Heads picks get bashed fairly often in Doug's season review, but one pick I wanted to defend was taking Briere in the 2nd. Of the RW taken after Briere only Gaborik had significantly better stats, and Briere's numbers were superior to Hemsky's. I regret the pick to be sure (Gaborik would have been much better), but would Doan have been an upgrade? No.
Brian will likely be replacing an Fp this draft which will mean one of either Iginla or St Louis will be available in trade or at the draft. Both are getting long in the tooth, but both would stll be 1st rounders if released.
On the topic of St Louis, he has officially asked for a trade - cue the outrage machine as another player with a no-trade asks to be moved. Or not. My bet is that because it is Tampa and not Ottawa none of the frothing at the mouth coverage Heatley received will be in effect this time around. Which says more about the dark side of knee-jerk nationalism among Canadian journalists than anything else.
Speaking of FPs, my shortlist of guys who could be taken is; Green-D Wsh, Getzlaf-C Ana, Keith-D Chi, Backstrom-C Wsh, the Sedins, Kane-R Chi, and Miller-G Buf. Semin-L is close but still too injury prone for my liking. None of this takes into account Funhl teams or their needs.
My Funhl awards would be:
Hart: H. Sedin
Norris: Green
Selke: Kesler
Vezina: Miller
Calder: Myers
will Jagr return to the NHL? It's definitely possible. Where he would be picked depends heavily on who signs him. If it's Columbus his selection will occur much, much later than if he takes a Mario discount deal to play Pittsburgh.
Maybe it's just me, but If I were in charge of the Panthers I would blow them up completely. Weiss is not a legit 1st line center, Horton is a nice talent but can't carry the team, and prospects like Repik, Mathias and Frolik haven't reached their potential. Time to gut the staff and start over.
There is an awesome debate on who the Oilers should take first overall taking shape at Lowetide's blog (link in sidebar at the right). Here is how the Taylor Vs Tyler looks to me;
Hall-L Windsor:
The Good: elite wheels, good size for his position, ultra competitive,precocious talent, son of an athlete (dad was in CFL), lead OHL in assists, steady upward trend, NHL caliber shot, track record of winning, MVP of the Memorial Cup, best player on Canada's WJC team. Projects as goal scoring power winger.
The Bad: Prima Donna, gets 'blown up' by big checks too often, left handed shot, not great at faceoffs. Played for a loaded team. Ability to physically overwhelm defensemen not as likely at next level.
Seguin-C Plymouth
The Good: Prototype #1 center, playmaking ability, right handed shot, hockey sense, steady upward trend, son of an athlete (father was a minor pro hockey player), wildly outplayed Hall at prospects game, carried a weak team offensively, emotional maturity.
The Bad: later birthdate means he's played one less year of junior, dominated by Hall and Windsor in OHL playoffs, cut from WJrs, and hasn't been counted on in international play.
Most scouts have these two as 'pick em', as they look to be the cream of this years draft crop by a fair margin.
My prediction is that the Oilers will take Seguin because he fits an organizational need for a #1 center.
Which means Taylor Hall will be a Bruin. Sweet.
9 comments:
Totally agree Cam - except - 20/20 says Burrows -rw van with 35-30-65 and 115pims is better than briere...
i think the oilers will pick the "wrong" prospect no matter how good hall or seguin "could" be.
Sorry to keep harping on the Briere call but I'm going to.
The only RW taken before you take Briere is D.Alfredsson. On actual pts, the shoulda-woulda-coulda list vs Briere's 53pts have:
M.Gaborik's 86pts, N.Antropov 67pts, A.Burrows 67pts and lots of toughness, C.Stewart 64pts, J.Langenbrunner 61pts, N.Horton 57pts, R.Clowe 57pts, D.Brown 56pts, S.Doan 55pts, M.Havlat 54pts. (L.Eriksson's 71pts, M.Afinogenov's 61pts and P.Kessel's 55pts were - if I am not mistaken - rfas promoted from their protected list).
Of course injury (no, say it is not so) did reduce Briere's effectiveness. He prorated out to 58pts, but again this was not that impressive.
M.Gaborik prorated to 93pts, A.Hemsky to 82pts, T.Selanne to 73, N.Antropov 72pts, N.Horton 72pts, C.Stewart 68pts, M.Hejduk 64pts, M.Knuble 62 pts, B.Gionta 62pts, J.Langenbrunner 62pts, and M.Havlat 61pts.
So yes, I really thought this was a bad call at the time and stand by my assessment.
With respect to Brian's FP debate I agree with Cam, two top-level FPs. In a off year for Iginla he still has two RW in the top 8 at their position (St. Louis ranked 1st and Iginla ranked 7th). A trade would make the most sense, since Backstrom is an elite center that needs to be made an FP.
Turco is also going bye-bye as an FP but I suspect that Mike Green will be filling that slot for the Great Whites.
The other obvious FP to be dropped is A.Tanguay. A Bladerunner-Ramapithicine trade certainly seems a possibility but should Corey get a high draft slot there are names (Either Sedin, Getzlaf, among others as noted by Cam) that may be more appealing than either of the Bladerunner castoffs.
As for Cam's FP short-list only Kane is a question mark - not becuase he isn't worthy - but simply because he will be Mike's 22nd round selection and a newly minted rfa come September.
No real criticism with Cam's FunHL awards though Ovechkin's 109pts on lw may be more valuable than Henrik's 112pts at center. Also Mr. Brodeur's 113pts is ten more than Mr. Miller's 103pts so the Vezina should probably go there.
Like Cam's Calder pick at an NHL level but not sure he is the FunHL rookie. Brian only played Myers for 6 of his 48pts. By contrast Del Zotto was played (by the Highlanders and Ramapithicines) for 29 of his 37pts but my suggestion for the FunHL rookie would be p1 LW-er J.Benn of Dal who (between the Shadowmen and Scourge) had 33 of his possible 41pts recorded as FunHL pts.
Our FunHL Selke award winner (though he is a defensemen) really ought to be the +/- knockout blow of N.Schultz. Mike played him +/- for 52pts of the 100! +/-pts he got over the season. In his final week, Schultz went +12 for 24pts!!
Where does Schultz go next season?
Not sure that blowing up the Panthers results in any real change. Hopefully they can get something for Vokoun and pick a good partner for Kulikov on d.
With Mr. Markstrom coming there is still hope.
Speaking of the draft, I agree that the buzz in Edmonton is leaning towards Seguin. There have been talks that the Bruins might trade up to secure Hall or be willing to trade the pick outright to the Oil to select both - which would be very interesting - just I don't think the Oil have enough to make it happen.
Turco is freelance, and likely unattractive in most markets he might land, and unlikely to reproduce his 1.7 GAA of yore.
A different debate: What do the Great Whites do with the likes of Eric Staal? Lacklustre performance to start the season as always, playing on a team that did little to inspire, came on late as usual to finish in top 20 scoring (just). There are better "fish" out there, but is Staal bad enough to lose a pick to part with? Or does he get moved for another FP to be dropped?
Wow I think reading comprehension dipped significantly with that 2nd place finish.
"Of the RW taken after Briere only Gaborik had significantly better stats".
Bob's reccomendation of Burrows/TG is germane, but none of the players you list Doug have 'significantly better' stats than Briere (though some are better), and your darling Hemsky finished 30pts+ behind Briere - so obviously you would prefer to discuss 'pro-rated' points when mauling my Briere selection.
- In the case of preferring Brodeur for the FUNHL Vezina over Miller, I agree. Points are points, and Brodeur had more of them, and thus, he should get the award.
Which is why the Hart should go to Hank Sedin. Points are points and Hank had more of them.
As for Dan's dilemma with Staal;
- Is Staal a 1st or 2nd round pick if he is released? Yes.
- Are there players at his position that are significantly better moving forward? Possibly. Getzlaf's TG potential makes him a better candidate IMO, and Backstrom has a partner in crime that pushes his offensive ceiling higher than Staal's - but barring a trade he ain't a Great White moving forward. Henrik Sedin's best year is a few points better than Staal's, but he is also much older than Staal.
Lastly, with Tavares, Stastny and Doughty coming up the pipe there is no shortage of potential Staal replacements coming on line, so the GW's can afford to wait and see if Staal is really the right fit - because if he isn't they already have guys ready to take that role from him. Unfortunately, with quality FPs available in the draft, there is unlikely to be that many Gms willing to trade for Staal at his current value.
Cam is right about Staal, he should be a Great White for a few more years to be sure. The potential is not a mirage, he's a 100pt center who had a bad year - no reason to bail at this point. There are other options coming down the pipe in a few years if the need to switch is obvious.
"Wow I think reading comprehension dipped significantly with that 2nd place finish."
I think I probably could have worded that more diplomatically.
* as to Briere, not sure I would have picked him that early, but if needing a RW, he would have been on my radar
* ya, Bladerunners do need to trade (or gasp - drop) a top RW FP ...definitely interested in talking with the Ramapithicines GM or any other that might be interested
* what about Kopitar as well for a potential FP...Kane not a candidate as he is a P4, not a RFA, and Mike can wait another year
* ok fine - give Brodeur the FUNHL Vezina, but Doug still eats his words for saying during the draft that there were better goalies to pick in the 17th rnd than Miller ... as to the Calder, I should really have brought Myers up much earlier (and since I didn't, another FUNHL prospect should get the FUNHL Calder)
* Cam - you should pick Jagr in the 1st round next year, he'll be awesome ;-)
* Panthers - move em to Winnipeg, or is Phoenix going there first, or Atlanta? I'm confused
* Edmonton is going to get an awesome player whichever guy they take ... the really funny and awesome part of all this is that Toronto won't
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