How would you rate the Sharks' draft?

[Squeeven]

Well I have to ask, how would you rate the Sharks' 2015 draft? Does anybody feel like we addressed our needs or that we made the right or wrong picks?

I was looking at the draft thread and saw mostly negative reactions when we picked Timo Meier. I'm not really sure why to be honest, he seems like a solid RW and right now we don't even really have any good RW's, so I don't see what's wrong with him. Also looking at his numbers, lets remember that he was playing with in Halifax with Drouin a few years ago and when Drouin left he stepped up and had a great season last year.

Our next pick was Jeremy Roy who from what I'm hearing was one of the best defensemen in the draft and picking him first in the 2nd round was a steal so hopefully he pans out nicely.

Mike Robinson could at some point end up making our team, seems to have good numbers and he's really big so who knows.

I don't know too much about the rest of the guys we picked (Helewka, Cukste, Balcers, Parsells, Vela, Kupsky)

Well? How would you guys rate our draft this year? I'd give us a B.

Also one other thing I've been noticed was the last time we picked a North American in the 1st round it was Charlie Coyle in 2010. Ever since then we've been taking a lot of chances on Europeans early in the drafts (2nd round included) like Hertl, Mueller, Goldobin, and especially Swiss players (Mueller, Rod, and now Meier). I like that our organization is willing to give European players a shot but I'm just curious what influenced this decision to start picking a lot more of them and I was even more curious when I saw we picked two Latvians this draft. Any insight on this?

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[DG93]

B

Meier pick so-so, Roy awesome, the rest are decent as well...

 

[Sharksfan83]

A.

I think DW and the scouts had a list of players they wanted and I think they came home with most of them.

I still think they were hoping for one of the top end D picks, but you can't blame that on the org. They made a bold move to get the best available D in the second round.

 

[Nighthock]

B

The picks weren't traded and the first two were great picks. Some pretty big question marks after the 3rd round, but time will tell.

Pretty happy as of now.

 

[Bowie22]

B.

I liked the Meier pick, and LOVE the Roy one. I think the rest are decent, and hard for me to rate.

 

[DonskoiDonscored]

C.

We picked to our needs and got some good players, but this wasn't one of those "wow" drafts. For most teams this would be a A/B draft, but with the management we have I expect our drafting to be one of, if not the best in the league. It's certainly not a bad draft, it's more of an average one for this org (which is still pretty good). We'll see how it goes.

Picks I really liked:
Roy, Helewka, Vela

Picks I disliked:
Kupsky (could've been a rookie camp invite or we could've waited until he was a double OA to draft him. Union is a good school for developing goaltenders, but there were a lot of good picks on the board.)

One thing I can tell you about these picks is that it is a long-term draft. Everyone we picked outside of the CHL are very, very raw but hold a ton of potential. We hold their rights for 4 years (6 for Robinson, 5 for Parsells) if we choose so, so this really is a "wait it out" draft. This will not be like last year where we got a lot of players that will be NHL ready (if ever) within 2-4 years, this is a draft where it may take 5-7 years for some of the non-CHL guys to reach the NHL roster. All I ask for from this board is patience.

Oh, and us paying a high price for Roy pretty much confirms to me that the plan was to get a D at 9th, and they were scrambling when they didn't. It was still a great pick.

 

[T0uGh C0oki3]

C.

I don't like the Meier pick. (He is top-15 worthy, just not the guy we should be reaching for.)

Love the Roy pick. If we can fix his skating like we did with Braun, we are looking at our future franchise D.

I like that they drafted 2 goalies in this draft, tho IMO the Robinson pick was just too early.
(Especially some other good goalie prospects were still on the board.)
Goalies are a crapshoot, we will see.

IMO Kupsky and Vela could have been a rookie camp invite, but you can't blast DW for a couple of 7th rounders.

Helewka was a reach, not a bad prospect tho. He brings a nice package. I think we could have taken him in the 6th/7th.

The Latvians were a bit of a wildcard. Interesting picks, I like them.

 

[Groo]

What I would give every hockey draft.

I gave the Sharks a wait and C

 

[sr228]

I'd probably give them a C+ based on the players they took but I'd move it up to a B because they didn't move their picks for a goalie or Bieksa.

I liked the Meier pick but I think he was a slight reach, loved the Roy pick and think that one was a home run. The total value of their first two picks was quite good though.

Goalies are a pretty much a crapshoot so even though there was still some pretty good talent still on the board in the 3rd taking them anywhere outside of the top 60 is fine with me.

I liked the Helewka & Vela picks but I'm not sure how much NHL potential there is in those two, Parsells & the two Latvians.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

The first two picks were the type of players they absolutely needed in the pipeline. The rest seem to be long term projects. Intrigued by Parsells.

 

[Nolan11]

What I would give every hockey draft.

I gave the Sharks a wait and C

I like this post the best so far.

Honestly, I am not happy with DW, but more for things he did not do than what he did. Meier is a safe complimentary player to pick in the first round. He should make the ge as a top sixer, but is not likely THE GUY that can put a team on his back. I think DW was hoping for zacha and when he fell, went safe.

I like that we moved up for Roy to get bpa and fill a team need. Robinson is meh, we needed to move up for vladar for me to be happy.

DW was not in on Hamilton while he was apparently trying to trade for bieksa. I don't know who killed that bieksa trade but am glad it fell apart. If it had not, this would be much lower.

C-

DW needs to do much more to fix this team, hopefully he changes direction and targets right players Wednesday.

 

[Levie]

Meier and Roy are much better than Goldobin and Bergman. Where I think we were lacking is the picks after Roy, though that could be because I'm not knowledgeable on most of those players.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

I like this post the best so far.

Honestly, I am not happy with DW, but more for things he did not do than what he did. Meier is a safe complimentary player to pick in the first round. He should make the ge as a top sixer, but is not likely THE GUY that can put a team on his back. I think DW was hoping for zacha and when he fell, went safe.

I like that we moved up for Roy to get bpa and fill a team need. Robinson is meh, we needed to move up for vladar for me to be happy.

DW was not in on Hamilton while he was apparently trying to trade for bieksa. I don't know who killed that bieksa trade but am glad it fell apart. If it had not, this would be much lower.

C-

DW needs to do much more to fix this team, hopefully he changes direction and targets right players Wednesday.

You want to know why DW wasn't in on Hamilton? He, like 24 other gm's had no idea he was being shopped. Arizona, Edmonton, Colorado and Calgary were the only teams aware and the ones Boston reached out too. Friedman said as much in his column yesterday. So you can imagine there were quite a few upset teams and Sweeney limited his market.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Meier and Roy are much better than Goldobin and Bergman. Where I think we were lacking is the picks after Roy, though that could be because I'm not knowledgeable on most of those players.

I look at those players as long term projects except Helewka, who might be on the Barracuda this year.

 

[hockeyball]

Very happy with the draft. I know people keep calling Meier a safe pick, but he's a safe pick because he's highly talented and likely to meet his potential. That's a good thing, and the Sharks lacked elite talent at every position prospect wise, not just center. Meier is a blue-chip wing prospect. While I would have loved to have Provorov or Hanifin, or Marner, none of them were available. Barzal has potential, but he also has big question marks and if the Sharks missed with this pick they could set themselves back substantially long term. Meier was the right pick and the easy pick. Rantanen would have been fine as well, but it's pretty much a toss up from a fan perspective and the org obviously saw something in Meier they liked better.

As for Roy, total home run. At the time he was picked I didn't even realize he was still on the board. I had to run out of the house after about pick 15 and just assumed he got picked shortly after. I figured he'd go between 16-20. I would have been happy with Kylington, but given Roy's skill set and attitude he was the far better choice and I am totally excited we grabbed him. I figured that was impossible without giving up an significant asset to get another 1st, Wilson avoided that. We walked in with pick 9 and 39, and walked out with a potential 1st line winger and top pairing D-man, how can you give that anything less than an A?

We traded Todd McLellan for a goalie prospect, which I think people are forgetting about. Yah Robinson is a bit of an unknown (all goalies are) but we got him with a pick we honestly should not have had. That's a steal imo.

Also, we picked up a really decent prospect in McNally for a 7th. He is near NHL ready and exactly what we lack in our system (offensive puck movers). I'm very confident he'll be signed, Wilson traded for him for a reason and isn't going to let him just walk. He has as good a chance of getting NHL time in San Jose this season than on pretty much any team.

The rest of the draft is both difficult to judge and relatively unimportant. What i mean is, if you are going to rate each round on important percentage wise you would get something like: 1st round 50%, 2nd round 25%, 3rd round 10%, 4th 5%, 5th 4%, 6th 3%, 7th 2%. The last 4 round would equal like 15% value, so even if you totally miss there, it's not a huge issue. The Sharks tend to hit in those rounds though, better than any team in the league, so given our limited scouting ability I will defer to their track record and assume we get at least one hit out of those players, and that is statistically a big success.

So I don't see how you can rate the Sharks anything below a B. They kept their picks and traded up smartly. They didn't move any players for picks, but they did get a pick for the coach they essentially fired AND turned a 7th into a likely NHL player. The only thing they didn't do was make a blockbuster deal, but it's hard to judge them on that since we simply don't know what deals they were allowed in on and which deals were asking for too much. I'd rather they do nothing than something stupid.

So yah, A in my book. The Sharks are one of the best drafting orgs in hockey, and I see no reason why this year looks like anything less than continued success.

 

[T0uGh C0oki3]

Meier and Roy are much better than Goldobin and Bergman. Where I think we were lacking is the picks after Roy, though that could be because I'm not knowledgeable on most of those players.

For me it's :

Roy >> Bergman

Meier = Goldobin .

 

[sr228]

For me it's :

Roy >> Bergman

Meier = Goldobin .

I still like Goldobin a bit more than Meier but ya, Roy is on a completely different level than Bergman.

 

[Alaskanice]

Very happy with the draft. I know people keep calling Meier a safe pick, but he's a safe pick because he's highly talented and likely to meet his potential. That's a good thing, and the Sharks lacked elite talent at every position prospect wise, not just center. Meier is a blue-chip wing prospect. While I would have loved to have Provorov or Hanifin, or Marner, none of them were available. Barzal has potential, but he also has big question marks and if the Sharks missed with this pick they could set themselves back substantially long term. Meier was the right pick and the easy pick. Rantanen would have been fine as well, but it's pretty much a toss up from a fan perspective and the org obviously saw something in Meier they liked better.

As for Roy, total home run. At the time he was picked I didn't even realize he was still on the board. I had to run out of the house after about pick 15 and just assumed he got picked shortly after. I figured he'd go between 16-20. I would have been happy with Kylington, but given Roy's skill set and attitude he was the far better choice and I am totally excited we grabbed him. I figured that was impossible without giving up an significant asset to get another 1st, Wilson avoided that. We walked in with pick 9 and 39, and walked out with a potential 1st line winger and top pairing D-man, how can you give that anything less than an A?

We traded Todd McLellan for a goalie prospect, which I think people are forgetting about. Yah Robinson is a bit of an unknown (all goalies are) but we got him with a pick we honestly should not have had. That's a steal imo.

Also, we picked up a really decent prospect in McNally for a 7th. He is near NHL ready and exactly what we lack in our system (offensive puck movers). I'm very confident he'll be signed, Wilson traded for him for a reason and isn't going to let him just walk. He has as good a chance of getting NHL time in San Jose this season than on pretty much any team.

The rest of the draft is both difficult to judge and relatively unimportant. What i mean is, if you are going to rate each round on important percentage wise you would get something like: 1st round 50%, 2nd round 25%, 3rd round 10%, 4th 5%, 5th 4%, 6th 3%, 7th 2%. The last 4 round would equal like 15% value, so even if you totally miss there, it's not a huge issue. The Sharks tend to hit in those rounds though, better than any team in the league, so given our limited scouting ability I will defer to their track record and assume we get at least one hit out of those players, and that is statistically a big success.

So I don't see how you can rate the Sharks anything below a B. They kept their picks and traded up smartly. They didn't move any players for picks, but they did get a pick for the coach they essentially fired AND turned a 7th into a likely NHL player. The only thing they didn't do was make a blockbuster deal, but it's hard to judge them on that since we simply don't know what deals they were allowed in on and which deals were asking for too much. I'd rather they do nothing than something stupid.

So yah, A in my book. The Sharks are one of the best drafting orgs in hockey, and I see no reason why this year looks like anything less than continued success.

Hockeyball,
There are a couple of posters on here, You, Gene and Nem whom I value their opinions regarding the draft. This is not meant to demean anyone else but I subscribe to the idea that the Sharks organization knows more than us.
I also think Meier is a good, safe pick, he was rated high for a reason. I am excited about Roy, the comparisons that I'm hearing, though speculative, are nice to hear.
Beyond that, I can only trust what Burke and the others did. I do like the goalies, that they're big and agile.

On the merit of getting Meier and Roy in the first 31 picks?? I also rate an A.

 

[Sharksfan83]

I still like Goldobin a bit more than Meier but ya, Roy is on a completely different level than Bergman.

Its hard to compare those 2 players.

Godolbin maybe a star player, if he progresses well. If he doesn't progress as we hope, then he really has no impact in the league. He's either a top 6 forward or nothing at all.

Meier on the other hand, compliments top line players well. If he doesn't reach his top end projection, he probably still turns into a useful middle/bottom 6 player.

What I do like about both of them, is they identify areas of weakness they have, and they try extremely hard to fix them. They both seem like extremely likable people, and players that WANT to be better, and not just expecting it.

 

[sr228]

Its hard to compare those 2 players.

Godolbin maybe a star player, if he progresses well. If he doesn't progress as we hope, then he really has no impact in the league. He's either a top 6 forward or nothing at all.

Meier on the other hand, compliments top line players well. If he doesn't reach his top end projection, he probably still turns into a useful middle 6 player.

What I do like about both of them, is they identify areas of weakness they have, and they try extremely hard to fix them. They both seem like extremely likable people, and players that WANT to be better, and not just expecting it.

I'm not comparing them, my thought process is based purely on upside.

You're right though, Goldobin could be a top 6 or bust type of player and I think Meier's ceiling is lower but he does have a higher floor.

 

[Sharksrule04]

I gave them a B.

I think Meier & Roy are definitely big pieces of our future, however with the 9th & 31st pick (mostly the 9th) in the strongest draft since 2003, I just feel underwhelmed by Meier's upside. Time will tell which is why I still gave them a B and actually would have given a B+ if it was an option.

I don't really understand why people are comparing Meier & Roy to Goldobin & Bergman. You're comparing the 9 & 31 picks in a super strong draft to the 27th & 46th in above average draft. The 9 & 31 should easily blow those away. It's actually kinda sad that it doesn't.

Roy is much better than Bergman, but I really can't argue that Meier now is more promising than Goldobin was last June. Goldobin had a great upside while Meier has a much higher floor.

Only reason I didn't give the draft an A is because I would hope to come away with franchise building talent in a draft with the 9th and 31st picks and I think we came away with 2 complimentary players, albeit really good ones.

My only hope is that Meier becomes the next great power forward, and becomes a good top 6 forward, while Roy becomes a top pairing D-man. I do believe these are both possible.

 

[Sharksfan83]

I'm not comparing them, my thought process is based purely on upside.

You're right though, Goldobin could be a top 6 or bust type of player and I think Meier's ceiling is a bit lower but he does have a higher floor.

Yeah, Meier may not have that star potential (Altho who knows?) like Godolbin, but when you have a Godolbin in your system, which maybe Burke and DW are happy with his progression, maybe they decided to go with the Meier kinda player (Who compliments star players immensely) rather than have 2 x Boom or bust kinda prospects that both may miss?

IDK, I know I'm happy with the pick is all, and I really think with the way the draft cards fell, the only other player they were left with to pick up at #9 (That didnt drop during the draft like a lot of players we spoke about) was Rantanen. And there has been knocks on Rantanens toughness, and willingness to use his body frame (Opposite to Meier) and I don't think Crouse was the right pick (In front of Meier) either. Only time will tell.

 

[sr228]

Yeah, Meier may not have that star potential (Altho who knows?) like Godolbin, but when you have a Godolbin in your system, which maybe Burke and DW are happy with his progression, maybe they decided to go with the Meier kinda player (Who compliments star players immensely) rather than have 2 x Boom or bust kinda prospects that both may miss?

IDK, I know I'm happy with the pick is all, and I really think with the way the draft cards fell, the only other player they were left with to pick up at #9 (That didnt drop during the draft like a lot of players we spoke about) was Rantanen. And there has been knocks on Rantanens toughness, and willingness to use his body frame (Opposite to Meier) and I don't think Crouse was the right pick (In front of Meier) either. Only time will tell.

I definitely think they went 'safe' with Meier and that's fine, I understand why they'd go that route. I just don't entirely agree with it.

 

[Sharksfan83]

I definitely think they went 'safe' with Meier and that's fine, I understand why they'd go that route. I just don't entirely agree with it.

Just curious as I respect your opinion on players,

Hypothetically, if you had that exact pick, who do you take? Rantenan?

 

[sr228]

Just curious as I respect your opinion on players,

Hypothetically, if you had that exact pick, who do you take? Rantenan?

Barzal.

I would have taken Connor and Rantanen over Meier as well.