Dabura

Some places do have him as a C: http://www.mynhldraft.com/2019-nhl-draft/player-profiles/Bobby-Brink https://dobberprospects.com/cam-robinsons-2019-nhl-draft-rankings-top-100-february-2019/ I guess it's one of those Brady Tkachuk situations where the player's settled in as a winger but he does have some experience playing center. Peyton Krebs would be another example. In one of the two times I've watched Brink, I could've sworn I saw him play center on a few shifts. But, yeah, it's more accurate to call him a winger at this point. In any case, we're in agreement. I think we're gonna see some really good players slide. Maybe not the likes of a Newhook, but I guess you never know. (See: Veleno, Joe. Like you said.)

A first-round exit would make them especially sad. Also, the more home games they play in the playoffs, the more playoff revenue they get. I'd forgotten about the pick tho. That's a good point.

You could look at it that way. But you could also say that [insert any of the wins we had over the course of the season] cost us. And that's with the benefit of hindsight. IMO, the real lesson here is that the lottery is bulls*** and teams should just focus on winning games and let the cards fall where they may.

Can play center and I think I prefer him there, but you're right, he's basically a winger at this point.

Unfortunately, it's also why Dubas would probably do anything to keep him. We could at least screw with their cap situation tho, so there's that.

I'd say the difference is Dach is more of a driver whereas Rasmussen is pretty much a net-front specialist. IMO, Dach is more skilled and dynamic, his skating is better, and he's the better two-way player, all of which gives him the higher floor and the higher ceiling. Yeah, I'm assuming McMichael gets taken in the 1st round. Same with Bobby Brink, another under-the-radar centerman I really like.

There's definitely a chance Dach goes before Cozens. Some reasons for thinking so: Dach is arguably more of a true centerman than Cozens is Dach is arguably the better passer and is arguably better at utilizing his linemates in general Dach arguably has better hockey IQ/sense, i.e. he's arguably the more high-level thinker, high-level processor, high-level playmaker Dach is arguably better at "slowing the game down" and playing a deliberate, calculating possession game Dach's game is maybe a little less flashy, a bit more understated; he's a pass-first playmaker, he lacks Cozens' explosive speed and lethal close-range shot, and I suppose you could say Cozens is more in-your-face aggressive in the way he utilizes his big frame. My concern with Cozens has always been that his natural advantages are allowing him to feast on his CHL peers and he might hit a wall at the pro level, where he won't have the same dramatic size and speed advantages and might therefore have to cultivate other parts of his game which go beyond raw athleticism. Dach definitely has a size advantage over his CHL peers and his skating is pretty good, but I feel it's mainly his brain and his hands that make him so effective. You can teach a player to use his big frame more effectively and you can improve a player's skating, but you can't really teach a player to process the game the way Dach does and you can't teach hands like Dach's. All of that being said, I feel Dach and Cozens are pretty equal overall. Cozens might be both the safer and sexier pick, but Dach's best assets are the stuff Kopitars and Barkovs and Thorntons are made of. At the risk of oversimplifying, it's Potential Jeff Carter versus Potential Anze Kopitar, with the former being more likely to come true than the latter. I like Broberg, but I get why opinions of him are mixed. On the one hand, there are aspects of his game which are extremely tantalizing. On the other hand, it's not necessarily clear that he possesses all the tools needed to become a really effective top-four defenseman in the NHL.

Mikko Kokkonen is my guy atm, regardless of who we select in the 1st.

(Cozens.)

Me before he'd returned from injury: "I mean, I like his game a lot, but do we really need another 'speedy, left-shooting, high-energy, high-intensity, high-character two-way centerman who probably doesn't project as a scoring dynamo but probably does have a relatively high floor by virtue of his elite skating and pro-level approach to the game'?" Me on 4/10/2019: "Left-shot Brayden Point is bae."

Mock draft: Three players in running to be picked after Hughes, Kakko [NHL.com]

John Cooper is lazy and he sucks, change my mind.

I feel like people are kinda sleeping on Turcotte.

I'm not a fan of the present system, but I think you're kind of splitting hairs. The Devils are a mediocre-at-best team, even with Taylor Hall. Their head coach said as much when Tampa bounched them in the first round. The Rangers are no better than us. It sucks to see the Blackhawks picking before us, but I personally don't believe there's much of a difference in quality between the player who gets picked 3rd overall in this draft and the player who gets picked 6th overall.

But the Devils and Rangers did have bad seasons and do need help. Even the Blackhawks were looking like a lock for a bottom-five finish through the first half of the season.

Did you just assume their species, you absolute bigot? You're not missing much, tbh.

Have slept with cougars, can confirm.

I think Hughes will be fine. (Might have to ease in as a winger, though.) Kakko is probably the more NHL-ready player. They're both closer than anyone else, is my point. I just don't see it being that big a deal. Maybe it goes sideways for the organization that drafts him, but I really wouldn't expect it to happen and he's a good enough player that he's worth the minor risk. Cozens, Dach, Zegras, Turcotte, Byram, Krebs, Boldy, Broberg...these guys are at least a year away. Two years from now Podkolzin will probably be ahead of most if not all of them in his development, so you're not really losing anything by taking him over a guy like Cozens and committing yourself to having to wait two full seasons for your stud prospect to arrive. I think if he does slide a bit, it'll probably be more to do with him being a winger. We're looking at an unusually large pool of elite centermen and we know how much GMs like their high-end centermen.

We're picking 6th overall in a deep draft. Elias Pettersson (66 points) was selected 5th overall. Sean Monahan (82 points) was selected 6th overall. Mark Scheifele (84 points) was selected 7th overall. Mikko Rantanen (87 points) was selected 10th overall. Dylan Larkin (73 points) was selected 15th overall. Mathew Barzal (62 points) was selected 16th overall. Thomas Chabot (55 points) was selected 18th overall. David Pastrnak (81 points) was selected 25th overall. Sebastian Aho (83 points) was selected 35th overall. Alex DeBrincat (76 points) was selected 39th overall. Nikita Kucherov (128 points) was selected 58th overall. Jake Guentzel (76 points) was selected 77th overall. Brayden Point (92 points) was selected 79th overall. Johnny Gaudreau (99 points) was selected 104th overall. I'm pretty sure Holland has less than zero interest in going through another season like this one. Given that the projected 2019-20 roster looks like ass, I think we can safely assume Holland is going to try to make a couple of moves. If we'd finished 31st or 30th, we'd be screaming bloody murder right now.

edit

Possible, but I doubt it'll matter much. Outside of Hughes and Kakko, the top players are all at least a year away from playing pro hockey. Podkolzin already plays a pro-style game and now he'll be playing in a top league for a couple of years, so he should be more than ready to do some damage in the NHL when his contract is up. Point being: I wouldn't count on him sliding multiple spots.

If we'd won two more games, we'd have Kakko.

ah well

Damn straight.

Anything's possible. But krsmith is right say one of Cozens, Dach, Byram likely will be available at 6 or 7. "Likely" being the key word.