2019 Draft Thread: We Already Got a Kaapo

[Nsjohnson]

Nashville's drafting strategy has always paralleled Minnesota's. Very few skill forwards ever in the early rounds, preferring high-upside grinders (Watson, Sissons, Hartnell), defense first philosophy (Weber, Suter, Josi), late-bloomers (Arvidsson, Ekholm), less attention to CHL, more to Sweden, Finland, and midwest high school players.

The 2018 Draft will surprise people, especially those that think ANYTHING is known about these guys at this point.

I actually don't have a strong opinion about that draft. I do think the 1st rounder from 2018 is strange, even if it's Flahr's pick. It's just strange that he wouldn't step in and say no.

Anyways, I think there are a few guys that could really pan out.

We will see how he drafts with us. People can change philosophy a bit with a changing league.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I actually don't have a strong opinion about that draft. I do think the 1st rounder from 2018 is strange, even if it's Flahr's pick. It's just strange that he wouldn't step in and say no.

Anyways, I think there are a few guys that could really pan out.

We will see how he drafts with us. People can change philosophy a bit with a changing league.

I forgot about Kevin Fiala, though I think he was a notable exception in my memory.

I agree FJ was a strange pick but a 20 point season in the OHL would make me far more nervous than his 1 point does in the Allsvenskan.

I guess the biggest point about any method of drafting is just opportunity: if a high-end shooter or skill guy isn't available, you don't pick a worse player of that type, you take the best all-around player who is at the top of your board.

 

[Nsjohnson]

I forgot about Kevin Fiala, though I think he was a notable exception in my memory.

I agree FJ was a strange pick but a 20 point season in the OHL would make me far more nervous than his 1 point does in the Allsvenskan.

I guess the biggest point about any method of drafting is just opportunity: if a high-end shooter or skill guy isn't available, you don't pick a worse player of that type, you take the best all-around player who is at the top of your board.

It's true, and there's more than one reason why you take BPA at your pick (more so if you have a weak pool): you also have tradable assets (if you need to use them). A BPA generally will keep that perceived value unless in his season after being drafted has a terrible year. An off the board pick almost never will keep that same value unless, like the falling BPA but opposite, has a mega good next season after the draft (or years after the draft).

It's like, would we have more value, a larger exchange possible, if we had drafted Valeno? I think even if you don't like Valeno, you have to say he has more value than Johansson. I think it should be considered, to a point, in a BPA vs other decision.

Firstly, Valeno in our club, assuming he pans out in the NHL (never a good thing to assume), make our prospect pool much better due to his position (C). Next, if he were to be used as a trade piece to radically change the team, he is valuable.

There are many reasons why we should always take BPA, unless we have a glut of prospects. It was a poor choice not to. I'm not like all upset at it, but I know that Valeno was the right pick and should have made the most sense for the organization.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

looked at a few mocks, 3 of them show us getting Suzuki, Caufield or Kaliyev. any of those 3 i honestly like. wanting a sniper i want caufield over the other 2 but i would not be upset with Suzuki over them given we need young centers.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

looked at a few mocks, 3 of them show us getting Suzuki, Caufield or Kaliyev. any of those 3 i honestly like. wanting a sniper i want caufield over the other 2 but i would not be upset with Suzuki over them given we need young centers.

Suzuki isn’t horrible; he would be a fine pick if we pick in the 20s. Kaliyev would be a disaster. He doesn’t compete on the ice whatsoever. Caufield would be interesting. We don’t have any high-end centers to get him the puck in a scoring area frequently enough for him to be lethal. I don’t think he skates well enough to create many scoring opportunities himself, but with a good setup man he could be a 35 goal scorer in the NHL. He is a complementary player, though.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Such a Minnesota year; playoff bubble team that'll probably flounder around in the first round. All the while, their division rivals are probably going to get top 5 picks due to a smart trade and picking a good year to re-tool.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I don't the Hawks or Blues "picked" their place in the standings.

 

[thestonedkoala]

I don't the Hawks or Blues "picked" their place in the standings.

Blues no, but Hawks kind of gave in. Wait that's 3 teams from our division that'll probably pick in the top 7 of this year's draft.

 

[Wabit]

Blues no, but Hawks kind of gave in. Wait that's 3 teams from our division that'll probably pick in the top 7 of this year's draft.

The Blues are only 6p behind the Wild and have 2 games in hand. They might have found thier goalie in Binnington too. Way too soon to write them off.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

Suzuki isn’t horrible; he would be a fine pick if we pick in the 20s. Kaliyev would be a disaster. He doesn’t compete on the ice whatsoever. Caufield would be interesting. We don’t have any high-end centers to get him the puck in a scoring area frequently enough for him to be lethal. I don’t think he skates well enough to create many scoring opportunities himself, but with a good setup man he could be a 35 goal scorer in the NHL. He is a complementary player, though.

Gotcha, this was picking at 18. I'm hoping we start selling and get closer to 10 and get a center. There are a lot going early that seem to be what we need.

 

[Victorious Secret]

I don't the Hawks or Blues "picked" their place in the standings.

Some would say trading Panarin for Saad and Hammer for nothing goes a long way to choosing their standing.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Some would say trading Panarin for Saad and Hammer for nothing goes a long way to choosing their standing.

Also firing Bowman as well.

 

[Wild11MN]

What's the consensus on the strength of this draft? Particularly 3-16 or so? I know Hughes and Kakko are a pretty good 1-2 punch, but nothing after that.

 

[thestonedkoala]

What's the consensus on the strength of this draft? Particularly 3-16 or so? I know Hughes and Kakko are a pretty good 1-2 punch, but nothing after that.

Deep on centers, intriguing wingers, good depth on goaltenders, not good on defensemen.

 

[57special]

This would be a good year for us to pick high in the draft because of the depth of Centers. Not the year where you want to be looking for elite Dmen.

 

[thestonedkoala]

So THN ranked teams in terms of Calder votes and Minnesota ranked 30th out of 31. Only Vegas was worse. Brodin is the only notable rookie that Minnesota has produced or had any impact on the team in his first year as Brodin ended up being voted 4th in the Calder race. Gaborik was 7th in his rookie year. The fact is Minnesota has struggled to develop consistent offensive talent through their almost 20 year history. Getting a top pick won't help this team immediately.

 

[Bazeek]

So THN ranked teams in terms of Calder votes and Minnesota ranked 30th out of 31. Only Vegas was worse. Brodin is the only notable rookie that Minnesota has produced or had any impact on the team in his first year as Brodin ended up being voted 4th in the Calder race. Gaborik was 7th in his rookie year. The fact is Minnesota has struggled to develop consistent offensive talent through their almost 20 year history. Getting a top pick won't help this team immediately.

Just to try to get my head around this argument for the umpteenth time: are you saying that if the Wild won the lottery and drafted someone like Hughes or Kakko, they would be less impactful here than they would be to a team that's gotten more Calder votes over the last two decades?

 

[2Pair]

Just to try to get my head around this argument for the umpteenth time: are you saying that if the Wild won the lottery and drafted someone like Hughes or Kakko, they would be less impactful here than they would be to a team that's gotten more Calder votes over the last two decades?

obviously

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Just to try to get my head around this argument for the umpteenth time: are you saying that if the Wild won the lottery and drafted someone like Hughes or Kakko, they would be less impactful here than they would be to a team that's gotten more Calder votes over the last two decades?

I think he's saying that we wouldn't develop them and/or ruin them as players, as we have done with every single forward that has had the incredible misfortune to wear our jersey.

 

[Bazeek]

I think he's saying that we wouldn't develop them and/or ruin them as players, as we have done with every single forward that has had the incredible misfortune to wear our jersey.

I wonder where Edmonton fell on this list.

 

[thestonedkoala]

I wonder where Edmonton fell on this list.

Middle of the pack. Edmonton is a shitshow though, so you want to be associated with them?

Just to try to get my head around this argument for the umpteenth time: are you saying that if the Wild won the lottery and drafted someone like Hughes or Kakko, they would be less impactful here than they would be to a team that's gotten more Calder votes over the last two decades?

A) They have to pretty much lose out and then win the lottery in order to get the first or second pick. The worst team (Ottawa) has 43 points, Minnesota has 57. There are 14 other teams worse than Minnesota right now (Minnesota sits at 17th overall) with Chicago, Anaheim, having a game in hand. You're telling me that Ottawa and hell New Jersey or Los Angeles is going to win 7 more games than Minnesota in that stretch, especially with the trade deadline going on? What are you going to do? Tell the team to lose? That'll go over really well with Parise and Suter. B) Other than Koivu, who else has had a major impact on this team that isn't part of a trade rumor? C) Who currently holds the all-time record for points/goals for rookies on this team? D) You'd think Boesner or Barzal or Keller would have the same impact on Minnesota as they do on their respective teams?

 

[Bazeek]

A) They have to pretty much lose out and then win the lottery in order to get the first or second pick. The worst team (Ottawa) has 43 points, Minnesota has 57. There are 14 other teams worse than Minnesota right now (Minnesota sits at 17th overall) with Chicago, Anaheim, having a game in hand. You're telling me that Ottawa and hell New Jersey or Los Angeles is going to win 7 more games than Minnesota in that stretch, especially with the trade deadline going on? What are you going to do? Tell the team to lose? That'll go over really well with Parise and Suter. B) Other than Koivu, who else has had a major impact on this team that isn't part of a trade rumor? C) Who currently holds the all-time record for points/goals for rookies on this team? D) You'd think Boesner or Barzal or Keller would have the same impact on Minnesota as they do on their respective teams?

I offered a hypothetical in an attempt to untangle the argument that I thought you were making: that the Wild not garnering many Calder votes in the last 20 years says something about their ability to develop offensive players going forward. I don't actually think they're going to win the lottery.

As for guys like Boeser, Barzal and Keller, yes, I think they would. The overall problem hasn't been that we take otherwise good raw material and spin it into **** while other teams spin it into gold, it's that we've picked the wrong guys. Do you think if we'd taken Boeser and Vancouver had taken Eriksson-Ek that Ek would be putting up 30 goals per year while Boeser's trying to prove himself as a serviceable 3rd liner? I think that's absurd.

 

[Engebretson]

If we could get an additional late 1st or early 2nd in this draft, I'd like to take a shot at Spencer Knight. Solid goalie for the USNTDP right now and committed to BC. One of the common things I see written about him is his mental toughness. Essentially, he forgets bad goals or bad games fairly quickly and he's being projected as one of the top goaltenders in this draft.

 

[Twoods1623]

If we could get an additional late 1st or early 2nd in this draft, I'd like to take a shot at Spencer Knight. Solid goalie for the USNTDP right now and committed to BC. One of the common things I see written about him is his mental toughness. Essentially, he forgets bad goals or bad games fairly quickly and he's being projected as one of the top goaltenders in this draft.

I agree with your thoughts of using an early pick especially if it's a pick that we traded for at the deadline for a goalie. I think we have a chance at seeing Kahkonen as a future backup at least. With Dubnyk having two more years after this, Stalock with an extension, and Kahkonen for the near future, we should think about it for the next generation of our core. The downside though of picking a goalie early like that is that you really never know what you're going to get. I guess you can say that about any pick really, but it's to another level with goalies. Yes we could end up with someone like Carter Hart or Samsonov, but you could also get someone like a Matt Hackett. Granted he was a third rounder though. It's a risk that we might need to think about next year, because we need firepower at forward pretty badly ASAP. It's been 3 years since the last time we took a goalie in the draft with Stezka.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

I agree with your thoughts of using an early pick especially if it's a pick that we traded for at the deadline for a goalie. I think we have a chance at seeing Kahkonen as a future backup at least. With Dubnyk having two more years after this, Stalock with an extension, and Kahkonen for the near future, we should think about it for the next generation of our core. The downside though of picking a goalie early like that is that you really never know what you're going to get. I guess you can say that about any pick really, but it's to another level with goalies. Yes we could end up with someone like Carter Hart or Samsonov, but you could also get someone like a Matt Hackett. Granted he was a third rounder though. It's a risk that we might need to think about next year, because we need firepower at forward pretty badly ASAP. It's been 3 years since the last time we took a goalie in the draft with Stezka.

Wonder what might have been with him if he had found a college program? For those who don't check on him, he's getting eaten alive in the Czech Second division.

Goes to what I was saying about 2017 earlier: too few picks. With expansion the available pool for goalies is very shallow and getting worse.

Goaltender is high on the GM's to-do list.