My opinion is basically worthless after the first round but will provide comment on how well they addressed the needs of our prospect pool.
3/10 at best.
Loaded up on more left handed D that they already have proven unable to properly manage. Picked a joke of a goalie and basically avoided skilled forwards which supposedly was thier focus. Benson an ok pick but a LWer...
Hoping my ignorance is clouding the situation but this year looks like garbage outside of JP.
Well they did draft a guy who could be your next Marincin? Think of it that way and you'll give it an 11/10
Puljujarvi was a huge win, not getting a RHD via trade was a huge loss.
In terms of drafting, they did very poorly outside of the the first three picks.
Puljujarvi, Benson and Niemelainen all good picks.
Exactly. Pretty happy with the draft, getting Pulju is a nice draft surprise.i think these 3 picks are what will define this draft. anyone that comes after this and lights it up is gravy.
Puljujarvi was a huge win, not getting a RHD via trade was a huge loss.
In terms of drafting, they did very poorly outside of the the first three picks.
Puljujarvi was the BPA and a fantastic pick - A+
Benson isn't a terrible pick...better players available but he does have a bit of upside that we didn't see due to the injuries. He's a guaranteed bottom six player at the least. - B
Niemelainen isn't as good as HF thinks he is. Sure he's big, but I don't see much true upside here. Fairly soft, doesn't have much of a shot. His potential is a No.5 D to me so I'm not in love with this compared to everyone else. C
Berglund is kind of interesting, another guy who got killed by injuries last year. Overagers are hard to predict especially when they're playing in Swe Jr. but there's some potential here and he shoots right which is awesome. B-
Cairns is a guy I really like but it's a long con. Probably has No.4 potential, maybe a 3. Can move the puck and be tough. Makes a few errors that need correcting mentally. Also needs to play in a stronger league. B
Rasanen had a great U-18 but that was because of who he played with. I'm not super convinced that he's going to be a player yet. His Fin Jr. numbers aren't bad but not impressive. We'll see. C+
Wells had one good tourney at the Ivan Hlinka. He also had an awful season. Not really a fan at all of this pick but goalies are voodoo. I guess the question is why we're taking a goalie then if he doesn't have underlying stats to support him. D
Desharnais was only picked because he's big and he shoots right. There were way more guys on the board that Edmonton passed over. Not a fan of this one. D
Graham McPhee is a guy where he only really impressed at the U-18s and partly that's because the US had a stacked roster. 5 goals at the USHL level and middling numbers for the USDP, despite being small. At least he's not a lazy player. We'll see where this one goes C-
Despite ALL of that analysis above, these guys aren't even 20 yet. It's so hard to project where their games will go. Always hopeful on all of them.