2019 NHL Draft - June 21st - With The 14th Selection, The Coyotes.......

[che]

Kakko looked very good tonight. Can we get him, please

 

[Jakey53]

The phrase used often around here "we're not allowed to have nice things" isn't for nothing.

But it's still not a complete excuse either. You should be able to be better at drafting, particularly in the 00's where we just got killed, than we were even without high picks.

Dallas's highest pick on their roster for example is Heiskanen (3 OA) and he's a recent pick at that. Their core is mostly made up of middle firsts or later, in some cases much later.

Of course being the beneficiary of the Seguin trade helps too but much of their depth and core was built unconventionally.

Nashville is another example.

We didn't even have enough scouts to watch all these players so it's no wonder we sucked at drafting, but we haven't had luck on our side with the draft either. This organization has never been run like a normal NHL organization, and the results show this.

 

[rt]

Zegras at 4 seems optimistic.

For me, It’s less about certain kids being to high and more about kids being too low. Zegras has had a great year. You can’t rank a kid like Dach that low. You just can’t. He’s a 6’4” right shot center, who skates extremely well, plays the game hard, is very good defensively, and is putting up one point two points per game in the WHL in his draft year. It’s completely inconceivable that such a player would fall out of the top five in any draft year. It just can’t happen.

 

[YotesFan47]

For me, It’s less about certain kids being to high and more about kids being too low. Zegras has had a great year. You can’t rank a kid like Dach that low. You just can’t. He’s a 6’4” right shot center, who skates extremely well, plays the game hard, is very good defensively, and is putting up one point two points per game in the WHL in his draft year. It’s completely inconceivable that such a player would fall out of the top five in any draft year. It just can’t happen.

I agree and Dach is not the only player I noticed on that list that "fell". Maybe he's listed there due to lack of viewings and will be moved when they release the next batch of rankings. Hayton made it to 9 on my list last year but it was really late because I hadn't seen a lot of him until late. I also had Kupari in my top 10 for a while which changed later in the year.

 

[azcanuck]

Yup, that's what I'm thinking... Hughes would be an extremely good fit for Vancouver who have Pettersson and bro-Hughes and so on, but for us...? We already struggle to get Keller, who is a similar player, going. Kakko can go over the top with puck-hogging, but he can also carry the puck himself and has a stronger all round game than Hughes. Kakko may not have quite the insane top end offensive ceiling as Hughes potentially has, but he also doesn't have the bust potential either and may not be that far from Hughes's top end if he pans out and gets rid of some wrinkles. Kakko may hang on to the puck too much, but Hughes can be a bit random with his passes.

To get Hughes to fit our team we would have to do a lot of changes to our forward lines, essentially build a new team around him. Much more retooling in other words. Kakko's style would lift our current roster as it is today. Hughes would be the pick if we start over in a new arena.

You take the best player at number one plain and simple. YOu don't worry about how they fit. Great players make others better.
You're overanalyzing this. If hughes is the better talent you take him.

 

[rt]

I wonder how WHL fans would compare and contrast the Reinhart, Draisaitl, Virtanen 2014 Draft Year trio versus Dach, Cozens and Krebs.

 

[rt]

Also funny that Haydn Fleury also went in the top seven in 2014 and Bowen Byram is projected in the top ten this year, too. Interesting similarity there with Reinhart and Draisaitl going top five and Virtanen top ten. Dach and Cozens are projected top five and Krebs is right in the mix.

 

[azcanuck]

we're right in the mix for the worst team in the NHL. IT's not far fetched we'll be close to the bottom by the end of the year. I think bottom three.

 

[YotesFan47]

we're right in the mix for the worst team in the NHL. IT's not far fetched we'll be close to the bottom by the end of the year. I think bottom three.

Eh, top 10 is likely but I just don't think we are bottom 5. We will hit some win streaks and pick in the 5-10 range.

 

[rt]

We’ve played 44% of the season and have the sixth worst points pace in the NHL - on pace for 77pts. The Rangers had 77pts last season and that was good for 8th worst. Buffalo had 78pts for 5th worst the year before that. If our last 56% of the year goes like the first 44% of the year, we should finish somewhere between 4th and 8th worst.

 

[YotesFan47]

We’ve played 44% of the season and have the sixth worst points pace in the NHL - on pace for 77pts. The Rangers had 77pts last season and that was good for 8th worst. Buffalo had 78pts for 5th worst the year before that. If our last 56% of the year goes like the first 44% of the year, we should finish somewhere between 4th and 8th worst.

True, but we can't forget the propensity of this team to put up a random strong month in the 2nd half of the year. No matter how bad we've been, we always have a random strong month that ruined any tank. Even if we project at 4, that win streak will push us into 5/6 and some team will jump us putting us at 6/7.

 

[rt]

I can’t see Chayka fire selling. I don’t think he has the balls to trade the likes of Goligoski and Stepan. Los Angeles is probably going to burn it to the ground. I’m not sure Chicago will. Not with Kane and Toews still only 30 and very much in their primes. They’ll keep retooling. Same for St Louis. Tough to predict what Ottawa and New Jersey will do. There are a couple of teams that might tank. We won’t be one of them.

 

[SniperHF]

I agree I don't think we're having a big sell off. But right now we're basically doing the old incompetank thing by virtue of just being bad. I too figured we'd have a better 2nd half but with the injuries I'm not sure that's in the cards, particularly without Raanta who was largely responsible for that 2nd half surge.

So we'll still drop a few spots due to losing lotteries and end up #6 or so then we'll reach a little and draft Turcotte.

 

[rt]

Turcotte is extremely premium. So is Krebs though.

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

I'd be okay with either Turcotte or Krebs (I like Krebs better)

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

again, 1 of the following:
Hughes
Kakko

Cozens
Krebs

Dach
Turcotte

Zegras

 

[SniperHF]

Is Suzuki's kinda meh production keeping him out of the top 10 consideration? I seem him falling out of the top 10 of a lot of lists lately. His numbers aren't outright bad but maybe not as big an improvement as you'd like to see year to year?
Barrie isn't very good and he's on the younger end of eligible prospects. Just putting that out there.

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

Not a Suzuki fan

 

[Vinny Boombatz]

Dach is worrying me though with 1pt in his last 10 games. Usually you don't see that type of pt production loss for a top 10 candidate.

 

[Jagged Ice]

I don't think we'll tank either. We'll likely stay where we are in the standings and pick between 5-8, just on the outskirts of getting someone solid once again. I can see St. Louis start to rise and with Dumba out and Dubnyk playing like crap, Minnesota will fall so that's a wash.

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

We are only three points from the bottom.

This is how I see it: Jersey will get points eventually, Chicago will carry on battling because their leadership group won't cruise. LA has enough talent to perk up, particularly if Quick gets back to respectability. Philly will get better.

I see Detroit, Ottawa, the Blues, Carolina and the Rangers as teams that will slip.

We know we will get points when nothing matters because this is what we good at: the second part of the season, once the chase to the playoffs has gone.

So we will probably finish 5th although I have a very strong feeling that we are only one final injury away from finishing dead last.

 

[CLW]

Yeah, we will find ourselves in a position to draft Hughes. Then we'll proceed to put this entitled featherweight kid on the fourth line to play a 200-foot north south game and prove he has the physicality and stickiness to play on top lines.... grrrr.

 

[rt]

Given what I’ve seen from the three at international tournaments the last year or so, I’m having a tough time putting any separation between Podkolzin and Hughes and Kakko. Stylistically I prefer Podkolzin’s game.

He’s basically everything I want in a hockey player. Compete level is off the charts, full tool box, tons of skill. Looks like a future captain. He doesn’t spend half the game on his ass like Hughes and he doesn’t float like Kakko. He’s more like a Russian Jerome Iginla.

If I had to base my pick off of international tournaments only, and had no other information informing my pick, I’d take Podkolzin first overall.

 

[rt]

Yeah, we will find ourselves in a position to draft Hughes. Then we'll proceed to put this entitled featherweight kid on the fourth line to play a 200-foot north south game and prove he has the physicality and stickiness to play on top lines.... grrrr.

Seeing Podkolzin work his ass off for Valeri Bragan (who makes Dave Tippett seem like a progressive lover of rookie mistakes) from the 4th line and the Penalty Kill has been eye opening. Just watched him out there against the Czechs with a minute left, up by a goal, with the opposition goalie pulled. He’s 17 years old and playing for Bragan. That’s pretty incredible.

 

[CLW]

I've left Podkolzin out so far bc I havent seen enough to really form an opinion, not even highlights apart from the Hlinka where he excelled. He seems extremely talented, maybe a tad slower than Hughes and Kakko, but I have the feeling with him I want to know more about his personality and how his head works. Is he a potential loose cannon or is he really a driven winner?

Kakko is extremely driven and basically lives and breathes hockey, he loathes to lose. With him I have no doubt his offensive game will translate well to the NHL. The thing I do wonder about is if he really is creative, I feel a lot of his points come off his drive and hustle in the o-zone rather than calculation. Also will he pick up the defensive side of the NHL game like Rantanen has done? Rantanen said that the AHL is full of hustlers and there is even less time on the puck than in the NHL, the big difference is that the NHL players are smarter. Still, Kakko is already the go to guy for the Finnish team. The coaches put Tolvanen with Kakko to get Tolvanen's game back on track the last game.

As for Hughes, yes his skating skills and agility are off the charts, but again I don't feel that the cutting edge hockey sense is there, like in say Marner or Pettersson. So again I'd like to understand this kid's mentality better. From the first time I saw him I felt he was extremely talented but also soft in some sense. Can his skill set and hockey understanding balance out his physical softness?

This is a very interesting draft year where the scouts really have to do their homework in depth.