Dabura

Here are the big questions I ask myself about kids like Broberg and Podkolzin (i.e. top-rated Euros who play on Euro teams in their draft season and whose draft season production doesn't necessarily match the HYPE!): Do I believe they would have done very well for themselves on a CHL team in their draft season? Do I believe they would do very well for themselves on a CHL team in their draft + 1 season? Re: Broberg and Podkolzin, my answer to both questions is a confident yes.

Good for the Blues. In all honesty, I dunno how they managed to pull this off.

I'm not *quite* as high on Broberg as some people are, but I do think it's worth pointing out that he's relatively young; like Podkolzin, he doesn't turn 18 until a few days after the draft. I can tell you from experience that being as tall a defenseman as he is at his age can mess with your processing and coordination, i.e. it might take him some time to "grow into his body." (Jiri Fischer struggled through something along those lines, if memory serves.) That might account for some of his perceived shortcomings re: puck skill, IQ, shooting accuracy. I do believe Broberg has the capacity for beastliness at the NHL level. I don't have to squint my mind's eye too hard to envision a 26-year-old Broberg playing forward some nights and defense some other nights (and switching effortlessly between the two on any given shift, as assignments dictate) and running a dangerous PP unit and creating shorthanded opportunities on the PK and just generally roving around like a boss. I'd hope for something like Hedman, Burns, Seabrook, Trouba. Realistically tho, it's probably closer to, like, Mathieu Dandenault.

I assume he's making calls on anyone and everyone. But, yeah. Realistically, the market he's probably focusing on is the affordable, non-marquee, good-not-great guys, e.g. Michael Ferland, Brett Connolly, Mats Zuccarello, Colin Wilson, Anton Stralman. Hell, maybe even Nyquist.

He's a great straight-line skater, but, imo, his lateral mobility leaves something to be desired. What makes the Hughes brothers such great skaters is their edges. They're not necessarily burners, but they don't need to be burners because their quickness, agility, elusiveness means they're going to be driving play and leading you around all over the ice, in all three zones. I've gone full Draft 4 Need. I am a crazy man with nothing to lose and zero effs left to give. I eat my steak with ketchup. Come at me.

I feel the risk-reward ratio is roughly the same for most of the players we're talking about. That being said, I think it ultimately comes down to what attributes you value most, i.e. what kind of player you think your team desperately needs.

More like...Blowberg. (There. I just ensured we're taking Broberg with our first pick. You're welcome / I'm sorry.)

Prospect Deep Dive: Philip Tomasino [Dobber Prospects] This is the silliest thing I have ever read. TBH, I think anyone not named Giroux or Hart is a trade candidate.

Re: Flyers...Chuck Fletcher loves trading and he's been known to move players who were thought to be off-limits. I think if he's looking to make a big move or two, Konecny's likely in the mix. Could be wrong tho. Re: Dropping to 11...I suppose it's playing with fire, true. Personally, I wouldn't mind, because I've always said all of these players in that range are roughly interchangeable. Re: Tampa...I think it's a decent deal. NYI's 2nd -- a late 2nd -- gets upgraded to a late 1st. You can take Raddysh out, but, personally, I like the way he plays the game, I like that he he shoots right-handed, I like that he did well in his rookie AHL season, and I like that he's just about ready to step into an NHL team's bottom six. I'd say he's worth a 2nd, and we're giving the Bolts two 3rds. One of those 3rds covers Raddysh, the other covers 1) Jan Rutta, who's a decent soon-to-be-29-year-old RH Czech defenseman on an expiring contract (possible Vanek-esque mentor to Hronek), and 2) the assets we might get if we flip one or two or all three of Raddysh, Rutta, Callahan.

Chuck Fletcher said he's going to be very active this summer. He's already acquired Kevin Hayes's rights and it feels like he's only getting started. I think Konecny could get moved because... he's not necessarily a core piece for the Flyers he's due for a pretty big raise the Flyers have been linked to Kasperi Kapanen (if only theoretically), who I guess has childhood roots in Philly Wouldn't surprise me.

One of the prevailing narratives about this draft class is that it's mostly bereft of marquee defensemen. Maybe there's some truth to that, but I feel like people are kinda sleeping on a whole bunch of very good defensemen, any one of whom could easily end up being better than Byram. There's the aforementioned Moritz Seider, Philip Broberg, Cam York, Victor Soderstrom, and I think Thomas Harley, Ville Heinola, Lassi Thomson, et al. could also be included in that discussion. Do I take one of those guys at 6? ...Prob'ly not. But, hey, suppose we actually pull off a trade-down with Philly along the lines of what I proposed a few days ago... Trade our 2019 1st (6OA) + Trevor Daley (retaining 50% of his salary) to PHI for PHI's 2019 1st (11OA) + Travis Konecny's rights Then take a defenseman at 11. And if we want to get really greedy, we can try to brute-force our way into the back third of the 1st round. Tampa? Cool, let's swap with Tampa. Trade NYI's 2019 2nd (54OA) + our 2019 3rd (66OA) + SJS's 2020 3rd to TBL for TBL's 2019 1st (27OA) + Taylor Raddysh + Jan Rutta (minor salary dump) + Ryan Callahan (major salary dump) I'm really high on Philip Tomasino and a lot of people have him going late in the 1st. Personally, I suspect he'll go earlier, but who knows. If he's there at 27 and there isn't a Veleno available, I take him. If he's not there, and if we decide we're going HAM on defense, there's going to be a good Scandinavian defenseman there, e.g. Heinola, Tobias Bjornfot, Mikko Kokkonen. I also like Matthew Robertson. All of this and we'd still own our 2019 2nd (35OA). Nice. So, we're looking at something like... Travis Konecny, who immediately becomes one of our top two wingers (if only because we have no scoring depth) Philip Broberg (11OA) Tobias Bjornfot (27OA) Mikko Kokkonen (35OA) Byram is a stud, but loading up with three very solid defensemen would be a pretty nice consolation prize. And I'm not even saying we'd have to take three defensemen with those three picks. All I'm really trying to say is I see opportunity here. The conversation doesn't necessarily have to be "Do we really wanna use the 6th overall pick on a non-Byram defenseman?" Go crazy. Get nuts.

Fair points. You could make the case that Krebs is just as likely to slip to 30 as Veleno was. I just feel like Krebs has (had?) built up a bit more momentum and buzz in the lead-up to his respective draft. He made a pretty big statement at the U18 WJC. Feels like he is/was peaking at just the right time.

Yeah, I'm thinking 18-20 at the *absolute* latest. I suppose you could point to Veleno's slide as a precedent, but I think there's more HYPE! surrounding Krebs. I'm a big fan of his, so I'm biased, but I do think the HYPE! is warranted.

Give me the GM keys. This s*** is easy. Move over, Stevie.

My thoughts exactly. In Konecny, we'd basically be getting Tatar. Looking at our projected opening night roster and our organizational depth chart...yeah, we could use a Tatar right about now.

Yeah, I'm guessing that's what's up.

Chuck Fletcher is Chuck Fletchering. The NHL is way more exciting when Chuck Fletcher is Chuck Fletchering. Would you swap the 6OA pick for 11OA + Konecny? "Why would Philly give up a perfectly good young top-six scoring winger in Konecny when they don't have to?" Chuck Fletcher. Also, word on the street is Philly has the inside track on Kapanen. I guess he has roots in Philly or something. So, lose Konecny, gain Kapanen, i.e. Konecny is quite possibly expendable to the Flyers.

I want a guy with that kind of desire to play and willpower but I also want a guy who picks his battles. Go all-out in pursuit of the Stanley Cup. The CHL championship? When you're eyeing an NHL roster spot next season? I dunno. I'm assuming the Wings knew all about it and were comfortable with the way everything was being handled. If so, fine.

Oh, don't worry, I got all that. And I chuckled.

Y'all be knockin' my sophisticated NHL genetics model, but it's rooted in hard science and it gets the point across real simple-like.

I think this is pretty accurate in the sense that people were way too bullish on both of them early on and then people were maybe a little too bearish on them in the lead-up to the draft. FWIW, I would say 2019 Podkolzin > 2018 Zadina. Podkolzin's club stats were blah this season, but he jumped around between different leagues and never really settled down. (Also, again, he's really young.) I suspect that if he'd spent this season in, say, the QMJHL, he probably would've wrecked shop.

I would say it's because he's a throwback to old-school Russian/Euro hockey, i.e. the kind of player we won our last four Cups with. Despite being so young (doesn't turn 18 until two days after the draft), he plays like he was raised on Bowman and Babcock Red Wings hockey. We can be sure that isn't lost on Yzerman, Draper, Verbeek, et al. https://expo.mlive.com/sports/g66l-2019/02/5de2e19fd77307/top-10-players-who-could-be-available-to-red-wings-in-2019-draft.html I'd also add that the NHL is a copycat league and if Ryan O'Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko had a baby, it would be Podkolzin.

Word on the street is he played hurt for much of the season. Not sure I'm a fan of that. Not sure I'm a fan of that at all.

I love this list because everyone hates this list. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Button is making the point that there's no consensus beyond Hughes at 1 and Kakko at 2. I love that he has Turcotte at 10. People wanna be like "I'm not totally sure he's a legit NHL 1C, but certainly he's a solid NHL two-way 2C" and at the same time be like "Dude is effing legit af. He should absolutely go in the top five. If I'm Chicago, I'm all over him at 3."

Bonus Buckley: