2018-19 Avalanche Tank Thread

[S3rkie]

Drafting has been much better in recent years.

• 2015 Rants = Werenski
• 2016 Jost < Sergachev
• 2017 Makar > Hischier or Patrick
• 2018 Kaut ?

AVs missed on Sergachev after beating the Habs on their last game together. Keller was never realistic. The bigger problem is drafting beyond the 1st round. Getting a better 1st round position is less of a concern then adding prospects on the deeper picks.

Oh for sure, even the high 2nd round has been a battle, which is really sad. In 2016 I just loved both of those prospects and for a second there was hope, Jost was literally the embodiment of meh compared to those two. Once I heard his story and saw his personality I warmed on him a bit. But man the what if game sucks. I guess this is a small taste of what panthers fans go through.

 

[Patagonia]

Oh for sure, even the high 2nd round has been a battle, which is really sad. In 2016 I just loved both of those prospects and for a second there was hope, Jost was literally the embodiment of meh compared to those two. Once I heard his story and saw his personality I warmed on him a bit. But man the what if game sucks. I guess this is a small taste of what panthers fans go through.

Easy to look back at missed opportunities with my personal choices.

• Jost instead of Chychrun, Brown or McAvoy.
• Makar instead of Mittelstadt, Vilardi (still injured) or Valimaki.

Jost, love his character and hope for the best. Without any strong physical skills, size and IQ likely above average, there is not enough to be more than a 3C. Maybe trade to the Oilers for Poolparty with limited IQ, but tremendous skills. Makar seems like the correct choice, I would have badly missed on this pick with my top 2 choices.

Overall, I'm fairly confident in Sakic's 1st round drafting. Will have to see where the picks land rather than speculating on prospects.

 

[Pokecheque]

Are we sure Hepple has been that much better than Pracey? It sure seems like that may be the case, but we still don't quite know yet. The next two years will be crucial.

 

[Foppa2118]

Every single team in the league has moments where they look like they don't care at all, the Avs are no different. The weaker the team the more likely you are to see garbage play and "mental" mistakes which I just consider a product of a average roster.

The Avs are different in that they have more of those moments. That's what separates playoff teams from non playoff teams.

A teams roster makeup is not the reason for mistakes and a lack of effort. These things are preventable by any NHL roster.

Mistakes are the bigger issue than a lack of effort. I think the effort has been there most of the season until lately, where they've come out flat a few times when they needed to play like they were pissed off at their previous performances.

The preventable mistakes have been there from the beginning of the season though. Turnovers in the D zone, defenseman getting puck focused or losing their assignment, not bearing down on your chances, passes that are off the mark, PK letting passes go through the box all year.

These things happen too often for this team, and they're things even an average roster can weed out. It doesn't have to do with their talent or ability. They're capable of being better but they're not.

That's why pretty much everyone outside the top line and Soda has had a disappointing season to their standards. They've all underperformed, and the coaching staff for various reasons hasn't been able to correct course.

 

[henchman21]

Are we sure Hepple has been that much better than Pracey? It sure seems like that may be the case, but we still don't quite know yet. The next two years will be crucial.

Very true... we don't know yet. The picture will start becoming more clear next year at this time.

I get the better draft pick part of tanking, but goodness. MacK in his 6th season here, he has made the playoffs only twice and never consecutively. People ragged on how the Islanders never built around Taveres and that played a big part into why he left. The first 3 seasons the Isles missed the playoffs with Tavares in tow. Then 3 of the next 4 they made the playoffs including winning a round. Then they struggled the last two seasons with Tavares around to make it in. The Avs have amazingly done worse than the Isles here. Since Duchene and ROR were drafted in 09, the Avs have only been to the playoffs 3 times and never won a round. Outside of the Wild series, they never really had a shot either. The Avs have put themselves in perpetual rebuilding and can't find their way out. Even when they have very talented players. Hell, they have probably 2 of the top 20 forwards in the game right now, and somehow still can't make it work. The Avs need to find a way to win and get over the hump.

A sobering stat... the last time the Avs had consecutive playoff births, it spanned the 04-05 lockout.

 

[S E P H]

Are we sure Hepple has been that much better than Pracey? It sure seems like that may be the case, but we still don't quite know yet. The next two years will be crucial.

Hepple is definitely better than Pracey, just by scouring Eliteprospects alone you can answer that question. The problem is that because Pracey decided to limit himself and end up sucking because of it, Hepple might be as mediocre of store-brand vanilla ice cream. In particular, the 2nd and 3rd rounders under Hepple have not been an impressive part of his resume. This isn't to say Greer, Morrison, and others are bad, but for a 2nd round you should either banking on skill or a high risk/reward type of player. Instead they've grabbed a lot players who look like safe potential 6ers and I don't think any of us prefer that type of strategy.

Now, Timmins looks like a fantastic/shrewd pick to help Hepple in this area, but unfortunate for us the hockey gods can't let us have nice things.

 

[avsfan09]

Are we sure Hepple has been that much better than Pracey? It sure seems like that may be the case, but we still don't quite know yet. The next two years will be crucial.

Not sure but atleast his picks have shown upside. No more Mitchell Heard's in the second atleast. He seems to do a better job in the later rounds picking players with actual upside rather than longshot 4th liners.

Jost is too early. Greer, Meloche, Timmins and Kaut look like decent selections and have show progress besides Timmins bad luck. But your point stands we won't know until a few more years tbh.

 

[henchman21]

Jost is too early. Greer, Meloche, Timmins and Kaut look like decent selections and have show progress besides Timmins bad luck. But your point stands we won't know until a few more years tbh.

Change Greer, Meloche, Timmins and Kaut with Siemens, Hishon, Elliott, Barrie, and Pickard and you have the argument of Pracey circa 2011. We don't really know at the moment, and I think Hepple fits my ideas better than Pracey did (though neither draft how I would)... we just won't know for a couple more years. I will say my pet peeve of the Avs drafting is consistently thinking they can fix skating. Even on prospects I like (IE Shvy and Meloche), they have skating issues that the Avs believe they can fix. Outside of one shining example (ROR where you could argue that was ROR's brain and work ethic combining), the Avs have proven they are not great at it. I believe the Avs have traditionally looked at players and think they can improve most... where I fundamentally believe that you can't always fix skating.

 

[Pokecheque]

Not sure but atleast his picks have shown upside. No more Mitchell Heard's in the second atleast. He seems to do a better job in the later rounds picking players with actual upside rather than longshot 4th liners.

Jost is too early. Greer, Meloche, Timmins and Kaut look like decent selections and have show progress besides Timmins bad luck. But your point stands we won't know until a few more years tbh.

Still early with Hepple but I agree, there appears to be a shift in focus not going with the "safe" pick and cast a far, far wider net than the Euro-phobic Pracey. Still, we still don't yet know if Greer and Meloche are going to pan out and I'm already concerned with the 2016 class. The last two draft hauls, however, could end up blowing Pracey out of the water. It'll depend on how well they develop at their respective programs and how well the people in charge of developing talent, well, develop them.

It remains more than a little disconcerting with me that the Avalanche organization looked at a draft and development department that yielded hardly anything at all over the course of years of bottom-budget teams and tanking it and essentially replaced one guy. Not only that, they replaced him with an in-house hire.

 

[AvsCOL]

Aho going right before our pick in 2015 will haunt me forever. Doesn't necessarily mean the Avs would've taken him but still.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Aho going right before our pick in 2015 will haunt me forever. Doesn't necessarily mean the Avs would've taken him but still.

It was reported at the time, that the NJD would have taken him if the Canes didn't and then the Devil's promptly traded out of that pick once the Canes took Aho. Even if Carolina didn't take him, I don't think he would have been there for the Avs as NJ would have nabbed him.

 

[Balthazar]

It was reported at the time, that the NJD would have taken him if the Canes didn't and then the Devil's promptly traded out of that pick once the Canes took Aho. Even if Carolina didn't take him, I don't think he would have been there for the Avs as NJ would have nabbed him.

Do you get some kind of instant notification when someone mentions his name or something?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Do you get some kind of instant notification when someone mentions his name or something?

ha ha. No, I was looking for a particular post on Aho from a couple weeks ago and couldn't remember where it was, so I did a global search for Aho and saw this post and thought I'd respond.

Sucks now that there is an Islanders Sebastian Aho though, as the search had a lot more results.

 

[Hasbro]

Think getting the pick in the 8 range will be a big boon.

 

[Papa Francouz]

I’m sick and tired of this team losing. I can’t cheer for them to lose. I don’t care about draft picks right now - we’ve got a core that should feasibly be competing every night, but they need better support around them. Not two years from now, but yesterday. This offseason is absolutely crucial for Sakic when it comes to addressing the depth problem. He’s already behind schedule.

 

[Makar to MacK]

I’m sick and tired of this team losing. I can’t cheer for them to lose. I don’t care about draft picks right now - we’ve got a core that should feasibly be competing every night, but they need better support around them. Not two years from now, but yesterday. This offseason is absolutely crucial for Sakic when it comes to addressing the depth problem. He’s already behind schedule.

I agree about the losing but the only way to get better is to have better players and the higher the draft pick the better chance of that happening. I'm willing to forfeit this season (which is a total lost cause anyway) to ensure we are way better in the future. At least that is how I justify it

 

[ABasin]

Are we sure Hepple has been that much better than Pracey? It sure seems like that may be the case, but we still don't quite know yet. The next two years will be crucial.

I don’t know the answer, but this question scares the snot out of me.

Still zero Hepple draft picks - outside of Top 10 overall picks - are on the current roster as regulars.

 

[Ararana]

Drafting has been much better in recent years.

• 2015 Rants = Werenski
• 2016 Jost < Sergachev
• 2017 Makar > Hischier or Patrick
• 2018 Kaut ?

AVs missed on Sergachev after beating the Habs on their last game together. Keller was never realistic. The bigger problem is drafting beyond the 1st round. Getting a better 1st round position is less of a concern then adding prospects on the deeper picks.

f*** missing out on Sergachev by one pick still hurts like a bitch. Is this what it's like to be a Panthers fan?

 

[Papa Francouz]

I agree about the losing but the only way to get better is to have better players and the higher the draft pick the better chance of that happening. I'm willing to forfeit this season (which is a total lost cause anyway) to ensure we are way better in the future. At least that is how I justify it

Better players come from more than just the draft, though. Our farm system should be cultivating talent for the big club. FAs are a possibility. Playing players to their strengths will also help in team performance. The mindset that drafting high will fix our problems is misguided. I understand the excitement this year due to the Ottawa pick, but the Avs’ pick shouldn’t be in a range where it can affect the NHL team. It’s a failure that it is.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Tonights game will have a huge impact on how I feel about tanking vs pushing for playoffs.


Win tonight and we're 2 points back, with the tiebreaker advantage over Arizona and only have to pass one team to get in. While also having put together a 2 game win streak.

Lose and we're 5 back and have to jump over 3 teams to get in instead.

 

[The Shermanator]

I know every team can say this to a certain extent but OH MY GOD we lost so many games we should have/could have won this year. More than usual. Makes this hard to swallow.

 

[ASmileyFace]

Tonights game will have a huge impact on how I feel about tanking vs pushing for playoffs.


Win tonight and we're 2 points back, with the tiebreaker advantage over Arizona and only have to pass one team to get in. While also having put together a 2 game win streak.

Lose and we're 5 back and have to jump over 3 teams to get in instead.

MY thoughts exactly. Win this one and I'm fully onboard chasing a playoff spot. Lose it and we are basically done baring a major collapse from one of the teams ahead of us.

 

[missionAvs]

Tonights game will have a huge impact on how I feel about tanking vs pushing for playoffs.


Win tonight and we're 2 points back, with the tiebreaker advantage over Arizona and only have to pass one team to get in. While also having put together a 2 game win streak.

Lose and we're 5 back and have to jump over 3 teams to get in instead.

Agreed. Win tonight and the tank avatar might need to be garaged for now.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Agreed. Win tonight and the tank avatar might need to be garaged for now.

No if we win keep it. Don’t change a winning formula.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Agreed. Win tonight and the tank avatar might need to be garaged for now.

Disagree. Obviously you guys cheering for the tank is what makes them win, and when you guys cheer for them to win they lose...so status quo would be in order in this case. Thank you in advance for considering this.

Edit: beat to it by TAP! lol