Pronman Grades the 2014 Draft - Gives the Wings a B+

[ArmChairGM89]

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[Retire91]

Sorry, but the 2014 draft and asset management are tied at the hip, just because a point annoys you doesn't make it any less valid. But for the sake of what is important to you, I can step away from that part of the discussion and say any draft where you pull a legit center at 15 is a good draft no matter what else happens with the rest of the class. B- for me just because Larkin is that good.

 

[Shaman464]

I don't think the numbers are strong evidence of Jarnkrok's IQ and hands. I've watched some Nashville games since I've got so many damn friends from the area, and yeah he's better but it's not a huge gap. Helm's not a dummy, IQ wise. And his hands are mostly a problem when he's in alone on the goalie, not in other situations. The numbers coincide exactly with Jarnkrok getting some experience under his belt while Helm's age and injury woes started taking a toll on him.

Which is exactly why we should have just kept the younger, cheaper guy over the older, more expensive, often injured guy.

But this isn't about how good Jarnkrok is. This is about the decision to make that trade. The Jarnkrok-Legwand trade was emblematic of the kinds of trades we were doing every single year at the TDL to extend the streak and overvaluing our veterans over up and coming talent that could easily replace them for less money. You look at all the contracts on our team right now and you can see that same pattern. We're just counting the years until we can get guys like Abby, Ericsson, off our books. Not to mention Nielsen.


I do not take Nylander over Larkin. Their career production numbers are roughly similar (59p in 82 games vs 55p in 82 games averaged) but centers are still more valuable than wingers. Plus Nylander is playing on a significantly better team with significantly better offensive talent and has been for most of his career if not all of it. It's not even close. I guarantee Larkin gets more points on the Leafs than the Wings.

The whole "better team=more points" doesn't jive so much with offensively talented players. There are many examples where players put up their best number in years where their teams were meh to terrible. Nylander is also a natural center. Also, Nylander is averaging more points while averaging 2 minutes less per game compared to Larkin over the course of their careers.