BarDownBobo
Registered User
I must not see Smith the same things in Smith as you do. I really think he'll end up being a Sekera-esque dman, jack of all trades but master of none. Still a useful player but I personally rate Kotkaniemi much higher. Also while there might not be a top pairing dman in the prospect pool, I'm fairly confident that Larsson and one of Klefbom/Nurse will form the long term top pairing here.Show me our D prospect with top pairing potential......
It's the same thing every year it seems. We are desperate for top pairing D, we get beat up in deals for dmen, we say all year that we need to find a dman, and then the draft comes and we see a shiny new toy and the defenseman is there, but we don't want to wait 4 years, and the forward could help us next year, and around and around we go.
I'm ok with using our second rounder to fill some of the holes. There will likely be several strong C prospects available there from the group of Wise, Drury, Khovanov, Dellandrea, McBain, Kurashev, Hallander, Lauko, Foudy, Groulx.... I would also be fine with this team using this pick on a second defenseman. Until our defense is fixed spend as many assets as possible on it. As we've seen in the past five years or so, it is easy to move good defenders for a good return... not so easy to move forwards.
I understand that our C prospect pool is extremely weak, and I won't be upset if we end up with Kotkaniemi, but we have McDavid, Drai and RNH at C. Assuming we hold on to all 3, we are using a number 10 pick on a guy we expect to be our 3 C, or he becomes another swing player who moves to wing. I'd much rather take a swing on a top pairing defenseman. Ty Smith has that potential. He's being overlooked because of how strong the defense pool in this draft is.
As I said earlier in the thread though, I think it's moot point because Kotkaniemi will be picked before us and one of Dobson/Boqvist/Bouchard/Hughes will be there.