kipwinger

He was injured earlier in the season, but injuries don't seem to be a chronic thing with him as far as I've read. I have read that a number of scouts think his build is "slight" but he'll add bulk. Having never scouted a single hockey player my concerns are entirely theoretical, but IMO there are only about two valid reasons not to take Hughes over Kakko. First, Kakko is having a historically good season for a rookie in the Liiga which is a professional men's hockey league. Hughes is having a historically good season for the USDP, which mostly plays against USHL kids who aren't good enough to play in the CHL. Second, Hughes' style is not be conducive to the NHL game so he's going to have to adapt. It's entirely possible that change may impact his effectiveness in some way. He's still obviously going to be good, but teams may decide Kakko's power game is more conducive to the NHL and take him instead given that they're both relatively equal in terms of their upside in every other regard.

Yeah me too, he's basically another Jensen. If he can play fast, carve out a role for himself on the PK, and be physical I could see him occupying a spot on the third pair. I don't think he's done developing at 23 that's for sure. Down the road I'd imagine you'd want to move him/keep him as a 7th d-man unless he really breaks out over the next season. But I like what I've seen enough to basically give him Witkowski's job next season.

I was pretty impressed with the open ice hit Bowey put on Marchand. I love seeing that little punk get rocked.

Yeah, no way does Tavares leave the Islanders for TO if Matthews isn't on that team. But again, I don't even mind that. Just don't want to be told how Kyle Dubas is a genius because of it.

For me it's Toronto and that's about it. Toronto is my least favorite team with the worst fans. They were bad enough to win the draft lottery, and because of that landed Tavares, which is fine, but now we have to hear about how smart their "brain trust" was for the rest of time. Their fans are entitled whiners who seem unaware of the fact that they haven't been good in a lifetime. They make a big show of their "rivals" but move the goal posts on that the minute they lose. Montreal's their biggest rival, but that changes to Detroit the minute they lose to the Canadiens. Then they lose to Detroit and it's Ottawa or Buffalo. Basically what UofM fans do with Ohio State and Michigan State. Their "center of the hockey universe" garbage is profoundly annoying and despicable in a way that makes me almost....almost...hate the sport of hockey itself for the association. But worse than all of that, they're coached by Mike Babcock.

Lol, this is easily the worst Detroit Red Wings lineup of the last 25 years.

Byram is the only defenseman I'm interested in taking in the first round. And I suspect he'll probably go really high. All the rest have pretty significant holes in their game from what I read.

Because the title of the thread is "Who scores more goals, Larkin or AA".

It's only one "if". IF Larkin and AA played the same amount of minutes AA would f*cking bury Dylan in goals.

By the rationale advocated above Hirose could have an assist in each of Detroit's remaining games and still not be as good a playmaker as Justin Abdelkader apparently. Why? Cuz f*ck denominators, that's why.

Do you count the number of hits a baseball player gets without considering how many times they went to the plate? AA's goals per 60 minutes of ice time is significantly higher than Larkin's. Meaning he scores more when he's on the ice, he's just on the ice less. But don't take my word for it, here's a chart from a few years ago showing goals/60 played. You'll notice all of the league's most dangerous offensive threats are on it. AA too for what it's worth. https://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/stats/player-goals-per-60-min-played/2016/ Sounds like a valid reason to conclude he's the better goal scorer. If you don't think so, then you likely also have to conclude that Luke Glendening is a better goal scorer than Filip Zadina based on their goal totals. As for the 5 on 5 stat, its actually pretty useful in determining which guys are most heavily relied upon by their coaches. Some guys get "ice time" but it's PK or PP time and pads the stat a bit. If you're way up there in 5 on 5 icetime it likely means you're 1) Awesome, 2) taking a ton of shifts.

Probably will but the total doesn't really matter. And just imagine how many more goals AA would have if they had similar ice time. Larkin is top 3 in the league in 5 on 5 ice time amongst forwards. AA played most of the season on the 3rd line with a bunch of scrubs. They're neck and neck.

Well, that and he's the better goal scorer.

Ok, didn't recall that. I stand corrected. Don't look now, but McIsaac and Veleno are both playing like studs in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs. 5 in 4 for McIsaac and 6 in 4 for Veleno including 4 goals.

Most of this I agree with, except the Tkachuk part. Literally nobody prior to the draft considered Tkachuk an equal pick to Zadina. Not even close. With the advantage of hindsight you can say that Tkachuk's as good, and maybe he is, but I defy you to find a single pre-draft ranking or scouting report that had him in the same conversation as Zadina.

What tangible steps would you recommend the team or management take to "stop the useless winning"? No bulls***, what would you like to see them do to ensure the team loses in the way you obvsiously prefer they do?

Reefer madness at its worst bro.

Well McCarty doesn't seem to have any shame, but yes. Different thing than illegal though. Of all people I thought you'd understand. If some hippie manufactured outrage in order to drum up money to support their drug habit I assume you and your tribe would be up in arms right?

Yes, because obviously I'm being literal and not figurative. He's a financial profiteer was the point.

He's an opportunistic deadbeat? He preys on people's legitimate feelings of nostalgia for weed money? Because once a year he does some Bulls***ting interview about how his "blood still boils" when he thinks about the fight, but then smiles and jokes and shakes hands with Lemieux during autograph signings...signings which people pay for and which "bad guy" Lemieux does for charity and McCarty does for weed. When I think about March 26th I think about how awesome Igor Larionov was for wrestling a goddamn*d horse. Or Brendan Shanahans flying tackle. Or the goalie showdown. But McCarty can go to hell because I HATE carpetbaggers.

I was actually referencing Gentleman Jack Gallagher the pro wrestler. But now that I think about it, if we can used Jack Hughes' star power to promote underage alcohol consumption I don't see why we shouldn't. I mean, the population needs the culling that's for sure.

Can we all at least agree that if we do draft Hughes we're going to call him "Gentleman" Jack Hughes? Please?

I'm glad people still remember March 26, 1997. If not, Darren McCarty would have no way to make enough drug money to have a good time this weekend.

I mean, there are some scenarios in which I think there's a good opportunity to move up. Just depends on how the lottery plays out and who we like that the top of the first round. Say we pick 4th, and New York picks 10th, and we're pretty much equally high on any of Zegras, Turcotte, Cozens, Krebs, Byram, and Dach then we should consider trading back on that pick, along with one of our 2nds, if New York wants to move up early and may be willing to part with a later 1st rounder to do so. Then just take whichever one of those guys falls to 10th. Something like Detroit's 4th, and 35th picks for (let's say) New York's 10th and 25th (or whatever it would be). But that's a ton of "ifs".