Prospect Info: 2015 Leafs Pick #155 - Stephen Desrocher - Defense - Oshawa OHL - 6' 3"/198

[Menzinger]

I think people who expected him to come in and be a godsend and outdraft the entire NHL were delusional. He had to turn around a pretty sub-par regime. Even the best teams make huge mistakes (Look at Tampa passing on Filip Forsberg for Koekkeok). Hunter's legacy will be determined by Liljegren, Dermott, Woll, Scott, Bracco, Grundstrom, and maybe a wildcard emerging. People underplay the Marner pick, forgetting a bunch of people (including Bob's scouts, would have gone Hanifin). Marner was 3 on our board. Considering how most people had a clear tier of 3 behind Eichel and McDavid, with our most valuable pick in decades we identified the right player out of that group. Dermott is probably our best day 2 pick in a decade if not longer. His main competition is Gunnarsson, Kevin Hayes, Komarov, and Connor Brown. I hope and think if Dermott is a long-term 2nd pairing D-man, he is probably more valuable than any of those players.

I was a big fan of Hunters work during that Marner draft, even the guys that likely won’t not pan out I think we’re worth gambling on. I think I was just taken back a bit by the seemingly dramatic shift in strategy/philosophy for the next two drafts.

What will be curious, I think is if over the next couple years if there will be if any further insider info/gossip that comes out about why that happened - ie was it direction from Lou, or Hunter himself seeing different trends in the classes.

And again, why I was hoping to have another look at Hunter’s draft work under a different GM. If he ends up getting that Oilers job, well get a chance that way I suppose

 

[justafan22]

I was a big fan of Hunters work during that Marner draft, even the guys that likely won’t not pan out I think we’re worth gambling on. I think I was just taken back a bit by the seemingly dramatic shift in strategy/philosophy for the next two drafts.

What will be curious, I think is if over the next couple years if there will be if any further insider info/gossip that comes out about why that happened - ie was it direction from Lou, or Hunter himself seeing different trends in the classes.

And again, why I was hoping to have another look at Hunter’s draft work under a different GM. If he ends up getting that Oilers job, well get a chance that way I suppose

Dubas was co-running that draft, took a back seat in 2016 and 2017

 

[Menzinger]

Dubas was co-running that draft, took a back seat in 2016 and 2017

I think that’s potentially the prime explanation.

Something led to the change - that’s for sure.

 

[Its not your fault]

I think people who expected him to come in and be a godsend and outdraft the entire NHL were delusional. He had to turn around a pretty sub-par regime. Even the best teams make huge mistakes (Look at Tampa passing on Filip Forsberg for Koekkeok). Hunter's legacy will be determined by Liljegren, Dermott, Woll, Scott, Bracco, Grundstrom, and maybe a wildcard emerging. People underplay the Marner pick, forgetting a bunch of people (including Bob's scouts, would have gone Hanifin). Marner was 3 on our board. Considering how most people had a clear tier of 3 behind Eichel and McDavid, with our most valuable pick in decades we identified the right player out of that group. Dermott is probably our best day 2 pick in a decade if not longer. His main competition is Gunnarsson, Hayes, Komarov, and Connor Brown. I hope and think if Dermott is a long-term 2nd pairing D-man, he is probably more valuable than any of those players.


I'm just wondering, who do you expect drafted after Desrocher to amount to anything of substantial value. Finding an NHLer above what you can find for cheap on waivers in a longshot that late. The only guy who looks like a sure thing is Nutivara. I'd prefer Niku or Seney, but I'm not really going to lose sleep over it. We also could have taken Nutivara where we took Korostolev, who people loved (because he was ranked higher and fell, and he was an enigmatic Russian with skill), yet we didn't sign him either.

I get going after Hunter's picks like Korshkov (whose career has been decimated by injuries post-draft) and Rasanen. But, nitpicking 6th rounders is pointless.

The picks matter more now then they did. Besides recent memory of our past goalie blunders. There is not many goals from outside our blue line. Why draft with that philosophy when you no longer need grand slams as much as mortor and rocks. To hold the foundation of our franchise needs then to churn out like butter. We will get vets for filler and hope some crap sticks to the wall.