That's kind of a pointless comparison to make. You expect a third overall pick to become at least the third best player of his draft class, or close to this. This rarely happens, but that is what you hope for. You don't compare a 3rd overall pick to previous 3rd overall picks. You compare a 3rd overall pick to players who were picked after.
You forgot Niedermayer who was easily the best pick at #3 during this span. There were also many that were marginally better, injury plagued or yet to be determined.There were also many cases where teams simply made a terrible pick and passed on an elite player in the next 2 picks. It doesn't matter so much about who was taken at 3 but who was available at 3. Every year since 1990 a better player than Stepan was available at 3
Sergei had some serious neurological issues that required some heavy medication.
You really have Kotkaniemi that far ahead? I do agree he's our best prospect, but he's not that far ahead of Poehling- both are likely 2Cs at the moment. This makes it look like you think he's a Kopitar/Barkov level prospect.... which would be amazing, but I just think these expectations are just going to lead to massive disappointment.
I like these numbers. I particularly agree with the high values given to Romanov and Hillis, even though I have seen these players only on highlight films. I am very excited about the promise of many players taken in this year's draft. Both these guys in particular strike me as future productive NHLers, especially if they work on their weaknesses. I also am hopeful about Brook.
Awful list. We need more quality, but our depth is better than a lot of teams imo.
Draft is not 100% accurate. At 3rd overall you are looking for an impact player not the 2nd coming of Plekanec. It's better to have a Stepan than nothing but it'S still gonna be a failure at this rank imo.
Not to derail the ranking threads but I thought it'd be interesting to have a seperate thread for what fans expect for some of our prospects, as some have pointed out, our prospect pool hasn't been this deep in a long time so I am interested to hear the input of our posters on some of these guys. Obviously chances are maybe 3-5 guys out of this bunch will play over 150 NHL games but the summer is long and it gives us something to talk about
EX:
Kotkaniemi, upside: 1A/1B center a la Stepan, chances he reaches upside: 50%
Fleury, upside: #3 defenseman a la Rivet, chances he reaches upside: 25%
What are yours?
Not to derail the ranking threads but I thought it'd be interesting to have a seperate thread for what fans expect for some of our prospects, as some have pointed out, our prospect pool hasn't been this deep in a long time so I am interested to hear the input of our posters on some of these guys. Obviously chances are maybe 3-5 guys out of this bunch will play over 150 NHL games but the summer is long and it gives us something to talk about
EX:
Kotkaniemi, upside: 1A/1B center a la Stepan, chances he reaches upside: 50%
Fleury, upside: #3 defenseman a la Rivet, chances he reaches upside: 25%
What are yours?
O'Reilly is better than the vast majority of the 2nd line centers on NHL teams. He would also be the 1st on a few of them. He's not your typical 2c imo.
I think my favourite post is that Donato and Kotkaniemi are in the same class lol
