Prospect Info: 2020 NHL Draft - part II

[MichaelJ]

@StevenToddIves

When you have a moment, who do you prefer between Helge Grans and Justin Barron?

- Who has more offensive upside
- Who plays more responsible defensively
- Who is closer to the NHL
- Do they both project as mid-pairing defensemen?
- Are there major longterm concerns about Barron’s injury?

Thanks!

 

[Emperoreddy]

You all know we are going to draft Rossi

 

[Forge]

You all know we are going to draft Rossi

Depending on where, and over who, I'm probably okay with that

 

[Scooooooooooooot]

You all know we are going to draft Rossi

if our first gets Rossi I accept that, he is a complete stud.

 

[FooteBahl]

You all know we are going to draft Rossi

Then grab Quinn with Arizona’s pick...then the 67’s equipment manager with Vancouver’s pick. We’ll have over a quarter of their roster lol

 

[Emperoreddy]

Depending on where, and over who, I'm probably okay with that

just needs to be out there for those dead set on someone else. His stock is rising, and you know our scouting department has seen a ton of him due to him playing with so many of our other prospects.

He had another 3 point game today.

 

[MichaelJ]

Did we reassign our Mississauga scout to Ottawa?

 

[FooteBahl]

Did we reassign our Mississauga scout to Ottawa?

After the McLeod and Bastian picks, they may have gone "missing."

 

[Spoiled Bratt]

Drysdale isnt in my top 7 for this draft, I highly doubt one of my players in the 2nd/3red tier won't be available at 6.

There’s no way Drysdale makes it past pick #5, none. The kid is electric and he’s even better then Byram, who went 4th overall last year. One might say that he was better then Byram this year on Canada’s WJC team, being one year younger. There’s not many 17 year old dmen that cracked team Canada and actually made a very solid impact towards a goal medal but he did.

If you like Cale Makar, who seems to be next big thing in regards to blueliners, you’ll like Jamie Drysdale. To me, Marco Rossi is the only other player I can see bumping Drysdale out of the #4 spot. The kid is "Mitch Marner like" and if we can’t land anyone in my top #4, he has to be the guy, he’s just amazing.

 

[Nubmer6]

Drysdale isnt in my top 7 for this draft, I highly doubt one of my players in the 2nd/3red tier won't be available at 6.

Just curious. Any particular reason why? Or are the other guys just that much more impressive?

 

[NJDevils17]

I’m not going to pretend to know who is the BPA at our pick but I can tell you that we’ll pick who we believe it is. There are very few GMs drafting for need and they usually get fired if they do because it’s not a sustainable strategy.

We have zero idea what our team will look like in 2-3 years so taking a dman because it’s a right now need doesn’t make sense. What if we add someone like Dumba, another young D, then Smith and Bahl develop into top 4 guys? Then this dman is a luxury and maybe we need forward depth. Or conversely, what if Palms walks, Foote doesn’t develop, Boqvist is a 3rd liner and none of our other forwards develop much more? Then we’re in big trouble.

Draft BPA, trade for need.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Again, you can't trade for an elite defenseman.

I'd rather spend a 1st rounder to draft one than have to trade a 1st rounder and other good assets for an older one in the future.

 

[NJDevils17]

The problem is, if you have a higher grade on a forward, you probably don’t view that defenseman as an elite player or have more questions. That logic doesn’t hold true for reaching for one. The defenseman would have to be BPA.

 

[Alex NJD]

I'm 100% a BPA guy and feel he same way about this draft. But I feel like people forget this but McLeod was considered by many to be the BPA at our pick in 2016. He had a lot of top ~10-12 rankings late that year.

 

[Devils Army]

Again, you can't trade for an elite defenseman.

I'd rather spend a 1st rounder to draft one than have to trade a 1st rounder and other good assets for an older one in the future.

We will forever be lacking a top dman unless we draft one high or hope we get lucky on a late round pick

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

He’s a right hand shot but yeah, drafting based on positional need isn’t the right way to go about it.

The Pavel Zacha pick is the prime example of drafting for need instead of going with the best talent (Provorov).

Idk why Zacha is always used as an example of drafting for need going wrong but never mcleod .

Edit: although i guess tbf, it's too early to claim mcleod is a bust but it's not looking great if I were tbh.

 

[aboriginal]

You all know we are going to draft Rossi

yes plz

 

[Oneiro]

The sheer ping pong luck that has prevented an even bigger disaster from unfolding is a miracle. Even if you think Nico and Jack are not even in the building of any other No. 1 overalls, things could be so much worse.

The McLeod pick was bad but looking at that spot, it was a hard one to get right. The broader reason I dislike the Zacha and McLeod picks is because I felt that they were drafted more for their profile rather than who they were as individual players. Their draft years did not show enough promise to make that sort of bet.

Think the more interesting question is what young roster player we can target with a package that involves one of the 1sts.

 

[NJDevs26]

Idk why Zacha is always used as an example of drafting for need going wrong but never mcleod .

Edit: although i guess tbf, it's too early to claim mcleod is a bust but it's not looking great if I were tbh.

Because someone else's scouting director picked Zacha and because there isn't that clear OMG we passed on this guy below McLeod that there is with Zacha/Barzal. Chichyrun was the second-guess pick at the time and he's obviously looking better than McLeod, but he hasn't been a real game-breaker yet.

Besides, why do people automatically assume anytime a pick goes awry it's because a team drafted for need? That's an easy second guess, they could well have had Zacha/McLeod rated as best on their board or at least comparable to people in their tier. Sure, teams have a board and rank everyone 1-whatever but they also have overall tiers where there isn't really an appreciable difference between the players within that tier. When people scream BPA they act like teams pass on 9.5 guys for 9 guys because of positional need, it's generally closer than that.

Anyway we should try to keep the discussion on THIS year's draft.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The need argument with Zacha is dumber because the guy everyone second guesses with him is also a forward.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I will crack up if we end up somehow with both Rossi and Quinn. Depending on where the picks land both guys could be BPA where we pick.

 

[Nubmer6]

I will crack up if we end up somehow with both Rossi and Quinn. Depending on where the picks land both guys could be BPA where we pick.

And shortly thereafter we rename our team to the New Jersey 67s.

 

[NJDevs26]

And shortly thereafter we rename our team to the New Jersey 67s.

That'd be one cheap way to get a second minor league team

 

[FooteBahl]

And shortly thereafter we rename our team to the New Jersey 67s.

Our marketing add could be “blow us and we’ll owe you two.” It’s much better than #wearetheones

 

[Guttersniped]

Idk why Zacha is always used as an example of drafting for need going wrong but never mcleod .

Edit: although i guess tbf, it's too early to claim mcleod is a bust but it's not looking great if I were tbh.

I agree that McLeod is a better example of drafting for need since the best players after him taken in the 1st round are defenseman. People fixate on Zacha because it was 6th pick in what is considered the best draft since 2003. Zacha was just a bad pick, every team wants big centermen so they’re easy to overrate.

I’m bummed that Jason is not into Drysdale because I can see NJ grabbing him if someone like LA doesn’t grab him first. I do think Drysdale may benefit from recency bias. The high scoring of two hot rookies and the early promise of Heiskanen and Dahlin may have given everyone defenseman fever.

Contrary to some notable recent exceptions, it’s much harder to predict which 18 year olds will be future elite defensemen than it is to pick out which 18 year old forwards have elite offensive upside. It’s rare to have outright busts like Griffin Rienhart, it seems like offensive forwards bust easier, but in most drafts teams get an OK second pair guy in the top 10 while a couple of much better top pair defensemen are found randomly later in the first two rounds and occasionally even later.

Everyone loves the Canes defense but it’s not because of the three defensemen they took with their high 1st round picks in 2015, 2016 or 2017. In fact they got the most out best of those three, Hanifen, by selling high in the Hamilton draft and the got Slavin in the 4th round. It’s easier to judge size, skating and offensive production in juniors than it is to divine who’s going to play the best defense in pro hockey.

Busts are everywhere in drafts but an argument can be made that the best chance of success is to take a forward with elite top line offensive potential with our top pick and go for a defenseman later.