2019 Draft Thread: We Already Got a Kaapo

[Saga of the Elk]

go for it

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[Digitalbooya]

I've seen Cole Caufield anywhere from 10th-30th in NHL mock drafts. Will likely fall due to his size but he has the skill, abilities and handedness that the Wild could really use.

 

[DANOZ28]

speed ; rw; speed ; C, more speed. done

 

[57special]

forwards with skill. Might be possible to pick up local boy, LHD Ben Brinkman in the 2nd, but it all depends on how his year with the Gophers go. A couple of years ago I would've said he was a surefire 1st rounder...we'll see.

 

[TaLoN]

speed ; rw; speed ; C, more speed. done

Skilled puck handlers should be priority #1, speed secondary to that.

 

[puckMAN]

Skilled puck handlers should be priority #1, speed secondary to that.

Bobby Brink would definitely fit that mold,don't know where he's projected to be drafted...guess it might depend on whether he plays the whole year in the USHL or returns to Tonka.

 

[AJ Thelen]

I really like Alex Turcotte. Competing center with speed. He might go a bit high for us tho.

Guskov looks good as well. Very skilled, but he is not a very speedy one.

Fenton will probably draft a defenseman anyway.

 

[FVM]

A+ thread title

 

[Digitalbooya]

I really like Alex Turcotte. Competing center with speed. He might go a bit high for us tho.

Guskov looks good as well. Very skilled, but he is not a very speedy one.

Fenton will probably draft a defenseman anyway.

I don’t see him dropping out of the top 10 as of right now.

 

[thestonedkoala]

We all know Minnesota is going to go a) size b) hockey sense and c) character. They are going to convince everyone that they know better than everyone else in the draft and we're going to reach for a questionable prospect with a safe floor, but no ceiling that'll muck around the bottom 6/bottom pairing for a few years.

 

[AJ Thelen]

We all know Minnesota is going to go a) size b) hockey sense and c) character. They are going to convince everyone that they know better than everyone else in the draft and we're going to reach for a questionable prospect with a safe floor, but no ceiling that'll muck around the bottom 6/bottom pairing for a few years.

This is a scenario that scares me. Why can't we draft a high risk high reward type of player?

 

[DANOZ28]

Skilled puck handlers should be priority #1, speed secondary to that.

you mean like filip johansson? or JEE?

 

[Bazeek]

We all know Minnesota is going to go a) size b) hockey sense and c) character. They are going to convince everyone that they know better than everyone else in the draft and we're going to reach for a questionable prospect with a safe floor, but no ceiling that'll muck around the bottom 6/bottom pairing for a few years.

We should probably give Fenton a full year at the helm before deciding he's been completely possessed by the franchise egregore.

 

[Wabit]

We all know Minnesota is going to go a) size b) hockey sense and c) character. They are going to convince everyone that they know better than everyone else in the draft and we're going to reach for a questionable prospect with a safe floor, but no ceiling that'll muck around the bottom 6/bottom pairing for a few years.

MN doesn't really draft for size, most of their draftees the last few years have been 6'0" or smaller.

 

[chchelseII]

We should probably give Fenton a full year at the helm before deciding he's been completely possessed by the franchise egregore.

Egregore, nice! Where how did this word become part of your vocabulary, if I may ask?

 

[Bazeek]

Egregore, nice! Where how did this word become part of your vocabulary, if I may ask?

I have weird hobbies.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

MN doesn't really draft for size, most of their draftees the last few years have been 6'0" or smaller.

It's about half and half for 2018. I hope the days of drafting guys purely for size (Gabriel, Chizen, Faith) are over. But of course it's no accident that Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno are in the NHL while Kyle Rau and Sam Anas are not.

 

[57special]

I don't even know what that word means, and I'm not going to look it up, for fear it means something icky that is advertised in the back of City Pages.

 

[57special]

It's about half and half for 2018. I hope the days of drafting guys purely for size (Gabriel, Chizen, Faith) are over. But of course it's no accident that Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno are in the NHL while Kyle Rau and Sam Anas are not.

Hey, it's not like character and size have to be avoided.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Hey, it's not like character and size have to be avoided.

If you can play, you can play. I think it's fair to assume that the Wild have avoided drafting guys like Point, Debrincat, and Gaudreau. The Preds took a chance on Arvidsson though.

 

[Victorious Secret]

Why make a point of taking high character guys if you aren't gonna take a chance on someone risky? If you have a room with 'high character' guys then you should be able to mold the ones that need it every once in a while.

At the same time, if these guys were such high character, then they wouldn't have made such a rift with the young guys.

 

[57special]

Why make a point of taking high character guys if you aren't gonna take a chance on someone risky? If you have a room with 'high character' guys then you should be able to mold the ones that need it every once in a while.

At the same time, if these guys were such high character, then they wouldn't have made such a rift with the young guys.

Well, to be fair to the Wild, Nino, Heatley, Sokolov, and Kaprizov were all considered risky acquisitions due to character(maybe not KK..). One just has to go back to the drama when Havlat was on the team, or, to a lesser extent, Quincey, to remember what turmoil problem players can create around a team.

Sokolov and KK ...nobody was picking them besides us. From what I've read about Ho-Sang, he seems to be an entitled guy with skills that match his opinion of himself. DeAngelo? Meh, rather have Belpedio.

Duclair? I would have gone for him. Seemed to be a low risk, high reward situation. He doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire, but would add some skill to a bottom six.

 

[57special]

If you can play, you can play. I think it's fair to assume that the Wild have avoided drafting guys like Point, Debrincat, and Gaudreau. The Preds took a chance on Arvidsson though.

All those guys are nutz. Arvidsson is fantastic. Point and Debrincat just have that scoring knack...Point has crazy speed.

 

[Wabit]

If you can play, you can play. I think it's fair to assume that the Wild have avoided drafting guys like Point, Debrincat, and Gaudreau. The Preds took a chance on Arvidsson though.

To be fair:
-Gaudreau was a 4th round pick, every team avoided him at least once. The Wild could have picked him up with the laste 1st (Phillips) or late 2nd (Lucia) picks I guess
-Debrincat went mid 2nd; they could have used their mid 1st (Kunin) pick on him.
-Point went 1 pick before Belpedio in the mid 3rd; they could have used the mid 1st (Tuch) to pick him.
- At the time all of these picks would have been considered reaches similar to the one they took with FJ this last year. Hindsight really helps a lot for these guys. They all could have turned out like a Schroeder (mid 1st) and then the pick is considered a bust.

Blame the GM for not having the draft picks in whatever years to possibly take these players, but using 1st's on guys that go in the 3rd round or later means you're a genius or an idiot (depending on how they turn out). They've also had their own bad picks (Gabriel, Lucia, Phillips).

 

[57special]

To be fair:
-Gaudreau was a 4th round pick, every team avoided him at least once. The Wild could have picked him up with the laste 1st (Phillips) or late 2nd (Lucia) picks I guess
-Debrincat went mid 2nd; they could have used their mid 1st (Kunin) pick on him.
-Point went 1 pick before Belpedio in the mid 3rd; they could have used the mid 1st (Tuch) to pick him.
- At the time all of these picks would have been considered reaches similar to the one they took with FJ this last year. Hindsight really helps a lot for these guys. They all could have turned out like a Schroeder (mid 1st) and then the pick is considered a bust.

Blame the GM for not having the draft picks in whatever years to possibly take these players, but using 1st's on guys that go in the 3rd round or later means you're a genius or an idiot (depending on how they turn out). They've also had their own bad picks (Gabriel, Lucia, Phillips).

I think your point that the Wild didn't have the mid round picks to use on "risks" is the most telling. I think part of good drafting is just accumulating enough lottery tickets(picks), and getting lucky on one.