Ajax1995
Registered User
- Dec 9, 2002
- 8,809
- 867
People always say that as if it ends all conversation? There is always going to be debate over who is the BPA, and there is room to target a position when several players all project similarly...
BPA means the guy YOU have rated the highest regardless of position, not who the scouting services think. Even if both teams are committed BPA drafting organizations it is highly unlikely Team A's draft board is going to look anywhere close to Team B's because unlike pretty much everyone here NHL teams actually do their own scouting. They don't just look at all the scouting services' rankings and find some way to mash those rankings all together to come up with their rankings.
Also teams put their boards together, especially in the early rounds the way they do for a reason. Even if player X and player Y project similarly there is a reason player X will be ranked above player Y on their board, while another team would have them flipped, and another team wouldn't have one of those guys on their board untill much later. They don't just have groups of players all ranked the same. Yes they will have groupings of players ranked similarly for the purpose of moving up and down in the draft but when it comes to making the actual pick they take the guy ranked highest on their board.
Again the most important thing to remember here is teams actually scout these players and heavily. When it appears a team is going off board, because the scouting services have player Z ranked as high 2nd rounder but team C just took him in the mid 1st round if team C is a committed BPA organization it is because they actually have player Z ranked that high on their board. Their GM hasn't just decided WTH let's go off board...