Biggest steals, surprises and disappointments of the draft? [2006]

The Assailant*

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can somebody explain why this draft was again only 7 rounds instead of 9?
 

The Assailant*

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Abyss said:
its been changed, 2005 was also only 7 rounds.


I thought 2005 was a temporary change and it was supposed to go back to being 9 rounds...
 

Bruinator

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Aug 5, 2005
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I'm shocked that after the Season Andrew Raycroft had, the Bruins were able to pick up a prospect as highly touted as Tukka Rask for him. Also stoked that Phil Kessel, once thought of as the runaway 1st overall fell to the Bruins at #5.
 

Gwyddbwyll

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Dec 24, 2002
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The Assailant said:
can somebody explain why this draft was again only 7 rounds instead of 9?

I think to stop the high expectations of kids who got drafted in the last few rounds? Only about 5% made the NHL and 90% of them were getting washed up with no qualifications.
 

Enstrom39

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Apr 1, 2006
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The Assailant said:
can somebody explain why this draft was again only 7 rounds instead of 9?

NHLPA asked for it to be changed in the CBA.

Fewer drafted players = more free agents and possible bidding contests between teams and it may result in these guys making a few more bucks.

Let's face most late picks are busts, so the first pro contract is often their last NHL deal, if they make an extra $50,000 because they are a free agent signee rather than a drafted player without freedom of movement. they end up being $50,000 richer when their career is over.
 

VladNYC*

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What a bad draft for russians. Alot of really good guys got a slap in the face.

Popov in the 7th round..***.

Kulemin should have been drafted in the first round. Pit should have gotten him to play with malkin. Why they picked a a ****ing center when they got malkin and crosby is beyond me.

WSH did a really good job with their pics. Backstrom and Varlamov were great picks.

Montreal is gonna have an insane team next year if they let their RSL prospects play next year.

Over all, same **** different year.
 
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Evilo

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Mar 17, 2002
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I didn't like the Pens draft at all I must say.

1/ I would have liked Shero to pull the trigger for the JJ deal. If it was really offered, I hate the Staal pick.

2/ taking 3 defensemen when our strengh (prospect wise) is there is a bid weird to me. The main need among prospects is scoring winger. Vasyunov would have made perfect sense. Risky pick sure, much riskier than the guys we drafted (who seem very good, but that's not the point). Heck, picking Joenessu (sp?) would have made more sense.
We simply didn't fit our needs. We have Welch, Lannon, Letang, Goligoski, Bissonnette, Fernholm, Rouleau, Schneider, etc....
We don't need more 4th-55th defensemen (where these drafted guys project). We either needed a Johnson (a true #1 defenseman to go with Whitney) or a scoring winger.

Disappointing.
 

hockeyglove

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Feb 28, 2002
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The Assailant said:
can somebody explain why this draft was again only 7 rounds instead of 9?

There was an article printed a few years ago that embarrassed the NHL. The article focused on the draft picks in the 8th and 9th rounds. Most of the GM's had left the draft by then and left the picks up to scouts and underlings. Some players were picked because of favors owed to parents (look...my kid was drafted by the NHL), by unusual last names (because the scouts had never seen the kid play), or the teams passed on picking altogether. It was a slap in the face for kids hoping to get drafted to watch the charade. It was fitting and proper that if some people in the NHL were going to use the last two rounds of the draft for their personal amusement, it should be cancelled.
 

Padawan

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Dec 31, 2002
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Spetzky said:
J-M Juutilainen fell pretty hard.
Agreed. I thought he would have been selected in the fourth but atleast in early fifth. Although he is still much of a project, he has tons of potential with good leadership abilities. Juutilainen is a great skater too but I guess he was thought of too big of a project to go earlier.
 

Greg7

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Feb 5, 2004
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The biggest surprise to me is the drop in CHLers taken (in particular WHL).
OHL - 29
QMJHL - 25
WHL - 24
I guess part of this is that there are less picks now with a 7 round draft and no compensation picks, but it still seems like there were some pretty quality prospects that were passed over. Guys like Mitch Fadden, Kevin Armstrong, and Chad Greenan going undrafted entirely was a pretty big surprise to me.
 

Barney Stinson76

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Jul 24, 2002
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The same I thought!! :(

Evilo said:
I didn't like the Pens draft at all I must say.

1/ I would have liked Shero to pull the trigger for the JJ deal. If it was really offered, I hate the Staal pick.

2/ taking 3 defensemen when our strengh (prospect wise) is there is a bid weird to me. The main need among prospects is scoring winger. Vasyunov would have made perfect sense. Risky pick sure, much riskier than the guys we drafted (who seem very good, but that's not the point). Heck, picking Joenessu (sp?) would have made more sense.
We simply didn't fit our needs. We have Welch, Lannon, Letang, Goligoski, Bissonnette, Fernholm, Rouleau, Schneider, etc....
We don't need more 4th-55th defensemen (where these drafted guys project). We either needed a Johnson (a true #1 defenseman to go with Whitney) or a scoring winger.

Disappointing.
 

Frenzy31

Registered User
May 21, 2003
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Evilo said:
I didn't like the Pens draft at all I must say.

1/ I would have liked Shero to pull the trigger for the JJ deal. If it was really offered, I hate the Staal pick.


I personally don't think that JJ was ever offered. All that trade talk was media driven.


Evilo said:
2/ taking 3 defensemen when our strengh (prospect wise) is there is a bid weird to me. The main need among prospects is scoring winger. Vasyunov would have made perfect sense. Risky pick sure, much riskier than the guys we drafted (who seem very good, but that's not the point). Heck, picking Joenessu (sp?) would have made more sense.
We simply didn't fit our needs. We have Welch, Lannon, Letang, Goligoski, Bissonnette, Fernholm, Rouleau, Schneider, etc....
We don't need more 4th-55th defensemen (where these drafted guys project). We either needed a Johnson (a true #1 defenseman to go with Whitney) or a scoring winger.

Disappointing.

It is still along way to go before judging a draft.
 

Evilo

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Mar 17, 2002
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I'm not saying Shero picked bad guys. They all seem like very good prospects.
But what's the point of having 5 or 6 bottom 4 defensemen when you have no scoring winger and only one top pairing defenseman (OK, Welch has the potential, but as of now, I rate him as a 3rd-4th Dman)?
I would have liked to partner Whitney with either Johnson, but as I said, if JJ wasn't offered, then I can't blame him for taking Staal (I would have taken Kessel or Backstrom, but that's another matter).
But with the 2nd and 3rd rounder, you HAVE to target wingers. Vasuynov was available!
 

Greg7

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Feb 5, 2004
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Some numbers for direct comparison to previous years on the drop in CHL players I mentioned above:

WHL this year: 24 picks, 11.3% (lowest ever)
WHL average since 90: 45 picks, 17.38%
WHL last year: 44, 15.1%

OHL this year: 29, 13.6%
OHL average since 90: 46.1, 17.5%
OHL last year: 42, 14.4%

QMJHL this year: 25, 11.7%
QMJHL average since 90: 28.5, 9.8%
QMJHL last year: 27, 9.3%

CHL this year: 78, 36.6%
CHL average since 90: 119.6, 44.2%
CHL last year: 113, 38.8%

There is clearly a sharp decline this year in the WHL and OHL, especially in the WHL who had its lowest percentage of selections since the inception of the draft. Interestingly, even with the increase in international picks, the QMJHL enjoyed a very strong year compared to previous years.
 
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habitue*

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Greg7 said:
The biggest surprise to me is the drop in CHLers taken (in particular WHL).
OHL - 29
QMJHL - 25
WHL - 24
I guess part of this is that there are less picks now with a 7 round draft and no compensation picks, but it still seems like there were some pretty quality prospects that were passed over. Guys like Mitch Fadden, Kevin Armstrong, and Chad Greenan going undrafted entirely was a pretty big surprise to me.


Winning a Memorial Cup and playing the final of this tournanment in the last 6-7 years finally make scouts aware of the Q league existence and potential. (except the Canadiens, it seems...)
 

BobbyClarkeFan16

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Nov 29, 2005
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I was really surprised by the Flyers draft and what they did. I really thought they were going to go for a defenseman in the first round. I was completely dumbfounded, but incredibly happy, that they drafted Claude Giroux with their first choice. He's going to be something special when he gets to Philadelphia.

As for the second round, I really like what I read about Andreas Nodl, but the two defensemen have me a little bit concerned. While I'm not going to question the Flyers scouts (they have done an incredible job in years past), I thought that Ratchuk and Bodrov could have been acquired later in the draft. I really thought that two of the following defensemen would have been chosen: Nigel Williams, Simon Denis-Papin, Joe Ryan, Brian Strait, Mike Weber, Jamie McBain, Theo Peckham. However, with that being said, Ratchuk is about the size of Keith Ballard and Ballard is a great young defender. I'm also intrigued by Bodrov, especially when you consider the last Russian defenseman we had who was going to be a good one was young Dmitri Tertyshny.

As for the later round picks, I'm not going to complain. From what I read about Matsumoto, he'll be one of those guys you can count on to play a solid game, chip in a little offensively, and not do anything to hurt you. I know nothing about the goalies they drafted, other than they're both Czechs, but one played in the QMJHL. They did draft a Finnish defensemen who compares well to Kimmo Timmonen, but he's small (5'11 - 167 pounds).

I don't think anyone cracks the lineup right away, but in two to three years, I can see Nodl and Giroux playing on the right side in Philadelphia.
 

sbtatter

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Feb 27, 2005
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Did the smaller % of dub picks have anything to do with them not enforcing the new NHL rules last year, thus meaving some doubt in scouts minds how some of the WHL players can adapt to the new NHL????
The WHL are adopting the NHL rules this year, except only 40% of games will have 2 refs.....
 

The Maltais Falcon

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Jan 9, 2005
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Atlanta, GA
VladNYC said:
Agreement was reached, the big issues are gone.
No, the big issue remains.

Teams only have a two-year window to sign Euros whereas before they retained Euro rights indefinitely. Now, teams aren't going to spend later-round picks on Euros that will take more than two years to develop. Instead, you will see a lot more college players taken later in the draft as they have a longer window to develop and teams will retain their rights for three or four years instead of two. The odds of having a good player on your hands when it comes time to have to sign the prospect will be better now with collegians than with Euros.
 

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