Speculation: 2015 NHL Entry Draft

Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
77,316
42,448
I'm not. We have one forward prospect projected as a top 6 forward. Draft a damn forward. If you want D, draft them in the later rounds like we do with forwards.

Yeah I really hope if Hynes goes to the Devils the Pens get this year's 3rd from them (if they have it) and try to draft 2 forwards with their first 2 picks, after that, go nuts, draft all defensemen for all I care.

Having just Kapanen as a kid that has the best chance of being a top 6 forward in the entire organization is brutal. Beau Bennett is a wild card.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
Saad dropped due to injury. He was a consensus top-5 pick for most of his draft year.

It was a "slam dunk" of a pick in the sense that is was easy to make. He is a big, talented winger with Pittsburgh ties. That script had written itself, but we went back to the defenseman route and missed a gem.

Sorta like with Pouliot. I think he'll be a decent enough offensive defenseman sometime, but he's nowhere near ready for top-4 minutes and responsibility. If we had to get a defenseman, I'm still pissed we didn't take Trouba. The no-brainer pick at the time was Forsberg, and he looks to be an all-world forward for the next decade or more. Nothing personal against DP, but I think we ****ed that pick up badly as well.
 

Jag68Sid87

Sullivan gots to go!
Oct 1, 2003
35,602
1,274
Montreal, QC
The injury excuse isn't valid enough, especially when a guy drops into the second round like Saad did.

Besides, Galchenyuk suffered a terrible knee injury in his draft year and still wound up third overall.

Unless the injury is potentially debilitating, and that's hard to know for sure I grant you, then a young player should be taken where his talent suggests he should go. Period.

These young players recover so much more quickly than a 10-year veteran, anyway.

I could see injuries being a worry in other sports scenarios: pitchers in baseball, 7-footers with bad feet in basketball, almost all football players, really.

But in hockey, it's rare that an injury concern that already exists ends up destroying a player's career. It happens, but so much happens in hockey that you can't predict in terms of injuries as well.

I remember when the entire league passed over Dino Ciccarelli over injury concerns. All he did was score, what, 600 goals?
 

Jacob

as seen on TV
Feb 27, 2002
49,612
25,376
Saad dropped because he had a mediocre draft year. He was under 1 PPG in the OHL and that was as a late birthday, so he was older than most guys he was being ranked with. Scouts thought he didn't use his size enough and they weren't wrong, and probably still aren't wrong, but you don't have to throw monster body checks if you can do pretty much everything else very well.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
Saad dropped because he had a mediocre draft year. He was under 1 PPG in the OHL and that was as a late birthday, so he was older than most guys he was being ranked with. Scouts thought he didn't use his size enough and they weren't wrong, and probably still aren't wrong, but you don't have to throw monster body checks if you can do pretty much everything else very well.

I still think it's pretty much consensus that he dropped in projection and production due to nagging injuries.

But you're right, he didn't turn out to be the power forward some thought, but he's got the speed to make up for his lack of physicality.
 

Darth Vitale

Dark Matter
Aug 21, 2003
28,172
114
Darkness
If Saad were not from California and not Pittsburgh, and all the same draft stuff happened, virtually no one here would talk about him. It's truly weird the connections people make in their mind. Like because he was from Pittsburgh, he was destined to be here and him not being here is some kind of egregious oversight. The Hawks were patient and wound up drafting him later than anticipated. Life's rough. Let's move on and talk about things yet to come because you know... Saad can't be re-drafted.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
If Saad were not from California and not Pittsburgh, and all the same draft stuff happened, virtually no one here would talk about him. It's truly weird the connections people make in their mind. Like because he was from Pittsburgh, he was destined to be here and him not being here is some kind of egregious oversight. The Hawks were patient and wound up drafting him later than anticipated. Life's rough. Let's move on and talk about things yet to come because you know... Saad can't be re-drafted.

The Pittsburgh connection was just the cherry on top. He was a big, fast, offensive winger from NA. That alone should have been good enough for Shero to take a flier on the guy who dropped into our lap after being a consensus top 5-10 pick for the past year. The fact that he was from Pittsburgh just meant that our laughable scouting department had no excuse when it came to knowing the guy's game inside and out.

Problem was, we decided long ago that the likes of Dupuis, Kunitz, Comeau, etc. are good enough because Sid and Geno should be able to just carry them. Everyone in the world knows it doesn't work like that except the guys in charge of running this team, sadly.
 

Zen Arcade

Bigger than Kiss
Sep 21, 2004
20,308
2,216
Pittsburgh
If Saad were not from California and not Pittsburgh, and all the same draft stuff happened, virtually no one here would talk about him. It's truly weird the connections people make in their mind. Like because he was from Pittsburgh, he was destined to be here and him not being here is some kind of egregious oversight. The Hawks were patient and wound up drafting him later than anticipated. Life's rough. Let's move on and talk about things yet to come because you know... Saad can't be re-drafted.

A bunch of people were also against picking him, seemingly because he was from around here as well. "They better not pick Saad just because he's from Pittsburgh! PR move blah blah blah!!!"
 

Beauner

Registered User
Jun 14, 2011
13,035
6,134
Pittsburgh
I remember a huge knock on Saad in his draft year was the perception that he had a low compete level and didn't try all the time. Which is a no-no for scouts. This wasn't true as it later came out that he was hurt. But at the time I understand why teams passed.
 

Jules Winnfield

Fleurymanbad
Mar 19, 2010
8,919
1,963
Saad dropped because he had a mediocre draft year. He was under 1 PPG in the OHL and that was as a late birthday, so he was older than most guys he was being ranked with. Scouts thought he didn't use his size enough and they weren't wrong, and probably still aren't wrong, but you don't have to throw monster body checks if you can do pretty much everything else very well.

Plus scouts didn't like his skating and thought he skated lazy. They overlooked him having a groin injury and just attributed him losing a step to playing as if he had no fire in him.
 

Jules Winnfield

Fleurymanbad
Mar 19, 2010
8,919
1,963
The Pittsburgh connection was just the cherry on top. He was a big, fast, offensive winger from NA. That alone should have been good enough for Shero to take a flier on the guy who dropped into our lap after being a consensus top 5-10 pick for the past year. The fact that he was from Pittsburgh just meant that our laughable scouting department had no excuse when it came to knowing the guy's game inside and out.

Problem was, we decided long ago that the likes of Dupuis, Kunitz, Comeau, etc. are good enough because Sid and Geno should be able to just carry them. Everyone in the world knows it doesn't work like that except the guys in charge of running this team, sadly.

What I don't understand is when Esposito fell to us, Shero had no problem taking a projected top 5 talent the year before when we had the chance.

The only thing I can think of is the Goligoski for Neal/Niskanen trade clouded his thinking on the value of young offensive defensemen. Even so, Shero was a ****ing moron because it took Goligoski several years to develop into an NHL player so it's not like you take one of these young D and get them in the lineup right away or trade them for maximum value when you need something. We traded Joe Morrow for about 20 games of Brendan Morrow, Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy, Philip Samuelsson for a cap dump that needed to be moved to Edmonton in the Perron deal (Klinkhammer).

Terrible asset management. People wonder why we've regressed and the Blackhawks keep rolling along.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
What I don't understand is when Esposito fell to us, Shero had no problem taking a projected top 5 talent the year before when we had the chance.

The only thing I can think of is the Goligoski for Neal/Niskanen trade clouded his thinking on the value of young offensive defensemen. Even so, Shero was a ****ing moron because it took Goligoski several years to develop into an NHL player so it's not like you take one of these young D and get them in the lineup right away or trade them for maximum value when you need something. We traded Joe Morrow for about 20 games of Brendan Morrow, Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy, Philip Samuelsson for a cap dump that needed to be moved to Edmonton in the Perron deal (Klinkhammer).

Terrible asset management. People wonder why we've regressed and the Blackhawks keep rolling along.

Yeah, the Esposito situation is weird. Maybe that's why he shied away from Saad.

And I agree. The Shero school of drafting was... Peculiar to say the least. It sounds good on paper; "PMDs have tons of value, so let's draft a ******** of them with our top picks and then flip them for forward help down the line."

That doesn't take into account the years of development and finding a spot for all of these guys to play and build value. It's nearly impossible to do. This is, of course, ignoring the simple, commonsense approach which would have been to draft stud wingers in the first place.

I know it gets harped on far too often, but God damn does it suck that we could have had Saad, Forsberg and Neal flanking Sid and Geno right now. Just imagine that. It's not even some fantasy land, hindsight is 20/20 scenario either. It's not like those guys were gems in the rough, plucked out of obscurity in the 6th round. We had our shot to draft them, and it made every iota of sense in the universe to do it at the time--we just stubbornly and arrogantly refused.

♫ No one knows what it's like... To be a Pens fan. To be the sad fan. Behind blue eyes. ♫
♫ No one knows what it's like... To be hated. To be jaded. To hearing only lies. ♫
 

Jacob

as seen on TV
Feb 27, 2002
49,612
25,376
Yeah Samuelsson was weird. Not offensive minded, not physical, not mobile, he'd have been a #6 d-man by 24 or 25 in the absolute best case. I hate to think his name got him drafted that high but it sure was a lazy pick.
 

Dipsy Doodle

Rent A Barn
May 28, 2006
76,640
21,154
And I agree. The Shero school of drafting was... Peculiar to say the least. It sounds good on paper; "PMDs have tons of value, so let's draft a ******** of them with our top picks and then flip them for forward help down the line."

The thing is, drafting BPA and then trading from a position of strength is still a good idea. But Shero failed in its execution on a few fronts.

First, our idea of BPA was always skewed towards PMDs. Which kind of undermines the idea of going BPA, and lead him to decisions like Pouliot over Forsberg.

Second, he kept signing bubble vets on d that ensured our prospects wouldn't get playing time to develop and increase their value, to us or anyone else.

Finally, when he actually did have an opportunity to trade from strength to address a need when Kesler was on the block, he balked at including Pouliot anyway.
 

td_ice

Peter shows the way
Aug 13, 2005
33,027
3,584
USA
The thing is, drafting BPA and then trading from a position of strength is still a good idea. But Shero failed in its execution on a few fronts.

First, our idea of BPA was always skewed towards PMDs. Which kind of undermines the idea of going BPA, and lead him to decisions like Pouliot over Forsberg.

Second, he kept signing bubble vets on d that ensured our prospects wouldn't get playing time to develop and increase their value, to us or anyone else.

Finally, when he actually did have an opportunity to trade from strength to address a need when Kesler was on the block, he balked at including Pouliot anyway.

Excellent points.
 

rmartin65

Registered User
Apr 7, 2011
2,686
2,174
Provided the Pens stay at 46, there should still be some interesting options left.

Denis Guryanov would definitely be my number one choice. Honestly, he should be a first rounder. However, I see that he is not ranked as highly by everyone, so there may be a chance he is there at 46. He is big, skates well, and has an awesome shot.

Zach Senyshyn is second on my list. Like Guryanov, he is also a big winger with plus skating. However, while Guryanov scores with both his shot and by driving to the net, much of Senyshyn's game is based on flying down the wing and heading straight for the net.

Mitchell Stephens is another interesting player. While he plays center, and could probably play there in the NHL, I agree with those who think he can transition to wing pretty well. He is a dynamite skater, and, while not a big player like the previous 2 at just 6' and around 190 lbs, he might be more physical than them. I dont think his offensive game is at the same level as Guryanov's and Senyshyn's, but he is a puck hound that still has some offensive prowess. Also, he gets rave reviews for his character.

Jack Roslovic is another center that might convert to wing in the NHL. Good size and skating ability. He is more of a passer than a shooter, which could be a good thing, as it might force Crosby and Malkin to shoot more.

Blake Speers is also interesting. Like the other players on this list, he has plus skating ability, but, like Stephens, he lacks size, though he will stick his nose in the dirty areas to make plays. Speers looks to pass more than he does to shoot, but his shot is good enough to keep goalies honest, especially if he would use it more.

Well, those are the top 5 wingers on my board around 46. Interestingly, they are all right-handed.
 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Registered User
Sep 5, 2008
28,726
2,346
The thing is, drafting BPA and then trading from a position of strength is still a good idea. But Shero failed in its execution on a few fronts.

First, our idea of BPA was always skewed towards PMDs. Which kind of undermines the idea of going BPA, and lead him to decisions like Pouliot over Forsberg.

Second, he kept signing bubble vets on d that ensured our prospects wouldn't get playing time to develop and increase their value, to us or anyone else.

Finally, when he actually did have an opportunity to trade from strength to address a need when Kesler was on the block, he balked at including Pouliot anyway.

Yep. He undermined himself. He started with a clear vision and purpose, as misguided as it may have been, and then sabotaged himself, and the organization in the process.
 

Jules Winnfield

Fleurymanbad
Mar 19, 2010
8,919
1,963
Eh samuelsson as a pick was a joke, I'm elated he even indirectly went towards the perron trade.

My point wasn't so much about Samuelsson but more along the lines of Shero valuing defensemen in the top 3 rounds so much he stockpiled them and then they were ended up traded away for next to nothing anyways.
 

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