I'd really like to see him spend the entire year in San Antonio. He could be a good player, but he's definitely not beyond improvement in the minors.
Tage Thompson's ceiling
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Brian39
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I want him to at least start in the AHL unless he shows drastic improvement at camp. I'd be fine with him getting called up due to injuries a couple times, but I think he needs at least most of an AHL season to round out his game and let his offensive play with the puck adjust to larger/better defenders.
EastonBlues22
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I haven't heard anything about an injury. Milano only played 4:40 or something like that, so Thompson wasn't the only one essentially riding the pine.
Aren't they allowed to dress 13 forwards? Looks like they split 4th line duty.
I didn’t watch the game, but it looks like he took a penalty and then wound up on the bench.....
Brian39
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This thread feels a little gloomy with Thompson not getting any meaningful time in the tournament. I'd obviously prefer him playing more, but this doesn't worry me much. 3 weeks ago I certainly wouldn't have put him among the top 15 American forwards among the 15 non-playoff teams and given his NHL performance this year I didn't expect him to light the tournament on fire. While there i nothing exciting about him riding the pine, I don't view it as an indictment about his game/potential beyond what I already felt about him at the close of the season.
TT had a 10 min game misconduct for checking to the head. He has been quite the goon in this tournament.
stl76
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Bobby Orrtuzzo
Ya know
Reality Czech
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Considering his height, I hope his ceiling is pretty high.
Falco Lombardi
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And I guess we were still right to trade him considering the results
Reality Czech
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I would certainly say so, but it's nice to see him become such a great NHL player. I gotta admit I had my doubts when he played for us and did not see him turning into a top line player. Maybe it gives us a bit more hope for Logan Brown, who is entering his age 24 season. Tage's age 24 season was last year when he broke out big time.
The number of gems the Blues have drafted in the 2nd half of the first round is insane.
Brian39
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The ROR trade was a massive success for us form day 1, but Tage's development has made it look less lopsided than it appeared for years.
The obvious takeaway for us is that we immediately won a Cup that we almost certainly wouldn't have won without making that trade. Even if the trade had destroyed our future, that would have been a perfectly fine outcome to win the Cup. But instead we protected our top two prospects (Thomas/Kyrou) and their development has rewarded that confidence in them.
Buffalo got roasted for it and there is still an argument to be made that they settled for too little. But Tage's 38 goal season makes it a lot harder to criticize them for 'settling' on him instead of demanding a better prospect. I'm not sold that they made a great pick at #31, but it is tough to fault them for that pick turning into such a late pick. But even if Thompson is the only real value they returned in the deal, it is starting to look a lot better. 38 goals and 68 points was a hell of a season and they still have 3 more years of team control before he has UFA eligibility. If he has another year of top line production this year, they should be in great shape to get him extended next summer at a number both sides can live with.
I skimmed through this thread and forgot how confident I was in him as a prospect. The 'we got ROR without having to give up Thomas or Kyrou' excitement definitely impacted my memory of how much I liked Thompson. Last season's production exceeded what I thought his ceiling was and I hope he can repeat it (minus a few goals when his shooting percentage comes down to Earth a bit). I've liked Buffalo since the Hasek days and their fanbase deserves to see that team dig out of the basement. I really hope that he can be a repeat 30+ goal and 60+ point guy and help them accomplish that.
The obvious takeaway for us is that we immediately won a Cup that we almost certainly wouldn't have won without making that trade. Even if the trade had destroyed our future, that would have been a perfectly fine outcome to win the Cup. But instead we protected our top two prospects (Thomas/Kyrou) and their development has rewarded that confidence in them.
Buffalo got roasted for it and there is still an argument to be made that they settled for too little. But Tage's 38 goal season makes it a lot harder to criticize them for 'settling' on him instead of demanding a better prospect. I'm not sold that they made a great pick at #31, but it is tough to fault them for that pick turning into such a late pick. But even if Thompson is the only real value they returned in the deal, it is starting to look a lot better. 38 goals and 68 points was a hell of a season and they still have 3 more years of team control before he has UFA eligibility. If he has another year of top line production this year, they should be in great shape to get him extended next summer at a number both sides can live with.
I skimmed through this thread and forgot how confident I was in him as a prospect. The 'we got ROR without having to give up Thomas or Kyrou' excitement definitely impacted my memory of how much I liked Thompson. Last season's production exceeded what I thought his ceiling was and I hope he can repeat it (minus a few goals when his shooting percentage comes down to Earth a bit). I've liked Buffalo since the Hasek days and their fanbase deserves to see that team dig out of the basement. I really hope that he can be a repeat 30+ goal and 60+ point guy and help them accomplish that.
STL fan in MN
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Did Thompson play mostly C last season or RW? I’m thinking it was C but I watched next to 0 of the Sabres last season. I ask because I recall thinking he wouldn’t make it as a C and would likely slot in as a RW in the NHL. So I’m thinking I was wrong on that.
He’s also exceeded my expectations. I saw him as more of a 2nd line RW but he had a nice breakout season last season and appears to be more than the caliber of player I expected he’d develop into. 38 goals is impressive no matter how you look at it.
But I’m also still 100% ok with the trade. We got the Cup and that’s forever. I’ll even still like the trade if the Blues lose ROR for nothing after this season and Tage goes on to have multiple more good years for the Sabres.
The Sabres have him on a super low cap hit this season, $1.4M, so they’ll have to pay up big time if he has another good season.
I also generally like the Sabres and wish them well. But I don’t really like Pegula. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. Just seems like a guy that will throw money at problems without actually having much of a thought-out plan. I wish the Sabres were run better.
He’s also exceeded my expectations. I saw him as more of a 2nd line RW but he had a nice breakout season last season and appears to be more than the caliber of player I expected he’d develop into. 38 goals is impressive no matter how you look at it.
But I’m also still 100% ok with the trade. We got the Cup and that’s forever. I’ll even still like the trade if the Blues lose ROR for nothing after this season and Tage goes on to have multiple more good years for the Sabres.
The Sabres have him on a super low cap hit this season, $1.4M, so they’ll have to pay up big time if he has another good season.
I also generally like the Sabres and wish them well. But I don’t really like Pegula. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. Just seems like a guy that will throw money at problems without actually having much of a thought-out plan. I wish the Sabres were run better.
Brian39
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Army's handling of the 1st round is among the league's best. He highly values 1st round picks but has also shown a willingness to bail on former 1st round prospects at the right time.
The 2010 draft was his first one as the head decisionmaker of the team and he immediately bailed on the previous year's 1st round pick (Rundblad) in order to acquire an additional 1st rounder to select both Schwartz and Tarasenko. There is a great chance that Rundblad wasn't his guy, but he turned out to be completely correct about moving on from him.
We didn't have our 1st in 2011 as a result of the Shatty/Stewart for EJ trade. We got 4 years of Stewart and 7 years of Shatty.
2012 was a dud, drafting Schmaltz
We didn't have our 2013 pick because we used it to acquire J-Bouw. We got 8 years of J-Bouw and he played a huge role in the 2019 Cup.
2014 was the Fabbri pick. hard to judge the pick with the way Fabbri's career went. He was fantastic on our 2016 WCF run, but then the knee injuries started.
2015 was the only time where Army gave up a 1st for a rental (the Ryan Miller trade). While this trade didn't remotely work out, it is pretty clear that Army intended to extend Miller if he had excelled here. He didn't, so we moved on (thankfully).
2016 was Tage (we traded up 3 spots to make sure we got him). Hindsight favors this draft a ton. Tage has outproduced every player picked between he and Kyrou and he held enough value for Buffalo to accept him in the ROR trade.
2017 was Thomas
2018 was the year Philly got our 1st round pick from the Schenn trade (we also gave them the 1st we got from trading Shatty the year before). Schenn had 3 years on his deal at the time of the trade and then we extended him for 8 more. We selected Bokk with the 1st rounder we got for trading Stastny. A year later, he is the centerpiece for Faulk, who was immediately given a 7 year extension (on top of the 1 remaining year of his deal).
We didn't have the 2019 pick because it was used in the ROR deal.
2020 was Neighbours
2021 was Bolduc
2022 was Snuggy
That's 13 years of data. We were a playoff team in 10 of those years, so it is reasonable to say that we were consistently potential buyers at the trade deadline. There was only 1 year where Army gave up a 1st for a rental. The other times he traded a 1st rounder, it was used to bring in long term players (Shatty, Stewart, J-Bouw, Schenn, and ROR). Three of those were clear successes that played a big role in a Cup win. Shatty (and to a lesser degree) Stewart were good while here, but we ultimately moved on from years later. There were three instances where he traded a former 1st round pick when the player was still clearly considered a prospect (Rundblad for Tarasenko, Tage as part of the ROR deal, and Bokk as the centerpiece for Faulk). All three were major successes.
We haven't had a top 10 pick under Army, but he's utilized our 2009-2019 1st round draft capital into Schwartz, Tarasenko, J-Bouw, Schenn, ROR, Thomas, Faulk, and Fabbri. We've held the last 3 picks and that trio of prospects comprises pretty much all of the excitement in our prospect pool. Army has his faults and there are some clear busts in this list. But all in all, he has demonstrated an exceptional ability to extract value out of the middle-end of the 1st round.
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BrokenFace
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Trading futures can work out, but trading high-value futures for a rental usually doesn't work out. Not that I'm rooting for this at all, but it would be interesting to see Army handle a rebuild. I'd be excited for not just every top 10 pick, but for every high 2nd rounder too. If we ever have a single terrible year due to injuries or something, Army finally getting high picks to play with would be a definite silver lining.
DatDude44
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Dam, obviously he's in another org but i was kinda spot on with this one hahahah stick taps to the 2018 version of myself
DatDude44
Hmmmm?
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He centered Skinner and Tuch post eichel trade, not sure what the line was before but he pretty much played center all year.
Sabres have a fantastic GM who's doing everything the right way and they're finally seeing results. Agree with u on pegula, it's amazing how such a brilliant business man can be so clueless with owning a hockey and football franchise. Once he finally got out of the way of the bills management, and allowed the football people to make the football decisions, it's amazing hwo they've instantly turned things around and he has finally started doing the same with the Sabres and now look at the upward trajectory they are on. He's a billionaire fan that was playing fantasy hockey before. He used tho think girgensons was in the same realm as a "core" piece as eichel and reinhart back in like 2016 and 2017....embarassing lol.
Excellent rundown. You did omit Kostin, which given his performance is understandable.
CaliforniaBlues310
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Bluesnatic27
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Doubt that was ever an option really.
Buffalo was really high on Thompson at the time.
Brian39
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My post started out with the intention of just summarizing what we did with our own 1st round picks, but it got murky in 2017-2018 because we acquired two 1st rounders as rentals (Shatty and Stastny) while also trading two 1st rounders for Schenn. By the time I finished outlining that, I completely forgot about pick #31 also being in the 1st round for the first time ever that year.
Kostin is looking like he will never be a difference make in the NHL, but I have a hard time holding pick #31 against a GM when judging 1st round performance. But while we are talking about picks in the early 30s, you have to love the players Barby and Kyrou have turned into after being picked #33 and #35.
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