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Around The League - 2024-25 Regular Season

I think some of you quickly forgot what our situation at center was at the time of the draft. We had Danault coming up a 25 points season and Drouin in a not so convincing performance at center. That's it. After that we were looking at Byron and De La Rose. We had no prospects at center either.

I wanted Hughes at the time because he was a special talent, and would not have been disappointed by drafting Tkachuk, but I can't blame them for picking the BCA.
 
I meant it was a bone headed move if they didn't look at Hughes closely, not because they didn't draft him (I wanted Zadina after all) I would have liked to think they had the foresight to evaluate all of the top 4-5 fairly before settling on Kotkaniemi.

I, on the other hand, had really only seen Zadina, so it was a homer call and not a serious one because I knew the limitations of my method.I would like to think they were using a more advanced approach than "well, we will draft the centre because we need one and not bother looking much at the rest".
 
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GrandWazoo said:
I think some of you quickly forgot what our situation at center was at the time of the draft. We had Danault coming up a 25 points season and Drouin in a not so convincing performance at center. That's it. After that we were looking at Byron and De La Rose. We had no prospects at center either.

I wanted Hughes at the time because he was a special talent, and would not have been disappointed by drafting Tkachuk, but I can't blame them for picking the BCA.
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Don’t mind the pick but you never ever reach in the top 5
 
I'm sure they looked and evaluated Hughes, like they do with all players. Just because they didn't go in person to look at him at the WC doesn't bother me that much.

In the top 5, you better get the player that you really want, even if it means reaching out a few ranks. KK was ranked 5th on McKenzie final list. Hughes was actually 8th, for some reason a lot of teams had questions as to whether he'd be able to be a top pair or merely a top 4.
 
GrandWazoo said:
I'm sure they looked and evaluated Hughes, like they do with all players. Just because they didn't go in person to look at him at the WC doesn't bother me that much.

In the top 5, you better get the player that you really want, even if it means reaching out a few ranks. KK was ranked 5th on McKenzie final list. Hughes was actually 8th, for some reason a lot of teams had questions as to whether he'd be able to be a top pair or merely a top 4.
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KK was the biggest reach IMO

His draft ranking rocketed over the last 3 months , he wasn’t even on the radar screen as a first rounder

Zadina was the most overrated and Brady was the safe sure bet top 6 with a limited ceiling but a 15 year career
 
Brady's ceiling is pretty high....power forwards like that don't come around often, and he's got his dad's character also (a big bonus).

He was the right pick at #3...especially for a team that wanted to win now (and that's obviously what Bergevin/Molson want, one last shot with vets like Weber-Price).
 
GrandWazoo said:
I'm sure they looked and evaluated Hughes, like they do with all players. Just because they didn't go in person to look at him at the WC doesn't bother me that much.

In the top 5, you better get the player that you really want, even if it means reaching out a few ranks. KK was ranked 5th on McKenzie final list. Hughes was actually 8th, for some reason a lot of teams had questions as to whether he'd be able to be a top pair or merely a top 4.
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The “for some reason” re: Hughes must’ve been his size.
 
GrandWazoo said:
I'm sure they looked and evaluated Hughes, like they do with all players. Just because they didn't go in person to look at him at the WC doesn't bother me that much.

In the top 5, you better get the player that you really want, even if it means reaching out a few ranks. KK was ranked 5th on McKenzie final list. Hughes was actually 8th, for some reason a lot of teams had questions as to whether he'd be able to be a top pair or merely a top 4.
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Yeah you better get the player you want in the top 5 but it seems like MB convinced himself that KK was worthy of being taken at 3 because he wanted it to be so. KK is still just 20 . . . but I think there’s cause for some concern. At least we didn’t pick Zadina, he seems like a total bust.
 
Krustchev said:
Yeah you better get the player you want in the top 5 but it seems like MB convinced himself that KK was worthy of being taken at 3 because he wanted it to be so. KK is still just 20 . . . but I think there’s cause for some concern. At least we didn’t pick Zadina, he seems like a total bust.
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KK will need another year for sure , but giving him better linemates would help
 
Zadina's a total bust...? Ummmm?

The only player from the 2018 draft's early picks that looks like he's already going to bust is Wahlstrom.
 
GGpX said:
Zadina's a total bust...? Ummmm?

The only player from the 2018 draft's early picks that looks like he's already going to bust is Wahlstrom.
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Fine . . . my point was that at pick no. 3 you should be looking to draft a first line forward or top pairing defenseman, not a competent 2nd line center . . . Obviously the quality of the first round fluctuates almost annually but still . . . KK doesn’t seem like a terrible pick but it does seem like a pick based on MB more or less having convinced himself that KK should be the pick, not KK’s obvious talent doing the convincing. But we’ll see . . .
 
It was a draft for need for sure, which is normally an unforgiveable sin, except maybe for an organization desperately starving for centers, that had at that moment only one natural center in the whole organization (Danault), and hadn't been able to develop a top 2 center since Plekanec and Desharnais, sign one, or trade for one. Danault looked more like a 3rd line center at that time anyway coming up a 25 points season in that role. It's been quite a turn around on our situation at center since then.

Tkachuk was as sure a thing as a player can ever be coming in the draft but his upside was questionable at the time with an underwhelming 31 points in 40 games at Boston University.
 
Danaults D+5 year - first full year in the NHL when he got traded to Habs in the middle of the season

D+6 year: put up 40 pts playing with prime Pacioretty and Radulov for 6% of the season

KK is basically half a year younger than Danault was when drafted (Danaults D+2.5 year)

KK needs a winger who will help speed up his game, which the combo of Armia & Toffoli do not. Put Tasmanian devil Lekhonen and move Armia to 4th, see how things play out, Poehling might end up being the mid season solution, or dare I say Hall as trade deadline solution
 
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