Blake Wheeler

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DevilFisch

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Jan 11, 2003
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"Ask Again Later" says my Magic 8-Ball.

But seriously, he's still in high school. While he's got size and hockey sense, whether he has the ability to take it to the next level remains to be seen.
 

Russian_fanatic

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Jan 19, 2004
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Buffaloed said:
Odd are he'll be a bust. He's a high risk, high reward pick.

I don't see a high reward pick considering many people where considering that he would be picked in the second round.
 

NYI

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Russian_fanatic said:
I don't see a high reward pick considering many people where considering that he would be picked in the second round.

Forsburg was rated roughly 25th(by hockey news) when the flyers took him 6th overall in the 91 draft
 

Vipers

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Russian_fanatic said:
I don't see a high reward pick considering many people where considering that he would be picked in the second round.

Phoenix took a real risk with the kid.

If you prefer comparisons:

Wheeler: RW, 5th pick with Breck(USHSW) 30= 45+55=100 and 34pim, 6'3 or 6'4 - 185
Anderson:D,101st pick w/Centennial(USHSW) 30= 29+56= 85 and 34pim,5'11 or 6'0-
180

Difference: Height only? A Defenceman who make 85 points in 30 games has for sure hockey sense.

There's a lot of players doing a lot of points in the USHSW league, so offence is not a criteria to choose a player so fast. I know that this guy has potential to become a good player, but i'm not sold to him.

Personally, I think that Wheeler has been draft, really, too early.

The years he will spend at the University will tell us how good he is...not before.
 

DownFromNJ

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Phoneix obviously saw something in him, and probably thought that if they traded down he would be taken.
 

FlyersProspect2

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Guess we'll find out in 5 years. Coyotes probably took him so they didn't have to pay him for a longer time than a prospect that was rated higher and closer to being NHL ready.
 

DownFromNJ

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Mar 7, 2004
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Freaky Habs Fan said:
I'm sure he wouldn't have been a top ten pick. There was many better player then him at the draft...

Then why did Phoneix take him at 5? That pick could have fetched a 2nd rounder or late 1st rounder and a mid teens pick easily.

Phoneix either is really, really high on this guy, or they thought someone would pick him early.
 

Vipers

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DownFromNJ said:
Then why did Phoneix take him at 5? That pick could have fetched a 2nd rounder or late 1st rounder and a mid teens pick easily.

Phoneix either is really, really high on this guy, or they thought someone would pick him early.



That's your opinion and it's an evidence that you love Wheeler, but this doesn't mean that "Phoneix" as you wrote made a good thing drafting Wheeler so fast.

Also, Phoenix' draft are bad, except Esche in 1996, Leneveu in2002, see by yourself:

1996
11 D Dan Focht
24 C Daniel Briere
62 D Per-Anton Lundstrom
119 D Richard Lintner
139 G Robert Esche
174 C Trevor Letowski
200 R Nick Lent
226 C Marc-Etienne Hubert

1997
43 D Juha Gustafsson
96 D Scott McCallum
123 D Curtis Suter
151 L Robert Francz
207 D Alex Andreyev
233 C Wyatt Smith

1998
14 G Patrick DesRochers
43 D Ossi Vaananen
73 C Pat O'Leary
100 D Ryan Van Buskirk
115 D Jay Leach
116 G Josh Blackburn
129 D Robert Schnabel
160 C Rickard Wallin
187 C Erik Westrum
214 C Justin Hansen

1999
15 C Scott Kelman
19 D Kirill Safronov
53 C Brad Ralph
71 C Jason Jaspers
116 C Ryan Lauzon
123 C Preston Mizzi
168 Erik Lewerstrom
234 D Goran Bezina
262 D Alexei Litvinenko

2000
19 C Krys Kolanos
53 Alexander Tatarinov
85 L Ramzi Abid
160 D Nate Kiser
186 R Brent Gauvreau
217 Igor Samoylov
249 R Sami Venalainen
281 C Peter Fabus

2001
11 R Fredrik Sjostrom
31 D Matthew Spiller
45 C Martin Podlesak
78 Beat Forster
148 F David Klema
180 R Scott Polaski
210 G Steve Belanger
243 W Frank Lukes
273 Severin Blindenbacher

2002
19 C Jakub Koreis
23 L Ben Eager
46 G David LeNeveu
70 Joe Callahan
80 D Matt Jones
97 R Lance Monych
132 John Zeiler
186 G Jeff Pietrasiak
216 L Ladislav Kouba
249 D Marcus Smith
280 L Russell Spence

2003
77 C Tyler Redenbach
80 Dmitry Pestunov
115 Liam Lindstrom
178 R Ryan Gibbons
208 W Randall Gelech
242 F Eduard Lewandowski
272 D Sean Sullivan
290 Loic Burkhalter
 

CH Wizard

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Vipers said:
Phoenix took a real risk with the kid.

If you prefer comparisons:

Wheeler: RW, 5th pick with Breck(USHSW) 30= 45+55=100 and 34pim, 6'3 or 6'4 - 185
Anderson:D,101st pick w/Centennial(USHSW) 30= 29+56= 85 and 34pim,5'11 or 6'0-
180

Difference: Height only? A Defenceman who make 85 points in 30 games has for sure hockey sense.

There's a lot of players doing a lot of points in the USHSW league, so offence is not a criteria to choose a player so fast. I know that this guy has potential to become a good player, but i'm not sold to him.

Personally, I think that Wheeler has been draft, really, too early.

The years he will spend at the University will tell us how good he is...not before.


WOW !!! You're making a good point here.I heard that it's not a very weak league.Frrom what I've heard it's a little but physical but it's not very hard to score.The level of competition isn't high.In 2 or 3 years We can have a bigger idea of Wheeler.Yeah He was drafted too early.I ma sure Gretzky saw his wonderful stats and picked him for that.Let's not forget that He has a lot of potential and his upside is huge.I just can't wait to see for what He can do in the pros.He has size,hockey sense and etc.... It's maybe true that HE has hockey sense.As like I said before We'll have a bigger idea on this guy in the years to come.
 

Heldig

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Apr 12, 2002
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There have been some great discussions about this kid on the Phoenix board.

The comments from GM Barrett, Gretzky, head scout Draper et al have basically said they believe Wheeler will be a special player. Draper reportedly had Wheeler ranked number 2 on their list (the comment was something to the effect, we only had one player we would have drafted ahead of Wheeler but he was already taken...).

They also commented that at least one other team was interested in Wheeler and the risk of trading down and losing him was not worth it.
 

Foppa

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Feb 27, 2002
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ducky said:
There have been some great discussions about this kid on the Phoenix board.

The comments from GM Barrett, Gretzky, head scout Draper et al have basically said they believe Wheeler will be a special player. Draper reportedly had Wheeler ranked number 2 on their list (the comment was something to the effect, we only had one player we would have drafted ahead of Wheeler but he was already taken...).

They also commented that at least one other team was interested in Wheeler and the risk of trading down and losing him was not worth it.

Yeah...but I mean who cares. The guy who did a mock draft by using second-hand reports on this board had him in the third round, THN had him at beginning of the second round, my Aunt had him lasting till round 4.

Where does this Dave Draper (one of the most respected and flat-out best talent evaulators in the league) guy get off telling his team this schmuck is worth a high first round pick?

/Sarcasm
 

K9

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DownFromNJ said:
Then why did Phoneix take him at 5? That pick could have fetched a 2nd rounder or late 1st rounder and a mid teens pick easily.

Phoneix either is really, really high on this guy, or they thought someone would pick him early.

I remember when I watched the draft, the commentators were specculating that Milbury would pick him in the first round, and Phoenix didn't want to trade down to risk losing him.
 

ForsbergForever

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May 19, 2004
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1996 - 24 C Daniel Briere

I wouldn't call that a bad pick, he had over 30 goals for them a couple of seasons ago before they traded him.
 

littleHossa

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Forsberg4ever said:
1996 - 24 C Daniel Briere

I wouldn't call that a bad pick, he had over 30 goals for them a couple of seasons ago before they traded him.
And just before scoring 30 goals, he was put on waivers at the start of the season and no one picked him up. Briere going at 24 was a good pick in my opinion, it's very late 1st round, and they got a 60 point guy. I think he was one of the safest picks in the draft, he led the QMJHL in goals, assists and points, the first one to do it since Lemieux did I believe.
 

Jormungandr

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Aug 14, 2002
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Forsberg4ever said:
1996 - 24 C Daniel Briere

I wouldn't call that a bad pick, he had over 30 goals for them a couple of seasons ago before they traded him.
1998 - 43 D Ossi Vaananen

Thats also a very good pick. But anyway, you can't put they're drafts from the past eight years on there and say that we have bad drafting. The ownership, management, and scouting group have only been with the team since the 00-01 season in which they picked Fredrik Sjostrom with the 11th pick. :shakehead
 

Jormungandr

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littleHossa said:
And just before scoring 30 goals, he was put on waivers at the start of the season and no one picked him up. Briere going at 24 was a good pick in my opinion, it's very late 1st round, and they got a 60 point guy. I think he was one of the safest picks in the draft, he led the QMJHL in goals, assists and points, the first one to do it since Lemieux did I believe.
So......look at what Danny has turned out to be. A lot of good players passed through waivers before they finally paned out, example: Martin Straka.
 

rt

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May 13, 2004
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Foppa said:
Yeah...but I mean who cares. The guy who did a mock draft by using second-hand reports on this board had him in the third round, THN had him at beginning of the second round, my Aunt had him lasting till round 4.

Where does this Dave Draper (one of the most respected and flat-out best talent evaulators in the league) guy get off telling his team this schmuck is worth a high first round pick?

/Sarcasm

:bow: amazing post. simply, amazing ! :bow:
 

PhoPhan

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Feb 27, 2002
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Wheeler offers more than just points. He plays extremely well in his own end. Is not afraid to get hit, and certainly doesn't mind hitting. Add to that he is a proven winner. He won a state championship in hockey and in football (as a tight end).
 

Lou is God

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Nov 10, 2003
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DownFromNJ said:
Then why did Phoneix take him at 5? That pick could have fetched a 2nd rounder or late 1st rounder and a mid teens pick easily.

Phoneix either is really, really high on this guy, or they thought someone would pick him early.

They did, I can't remember who wanted him too but I remember that was said that day. It was wither the team who had the 8th or 9th pick.
 
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