O'Sullivan, Kopitar or Zapragan?

[adudani]

If your objective was to draft a forward who will score the most points, not necessarily in the next year or two but within the near future, would you take Patrick O'Sullivan, Anze Kopitar or Marek Zapragan?

O'Sullivan seems like the safest choice of the three. He's got skill and he's proven himself throughout his junior career. He's also a good skater. The way I see it, he's a center on a defensive-minded team that is loaded with centers. That can't help.

Zapragan is projected to be a top first-line center on a young Buffalo hockey club but I don't think he's got Kopitar's skill set. I would take Kopitar. High risk but high reward.

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[Chrisd]

1. osully
2. kopitar
3. zagrapan

O'sullivan is dominating the AHL. He will have the chance to play with guys like gaborik/rolston/bouchard... He has a lethal shot and the wild will need his scoring, i can see him getting a good role here next year forsure.

i see him becoming a PPG type player in a couple years.

 

[Pete Rock]

I'll be a homer and take O'Sullivan over anyone because I believe he has both the talent and character to survive in the NHL. I like Zags and Kopitar (from what I've heard about Kopitar anyway) but I like O'Sullivan waaaaaaaay more.

 

[OrrNumber4]

Zags is good but not great, and I haven't seen enough of Kopitar, so O'Sullivan wins this. He is a character player who is willing to work on his flaws, and he has explosive offensive potential. Of course, he'll probably get 60 points max in Minnesota under Lemaire

 

[Chrisd]

yeah nobody can score in minny...

gaborik is over a ppg

rolston is having a career year, around 80 pts

bouchard is taking off...

problem here isn't lemaire it's just a lack of talent in the moment. Adding guys like O'sullivan, Benoit Pouliot, Voloshenko will help cure that problem.

 

[Pete Rock]

Zags is good but not great, and I haven't seen enough of Kopitar, so O'Sullivan wins this. He is a character player who is willing to work on his flaws, and he has explosive offensive potential. Of course, he'll probably get 60 points max in Minnesota under Lemaire

That's what people said about Elias' ceiling on the defensively oriented Devils. Then he became the most underrated player in the NHL and was a heartbeat away from winning the Richard trophy last season.

 

[WILDTATE10]

Also O'Sully will play on the wing for the Wild. probably center the PP.

 

[adudani]

I'm not saying that O'Sullivan won't score on the Wild. All I meant is that playing a defensive brand of hockey can't help his stats.

Does it make sense to take O'Sullivan, who might end up being a 70 point player in a few years, over a guy like Kopitar who seems capable of scoring 100 points and also happens to be on a young Kings team already loaded with weapons like Demitra, Frolov, Cammy etc. who all play uptempo hockey? I'm not so sure. O'Sullivan will a better player sooner. But it seems like Kopitar might be an upper echelon player one day. It just may take a little longer.

 

[Chrisd]

so take kopitar, nobody would rip that selection lol

I expect all 3 of these prospects to do great.

I just don't buy into the can't score in minny stuff. Rolston is having a career year here, if gaborik wasn't hurt earlier he would have 40+ goals. Like i Said bouchard is becoming a offensive producing stud.

It boils down to talent, when we have less Veilleuxs, wanvigs, dupuis and more voloshenkos, osullivans, pouliots .....watch the production go up. Plus the fact MN will have 15 mill in cap room to add production and offense if they so choose.

I think O'sullivan is in a great spot personally...but so is kopitar in LA.

Zagrapan may take a bit longer to get good minutes on that buffalo team imo.

 

[NashisCash]

I definitely wouldn't hold off on picking O'sullivan because he plays in Minnesota. Rolston is near the top 20 in scoring, while Gaborik, if he didn't get injured, would be in the top 5 in goals, and both are playing with less than good talent. Once O'sullivan, Koivu, Bouchard, Pouliot, etc. begin to hit their prime, the Wild will be a very offensively gifted team.

O'sullivan probably has arguably the highest upside and is the safest. Kopitar and Zagrapan have a little more bust potential, but both could be great players.

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

I'd go with O'Sullivan. Just as much skill if not more than the other two, and much more proven.

Kopitar next, and then a bit of gap until you get Zagrapan, because he is the highest risk. Marek plays on the big ice in Chicoutimi and takes every bit of advantage of it. It will be very interesting to see how he adapts against men in the AHL on smaller ice. I'm not saying he won't adapt - he has great skills - but it adds a bit of risk to him as a pick versus the other two IMO.

 

[Wild Thing]

O'Sullivan seems like the safest choice of the three. He's got skill and he's proven himself throughout his junior career. He's also a good skater. The way I see it, he's a center on a defensive-minded team that is loaded with centers. That can't help.

Two things. First off, I don't think LeMaire will be coaching in Minnesota more than a couple more years. If he's still here in four, I'll be amazed. By the time O'Sullivan is entering his prime, he'll be playing for a diffferent coach in a more offensively-oriented system.

Second, - yes, we are loaded with centers. But we're not loaded with good centers. We've got a closetful of 3rd and 4th-line guys, and then we've got Koivu and Bouchard (who I think will eventually be moved to center.) No matter how many centers we have, and no matter what forward position O'Sullivan plays, he's going to be playing on one of the top two lines, most likely the first line. So our depth at any given position won't impede a player of that caliber at all, in my opinion.

And having said all that, I'll answer the question in the OP. I'll take O'Sullivan, 10 times out of 9. This kid is going to be a star. There is no Wild prospect I'm more excited about than him.

 

[adudani]

Wow, never thought I'd see the day when there was a unanimous consesus about anything. Ok, O'Sullivan apparently is the best prospect of the three. Let's open this up to some more players to make it more interesting:

Based on the same criteria above (top scorer at their position), in what order would you draft the following prospects, and why?

1. Patrick O'Sullivan
2. Jack Skille
3. Ryan Suter
4. Ryan Whitney
5. Andrew Ladd
6. Eric Fehr
7. Braydon Coburn

 

[hab]

If your objective was to draft a forward who will score the most points, not necessarily in the next year or two but within the near future, would you take Patrick O'Sullivan, Anze Kopitar or Marek Zapragan?

O'Sullivan seems like the safest choice of the three. He's got skill and he's proven himself throughout his junior career. He's also a good skater. The way I see it, he's a center on a defensive-minded team that is loaded with centers. That can't help.

Zapragan is projected to be a top first-line center on a young Buffalo hockey club but I don't think he's got Kopitar's skill set. I would take Kopitar. High risk but high reward.

go with your first instinct, if sullivan looks like the best by far right now, he probably is.

 

[Pete Rock]

I'm not saying that O'Sullivan won't score on the Wild. All I meant is that playing a defensive brand of hockey can't help his stats.

Does it make sense to take O'Sullivan, who might end up being a 70 point player in a few years, over a guy like Kopitar who seems capable of scoring 100 points and also happens to be on a young Kings team already loaded with weapons like Demitra, Frolov, Cammy etc. who all play uptempo hockey? I'm not so sure. O'Sullivan will a better player sooner. But it seems like Kopitar might be an upper echelon player one day. It just may take a little longer.

Which is essentially why I brought up the name Patrik Elias and the subsequent word "under-rated".

To me Elias is one of the top five players in the league because he has such an offensive arsenal, is a team leader, and is more than efficient in his own end. Aside from a physical game, he is an absolutely complete player and he makes any team instantly contenders (see the Devils record and place in the standings before his return).

Elias' skill set at the time of his debut was very similar to O'Sullivan's as it is now, and there's no reason to not believe that O'Sullivan has the potential to become the force that Elias is today.

EDIT - IIRC, which is entirely possible to be NOT the case, Elias was also drafted as a centreman and made the fine transition to wing.

 

[WILDTATE10]

Wow, never thought I'd see the day when there was a unanimous consesus about anything. Ok, O'Sullivan apparently is the best prospect of the three. Let's open this up to some more players to make it more interesting:

Based on the same criteria above (top scorer at their position), in what order would you draft the following prospects, and why?

1. Patrick O'Sullivan
2. Jack Skille
3. Ryan Suter
4. Ryan Whitney
5. Andrew Ladd
6. Eric Fehr
7. Braydon Coburn

1. O'Sullivan
2.Suter
3. Ladd
4. Whitney
5. Coburn
6. tie Skille and Fehr

 

[Transported Upstater]

Right now, O'Sullivan is easily the best of the three.

Potential-wise, O'Sullivan and Kopitar are both high up there.

Marek Zagrapan is not in their league IMO.

 

[David Catselhoff]

O'Sullivan will probably score the most points, but Kopitar is going to be the better overall player.

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

O'Sullivan would be the player and it isn't even close. Kopitar and Zapragan are going to be great players, but I'm going to say that O'Sullivan will make Gaborik expendable. That's how good O'Sullivan will be.

 

[Crosby=Gretzky]

I like Zagrapan really much, but I have to admit like some other poster said, he's not in the same league as Sully and Anze. They've got loads of potential, and even if Zagrapan is really talented, the risk of busting biggest for him, I think. But I think he will have great use of these two years in the Q, down the line.

 

[Tricolore#20]

I'd go with O'Sullivan. Just as much skill if not more than the other two, and much more proven.

Kopitar next, and then a bit of gap until you get Zagrapan, because he is the highest risk. Marek plays on the big ice in Chicoutimi and takes every bit of advantage of it. It will be very interesting to see how he adapts against men in the AHL on smaller ice. I'm not saying he won't adapt - he has great skills - but it adds a bit of risk to him as a pick versus the other two IMO.

Do the Sags play on a bigger ice surface? That's interesting. What other rinks in the CHL aren't 200 x 85?

 

[Birko19]

I'll take Kopitar, I think he's gonna be a beast in the NHL, but O'Sullivan is the safest pick out of the 3.

 

[MePutPuckInNet]

...where the hell have you people been for the past three or four years?