Buppy

From 2008 through 2015, there were 35 skaters drafted in the first 5 picks of the 2nd round. 17 of them failed to make it in the NHL. (A few more may make that list, but are still young) 15 of them range from fringe NHLers (who may yet drop to the fail list) to decent depth players 1 was Slava Voynov, who was good but retarded The last two are Ryan O'Reilly and Sebastian Aho. So... 2 stars, 1 wife beater, 15 nobodies, 17 failures, and 0 unknowns. So even if you count all the KHLers who never tried the NHL as failures, and for some weird reason being drafted in the first round means you don't count, and for some weirder reason this is all happening in an alternate universe where Datsyuk and Demitra were drafted in the first round... Gusev STILL has DOUBLE the chance of being a star than an early 2nd round pick does.

You realize we had over $20 million in cap space this year? The way things are looking we may be under the cap even without using any LTIR for Zetterberg and Franzen. We could have easily signed Panarin and still afforded big raises for AA, Mantha, and Bert. Could have afforded Panarin and Trouba in fact, without even dumping salary. Bad as they might be, those contracts are not hurting us.

Since 2008-09, 25 players have scored 1.1 points/game or more in the KHL. Seven of them, including Gusev, have never really tried the NHL. A few played a handful of games in NA, but nothing significant. Another seven tried for at least half a season, with a few trying for multiple years, but never made any impact. One had an ok NHL career, with 219 points in 451 games. The other 10 are: Alexei Yashin, Pavol Demitra, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Radulov, Artemi Panarin, and Evgeni Dadonov. So...10 stars, 1 mediocre player, 7 fails, and 7 unknowns.

He doesn't want a player on the roster for 8 years, that could potentially ruin our lottery chances. He wants a player who will make the team in 8 years, so we can trade him at the deadline. The 2028 draft is supposed to be the best since 2023. Thefuturefutureisthefuture

In a way, I'm really enjoying this off-season so far. I imagine that for all the people who were clamoring to replace Holland with Yzerman it's like being a kid finding out that Santa Claus is real by walking in on him taking a wet dump in their stocking, and now they have to try to convince themselves that it's what they truly wanted the whole time. Kronwall 2x$4.5 please

It's spelled Shattenkirk

Goals and size are worth more than assists and smallness. Lee didn't have an amazing season this year, but he's quietly been one of the best goal scorers in the league over the last three. Plus he's their captain. Also Nyquist got 4 years. Signs three vets we didn't need, seemingly just for the sake of signing them. Tells Vanek to GTFO, ignores other RWs... says we need a RW At what point is he going to rip the Wings jersey off to show the Wolfpac jersey underneath? Come to think of it, isn't Hartford the Rangers AHL affiliate? Steve may have landed Trouba and Panarin after all...

The problem is that you want to trade AA for a fantasy. You hope that all these other kids will make AA expendable; you hope we'd get a high first; you hope we'd take a kid you like with that pick; you hope that kid will become something good. It's like selling your house for slot machine credits. Maybe you'll win the jackpot, and it'd be awesome if you did, but most likely you're just going to spend a bunch of time pushing buttons and end up a little worse off than you were before. You can't live in the future. At some point you have to start doing something with what you have. There isn't going to be one magical draft that will fill every hole on the roster over night, especially if you keep creating more. It's loser hockey. It's perpetual rebuilding. Today it's AA, tomorrow it's Mantha/Bert, and before you know it it's the kid you're hoping to get with the pick from AA. I know you'll say "after next year" is when everything will come together, but I bet by this time next year you'll be salivating over who we might get in the 2021 draft. Yes, Colorado was very lucky both to get a monster return for Duchene, and have the 1st rounder end up being 4th...and even with that much luck they still need Byram to actually deliver on his potential. Then even if he does, and they can call that trade a win, it just puts them in the position of having a pretty stacked defense and no forward depth. In the end, even getting massively lucky, they didn't do much more than trade one hole for another.

People want to trade AA because they think he's the most expendable of our good trade assets. But considering that's a pretty short list, it's not an unreasonable thought. Trading him for a draft pick or prospect would be loser hockey though.

And the fact that he's retiring after collecting most of the money in 3/4 of the contract is more proof the NHL was right to add that rule. Luongo - Retires after getting paid ~94.4% Hossa - Retires after ~93.7% Zetterberg - Retires after ~92.5% I think the rest of them were either bought out or ended by concussions, aside from Kovy. Weber, Suter, and Parise all retiring in two years, calling it.

College kids have to pay their own way to TC, so they often don't attend.

According to CapFriendly he took a year off so he could transfer to a different college. He has two years of college left, then he'll probably be done with hockey.

This is about as uninspiring a FA class as you can get, particularly in light of some of the contracts being signed already. I'd have no problem throwing $11x7 at Panarin, but it seems we're not even interested. Beyond him I'd go for guys with some question marks, who could potentially be signed short term for under market value. Connolly, Johansson, Pirri, maybe Simmonds. I wouldn't mind Myers, but definitely not near the $8M rumor that was mentioned.

So....you're argument is that it's probable that they ranked some defensemen only slightly lower than some forwards, but completely unbelievable that they might have ranked those same defensemen slightly above those same forwards? Leaving aside that our D is not necessarily the weakest part of our prospect pool, you also have to consider that there were several big, mobile, two-way D available, and ranked higher than Tuomisto. There was clearly something specific about him as an individual that led to that pick.

"Reach" just means he went against the prevailing opinion. Since he would obviously know that prevailing opinion, he would obviously understand that he might be able to trade back and still get his guy. That does not in any way suggest that he didn't believe Seider was the BPA. Aside from that, it's only your opinion that RHD was our biggest need. Objectively, our biggest need is probably G, so Knight should have been his choice. Or if we're differentiating based on handedness, a right shot winger, so he should have gone Caufiled or Cozens (plus numerous options in the later rounds). If looking at defense, it's our left side if any that was weaker going in to the draft, though even if you just generalize all D, Broberg was generally ranked higher, so he should have been the choice. And finally, even though we have Larkin, C is not exactly an area of strength. Really the only thing we didn't need was left shot wingers. We drafted four.

Don't forget these are still young kids, some still growing, and leading very active, athletic lifestyles. I've eaten pretty much nothing but junk food my whole life, never been that in to exercise, and I didn't start getting fat until my 40s. The idea of a young hockey player being 6'1" 165 on a diet of pizza and hot pockets isn't too far-fetched.

If we were to all post a list of the 10 best players in the NHL last year, the combined list could easily be 20-30 names. If we can't agree on how to judge players in the same league based on hindsight, how much should we be upset about some disagreement on how a bunch of 17/18 yo kids playing in many different leagues all over the world will turn out 5-6 years from now? Every guy we could have picked had someone who didn't think he should go that high, and all of Zegras, Cozens, Caufiled, and Boldy were ranked lower than Seider by at least one person. Yes, it was a reach, but not a particularly big one. No big deal, no matter how it turns out.

From what I've read, Seider was an Yzerman pick, and it's because he genuinely thinks the kid has very high potential. Objectively speaking, he took a 3rd-tier rated prospect with a 2nd-tier pick. Even if he's wrong it's not any big deal. At least a couple of the 2nd-tier guys are going to come up short as well. Tuomisto was a Wright pick, and was a bigger reach. Worse given that he plays the same spot as Seider, and that there were still several picks with perceived 1st-round talent. We also already had Hronek, Bowey, Kaski, Lindstrom, plus Regula, Barton, and maybe Saarijarvi on the right side. I'd probably be OK with it if we'd taken Zegras or Cozens with our first. No real reaches in the rest of the draft. I don't think there's much difference in who a top team would scout for 2nd/3rd round picks, as opposed to a bottom team. Probably a combination of info from both teams went into those picks. I would have been happier with Lavoie, Leason, and Legare in the 2nd, but no one knows if they'll actually be better.

You think? I think we're definitely still in the honeymoon phase. I can only imagine the firestorm that would have erupted from LW alone if Holland were still in charge. I'm a little surprised that there isn't more backlash directed at Tyler Wright and the scouts, and I have to assume the reason for it is they're being shielded by the aura of goodwill emanating from Yzerman. He could be in trouble if he makes any bad UFA signings though.

My take on all the kids, judging by their pictures: Gylander: Trying to become the first human skeleton to play in the NHL Tyutyaev: Robot Berglund: Mom is his PR manager Soderblom: Barber is blind in one eye Moore: Can't figure out how to get off the ice. Sadly, he will not pan out. Phillips: Half Saiyan Grewe: Wants to, and probably will, eat cereal out of your hollowed out skull Johansson: So unremarkable even he hasn't heard of himself Mastrosimone: Though no one would expect it, would probably succeed in saving the world from an evil wizard Tuomisto: Still high Seider: Trying to decide the meanest way to tell you he banged your girlfriend last night

Gustav Berglund is adorable. Shut up. Also, that pic may be from 2014.

Also, Tuzzi and Grewe are going to f*** s*** UP! Look at them and try to tell me they haven't already put on the foil. Tag is a preppy ******.That's why he sucks and didn't get drafted.

How can anyone be upset with these kids:

Lol, Holland. I think I would have preferred a winger over Broberg, but not bad, then finally drafts a good RH forward just to troll Wing fans. But seriously, Avs, LA, and Vegas all look pretty good.