I don't know enough about the new picks to say where they should be ranked. Don't agree with Juulsen as #1 but I understand it as I don't know about his upside but I do think he's a safe bet to be a solid NHLer as he's got that big shot, has a good defensive and physical game but just needs to work on getting quicker imo.
Mete is coming off a huge year, exciting player to watch that should get a heavy work load and a chance to crack Team Canada in December.
Hudon has been great in the AHL with 55 goals in 123 games over the last 2 years (a goals per game ave of .48 which is 36 in 76 games)
Lindgren has been a huge surprise, it sucks that goalies don't hold a lot of trade value but another big year from him and he should easily be an NHLer.
Scherbak despite his issues, as a 20/21 year old he was 2nd on the team in assists, 3rd in points and 4th in goals.
McNiven with a great season, was CHL goalie of the year, another impressive pickup for free by the scouting staff along with Lindgren (and Condon before that).
Reway if he's back to 100% is at worst going to be a ton of fun to watch, such a highly skilled playmaker.
Evans with a breakout year in the NCAA, great in the face-off circle, smart, hard working two way center. Could be in Laval by seasons end as Notre Dame could be in tough after losing their best 2 players.
Bourque with an impressive year, Addison brings a few interesting things, Hawkey could be one of our more underrated prospects. Lernout should get more of a look in the NHL.
Poehling, Ikonen in the running to make their respective WJC teams.
This year is make or break year for Hudon and DLR.
Either they can be top-13 or they will be picked on waivers.
Holland scored more points in AHL than Hudon but less goals (he also played with Maroon and Palmieri that year).
As for Froese, his numbers are not much better than Hudon.
Sly said that Juulsen was really good when he came to AHL.
He said he was already at AHL level and was able to compete from the get-go.
No choice but to wait and see.
A year ago, we had enough on RHD with Juulsen and Lernout.
Now we have added Walford and Tyska as RHD.
We would need a top-4 RHD in 4 years (Petry) and a bottom-6 RHD in 2 years (Benn).
We also have Bourque, Mete, Brook and Fleury as LHD.
Streit, Davidson and Morrow are all here for a year at this point.
Alzner and Schlemko are signed for a longer term.
I see only Bourque as a potential LHD next year (unless Mete jumps from OHL to NHL).
Lindgren was our goalie in AHL but he was far from being a top-10 in AHL.
At 2.56 he was 18th and .914 was 17th.
Just to compare, Murray in 2015-16 was second at 2.10 and .932.
From that perspective, McNiven seems to have dominate more in OHL/CHL.
If Lindgren can reach top-5 in AHL, he could replace Montoya.
For the next two years, he is waiver exempt (same as Fucale).
McNiven can go though waivers for 4 years.
So in two years, when Montoya goes, we have to pick our backup goalie between Lindgren and Fucale.
We will see how MB reacts as he was burned one time when Price went down.
Given what happened with Condon, I do not see MB bringing Lindgren, Fucale, Hawkey or McNiven playing with the Habs ever.
The only way the goalies will play in NHL is via a trade or if they dominate the AHL
and they play in NHL enough games to take over Montoya or whoever will replace him.
As a GM, MB worst nightmare is to go back to 2015-16.
Pretty sure he will take a long time to bring a backup goalie from AHL.
Condon was 11 in SV% and 18th in GAA before coming in NHL.
What is interesting about this whole thing is that the choice of Condon was not bad: he did really good in Ottawa but it was a year too soon and the following year, Condon was picked on waivers.
I like your comments about Evans: strong in FO, two-way, smart.
Would be great to have him as a third line center when Plekanec goes but I have no hopes... It will take another two years before Evans and Poehling are in NHL.
When Danault came in, he made Eller "expendable".
Last year, he proved that he could be a second line center.
So now, we need a young player who can come and play third line center in 2018-19.
DLR? McCarron?
If Galcheyuk can become a first line center with 70+ points, we could have Galchenyuk, Danault, Poehling, DLR, McCarron and Evans competing to play center in two years.
TBH, I would like to see him be better in FO or defense but 70-80 points brings him
Lehkonen, Drouin, Gallagher and Pacioretty on the wings (if we can keep him) and you have a really good cup contending team.
Shaw and Byron could complete the top-12.
Ikonen may not become a center (was playing on the wings for team Finland) but with those 5 players we should be just fine.
The key is Galchenyuk.
He will not be a player like Crosby, Getzlaf, Kopitar, Toews, Bergeron, Backstrom, Zetterberg, Pavelski, Seguin or Matthews (and most likely not Tavares
).
Note that Malkin, Scheifele, McDavid and Eichel were not listed in that list: putrid in FO. At 46.8, Matthews barely makes the cut...
AG was still 25th in offense among center in 2015-16 and his pace this year (59 points) was very near to Tavares (66 points).
70 points would make him top-10 in the league.
If we can roll 4 lines and have 8 players with 40 points or more, we are going to best top offense in the league.
Just for reference: Leafs were the only team to have 6 players with 50 points but they also had no other players with 40+ points. So having 8 players with 40+ points would make our offense top-5 in the league (most likely best).
Seems to me that MB is trying to build from the ground up (getting better player competing for top-6 spots) because he can not draft top-5 players.
On defense, Lernout and Juulsen should be ready to replace Benn.
Same with Mete, Bourque and Brook to complete Schlemko and Alzner.
Hudon and DLR can not go through waivers. So it is either NHL or another team.
Next year: Scherback, McCarron, Jerabek, Lernout and Gregoire.
Jerabek and Gregoire are special cases: Jerabek most likely in NHL. Gregoire most likely won't make it or won't be picked on waivers.
McCarron would definitively be picked on waivers and Scherback could also be picked by a team needing some offense on their third or fourth line: Colorado, Vancouver, NJD, VGK, etc.
So either they can make the team or we could loose two first round picks on waivers.