Not all prospects are treated the same. Some fans are higher on some picks vs others. And some are world junior type players while others are not. You have every right to steer clear of "hope" on all prospects but you should also steer clear from the prospects thread altogether as well (If you have no interest like you say you do). There are lots of fans who are interested in looking at what each prospect has as qualities and they are not stupid. They realize there will be busts. However, thinking a Kristo, Leblanc, Tinordi, Colberg will repeat itself over and over is way to negative.
There is nothing negative about it. Late 1st picks and 2nd rounders very often don't make the NHL.
That does not mean it will happen every year. But at this point, if you're to ask me about Olof, a 56th pick who played in Swe2, then I don't have much to say.
Myself? I'm never high on small players. I see a lot of comments about the "new NHL" and smaller players are making impact. There is some truth to this but I will always be higher on a prospect who has all 3 qualities... Size, Skill, and Skating. Mete for example I am not very high on. I like him but he lacks strength and he has no shot. If you look at the contenders, they don't have many small players. Caps won the cup with Skill, Size, and Skating throughout their line-up.
Mete skates and moves the puck well, which made him a better D than most on our roster last season already. I think that was a shame, he had no business playing in the NHL last year imo, but we were so desperate for a decent puck mover/skater.
If Mete can be smart positionally, then he can be a pretty good top 4 Dman even if his shot never improves.
As for his strength, he just turned 20 last month so it's normal for a 19yo to lack strength.
Mittelstadt couldn't do one pull up at his combine last year. Younger, sure, but still, teenagers being weak is quite common.
I used to make fun of Patches because he would always fall to the ice in his early days here. He would check players and fall, always looked so weak on his skates. Strength is easily improvable.
I like Mete as a top 4 for now.
There is another factor that not many acknowledge. The draft years from 2008-2011 really did set the tone and mood with a large % of our fan base for many years. Some think this will continue and they don't look at the circumstance of only 8 top 100 picks in those 4 years. We had 7 top 100 picks in the last draft alone. We are turning the corner with our prospects.
2008 happened a decade ago. Time for you to move on. It takes about 3-4 years for picks to reach the NHL. That means 2012-2013-2014 are what you should be looking for, not 2008.
Ya, 08-11 didn't help us, but the kids drafted back then are 28 today so you really need to stop bring those draft years up.
Nobody uses those years as a baseline to prospects production rate. People know those were bad years.
We were the winners of the 2012 draft and that didn't yield us much outside the Galchenyuk, a 3rd overall pick.
The only guys I am excited for are Scherbak, Poe and Kotka. These are the only 3 guys I can see have a significant impact. The rest are all in the "meh" or "wtv" or "way too far away" pile.
. Just trying to put the pieces we have together.
