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2017 NHL Entry Draft thread

San Jose took your kid Deckie.
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Wheeler is an idiot.

The best thing about later round picks is you have a bunch more lottery picks to follow and hope surprise. I've said it before and its a fairly obvious point, but how Hunter et al do with their post-first round picks will have a lot to say about the rebuilt new scouting regime. It's gonna take several years still.
 
Scott Wheeler from TSN thinks Scott, Gordeev, McGregor and Kara are all bad picks.

Will be interesting to see.
I'd take his opinion with a pinch of salt.

Wheeler is a solid information conduit, but for a kid in his early 20's, fresh out of journalism school with no professional background in scouting, he frequently seems way too confident that NHL scouts are a bunch of morons when they deviate from picking the small, skilled midgets he ranks high on his own list.
 
criticizing 5th round picks who you have never seen play is the height of stupidiity.
They have some decent articles but every year that group bash Hunter because his later picks didn't line up with there's

Not saying Hunter is right or wrong and I have no problem disagreeing with some of his picks but don't sit there and act like you could do much better if put in the position
 
I'd take his opinion with a pinch of salt.

Wheeler is a solid information conduit, but for a kid in his early 20's, fresh out of journalism school with no professional background in scouting, he frequently seems way too confident that NHL scouts are a bunch of morons when they deviate from picking the small, skilled midgets he ranks high on his own list.

Guys like Wheeler get stuck on a value -- ie, player x is a 3rd round pick -- and then can't believe when that guy falls so hard or goes undrafted.

IMO, a teenage hockey player is a speculative asset whose unknown future value is being determined by 30 NHL teams, not journalists.
 
It will be a few years before we can really judge Hunter's work outside of the top 10 (where we've been stellar and a bit lucky)...but when you look at the picks he's made outside of the first round, you've seen a ton of growth from the majority of the picks. Exactly what you want to see from prospects if your drafting people are doing their jobs

2015:

Dermott - accolades from everywhere, damn close to the league
Bracco - Big steps forward, accomplished everything in junior you would ask for
Nielsen - huge growth since the draft, still a project but the upside is evident
Dzierkals - took a step back this year, has the tools to be a middle/bottom 6 guy still and his transition to the AHL this year will be a solid window into the chances of that happening
Lindgren - Solid step forward in sweden this year
Timashov - Streaky in his first taste of AHL hockey, showed high end skill in short bursts. If he finds consistency, could be a steal still
Desrocher - Was always a project, showed legit growth year over year since draft
Korostelev - Minimal growth...but was a 7th rounder, meh.

2016

Korshkov - was mid break out before he broke his leg
Grundstrom - Looks like a legit middle 6 winger prospect. Legit nose for the net, legit sand paper. Looking like a great pick
Woll - very good rookie season as an 18 yr old rookie in the NCAA
Greenway - Not a bad transition to the NCAA as a 18 yr old, but hasn't translated those tools into production yet
Brooks - might be turning himself into a legitimate prospect
Middleton - showed some improvement
Bobylev - Meh, swing and a miss
Walker - Meh, swing and a miss II
Mattinen - Another big defender who we won't really know what we have until they hit pro. No offensive upside. But very big and very right handed.
Chebykin - Russian project is still project



Too early to know if it's going to produce players, but a lot of good development from almost everyone.
 
Yeah, no complaints here -- lots of these picks have shown improvement and good potential since being selected. Sure feels a lot better than it has since ... forever.
 
even pretending like you can judge 4-7 round picks today is stupid. You really can't even judge the earlier ones but at least there is lots of info on those guys.


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You get garbage like this too.

One of the most competent management teams in the league and because the Leafs board didn't match up with theirs they think Hunter got lucky

Get over yourself
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Chebykin - Russian project is still project

Just to add to this---I think this guy actually had a sneaky good season last year.

Whenever he played in the Russian junior league, he ripped it to shreds. And although his lack of production during his brief time in the KHL sticks out like a sore thumb, when I looked up his game logs during the season, it turned out he was never really given a chance. In all but one game, I believe, his ice time ranged from 45 seconds to a minute or two per game.

He also had decent production in the Russian lower professional league that improved as the season went on.

Between him and Korshkov, I'm now inclined to sit up and take notice when we select an overage Russian kid that seemingly no one has heard of---like the kid we picked this year.
 
Just to add to this---I think this guy actually had a sneaky good season last year.

Whenever he played in the Russian junior league, he ripped it to shreds. And although his lack of production during his brief time in the KHL sticks out like a sore thumb, when I looked up his game logs during the season, it turned out he was never really given a chance. In all but one game, I believe, his ice time ranged from 45 seconds to a minute or two per game.

He also had decent production in the Russian lower professional league that improved as the season went on.

Between him and Korshkov, I'm now inclined to sit up and take notice when we select an overage Russian kid that seemingly no one has heard of---like the kid we picked this year.
Great digging.

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I know Woll's already been mentioned as having a pretty good year last year but also worth noting he's expected to be the starting goalie for the US WJC team this time around.

Not sure I really "got" last year's selections either but a few of them ended up showing some really good signs. Maybe it'll be the same thing but I think zeke's right - I'm really just saying that because of faith in our scouts/track record.
 
That Wheeler guy is unbearable. Him and Jeff veillette have some arrogance/cockiness in them where they think they are Jesus Christ themselves. They are always right and everyone else is always wrong.

Meanwhile Jeff veillette is some slob that barely graduated high school and never played hockey and wheeler is some nerd that just got out of journalism school. At least wheeler has an education and can actually string a coherent sentence is together but yeah neither know dick all about hockey
 
That's the max I would have given up too. And it's a beautiful sign they're willing to move on from jvr. Love this management.
 
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