How's the upcoming draft looking?

This time last year all we heard about was Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin, whereas there seems to have been a bit less buzz this year so far. I could be wrong, of course. Do you think it's looking like a deep draft, or not?

 

It's definatly not a great draft. It's a little weak, but right now you have the 1st overall selection up in the air, any one of these players could take it:

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Gabriel Landeskog
Adam Larsson
Sean Couturier

You won't see Ryan Strome at 1st overall by any means, but he could sneak into the top 4.

Obviously not as deep as some drafts at this point, but only time will tell, right?

 

I'd say Huberdeau could squeeze in the top 4 if a team really wanted him

 

Tim Murray said there are 7 or 8 great prospects in this draft and then there is a big drop off, with the number of picks the Sens have after 8 there is no reason from him to be dishonest.

This is not a fantastic year to be dead last but its a good year to be in the bottom 7.

 

Scouts have said their could be as many as 8 players that could go 1st overall. At this point there are two groups of four players that is ahead of the others:

Larsson
RNH
Couturier
Landeskog

Murphy
Strome
Huberdeau
Hamilton

There are some really interesting prospect after that too: Zibanejad, Siemens, McNeill, Jensen, Jaskin, Biggs, Oleksiak, Peumple..

It might be a little weak than other years, but there will be som quality NHL players coming out of this draft. Larsson might be the best defenseman since Doughty for example.

 

Tier I-AAA
Adam Larsson
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Tier I-AA
Gabriel Landeskog
Sean Couturier

Tier I-A
Ryan Strome
Jonathan Huberdeau

Tier I-B
Ryan Murphy
Dougie Hamilton

Tier I-C
Tyler Biggs
Dunan Siemens
Mika Zibinejad
Joel Armia
Nathan Beaulieu
Brandon Saad

Tier II-A
Anton Brodin
etc. etc. etc.

 

The 2011 draft...I like this draft better than most fans. Not the best draft by any stretch of imagination, it has a better first round than most drafts, but after that talent level falls off quicker than most drafts.

A see a couple of cornerstone defensemen to build around in Larsson and Murphy available. A number of future first line forwards in RNH, Landeskog, Couturier, Huberdeau. Late first round going to surprise, more players there with good upside, Mark McNeil, Jensen, Zibinejad.

After the first round is where I see the depth is not there like past drafts. That's the negative I see in it

 

I see a bunch of high-risk guys like Catenacci, Ambroz, Namestnikov, Puempel, Grimaldi, etc. all being good early 2nd round picks (if they don't get picked in the first).

 

I love hearing this draft is a weak one. Brings me back to 5 years ago. Johnson, staal, toews, backstrom and Kessel. That draft was "weak " as well.

Also the reason there hasnt been as much is because the season isn't over. The Tyler or Taylor buzz picked up after the draft lottery and even more after the playoffs.

 

I have most of them in first round

 

06 wasn't that weak...07 was the weak one.

 

The 2006 draft ended up having some very good players, at least in the first round.

Brassard
Okposo
Frolik
Little
Grabner
Stewart
Giroux
Berglund
Foligno

 

The high end talent is said to be not as good as some years in the past, but it's being praised for it's depth and balance from about 10-60. A ton of solid NHL prospects will be had well into round 2 and early into round 3.

 

Before the 2006 draft there where some who believed it was a weak draft. Do a search and read some past threads.

 

I see it as a high risk draft. Less guarantee than even normal, but the chance for player's turning into something great is higher, if that makes any sense. Higher risk, higher reward sorta thing.

 

Let's just say Yakupov would go first even in this years draft, IMO.

 

I would COMPLETELY agree with all of this post.

 

You don't know that for sure.

But I do think that him and Ryan Murray would both be top 4-5 picks this year if they could be.

 

Better than it's getting credit for. Doubt it'll be anything close to 07.

 

I think I could probably find a few hundred posts from almost every year stating that year's draft was weak, excluding maybe the Crosby and Ovechkin drafts (then again who knows)... it's just something that gets said every year.

 

How could Yakupov not go 1st overall this year?

 

There could be tons of reasons. I like the kid too, but there are never "for sures" when speculating with the draft.

Some teams might want a big center (SC), some teams might want a big defender (Larsson).

 

Ironically the Crosby and Ovechkin drafts were pretty weak.

This draft was disrespected all year because there was no consensus #1 superstar ready for next year.

 

Roger Ebert's kid Nick is a good one too. He'd be in the mix.

 

I see it like this too, less guarantee past Larsson and Landeskog.