Blackhawks have to choose between a winger for bedard or starting to fix their defense, Taking Demidov makes sense.
Ducks Lack depth at RD and have gone after forwards in the draft recently, Levshunov definitely makes sense
The Jackets while one or two of their Defense prospects haven't been trending well they overall still have good Defensive depth. Centers are high value and having a Lindstrom Fantilli center combo sounds very deadly. Good pick!
The Habs are in a hard spot and could go in multiple directions, and chose Iginla, overall good pick. Could have seen them take Silayev just because of his uniqueness.
They're not taking a left shot defenseman, specifically one that will take 3 years just to get started in the NHL.
The Montreal vote is so interesting to me. Silayev, Buium & Dickinson are on the board yet they garnered just 16% of the vote. Iginla, Catton & Sennecke are great players but it feels like you're leaving serious talent on the board if you force for a forward. The D this year are just so much more exciting and we knew this last year. I still can't comprehend why they wouldn't take Michkov. The "he didn't want to play there" story was nonsense. He told Arizona to get lost but all credible reports said Montreal wasn't interested in the player and didn't want to wait for the contract.
Reinbacher looked good with Laval and is a solid prospect, but imagine Michkov + Silayev/Buium in the pipeline instead of Reinbacher + Iginla/Catton.
Our GM and scouts have all said they aren't interested in taking a LD and that they'd entertain moving down in a scenario where the LD are the clear BPA. They are very satisfied with Guhle, Xhekaj and Hutson on the left side, they are also very high on Engstrom, in addition they still have Matheson on the roster, and Harris plus Struble who would be in the top 6 of most teams in the NHL.
The Habs took the BPA last year, they got a right shot defenseman that isn't available this year. They got their foil to Hutson and someone who can defend, skate and move transition forward. Levshunov is going top 3 otherwise they would take him if Lindstrom/Demidov are both off the board and he is there.
There was no opportunity this year, really, outside of an insane situation, where they'd get a chance to draft a RD like Reinbacher so they still made the right choice.
Yea that's the point I'm trying to make, you take the F last year and the D this year instead
No you take your BPA at a premium position last year. Worst case this year is you take Lindstrom/Demidov or you trade down and get paid to take Iginla/Sennecke/Catton and have ammunition to move up from the Jets pick to add another talent to the organization.
They were never taking Michkov, he wasn't a stylistic or character fit. I personally don't think Leonard and Iginla at the time of the draft are drastically different, will Iginla's development curve continue the way Leonard's did this year? I'm not sure.. we will find out, but once you take the Michkov situation out, you aren't look at forwards at 5 last year who are demonstrably better than the forwards at 5 this year. I still think they'll end up with Lindstrom.
Silayev will go top 4, likely to CBJ, everything leans that way from anything close to the NHL right now.