Buppy

Everyone we could have picked will likely take a few years. Hell, most of the players picked ahead of us will too. "Project" implies that he'll require some level of work beyond what is normal. You say his ranking is just because of his size (despite all the other qualities listed in his scouting report), and despite the fact that players with size are ranked all over the board. I could just as easily say that he's disliked by some because some people have bought to readily into advanced stats without actually understanding them. If we had picked Vilardi I bet there would be some saying he was only ranked that high because of his size, and calling Holland an idiot because Vilardi won't make it in today's NHL because he can't skate. Who will be better? Time will tell. Prospects develop, skills improve. Some people think Rasmussen will be good, some don't. If there was a way right now to tell who is right, there wouldn't be any disagreement. Bottom line is he has a skillset that could be very valuable if he develops well, and is almost totally lacking in our prospect pool. If you have a guy a three you would have preferred, fine, not going to try to change your mind. But he's not a project, it wasn't an off-the-board pick, or an experiment, or playing it safe, or too risky, or whatever other contrived argument people want to make up to armor their opinions. We picked a highly ranked prospect with a high pick. It's perfectly ******* normal.

I don't think "project" means what you think it means. He was ranked in the top half of the first by pretty much everyone. He's no more of a project than anyone else. I don't like the pick either, but at least try to criticize in a way that makes some kind of sense.

Really wanted to dump Lehtera I guess.

Really should have traded back if we weren't going to take Vilardi. But to play devil's advocate, the main criticisms of our forward group has been our anemic PP, lack of size, and ability to play at the net. All things that Rasmussen addresses better than probably anyone available.

Andersson might have still been there at 21 Lot of mocks had Buffalo going defense

I was kinda hoping Wings would do that so LW would explode.

wow

Can't imagine Rangers passing on Vilardi after giving up Stepan.

And f***ed with him a little first, let him think he might let him give the announcement, lol

Honestly, the whole draft should already be over.

I don't think he loves to hockey as much as Nico.

Lol, yeah...mortgaging the future for that elusive shot at maybe getting to the 2nd round if they get a favorable matchup and a little luck.

Funny, just two years everyone was saying Holland sucked for not trading for Hamonic. How times change. Kind of looking like his good year was a fluke, but on the other hand his regression (if that's what it really is) started at the same time he started asking for a trade. Maybe he needs a change of scenery. Two firsts is obviously a ridiculous price (would have been even two years ago), and that probably means Isles wouldn't accept anything reasonable, but I'd take him if they would.

And still over the cap. (Yeah, I'm sure they'll figure out something with Hossa, and you forgot +1 Murphy, but still...)

I'd be fine trading back. Could be our best move, depending on what we get for it. Our first 3 picks to Vegas for the 13 and 15...Draft Necas/Pettersson/Suzuki + Valimaki/Foote. I'd be ecstatic. Or even the 9 to Carolina for the 12 and 42. Without a trade I'm hoping for Glass (or Heiskanen, but I'm probably kidding myself thinking there's any chance), and I'd be happy with any of Mittlestadt, Necas, Pettersson, Tippett, or Liljegren. Even most of the "bad" choices like Rasmussen, Tolvanen, Andersson, Kostin, etc., have a lot going for them, so even if we mess up it shouldn't hurt too bad. (Now I probably jinxed it and we'll take Oettinger at 9)

Panarin and Saad make the same amount. If they get Oshie, they could have just as easily done it with Panarin.

Hmm...quite the conundrum. On the one hand, once upon a time Tippett was able to squeeze quite a bit out of a (seemingly) nothing-much roster. On the second hand, over the last few years his teams have looked like they're actually trying to collect all the suck. Then there's a small part of me that hopes Tippett is eaten by CHUDs for permanently ruining everyone's ability to intelligently evaluate defensemen, but a different, crueler part of me thinks it would be even better if he came here, failed, and his legion of followers turned on him like a swarm of Africanized bees (who I assume like to turn on each other...I don't know much about bees). But then another, more rational part of me thinks he's probably better than Blashill, which then reminds the cruel part of me that it's very disappointed that "Blashole" hasn't been more widely adopted as his go-to derogatory nickname, and would welcome even the insufferableness of Tippett fans if he were to come here and succeed just so I could stop thinking about it. I may have lost count, but I think that adds up to a yes.

Sure, one of the bigger surprises (though likely seems a lot bigger to us since it's Wings related), but is that really saying much? What else was there: Neal and Ryan? (And Ryan probably not that big a surprise since he's 30, makes all the money for forever, and had a terrible season of his own.)

Guess I wasn't clear. What I meant is that it's not likely that McPhee was engaged in any active attempt to find a market for Mrazek. It wouldn't have been any kind of priority for him. At most he would have asked other GMs if there was anyone exposed that they were interested in trading for. That the few teams who may be looking for a goalie weren't focused on getting one from Vegas doesn't really mean anything. It's not like the exposed goalies were going to disappear post-expansion. I imagine most teams would probably want to have multiple options in order to get the best deal they could, rather than encourage Vegas to corner the market and gain even more power than they already had. You're projecting somewhat of a "See, Mrazek sucks and no one in the whole league wants him" kind of vibe. Ironically, to even think that Mrazek might figure prominently enough in all the expansion draft happenings to draw any firm conclusions on what the league thinks about him is itself greatly exaggerating his value. He's a good young player, but hardly the only one left exposed. It's a big story for the Wings, but not necessarily for the whole league. Either you think there was a deal (contrary to some compelling evidence) or you don't. But whatever. I think you're being a little too simplistic in your thought process. It's not just a matter of "Who's better: Mrazek or Nosek?". There are several factors in play. Vegas already had their short-term starter. For a backup and potential long-term solution, they chose Pickard, which doesn't even mean they think he has the best potential. In some cases, the other options on a team (Schmidt) might have been a factor. Maybe cost was an issue as well. Maybe it's a case of McPhee thinking Nosek + Pickard is better, all things considered, than Mrazek + Grigorenko. Or maybe just with everything else going on, McPhee didn't give it enough consideration and does actually think Nosek is better. It's not like he or his staff is an expert on every player in the league or had time to do a careful analysis of several hundred players, shouldn't be hard to imagine that he made a few mistakes. No good reason to make the leap to thinking that Holland lied about making a deal, and that the deal is still, for some reason, a secret a day later. There are more logical rationalizations.

But you say that like his goal was just to take Mrazek and flip him. He basically put together an entire hockey team in a couple days, taking a player from/making deals with literally every other team in the league. More likely that he just knew the goalie market wasn't very strong (it almost never is), so just didn't give much consideration to Mrazek at all. OK, but when you say things like 'you doubt McPhee really wanted Nosek over Mrazek', it implies that you think Holland did something to influence his decision.

Actually he said he would only take an extra goalie if he had a deal in place. And there were a lot of other goalies who weren't selected either. I don't think it says as much about Mrazek's value as you think it does. You are kind of stretching. In this case, the lack of any information is in itself pretty compelling evidence that there was no deal. Add to that Kenny saying he didn't make a deal... Holland knowing beforehand that McPhee wasn't interested in Mrazek would take the wind out of the "Holland is an idiot" argument, and may have played into the decision to expose him, but it's not the same as making a deal to protect him. But remember, it's still just a rumor that his head even is "in the wrong place".

You know it'd be this.

In most of those cases, Vegas was enticed to select those players, or they were the best players available.

A bit surprised by Grubauer as well, and Nosek obviously. Surprised they didn't pick up more prospects, though that will probably come in the next few days. The Haula pick is surprising if there's no more to it. Tuch for taking Haula over Dumba seems cheap, and Vegas could give up a conditional pick as well. The prices some teams paid to protect/lose players is pretty insane.

Chicago Wolves, sharing with St.Louis. At least for now. Not sure about that. Vegas ended up with 15 defensemen anyway, and there's only so much market. XO and Sproul aren't much further ahead in their development than Nosek, and Kronwall and Ericsson are both old and expensive. Same for Helm, and even Glendening isn't that young or cheap. The "knock" is mostly on Sheahan and Mrazek...two guys who had very poor seasons while Nosek had a great playoff run with GR. Is it really a "knock" or just a poor decision by McPhee?