Your best scouting hits and misses?

[dumbdick]

Just for some fun. Who are your biggest hits and misses in terms of projecting out prospects (Sens or otherwise)? I was sure Rundblad was going to be a star. Same with Dan Fritsche. I called Giroux pretty early. I seem to have a lot more misses than hits though.

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[PatrickEaves]

I was convinced Jack Skille was the next Keith Tkachuk. I was adamant that the Islanders should draft Victor Hedman first overall. I sincerely believed that Teuvo Teravainen would develop into the best player drafted in the 2012 draft.

 

[Senscore]

I bought in on Kaigodorov.

Sorry.

 

[BondraTime]

Absolutely loved and thought Borgstrom was going to be an all-star, thought he had everything you
want in an offensive forward, isn't even an NHLer

Likely another 100 similar situations where I've been just as far off

 

[saskriders]

I was hoping we would get Zboril.

 

[BoardsofCanada]

I wanted Hunter Shinkaruk in 2013.

I also have to be honest and admit that I would've taken Zadina over Brady in 2018.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Was nuts about Karlsson and Lehner (hence my username) I even knew Lehner's aunt and we had discussions of him succeeding Lundqvist in the future lol. I thought Zibby had star potential too.

Conversely, I thought Weircioch was going to be a for sure top 4 defender and I was huge fan of Da Costa.

 

[Xspyrit]

Just quickly on top off my head because there'd be much more than that both ways

Hits : Duncan Keith, Keith Yandle, Erik Karlsson, Robin Lehner, Mark Stone, so many Habs prospects (that they'd miss lol)

Misses : Mike Hoffman, Andre Petersson, Jared Cowen, Peter Regin, Paajarvi

My first ever hit was Felix Potvin, was a huge fan dating back from his days with the Sagueneens. I wanted to be a goalie because of him.

 

[Skid]

Puempel

 

[SensFactor]

Curtis Lazar

 

[Qward]

Watched a lot of Fronts games.

New Bennett was a 1st rounder, thought he would be different in the NHL, but he is doing what he can to stay in the league. Good for him.

Gudbranson going 3rd overall shocked the hell out of me.

McKeown was not good. At all. Not surprised he got waived.

 

[GCK]

I thought Ceci and Puempel were vastly overrated from what I saw in Junior.

I didn’t see Toffoli and Couture having such great careers.

My biggest hit was probably Luc Robitaille, there was no way that talent wasn’t going to be impactful in the league.

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

I thought Stalberg was going to be nasty. Definitely overestimated his ability to use his speed and size.

Thought Khoklachev would be a really good player, I was only wrong about in which league.

I was up close and live for one of the famous 4 games after Karlsson got hurt and the rookie Cowen stepped up and played far and away the best hockey of his career... thought I saw an early look at a player who could really impact the game

My first miss was Corey Locke. I’m sure a lot of the mid/late-20, early-30s folks around here can relate.

Bought in on Kaigorodov, too - sight unseen.

No hits.

 

[derriko]

Some quick hitters I was right / wrong about in the early rounds the last few drafts

I was wrong:
Mark McNeil - Brad Richards clone
Yakupov - Mini Ovechkin
Nichuskin - big 30 goal scorer
De La Rose - Selke candidate
Michael Dal Colle
Josh Ho-Sang - thought the skill was too high to fail
Gurianov (maybe)
Nick Suzuki - thought he was too small and slow
Jared Cowen - I am still holding out hope he will miraculously recover and come back to be Pronger haha

I was right:
Shea Theodore - can’t believe he was exposed in the expansion draft
Mark Stone - I saw him as a 16 year old and knew he was going to be a star - highest hockey IQ i’ve ever seen no contest
Haydn Fleury - Low hockey IQ
Alex Tuch - same as Theodore
Andreas Englund - pick skills too bad to make it
Ivan Provorov
Matthew Barzal - would’ve taken him top 5
Travis Konecny - short but sweet career due to play style
Logan Brown - jury still out but I hate players that won’t compete

 

[R2010]

Way wrong about: Many but Rundblad for sure. Never thought Quinn Hughes was going to translate anywhere near like how he did. Thought Lazar for sure was going to be a too 9 forward. Thought Silfverberg was gonna be a star. Thought Matt OConnor was amazing at the development camp. Probably stopped more pucks there then his entire senators career.

Most right about? Thought Lehner was always going to be a starter. Thought Stone was always underrated. Never thought Gagne was ever going to be good. Wasn’t a Mantha fan but was shocked we took lazar over him because he was guaranteed to at least be somewhat productive with his size/skill combo.

 

[jhutter]

I was pretty heavy on Timmy since last WJC. Time will tell, but I think I’ll be correct in saying that he’s the better pick over Byfield. I like my read on that one.

I opposed the Tkachuk pick. Not because I thought that Tkachuk wasn’t going to be a great player, but because I thought Zadina was going to be the 40 goal scorer that the Sens were missing.

I truly thought Lazar was going to be a 25-30 goal Swiss Army knife. Whoops!

 

[MrInvidious]

I’ll go with my time working with the Sudbury Wolves.

I thought Nicholas Baptiste was a sure-fire 3rd line NHLer. Clearly not the case at this point.

With that being said, I was the biggest Dominik Kubalik supporter. The guy just scored and contributed in crunch time every single opportunity he had, even if his total OHL contributions weren’t that impressive. So happy seeing that he’s become the talent that he is today.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Right:
Dzingel- after we drafted him I saw two Ohio games and immediately thought he was a serious player. After his first game in bingo I knew he would be an NHLer. Although I did think he would make it as a center.

BarZal: couldn’t believe he dropped and when he did I was nearly screaming at the tv for sens to move up for him.

mike Hoffman: knew he had it him.
galchenyuk : I said he was the was prospect ever and now he’s the best player ever.

Hicketts: never understood the hype from the wjc. He always looked absolutely atrocious to me.

ryan oreilly: no idea why he would be a second rounder. Ever.

Batherson: after the first scrimmage I was here raving. (Not really a draft hit)
wrong:
Rundblad: nothing more to be said

stone: it’s not that I thought he wouldn’t remake the NHL I just never thought he could improve his skating as much as he did.

grigorenko: dont want to talk about it

Hanifin: thought he was the next best d in the NHL. I thought he was incredible. I still have a soft spot for him much like galchenyuk.
Remains to be seen:

Zadina: never liked the way he played.

also there was a player in the wjc who I raved about nonstop probably like 5-4 tournaments ago. And everyone here told me I was crazy he’s not that good. I can’t remember his name lmao but it seems as though everyone here was right and I was way off.

 

[DrEasy]

Hit: Stone. I remember the prospect ranking votes here back then, and I remember keeping voting for him for 5 or 6 rounds before he was finally ranked.

Miss: Prince. I liked his play and thought he didn't get a fair chance here, but he kind of disappeared after he was traded.

???: Da Costa. Absolutely loved this player. A plucky Mike Comrie type with outstanding vision on the ice. I still think he would have done well here as a #2 C. We'll never know.

 

[Icelevel]

I thought Prince was pretty surefire useful top nine guy. And got fooled on lazar. And was excited about ceci. And oh yeah Cowen! Still confused about how that went so wrong. Was it just his hips? Did he suck? I was so hopeful he’d be a mini chara. What a beast he was when he was on.

Some recent picks I would have definitely made at the time instead of our picks,
Mantha (lazar)
Boeser (white)
Couturier (Zibanejad. Worked out well. Or should have. Would probably still have couturier here though if we picked him)
Carlo (Gagne)
Tomasino (Thomson. He still has potential)

Was hoping for tkachuk, chabot, Sanderson and Stutzle.

Overall happy with the picks but some real disappointing misses.

 

[bicboi64]

I thought Peter Regin was going to be a star for us.

I thought Karlsson would be a top pairing defender for us...not Norris level though

 

[Sweatred]

I didn’t think Hoffman or Dzingle would amount to much in the NHL.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

I was super excited getting Ceci at 15th overall. Thought he'd be a top 10 pick.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

I thought Ceci and Puempel were vastly overrated from what I saw in Junior.

I didn’t see Toffoli and Couture having such great careers.

My biggest hit was probably Luc Robitaille, there was no way that talent wasn’t going to be impactful in the league.

Anybody bringing up their evaluation of Luc Robitaille in a prospect discussion in 2020 deserves respect! Really thought I was the oldest guy on this forum!!

I'll try to compete by saying I thought Moe Lemay and Adam Creighton would both have better careers than they did.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

I was in attendance at Claude Giroux's first NHL game and based on that thought he was going to be mediocre.