ATD 2018 Summary

[Habsfan18]

Wasn’t sure if you guys were planning on having this thread or not this year, but I noticed it’s an ATD tradition so I figured I’d get the thread set up. I’ll post my responses tonight or some time tomorrow.

Biggest Steal(s) of the draft:
Biggest Reach(es) of the draft:
Smartest/best strategic pick in the draft:
Biggest blunder selection of the draft:
A Player finally getting respect in the draft:
A player always taken too high, finally getting picked where he should in the draft:
A player you've discovered in this draft:
Most underrated player taken:
Most overrated player taken:
Favorite scoring line of the draft:
Favorite checking line of the draft:
Best assembled line of the draft:
Worst assembled line of the draft:
Favorite pairing of defensemen:
Most puzzling pairing of defensemen:
Team in the other conference it'd be interesting to meet in the finals:
Team in the other conference you wouldn't want to meet in the finals:
A funny/dramatic story (related to the ATD) you've learned about since the start of the draft:

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Best selection: You cannot vote for players you own
1st round:
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'Worst' Selection
1st round:
2nd round:
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24th round:
25th round:


Also, feel free to add any other comments or reflections about your experience/team this year.

Click to read more...

 

[BenchBrawl]

Best selection: You cannot vote for players you own
1st round: Harvey
2nd round: Pilote
3rd round: Stevens/Boucher
4th round: Sawchuk
5th round: Malkin
6th round: Bentley/Laperriere/Doughty were good value, Kane too
7th round: Barry
8th round: Cameron/Stewart
9th round: Thomson
10th round: Crawford/Drillon/Sittler (and perhaps Bowman in retrospect)
11th round: Fredrickson
12nd round: Getzlaf
13th round: dunno
14th round: Kapustin
15th round: Hall
16th round: dunno, maybe Pete Green, still up for debate

...dunno about the rest, no time to split hair

Did this quick, don't take it seriously if I forgot your player

 

[Dreakmur]

16th round: dunno, maybe Pete Green, still up for debate

I think I found some good new information for his bio. We'll see what people think when TDMM gets it posted.

 

[BenchBrawl]

I think I found some good new information for his bio. We'll see what people think when TDMM gets it posted.

I catched a lot about Green too reading The Ottawa Journal and The Ottawa Citizen, unfortunately couldn't transcript everything for every player/coach from those teams.

I must say I'm just as confused as I was at the beginning about how to share the credit.Even Eddie Gerard himself could be thought of as a coach to a smaller extent.

Looking forward to what you found.

 

[jarek]

I think the key to Green is what he was responsible for with the Walsh-led Sens.

 

[Dreakmur]

I catched a lot about Green too reading The Ottawa Journal and The Ottawa Citizen, unfortunately couldn't transcript everything for every player/coach from those teams.

I must say I'm just as confused as I was at the beginning about how to share the credit.Even Eddie Gerard himself could be thought of as a coach to a smaller extent.

Looking forward to what you found.

Well, despite some confusion over who exactly did what, I think it's pretty clear that Pet Green was the key to Ottawa' success. They won when he was there, didn't win when he left, and won again when he came back. Circumstantial, sure, but pretty convincing.

One newspaper article written when Green was brought back in 1919 talked about how he was a disciplinarian who would get the team back in order.

According to King Clancy, Green developed an inventive way to bring substitutes to the ice. It was a simple buzzer system, but innovation is innovation.

 

[Sturminator]

I catched a lot about Green too reading The Ottawa Journal and The Ottawa Citizen, unfortunately couldn't transcript everything for every player/coach from those teams.

I must say I'm just as confused as I was at the beginning about how to share the credit.Even Eddie Gerard himself could be thought of as a coach to a smaller extent.

Looking forward to what you found.

The further back you go in hockey, the more the roles of coach and captain intersect. It's not a coincidence that the original, original Ottawa dynasty (the 1904, 1905 and 1906 Cup winners) was led by a player-coach, Alf Smith. Smith also coached a Cup champion in 1903, and coached the Sens in 1918-19 when they finished first in the league, but lost to the Vezina-led Habs in the NHL playoffs in the season where the Cup series was cut short by the Spanish flu. When it comes to the latter-day Sens, victory really did seem to have a hundred fathers. The period of that old Ottawa dynasty, which spanned about 25 years in various forms, is the least-appreciated in hockey history, imo.

At any rate, Alf Smith was possibly an underrated coach, and probably an underrated leader.

 

[BenchBrawl]

The further back you go in hockey, the more the roles of coach and captain intersect. It's not a coincidence that the original, original Ottawa dynasty (the 1904, 1905 and 1906 Cup winners) was led by a player-coach, Alf Smith. Smith also coached a Cup champion in 1903, and coached the Sens in 1918-19 when they finished first in the league, but lost to the Vezina-led Habs in the NHL playoffs in the season where the Cup series was cut short by the Spanish flu. When it comes to the latter-day Sens, victory really did seem to have a hundred fathers. The period of that old Ottawa dynasty, which spanned about 25 years in various forms, is the least-appreciated in hockey history, imo.

At any rate, Alf Smith was possibly an underrated coach, and probably an underrated leader.

I agree this period is the least-appreciated, and somehow it is the one that fascinates me the most, by far.And the 20s dynasty was the team who fascinated me the most so it was a fun ride to research Gerard and Boucher, though if only I could somehow get some financial return I would have enjoyed writing a book on the team as a whole, whereas now my focus was more narrow.

Gerard was coach and manager in 1916-1917 and maybe 1917-1918 I believe, though those years are harder to research for the eyes.The quality of print seems to have increased a lot around 1920 or 1921, but maybe that's just the newspapers I looked into.

Ottawa Journal Nov 8, 1916

As we predicted some weeks ago, Eddie Gerard will be the playing manager and coach of the Ottawa hockey team this winter.When first mentioned as manager of the team Horace Merrill's name was coupled and the latter would surely have been the choice of the Ottawa club if he had not decided definitely not to play this winter.Gerard was the next choice and though he has not accepted the terms offered it is almost certain that he will.Nighbor and he will be the highest paid men in the squad.Gerard is well liked by all of the players and should make good as leader of the team.His playing ability is well known.It is expected that he will play on the defence this year.If he does his great checking back will be sorely missed up on the line.

 

[VanIslander]

Best selection: You cannot vote for players you own

1st round: Patrick Roy, G 24th
2nd round: Sergei Makarov, RW 39th
3rd round: Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde, C 60th
4th round: Vladislav Tretiak, G 96th
5th round: Sid Abel, LW/C 102nd
6th round: Max Bentley, C 125th
7th round: Turk Broda, G 161st
8th round: Gibert Perreault, C 186th
9th round: Rod Gilbert, RW 216th
10th round: Vladimir Lutchenko, D 227th
11th round: Frank Fredrickson, C 262nd
12nd round: Ryan Getzlaf, C 269th
13th round: Phil Housley, D 306th
14th round: Cecil ‘Tiny’ Thompson, G 324th
15th round: Pat Lafontaine, C 341st
16th round: Dino Ciccarelli, RW 380th
17th round: Harry Watson, LW 405th
18th round: Si Griffis, D 430th
19th round: Vladimir Vikulov, RW 447th
20th round: Blair Russell, F 478th
21st round: Ed Giacomin, G 491st
22nd round: Bernie Nicholls, C 518th
23th round: Pierre Turgeon, C 547th
24th round: Frank McGee, C 569th
25th round: Albert "Battleship" Leduc, D 583rd

 

[VanIslander]

By 'worst' I mean relative to apparent alternatives. Of course GMs have strategies for the kind of skillset needed at any given point, so this doesn't mean the pick isn't in some sense wise.

'Worst' Selection
1st round: Larry Robinson, D (before Red Kelly)
2nd round: Al MacInnis, D (before Pierre Pilote)
3rd round: Johnny Bucyk, LW
4th round: Martin St. Louis, RW
5th round: Joe Thornton, C (top 100? more deserving C's overlooked)
6th round: Bert Olmstead, LW
7th round: Frantisek Pospisil, D
8th round: Vladimir Konstantinov, D
9th round: Allan Stanley, D
10th round: Scotty Bowman, Coach
11th round: Adam Foote, D
12nd round: Mike Peca, C
13th round: Pavol Demitra, LW/C
14th round: Teppo Numminen, D
15th round: Bob Nevin, RW
16th round: Shane Doan, W
17th round: Dirk Graham, RW
18th round: Lennart Svedberg, D
19th round: David Backes, C/RW
20th round: Brian Campbell, D
21st round: Willie Mitchell, D
22nd round: Lars-Erik Sjoberg, D
23th round: Justin Williams, RW
24th round: Trevor Linden, C/RW
25th round: Jay Woodcroft, coach

 

[rmartin65]

Biggest Steal(s) of the draft: Nels Stewart, he dropped further than usual, and then with the LW info that IE found, this was a good pick. I am unsure about the line he is on, though.
Biggest Reach(es) of the draft: Pat Quinn
Smartest/best strategic pick in the draft: I definitely like what VI did with his coaches, that was clever.
Biggest blunder selection of the draft: Mats Sundin... at RW?
A Player finally getting respect in the draft: Dany Heatley... and he could probably go higher
A player always taken too high, finally getting picked where he should in the draft: Bun Cook comes to mind
A player you've discovered in this draft: N/A
Most underrated player taken: Taylor Hall/Nikita Kucherov
Most overrated player taken: Jonathan Toews
Favorite scoring line of the draft: Lindsay-Lalonde-Smith
Favorite checking line of the draft: Gainey-Tkaczuk-Tocchet
Best assembled line of the draft: Hull-Zetterberg-Makarov is a fun mix
Worst assembled line of the draft: Cashman-Petrov-Hodge
Favorite pairing of defensemen: Potvin-Weber
Most puzzling pairing of defensemen: Pronovost-MacInnis
Team in the other conference it'd be interesting to meet in the finals:
Team in the other conference you wouldn't want to meet in the finals:
A funny/dramatic story (related to the ATD) you've learned about since the start of the draft:

Best selection: You cannot vote for players you own
1st round: Wayne Gretzky
2nd round: Phil Esposito
3rd round: Zdeno Chara
4th round: Ted Kennedy
5th round: Evgeni Malkin
6th round: Larry Murphy
7th round: Jan Suchy
8th round: Nels Stewart
9th round: Roy Worters
10th round: Jack Crawford
11th round: Alf Smith
12nd round: Ryan Getzlaf
13th round: Walt Tkaczuk
14th round: Alexander Mogilny
15th round: Bobby Bauer
16th round: William Hollett
17th round: Hugh Lehman
18th round: Dave Poulin
19th round: Yuri Lyapkin
20th round: Ron Ellis
21st round: Adam Graves
22nd round: Red Sullivan
23th round: Blake Wheeler
24th round: Bruce MacGregor
25th round: Jay Bouwmeester

'Worst' Selection
1st round: Larry Robinson
2nd round: Al MacInnis
3rd round: Johnny Bucyk
4th round: Guy Lapointe
5th round: Joe Thornton
6th round: Mats Sundin
7th round: Peter Stastny
8th round: Gary Suter
9th round: Jonathan Toews
10th round: Dan Boyle
11th round: Adam Foote
12nd round: Pat Quinn
13th round: Gus Mortson
14th round: Teppo Numinen
15th round: Butch Goring
16th round: Charlie Simmer
17th round: Dick Duff
18th round: Bill Hajt
19th round: Bob Bourne
20th round: Brian Campbell
21st round: Wally Stanowski
22nd round: Ray Whitney
23th round: Justin Williams
24th round: Darius Kasparaitis
25th round: Jay Woodcroft

My apologies if your players are on my "worst" list. Even if someone is on that list, I dont necessarily believe that it was a bad pick, just that I thought it was the weakest of the round.

 

[Habsfan18]

What’s so puzzling about a Pronovost - MacInnis pairing?

Al was no slouch defensively. So if you’re implying that he’s some kind of liability out there I disagree.

 

[rmartin65]

What’s so puzzling about a Pronovost - MacInnis pairing?

Al was no slouch defensively. So if you’re implying that he’s some kind of liability out there I disagree.

First- I really didn't analyze every pairing down to its nuts and bolts- I just glanced through quickly and your pairing was one of the few that jumped out at me for stylistic issues.

Secondly, I dont equate puzzling to worst; puzzling to me is just a stylistic mishmash. There are worse first pairings out there, I just felt like yours didnt mesh as well as some others.

Thirdly, I really only looked at top pairings for that particular prompt. As you go deeper, it gets harder to get good stylistic pairings.

 

[Sturminator]

What’s so puzzling about a Pronovost - MacInnis pairing?

Al was no slouch defensively. So if you’re implying that he’s some kind of liability out there I disagree.

I don't see any problem with it, either, fwiw.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Worst assembled line of the draft: Cashman-Petrov-Hodge

Bob Johnson just think that Petrov takes on Espositos role on the line.
He does go back and forth though with sliding Makarov down there to create the best of both worlds with Cashman still able to deliver some pucks from the corners. That would put Hodge on Hull's line like some sort of Nesterenko, but we dont know if he skates well enough.

 

[Dreakmur]

Bob Johnson just think that Petrov takes on Espositos role on the line.
He does go back and forth though with sliding Makarov down there to create the best of both worlds with Cashman still able to deliver some pucks from the corners. That would put Hodge on Hull's line like some sort of Nesterenko, but we dont know if he skates well enough.

Hodge and Cashman just have no business being on a 2nd line here.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Hodge and Cashman just have no business being on a 2nd line here.

I hear you, but it should be said that at the time of your comments there where three 1 A-C lines on the Estacades. Or maybe more accurately in terms of ice time, three 2 A-C ones.
This has as of now been adjusted some in the direction of a clear first line, since that format was really settled when Makarov was on Petrov's line anyways.
If he finish up there then we probably will give three lines similar ice time at even strenght to let them all go wild while refreshed.

 

[rmartin65]

Bob Johnson just think that Petrov takes on Espositos role on the line.
He does go back and forth though with sliding Makarov down there to create the best of both worlds with Cashman still able to deliver some pucks from the corners. That would put Hodge on Hull's line like some sort of Nesterenko, but we dont know if he skates well enough.

Leaving the talent part out of it (though I agree with Dreakmur that Hodge and Cashman are weak 2nd liners)- I dont think Petrov plays like Esposito. Mikhailov was more of the net-front rebound/deflection guy on that line.

 

[Sturminator]

Leaving the talent part out of it (though I agree with Dreakmur that Hodge and Cashman are weak 2nd liners)- I dont think Petrov plays like Esposito. Mikhailov was more of the net-front rebound/deflection guy on that line.

Petrov was known for having a deadly slapper which he could use from a distance. I agree that he's not that similar to Esposito.

Insofar as you're comparing Mikhailov's style to Espo's...that's not a great comparison, either, though. Mikhailov's best NHL comparison is probably Dickie Moore.

 

[rmartin65]

Insofar as you're comparing Mikhailov's style to Espo's...that's not a great comparison, either, though. Mikhailov's best NHL comparison is probably Dickie Moore.

I wasn't saying that Mikhailov played a similar style to Esposito, I was just saying that Mikhailov was the tip/rebound master on that line, not Petrov. Very few people in history played the way Esposito did (at least, at a high level). As far as your comparison to Moore- I like it. I think that fits very well.

 

[Pominville Knows]

^Petrov can hold his ground around the slot and find some space. I know one thing and that is that i'll move the line visually down to third even though they play equally much at even strength as the Neely line.
We'll see where the roster ends up after thie current pre-season is over.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Best selection: You cannot vote for players you own
1st round: Stan Mikita at 2o or Mar Messier at 21
2nd round: Ted Lindsay at 37
3rd round: Borje Salming at 68, compared to other dmen
4th round: Terry Sawchuk at 73. We tried to trade up for pick 73 to take him.
5th round: Doug Bentley at 110
6th round: Max Bentley at 125; Patrick Kane at 136
7th round: Charlie Gardiner at 151 or Marty Barry at 152
8th round: Nels Stewart at 170...as a center at least
9th round: Jiri Holecek at 209
10th round: Herb Gardiner at 217 or Pat Stapleton at 221. We really wanted one of them
11th round: Anze Kopitar at 243, Herbie Lewis at 260, Frank Fredrickson at 262
12nd round: Doug Mohns at 267, Ryan Getzlaf at 269
13th round: Neil Colville at 289, Jiri Holik at 307
14th round: Joe Simpson at 330
15th round: Vincent Damphousse at 340
16th round: Terry Harper at 366, PK Subban at 371
17th round: Hugh Lehman at 390, Ken Mosdell at 393
18th round: Vitaly Davydov at 413, Dave Poulin at 432
19th round: David Backes at 442
20th round: Marty Walsh at 463, Ron Ellis at 471
21st round: Llyn Patrick at 500, Camille Henry at 504
22nd round: Tommy Smith at 515, Red Sullivan at 520
23th round: Jack Darragh at 529
24th round: Vasili Pervuhkin at 561 (what makes him worse than Kuzkin?) , Frank McGee at 569
25th round:

'Worst' Selection
1st round: Larry Robinson at 13, before Kelly
2nd round: Marcel Dionne at 44, before Richard or Boucher
3rd round: Johnny Bucyk at 55
4th round: Pavel Bure at 93 seems a bit early.
5th round: Nobody really bad, but is Tommy Phillips' offense good enough to go 112th?
6th round: Mats Sundin at 141
7th round: Kovalchuk at 163 seems a little early
8th round: Konstantinov at 178
9th round: Bill Barber at 207
10th round: Ott Heller at 233 seems like an ATD canon pick to me.
11th round: Adam Foote at 256
12nd round: Wayne Cashman at 279, Mike Peca at 284
13th round: Gus Mortson at 290
14th round: Teppo Numminen at 333
15th round: Danny Gare at 347
16th round: Doug Jarvis at 370, Joel Otto at 375
17th round: nothing too bad, though Dick Duff at 391, Rick Nash at 407 don't really appeal to me
18th round: Reed Larson at 410,
19th round:
20th round: Kris Draper at 460
21st round:
22nd round: Mike Richter at 527
23th round: Nikita Kucherov, Justin Williams,
24th round:
25th round: Jay Woodcroft

 

[Dreakmur]

Most underrated player taken: Nikita Kucherov

Pretty tough to under-rate an offense only player with a 7 season vs.x score of like 50.

 

[Sturminator]

10th round: Ott Heller at 233 seems like an ATD canon pick to me.

Heller in the 10th is not a silly pick like some of your others, but when guys like Hall and Wentworth, who are in the same tier imo, go five rounds later, it looks like questionable value.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Heller in the 10th is not a silly pick like some of your others, but when guys like Hall and Wentworth, who are in the same tier imo, go five rounds later, it looks like questionable value.

I agree. The comparables are why I picked him, but that was one round where nobody really stood out as particularly bad, so I had to stretch a little to find someone.

I still remember GBC's inexplicable mancrush on Heller from years back, which IMO, inflated his value for awhile