Habs Halifax
Loyal Habs Fan
PLD was 7th NA skater mid season. Than jumped to #1 NA skater in April. That's not 10-15th ish. "Not sure top 10-15?" 7th to 1st is pretty sure top 10-15 pick for you. Even more top 5 pick.
How Dubois rose to the top of NHL Central Scouting's final rankings - Sportsnet.ca
Kotkaniemi is not PLD status in this draft. That's the only thing I'm telling you. I'm not arguing they are similar or not in terms of style, etc. But PLD was rightfully picked where he was supposed to be picked top 3-4. He was #1 NA skater. Period. Again, Puljujaarvi was the flavor of the week back then because of his international play etc. But PLD had the right to be picked before him. And those two were both rankeed in the top 5 of NA and Euro skaters.
Jesperi is really out of nowhere late late in the year that his name has been brought up more and more. And also because we have nothing to discuss about so the media knows it's a good thing to bring him up. I have no problem picking him at 7-9 range but not 3. That's only my opinion. Everybody is entitled to theirs. Just like how so many people say that they like Tkachuk but not at 3rd overall.
Well Kotkaniemi was 10th in April. I agree he started higher but so did Hischier in his draft year. I always put more value in end of season rankings vs all year rankings. We are talking about moving targets here with prospects who are developing at a rapid rate at age 17/18. Kotkaniemi is a very fast rising stock who is a young player in this draft. It's not the same as PLD but it's a good comparison. A guy who not many predicted to go 3rd but did and the Blue Jackets knew what they were doing. The trends and hype on PLD heading towards the draft was something they believed in and they needed a center as well. Pool party was the popular best player at 3rd, not the best player available. This is something most don't see.
Blue Jackets made the educated pick at 3rd. Oilers and Canucks made the easy popular picks at 4th and 5th. in 2016