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Official 2015 NHL Draft/College & Europe FA Thread

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eco's bones

eco's bones

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Jul 21, 2005
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Not sure where to put this but I didn't really want to start a new thread--and this is the draft page.

There's a book out now by one Terry Ryan who was drafted 8th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 1995 (Bryan Berard went 1st overall and Wade Redden 2nd)--describing his life as a junior hockey player in the WHL, the interviewing process at the draft--(when asked by Mike Milbury what he would choose if he had 10 minutes to get back to his room for curfew and it's ten minutes away with the other option being spend the time with a beautiful girl who really digs him and knowing he would get lucky?--Ryan responded he'd **** her for five minutes and speed on his way back to his room), being a hot shot prospect--and playing in the minor leagues. There is quite a bit of insight into the whole process and a number of pretty funny stories--including his picking a fight (something he promised his hometown friends he would do) with and getting his ass kicked by Tie Domi.

Ryan only ever played 8 NHL games--no points. He retired early--a lot of injury problems. The book is titled 'Tales of a first round nothing'.
 
Joey Bones

Joey Bones

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Beacon

Beacon

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Given our plethora of prospects who are already too many for the available spots, and more are on the way (Butcher, Skjei, Nieves etc), we really should be going for the high risk, high return offense-first prospects.

Some will turn into Thomas and St. Croix, but others will become Duclair and Buchnevich. We can afford to have a bunch of misses if it means one great hit.

On the left, we have Kreider, Hagelin, Butcher, Duke and Hrivik who are or will very likely be NHLers. On the right, Nash and MZA should be here for a while, plus we have Fast and Haggerty. In the middle Step and Brass are young, Miller is a rookie, and Hayes, Lindberg and maybe Nieves are on the way. The defense is set as is, but we also have Skjei, McIlrath, Allen, etc.

We don't need more quality mid-range players. We need someone who can score 30 goals and 75 points. We need to get someone who can replace Nash 's production and give us a center superior to Step. We need to be able to put pucks in the net. You can do that with very high draft picks (top 2/3) or high risk later picks who slipped because of size, injuries, attitude problems, the Russian factor, etc. Since we won't be getting any top 3 picks, only the archive option is available.
 
Bluenote13

Bluenote13

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Beacon said:
Given our plethora of prospects who are already too many for the available spots, and more are on the way (Butcher, Skjei, Nieves etc), we really should be going for the high risk, high return offense-first prospects.

Some will turn into Thomas and St. Croix, but others will become Duclair and Buchnevich. We can afford to have a bunch of misses if it means one great hit.

On the left, we have Kreider, Hagelin, Butcher, Duke and Hrivik who are or will very likely be NHLers. On the right, Nash and MZA should be here for a while, plus we have Fast and Haggerty. In the middle Step and Brass are young, Miller is a rookie, and Hayes, Lindberg and maybe Nieves are on the way. The defense is set as is, but we also have Skjei, McIlrath, Allen, etc.

We don't need more quality mid-range players. We need someone who can score 30 goals and 75 points. We need to get someone who can replace Nash 's production and give us a center superior to Step. We need to be able to put pucks in the net. You can do that with very high draft picks (top 2/3) or high risk later picks who slipped because of size, injuries, attitude problems, the Russian factor, etc. Since we won't be getting any top 3 picks, only the archive option is available.
Click to expand...

I'm still not satisfied with the pipeline. Tomorrow comes too soon. We need to have others pushing the guys you listed. Plus, the most tradeable assets we possess right now are young players. Gotta think some of them are gonna be used at trade bait either at the deadline or the offseason.
 
Zil

Zil

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Feb 9, 2006
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I also think the pipeline direly needs a right-handed, Skjei-type, all around defenseman. I'd focus on finding a guy like that while also digging for talent in the middle.
 
Beacon

Beacon

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Zil said:
I also think the pipeline direly needs a right-handed, Skjei-type, all around defenseman. I'd focus on finding a guy like that while also digging for talent in the middle.
Click to expand...

We don't need a bunch of the same guys. McDonagh, MoJo, Skjei and Allen are all all-around defensemen. We have some big guys including McIlrath, Noreau, Mantha and Graves. But the one thing we lack (unless Bodie suddenly exceeds all expectations) is an offensive defenseman. Just as we need a high scoring center, we need a high scoring defenseman. We are doing great with two-way guys and defensive players, but no so much with those who put pucks in nets.
 
Zil

Zil

Shrug
Feb 9, 2006
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All the guys you named with the exceptions of Mantha and McIlrath are lefties Beacon.
 
Beacon

Beacon

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Zil said:
All the guys you named with the exceptions of Mantha and McIlrath are lefties Beacon.
Click to expand...

Either way, you don't need the same thing on both sides. Every good team needs an offensive defenseman, which is why we got Boyle and let Stralman go.

You need at least one Big Pun like McIlrath, at least one offenseman like Boyle, at least one classic defenseman like Staal, Klein or Girardi, and at least two all-around guys like McDonagh and MoJo. The other defenseman can be any of these, depending on the team's style.
 
Zil

Zil

Shrug
Feb 9, 2006
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Given our style, a right handed version of Skjei would be a boon for our system. We just don't have much in the way of quality defensive prospects who shoot right.
 
Brooklyn Rangers Fan

Brooklyn Rangers Fan

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Zil said:
Given our style, a right handed version of Skjei would be a boon for our system. We just don't have much in the way of quality defensive prospects who shoot right.
Click to expand...

The funny thing is that we actually have many more D prospects that are RH, it's just that none of them carry Skjei's upside (at least not right now).
 
Zil

Zil

Shrug
Feb 9, 2006
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BrooklynRangersFan said:
The funny thing is that we actually have many more D prospects that are RH, it's just that none of them carry Skjei's upside (at least not right now).
Click to expand...

McIlrath, Zamorsky, Mantha, Nanne, Donnay, and Hughes make up a pretty lackluster group. I like Zamorsky as a long shot and I'm iffy on McIlrath. Maybe Nanne will be something if we get supremely lucky. Mantha's got some interesting fundamentals, but the lack of skating ability does not enthuse me. But yeah, there's nobody remotely on Skjei's level on that side.
 
Kokoschka

Kokoschka

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Jup, guy can legit move the puck. Very quick on zone entries as well, sees the ice really well. PPQB type of player. Don't know how he's holding up in his own zone in the Q, had problems with stronger forwards in Czech U 20, mainly because he was 16. We could use some of this, really.
 
Beacon

Beacon

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So who are the top UDFAs next summer. Kristo, Crabb, Chris, Mueller, Malone, Kostka are all going to be free agents we aren't going to resign or get replacements for. Stemp will get resigned or we'll get a replacement. Same for MZA and Staal.

This is what we are likely looking at:

Kreider-Brass-MZA
Nash-Stepan-St. Louis
Hags-Miller-Duke
Glass-Moore-Fast
Extra: Stempniak
Callups: Lindberg, Hayes, Hags 2.0, Hrivik


So we will have the space to add 6 contracts. Butcher is one, Skjei another. Unless Nieves has a huge year, he'll stay in college.

So we should have 4 spots for UDFAs. Who are some guys we should target?
 
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