Dabura

Depth + willpower.

Right on. F*** the police.

Bedard and Fantilli are going out west. That's all that matters to me.

We're gonna get Bedard and then trade for Lafreniere and Kakko and everyone's gonna hate us again and it'll be just like old times.

Dvorsky's really intriguing. I see some Draisaitl in him. Big body. Excellent playmaking. Lethal shot. Two-way chops. Not exactly a phenomenal skater, but he's smart enough and skilled enough that I'm not sure it really matters, even re: the question of whether he's a true centerman at higher levels. And even if he's winger, he'd be flanking a speedy playmaker in Larkin or Kasper, so no big deal.

Nope, you're not alone on that. Like I said: It'd be kind of goofy to take yet another defenseman with a top-10 pick - but a top 4 featuring Seider, Edvinsson, and Reinbacher would be nuts. https://archive.is/LsfYW He's an Yzerman defenseman through and through. I'm not sure he'll be available at 9 tho. And even if he is, we have serious needs at forward and SY knows that. So I dunno.

I have to say, I'm pretty pumped for this draft. And that's mainly because I've never seen such a lack of consensus for so many really good players. It's wild. Oliver Moore, for example. Ask three people to rank him; one will say 6th, one will say 12th, and one will say 18th. "Dabura, let's not be hyperbolic; no one's saying Oliver Moore's the 18th best player in this class." My brother in Christ, he's 19th (!) on Pronman's latest list: https://archive.is/LsfYW That's arguably a Larkin/Barzal and we're talking about him maybe not even going in the top 10 (like Larkin and Barzal). Similarly, Colby Barlow's 20th (!) on that Pronman list: ...While McKenzie's latest aggregate thing has Barlow at 11: https://www.tsn.ca/plenty-of-intrigue-after-bedard-in-mckenzie-s-lottery-edition-ranking-1.1956585 Like I said: wild. Admittedly, it does suck that we're almost certainly gonna miss out on all the marquee talent. Bedard, Fantilli, Carlsson, Smith, Michkov...that's an unreal set of players. Some people think Michkov might slide, but I have to think 8th would be the limit, as the Caps would surely love a shiny new Russian. On a related note: f*** the Caps for losing their last game. But anyway, the good news is we're gonna get at least one really good player in the 1st round. HYPE!

I figure SY wouldn't mind having him back, assuming there wasn't any backstage drama. He was pretty decent when he came back from the AHL.

Do you think Ned even wants to come back? (Honest question, no hate.)

Reinbacher probably won't be available at 9, so you probably don't have to worry about that. However...if he is there? Well, honestly, there's a case to be made for taking him. Yeah, it'd be silly adding ANOTHER defenseman...but it actually wouldn't be silly at all, because having all three of Seider, Edvinsson, and Reinbacher in our top 4 would be pants-s***tingly amazing (assuming Reinbacher's legit). But I agree with you that goal-scoring's the most pressing organizational need right now. And I agree that it's probably worth going HAM on that in this draft. If we could come away from this draft with Ryan Leonard and Colby Barlow (we'd probably have to trade up from 18/17), that'd be huuuge.

Gimme their contact info so I can sue them for copyright infringement.

If we get Fantinelli, we're in the playoffs in 2024 or 2025. So, no, I don't think it's Bedard-or-death. And I don't think it's Fantinelli-or-death either, for that matter. Ideally, yeah, Larkin and Raymond are on our second line and we have absolute world-destroyers on our top line. But I don't think the standard rules of What a Team Needs If It Wants to Win are as ironclad today as they once were. Bottom line: I think we just need to keep adding good young players and eventually it'll come together. If Kasper and Edvinsson are the players we're hoping they are, we're in good shape.

Point is we're probably not gonna be super-top-heavy.

Yeah, I don't think you and I really strongly disagree on anything we're talking about here. You may be a bit more bullish overall, but we agree that Yzerman's building a really solid team that's gonna be really hard to play against when it all comes together. When I said we're probably gonna be short on superstar talent, I wasn't really trying to be a buzzkill; all I meant was the vision is more "Big, lean, fast, aggressive, relentless" than "Look at how many $10M players we have; we're clearly the superior team here." I don't want this to reply to read like cope, but on some level I feel like "elite, elite" star power means less and less as we get deeper and deeper into the age of parity. Or, rather, it's becoming more and more important that the star power is backed by teeth and claws and guts and smarts and give-a-s***. Stuff that wins when the games really, truly mean something (i.e. in the playoffs). Can you roll four lines and three D pairings all game every game? Can your players consistently win their matchups at home and on the road? Can you execute your system better than the other team executes theirs? Are you loaded with forwards who'll empty the tank on the backcheck, steal the puck, and then hit a streaking teammate with a perfect stretch pass? If you struggle to hang with the opponent at even strength, can you win with your special teams? ^^^Those questions are, I feel, just as - if not more - important than, like, "Where's our 60-goal scorer?" And so I look at our forwards and, while I certainly do lament the fact that we only have one proven young gun scoring winger after years of rebuilding...I'm not super-concerned. That's largely/mostly because of Edvinsson-Seider, but it's also because I do think one day we're gonna take a look at our forward lines and be like "Holy crap, we're actually really, really deep up front." That is, I'm thinking it's not gonna be evident...until it is. It'll slowly come together, and then it'll all click. I reckon that's how it's gonna go.

CENTER At present, Larkin and Kasper are our two key centermen. Larkin's very good but not necessarily "elite, elite." But that's OK. And that's my point. Kasper realistically projects as a gutsier Larkin type. He absolutely has the potential to be better than Larkin - but I dunno that I'm betting big money on him becoming a 95-point powerhouse. But that's OK. And that's my point. WING I said during last season's training camp (2021-22) that Raymond's a special player who has the potential to be as good as Zetterberg. And I stand by that. Now, will he actually be as good as Zetterberg? Probably not. But I think he can pretty easily be elite. Beyond Raymond, we don't have much to latch on to in terms of, like, actual bodies of actual NHL work. Mazur and Lombardi (who may or may not be a centerman) are promising, but so were Nyquist and Tatar and Jurco and Pulkkinen and Mantha and Athanasiou and Bertuzzi and Zadina. I'm happy that Rasmussen is trending up. I'm happy that Berggren potted 15 goals. I'm happy that Soderblom appears to be an NHLer. I'm happy that Veleno isn't a total bust. But Raymond's currently the only winger in our system who we can point to and say "That guy. He's a core guy. He's gonna score 30 goals next season." DEFENSE Seider's a total stud. He's elite. He's gonna win Norrises. The players who drive championship teams are players like Seider. Edvinsson's ceiling is stratospheric - and I think his floor is very high too. I feel there's a decent chance he becomes roughly equal to Seider in terms of overall value and what he means to the team. In theory, an Edvinsson-Seider pairing could be every bit as good as Niedermayer-Pronger - and we'd have it for a decade plus. Seider and Edvinsson are the main reason I don't think we necessarily need superstar forwards, and they're the main reason I'm not even gonna bother discussing any other defensemen in our system. I think Seider and Edvinsson - whether they're a pairing or not - could potentially make a lot of discussions moot, in a good way. I can picture a plausible future where this is among the very best five-man units in the league: Soderblom -- Kasper -- Raymond Edvinsson -- Seider I dunno that any of those three forwards is scoring 40 goals or winning any individual trophies. But they wouldn't necessarily have to. And that's my point. We don't necessarily need star power. Because all a team really needs is to win matchups. And if you have a well-coached team full of really solid players, you've got a great shot at doing that every night. And I think, realistically (and pretty self-evidently), that's what we're building.

BRUINS lmaooooo

I think we all pretty much know the situation: Barring a miracle or two, we're building a team in the mold of the 2019 Blues. That is: a team that's short on gamebreaking, susperstar-tier talent - but solid from top to bottom and a pain in the ass to play against. The bad news is it's probably gonna take a while for it all to come together. And I think that's what ticks people off. And I think that's understandable. Hell, I'm one of those people. I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over, I want to know right now, what will it be. But the good news is...well... I suppose the good news would be that we do have some good young talent, and at least two of those young players - Raymond and Seider - were basically top-3 picks, and at least one of those two players - Seider - is exactly the kind of player championship teams are built around. It's absolutely silly that we got Seider at 6th overall. (And that Holland was two picks away from snagging him. lmao rekt) Raymond struggled a bit this season, which has taken some of the HYPE! shine off his name. And that's understandable. But, still, the dude's put up 102 points across his first two seasons - and he turned 21 last month. He's far ahead of where Zetterberg was at his age. And, unlike Zetterberg at his age, he's not surrounded by all-stars and HOFers. The Edvinsson HYPE! took a bit of a hit this season too, because a lot of people were hoping for a Seider encore and that very much did not happen. But the talent's 100% there and the potential is unreal and I'm fairly confident his floor - *FLOOR* - is basically taller Kronwall. He did make some mistakes in his short stint with the big club, but overall I thought he looked really good. The sky's still the limit for him, IMO. Kasper was the guy I wanted us to take with that pick and we did and I was thrilled and I still am pretty thrilled. And the reason I'm thrilled is I've been saying for years now, re: our hole at the center position, that we need either a superstar or simply a second Larkin - and I'm confident Kasper can be the latter, and possibly quite soon, as his game's more mature than Larkin's was at his age. I love that he plays with an edge and always goes to the hard areas. "Pain in the ass to play against"? That's Kasper. So that's all very good. It's pretty easy to miss on 1st-round picks, but, thus far, it seems SY's gotten it right. I really wish we had a 2nd/3rd/4th-round pick success story scoring 40 goals for us, but, well, we don't. And that's life. Maybe Mazur's gonna be that guy. Maybe Lombardi's gonna be that guy. Maybe Wallinder's gonna be that guy. Maybe Berggren ends up becoming a core player. We'll see. Bottom line: We're all tired of waiting, but waiting's all we can really do at this point, and it's not all doom and gloom.

Isles are out, so our second 1st will be #18 - unless something crazy happens... ON A COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE: How about those Panthers, eh? Gimme Edvinsson-Gudas.

I'm all in on us going HAM for a legit goal-scoring winger. And given that 1) we don't really appear to have that player in our system or pipeline and 2) this UFA class blows...it's probably gonna have to be a trade. So, yeah - Kyle Connor sounds great. ...Except, he'd cost a fortune, no? Like, a 1st + Kasper/Edvinsson...no? I mean... 26 years old, proven producer, $7M cap hit for 3 more seasons... All the reasons we like him are also reasons why he's probably a pipe dream. No? Mind you, I'm not sure he's any less realistic than DeBrincat, as I have a hard time picturing Dorion sending DeBrincat to a divisional rebuild rival. (Which means DeBrincat will end up in Buffalo or Montreal and we'll scream and it'll be great.) Known French Guy Dubois is almost certainly going to Montreal, because he's a big French baby. I like Nik Ehlers. He doesn't strke me as a gamechanger, but he's a good player who might not cost an insane package. I figure Cheveldayoff would rather move him than Connor. 2 years left on his contract, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Seems like he has trouble staying healthy. So basically he'd be Bertuzzi - i.e. a good-not-great winger who's good for 25 goals...if he's healthy. I wouldn't hate a top line of Ehlers-Larkin-Raymond. I'd like it more than a top line of Perron/Kubalik/Suter-Larkin-Raymond. I don't like that we're on what feels like the 50th year of this infernal rebuild and we only have two exciting core players in our top 6. (Larkin and Raymond.) Kasper's gonna change that soon, but still. Jesper Bratt's another possible target, assuming Timo Meier's the top priority for NJ. Turns 25 in July. Swedish. Drives play. Small. Sounds like a Red WIng. (Which means he'll end up in Buffalo or Montreal or Ottawa and we'll scream and it'll be lovely.) Some have suggested Clayton Keller might want out of Arizona. I don't know that I buy it - but certainly anything's possible with that clownshoes organization. tl;dr idk shrug lmao We're in the position we're always in, which is wanting other team's really good young roster players and having so few really good young roster playes of our own that we can only offer so much in trade talks.

God the Leafs are absolutely tragic and I love it.

In all honesty, it's an irrational thing for me; I have this picture in my head of us signing him to a big deal and then he gets crushed along the boards and he's never quite the same, because Red Wings. He's a very good player and there really isn't anything to not like about him. We need goal scoring like no one's business and the dude puts up points, plain and simple. He does remind me of LeFou tho.

He reminds me of LeFou from Beauty and the Beast.

Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of either player and they're probably both overpays. So, realistically, I dunno that I see us getting either of them. And I'm ok with that. But at the same time, I'm bored with this rebuild and I want loud noises and drama. NO THE 20-YEAR YZERPLAN HASN'T BORED ME TO DEATH QUITE YET BUT I DO THINK MY LIMBS HAVE ATROPHIED

Fair. I say it re: Savoie because Yzerman had great success with smallish centermen in Tampa. He reminds me of prime-years Tyler Johnson. But you could certainly make a case for Kasper being closer to what Yzerman would like in an 8th-overall forward. Personally, I'm Team Kasper.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at.