40 points through his first 77 NHL games.

I've been seeing gifs of Lafrens moves since he was like 16 Byfield is nice and all, but it's Lafren time, and any argument otherwise is objectively wrong Before anyone says anything HOW COULD IT HURT US? IT COULDNT

I'm not even all-in on Lafreniere; I think there's a case to be made for Byfield being the better pick at #1. I'm just saying Lafreniere isn't exactly your typical winger who's going to live and die based on who he's flanking, so holding the fact that he's not a centerman against him strikes me as kinda small-brained.

True. I guess I'm just wondering who's feeding Patrick Kane his 36 points? Strome at 21 and Toews at 20 or whatever are the Hawks two highest scoring centers. Like, basically, if you have an elite winger, how good does the pivot need to be? Just playing devils ad. mostly/thinking out loud. Edit: I guess the Hawks are a poor example cuz they're not very good.

I'm cool with it if he projects as a center long term. He clearly has the offense.

I love that it's basically a free do-over with Nyquist. 2019-20 Fabbri = 2013-14 Nyquist (he of 28 goals and 48 points in 57 games). Same age Same size Same strengths Same playing style Same jersey number Same type of "I don't know where the hell this production is coming from. All I know is it's exactly the kind of overachieving we need right now" manna from Heaven X factor dealy That said, I don't expect him to be a 75-point player for us; I assume he's going to come down to Earth at some point, just as young Nyquist ultimately did. Still, it's awesome that we got a free young Nyquist. I dunno how I feel about it if I'm a Blues fan. On the one hand, major props to Doug Armstrong for doing right by one of his people. On the other hand, was that really the best deal he could make?

All good points, but Lafrens hands are like Datsyuk dirty 1 point me

Sponges clearly Get in there mofo: invite It's usually just @marcaractac talking to himself, but it was more active last night. There was an hour long circle jerk about how great costco is and other pointless discussion.

We made the discord to save LGW. Watch it ruin LGW