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The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds

Preston said:
I will say, in the interest of fairness, after a checking a couple of the others on that list, most of them had elite 2nd halves of their college seasons too. Cooley and Eichel were at around ~2ppg, for reference. Whereas Wyttenbach actually slowed down late season.

But I guess the main difference is that McKenna's team was worse than Cooley and Eichel's and he was sort of on an island compared to those two. I think Bedard-ish is a fair enough comparison for him. It's a no brainer #1 pick obviously in a draft like this with no other clear superstar talents.

EDIT: Fantili was at around 2ppg too in the 2nd half. So they all took some time to adjust! Though Gavin and Cooley started off real slow compared to the others.
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But also Cooley was half a year older than Gavin, so that's not a fair comparison either. Gavin is a step up on most in that list imo.
 
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hockeylover said:
Let’s see some lineup and trade target/FA ideas
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Knies ($7.75)- Matthews ($13.25)-McKenna ($1.1)
Cowan ($875k)-XXX-Nylander ($11.5)
Bunting ($2)-Tavares($4.39)-Maccelli/Robertson ($3-4)
Domi ($3.75)-Groulx($875)-Joshua ($3.25)

McCabe ($4.51)-Raddyish/Andersson ($9)
XXX - Blankenburg ($4.5)
Rielly ($7.5)-Tanev ($4.5)

Woll ($3.67)
Stolarz ($3.75)
Hildeby ($842)

Total: $91.01
Cap Space: $13 million

I'd use Darryl Metcalf to find a the best, youngish, dman I can like Samberg, Byram, Zellwegger etc. and an undervalued center with upside that can be acquired for mid round picks, like Hayton or Alex Turcotte. Use Danford, Robertson, Col 1st, OEL/Carlo returns as the bait.

And obviously if you can move Domi/Joshua/Stolarz you can create another $8 or so million and go crazy. Sign both Raddysh and Andersson, or Tuch and move WIlly to C. If they can move the Tre contracts they can do anything.
 
Volcanologist said:
bottom line, I think McKenna is too good to pass on
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I think he's awesome but have some real concerns. Question marks on production, on skills (both speed and size), and on intangibles.

I don’t know near enough but if one of those dmen satisfy the tools+production areas better then i could see it being a better option still.
 
zeke said:
I think he's awesome but have some real concerns. Question marks on production, on skills (both speed and size), and on intangibles.

I don’t know near enough but if one of those dmen satisfy the tools+production areas better then i could see it being a better option still.
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It would be Carels IMO.

Not sure I would do it, but I wouldn’t be mad about it. Especially if we can trade down and get full value.
 
zeke said:
I think he's awesome but have some real concerns. Question marks on production, on skills (both speed and size), and on intangibles.

I don’t know near enough but if one of those dmen satisfy the tools+production areas better then i could see it being a better option still.
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You draft McKenna. Full stop.

Also, you replace the coach.
 
Again, I won’t pretend to personally know anything about this year’s prospects.

But if there’s a wide consensus that the winger at the top of the draft rankings is clearly on a different level than any of the defensemen in the draft, then fuck the defensemen. Take the stud forward.

When you own the first overall pick is the absolute last time you should be thinking about drafting for your current positional needs.
 
The word "perimeter" seems to come up a lot in scouting reports on McKenna, which is concerning. Still, can't pass up that talent.
 
LeafGm said:
Again, I won’t pretend to personally know anything about this year’s prospects.

But if there’s a wide consensus that the winger at the top of the draft rankings is clearly on a different level than any of the defensemen in the draft, then fuck the defensemen. Take the stud forward.

When you own the first overall pick is the absolute last time you should be thinking about drafting for your current positional needs.
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Really doesn't have anything to do with positional needs.

More that offensive dmen continue to be the value play on draft day because they never put up the eye popping stats that the forwards do. It's never a surprise when guys like Schaefer and Makar immediately look much better than their draft day reps and as shoo in best in class picks.

And mckenna has only been considered the best player in the draft, not really as the shoo in top pick or a generational lock.

He's definitely the favorite but if there’s a makar/schaefer type there they could easily be the right play there.
 
zeke said:
He's definitely the favorite but if there’s a makar/schaefer type there they could easily be the right play there.
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Sure. But is anyone saying there is a Makar or Schaefer in this draft? Or a defenseman with comparable talent to McKenna?

If that is being claimed, I haven’t seen it yet. The only guy that seems to be getting any talk at all as potentially better than McKenna is Stenberg.
 
You only do it if you think the dman is as good as McKenna.

But maybe you can make an argument for Carels:

17 year old dmen CHL since 1990
1. Ryan Ellis - 1.5
2, Zane Parekh - 1.45
3. Matthew Schaefer - 1.29
4. Bryan Berard 1.29
5. Carson Carels - 1.25
6. Ryan Murphy - 1.25
7. Daxon Rudolph - 1.14
8. Drew Doughty - 1.10
9. Sam Girard - 1.10


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQYe3VNUVk0
 
LeafGm said:
Sure. But is anyone saying there is a Makar or Schaefer in this draft? Or a defenseman with comparable talent to McKenna?

If that is being claimed, I haven’t seen it yet. The only guy that seems to be getting any talk at all as potentially better than McKenna is Stenberg.
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There's been plenty of talk that mckenna isn't a surefire #1.

And there was nobody saying schaefer and makar were the schaefer or makar of their drafts, else they would have been surefire #1s.
 
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