Whoever DRWs draft with their 1st pick, do you think they'll focus on the best player to get the Larkin treatment and jumps straight to the NHL?
They have 1 top 6 center going into the 2020 season right now, and he's looking to be a second line center. This team is pretty desperately in need of centers.
Larkin played a year at Michigan before making the jump.
Compare that to zero top tier defenders. Then consider that this is a rare draft that's deep in top potential defenders. There's absolutely zero reason Detroit should be drafting anything other than defense in the first round, unless they're picking #2.
They have the equivalent of 4th pairing d-men for much of their blue line. Both areas definitely need help, but they're way overdue to put some heavy resources into defense.They have the equivalent of middle pairing d-men for centers. And at the bottom of the first round there aren't any slam dunk d prospects.
They have the equivalent of middle pairing d-men for centers. And at the bottom of the first round there aren't any slam dunk d prospects.
They have the equivalent of 4th pairing d-men for much of their blue line. Both areas definitely need help, but they're way overdue to put some heavy resources into defense.
And they're on track to have high picks in at least the next 2-3 drafts. And statistically, those next drafts should have a higher ratio of forwards to defensemen near the top, so grab the better position of 2018 (D) this time, and grab the likely better position of 2019 (C/W) next time.
This myopic view in my mind is how we get to hear 5 years from now about a steal that everyone missed that turned into a top player. Reading about this draft there is a lot of group think a year out that could easily be wrong about what was actually strong this draft. The problem in the last decade of Detroit drafting has been exactly the same problem people are having right now: Falling into the group think mentality
It feels a lot like you have a particular player in mind. Somebody slow, small, and skilled. Who do you think they should take? Or are you saying the Wings should take a gamble on a slow, small, skilled player regardless of who it is? I'm a little confused.This myopic view in my mind is how we get to hear 5 years from now about a steal that everyone missed that turned into a top player. Reading about this draft there is a lot of group think a year out that could easily be wrong about what was actually strong this draft. The problem in the last decade of Detroit drafting has been exactly the same problem people are having right now: Falling into the group think mentality. The overwhelming opinion of all the analysts has been big and fast, but yet we see a lot of small, not particularly fast players emerging as great players and a lot of teams got burned. Why? Because instead of actually doing the leg work everyone just followed a trend. Right now is the time where Detroit can afford to try to think outside the box again, like it did 15 years ago when everyone touted Detroit as the team that could pull elite players out of any round. Instead of following a trend Detroit will need to prioritize actually finding and developing players that aren't the what would be the sexiest pick.
My sword is that they should draft a d-man in the top half of the draft and if they happen to land a late first them they should go for best player available that isn't a winger. If a highly rated d prospect falls grab him but if you have a center that falls or you have a c and d that look equal if you have to take a gamble than maybe a center is a good bet.You're gonna die by the sword of your opinion that we should draft a center this year, huh?
Draft boards have leaked from teams, and you always see a huge variance in what they have versus the rankings we all look at. I don't really think they get caught up in groupthink at all.
This myopic view in my mind is how we get to hear 5 years from now about a steal that everyone missed that turned into a top player. Reading about this draft there is a lot of group think a year out that could easily be wrong about what was actually strong this draft. The problem in the last decade of Detroit drafting has been exactly the same problem people are having right now: Falling into the group think mentality. The overwhelming opinion of all the analysts has been big and fast, but yet we see a lot of small, not particularly fast players emerging as great players and a lot of teams got burned. Why? Because instead of actually doing the leg work everyone just followed a trend. Right now is the time where Detroit can afford to try to think outside the box again, like it did 15 years ago when everyone touted Detroit as the team that could pull elite players out of any round. Instead of following a trend Detroit will need to prioritize actually finding and developing players that aren't the what would be the sexiest pick.
Nob had Robert Thomas in the top 50 in January.
I had him pegged as a potential Wings pick at 9 - even if he was lower in the rankings.
Today he's an 18 year old center on Canada's WJC team. He's tearing up the OHL while playing great two-way hockey.
At the end of the day, skill set, scouting reports and video matter as much to me as stats and rankings (where there sure seems to be a lot of follow the leader).
Robert Thomas was the 30th ranked NA skater in the central scouting midterm rankings. You are lying to yourself if you think people didn't know who he was this time last season. As good as his season has been to date, he still projects as a middle-six center at the NHL level. If you are expecting the second coming of Sydney Crosby you are going to be disappointed.
I would love to hear who you feel is trending towards a top-ten, end-of-season ranking at the center position. I want to know who I am missing (apart from the Finns as I mentioned). I agree that there is a lot of hockey to be played, but the players on the up have already begun their ascent.
It feels a lot like you have a particular player in mind. Somebody slow, small, and skilled. Who do you think they should take? Or are you saying the Wings should take a gamble on a slow, small, skilled player regardless of who it is? I'm a little confused.
As an aside, I don't really view the Wings as participating in the league-wide groupthink. They draft a fair amount of players the pundits would not even touch. Ex: Rasmussen, Bertuzzi, Zablocki, all those big defensemen last draft. Tons of Detroit drafts in the last 10 years have been graded as poor drafts. So they're not exactly darlings of the popular hockey media for their draft selections.
For those of us who are critical of the Wings' drafting, many of us are actually critical on the grounds that the Wings ignore league-wide drafting trends like puck-moving defensemen for years on end, only to have to play catchup later on. Part of why many of us were angry about this past draft was because we viewed it as the Wings investing draft picks in a style of play that does not exist now, and may not exist later, either.
I'm saying that we're in December.
Last year in December Liljegren was still being talked about as a top 5 pick.
Just as players can fall out, players can rise.
I don't know who that guy is yet. I've not yet sunk my teeth into this draft at all.
But there's no way in hell I'm writing off every center in the draft on Dec. 16.
Anyone got a report on Jacob Bernard-Docker?
EDIT: or Jack Randl?
EDIT 2: Andrei Kukuca?
EDIT 3: Matthew Kellenberger
They have the equivalent of middle pairing d-men for centers. And at the bottom of the first round there aren't any slam dunk d prospects.
Larkin is a safer bet to be a good top 6 center, than any of our defensive prospects are to being top 4 defenseman. By a country mile.
Looking at this team 3 years from now, you can reasonably expect Larkin to be one of our top 2 centers. Looking at our top 4 defenseman, I like Hronek/Saarijarvi/Cholowski, but they are all still question marks at this point in time to fill those roles.
If Detroit ends up with an additional first round pick, and there's one or more players in the vicinity of said pick that the team believes could one day play 1C, I'm all on board with taking the guy.The issue becomes it is vastly more common for a top pairing D-man to be traded or hit FA than it is for a #1 center. Larkin is definitely looking like a lock to be this teams 2nd line center and likely captain for the next decade, but this team still doesn't have anywhere up or down a pivot that will be able to drive a top line on a contending team. And If Pittsburgh has taught us anything its better to have elite talent down the middle at the expense of the backend than vice versa.
That honestly just sounds like he's afraid to miss on big swings. As if there's a considerable difference between taking big swings rather than picking "safe" guys who probably won't make the NHL anyway.A potential issue with the 2017 draft approach? One could argue the Red Wings didn’t take enough big swings, considering the high number of picks at their disposal and lack of elite talent in the organization.
“If you swing for the fences every time and you’re in a slump, you’re not hitting the ball out of the ballpark all the time,” Wright said when the issue was raised. “You can set the organization back years.”
Wright story by Custance (The Athletic): The stakes are high for Tyler Wright, and the Red Wings
That honestly just sounds like he's afraid to miss on big swings. As if there's a considerable difference between taking big swings rather than picking "safe" guys who probably won't make the NHL anyway.
Wright story by Custance (The Athletic): The stakes are high for Tyler Wright, and the Red Wings
That honestly just sounds like he's afraid to miss on big swings. As if there's a considerable difference between taking big swings rather than picking "safe" guys who probably won't make the NHL anyway.
Wright story by Custance (The Athletic): The stakes are high for Tyler Wright, and the Red Wings
That honestly just sounds like he's afraid to miss on big swings. As if there's a considerable difference between taking big swings rather than picking "safe" guys who probably won't make the NHL anyway.