Boomhower said:
It also wouldn't surprise me to see the Wings take Lennart Pettrell somewhere in the middle or late rounds, they've gone after European pests before at the draft.
I should have known that someone else would have been looking at Petrell in the mid-to-late rounds. I was hoping everyone would have been turned off by his freaking out at the WJC.
I would hope that, since the Blues have made at least one trip over to Finland to check out Juhamatti Aaltonen in the Finnish Junior league, they'd have gotten a good look at Petrell in that league also. Aaltonen looks like a possible late-round sleeper for the Blues, and I'd like to see Petrell fall into that category for them as well.
Oh, by the way... here's my take on the Blues' needs, etc.
1). First round is a tough call. The organ-I-zation has little in the way of solid scoring forward prospects. As it stands now, the only guys with a real chance to make any kind of impact as NHL scorers are Zakharov, Shkotov and Backes, with MacMurchy and Aaltonen as longshots.
That being the case, I've advocated elsewhere that the Blues go after Lukas Kaspar in the first round. He's big, skilled, and has played most of the last season with men in the Czech Extraleague, where he didn't embarrass himself from all that I've heard. Some people might say that taking him at 17th overall would be a stretch, but unless the Blues can somehow acquire another, later first-round pick, Kaspar will be gone before their szecond-round pick comes up.
2). The Blues are also supposed to be still looking for their goalie of the future, dedspite a strong season by Curtis Sanford in the AHL, and despite both Tuomas Nissinen and Konstantin Barulin being right about where they should be on their respective development paths. Montoya's name has been thrown around as a possible first-round pick, as have the names Marek Schwarz and Cory Schneider. I didn't know much about Schneider until recently, but ater having taken the time to dig up some things about him, I'd be willing to take him with a first-round pick as well.
Myself, I think I'd draft Kaspar in the first round, and Schneider or Devan Dubnyk in the second round. Then fill in with forwards with scoring upside, another goalie (I like Martin Houle in Cape Breton as a mid-round pick), and another couple of big right-hand shots on defense.
3). The Blues have a lot of depth on defense. The core at the NHL level is probably set for the next decade with Pronger, Jackman, Backman, and Matt Walker. Salvador is in the mix as well, and there are some kids at Worcester (Trevor Byrne and Mike Stuart), in junior (Shawn Belle and Zach FitzGerald), and in Europe (Robin Jonsson) who all have upside and potential.
4). Pavol Demitra and Doug Weight will probably be made available for trade at the draft, or in the off-season. Don't be surprised to see Pronger's name in trade rumors as well, but the Blues know they'd have to be getting a lot back if they gave up Pronger.
PrussianBlue