HF Habs: So who would you like Habs to draft @ 15?

[Legend123]

Find the underagers in competitive leagues and draft them!

Broberg is your dude i believe

 

[Scriptor]

At this point i think trading the pick would make sense. I'm against trading 1st round pick but let's be honest it's unlikely a 15th overall pick will ready to play a big role before Price and Weber are too old. Price maybe goalies age well but not sure Weber will still be a top dman in the league by the time this pick will reach his prime.

Trading it for a LHD would make lot of sense. Like someone said Drouin+1st for a good young (under 28) LHD would make a lot of sense. There will be growing pain with Poehling but i like what i saw and i will be surprised if he doesn't become as good as Drouin. He can play wings too right? At this point anyway it's all in the hands of Kotkaniemi. If he becomes that steady 70 points (in 82 games) center we don't really need Drouin anyway as i believe Poehling will become a good two way top 6 center and we will be able to move Domi to the wing. The lineup could look like this in 2 years :

Domi-Kotkaniemi-Gallagher
Tatar-Poehling-Suzuki
Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw
Byron-Weal-Armia

If Suzuki doesn't work you can try to sign someone. There's still a possibility Armia figures it out too. The guys has good hands but he needs to find consistency in his game. I think at this point we should do a leap of faith and believe in Pehling and Kotkaniemi and use Drouin and the 1st round pick to solve one of our main issue which is the left side of the defense.

Personally, I feel no pressure to get it all done next season or the one after that because both weber and Price are ageing. Price will be 34 three seasons from now. Weber will be 36. I'd rather draft well and have a strong young team in three years. Someone will replace Weber who will, by then, still be a strong 2nd pairing D. Price will still be able to deliver strong performances and one of Primeau or McNiven will be in the wings to replace him.

I wouldn't build around two or three years of two players. There needs to be a balanced view of the present and the future and, for that, you don't trade 1st round picks. There's a long list of elite talent that was drafted at 15th or later.

 

[Legend123]

Lets acquire an additional 1st rounder from a desperate team like the oilers. We can then draft a player like Zegras

 

[Scriptor]

I agree, trade the pick, unless there’s some guy our staff is in love with around 15

Disagree. Keep the pick. Trade from a 2nd, a 5th and a prospect, plus one of Shaw, Byron, Armia, Lehkonen or Petry if the return is worthwhile. No sense in trading a 1st round pick that isn't a late round pick.

 

[LaP]

Personally, I feel no pressure to get it all done next season or the one after that because both weber and Price are ageing. Price will be 34 three seasons from now. Weber will be 36. I'd rather draft well and have a strong young team in three years. Someone will replace Weber who will, by then, still be a strong 2nd pairing D. Price will still be able to deliver strong performances and one of Primeau or McNiven will be in the wings to replace him.

I wouldn't build around two or three years of two players. There needs to be a balanced view of the present and the future and, for that, you don't trade 1st round picks. There's a long list of elite talent that was drafted at 15th or later.

Well the player you will draft may or may not have the same value in two years. You are taking the risk his value will be nill. Also you never know we could draft 20th next season and the pick will have less value. It's not about a pressure to act now but more like now is the time imo. If there's a trade possible for a young LHD we should do it imo. And you wont acquire this with Lehkonen or Byron.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

Broberg is your dude i believe

Heinola is more dynamic

 

[stanley25]

At this point i think trading the pick would make sense. I'm against trading 1st round pick but let's be honest it's unlikely a 15th overall pick will ready to play a big role before Price and Weber are too old. Price maybe goalies age well but not sure Weber will still be a top dman in the league by the time this pick will reach his prime.

Trading it for a LHD would make lot of sense. Like someone said Drouin+1st for a good young (under 28) LHD would make a lot of sense. There will be growing pain with Poehling but i like what i saw and i will be surprised if he doesn't become as good as Drouin. He can play wings too right? At this point anyway it's all in the hands of Kotkaniemi. If he becomes that steady 70 points (in 82 games) center we don't really need Drouin anyway as i believe Poehling will become a good two way top 6 center and we will be able to move Domi to the wing. The lineup could look like this in 2 years :

Domi-Kotkaniemi-Gallagher
Tatar-Poehling-Suzuki
Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw
Byron-Weal-Armia

If Suzuki doesn't work you can try to sign someone. There's still a possibility Armia figures it out too. The guys has good hands but he needs to find consistency in his game. I think at this point we should do a leap of faith and believe in Pehling and Kotkaniemi and use Drouin and the 1st round pick to solve one of our main issue which is the left side of the defense.

I have to agree, some of the players around the top 15 would look great in our prospect pool. Ive been drooling over having a Newhook, Dorofeyev, Caufield, Heinola or even Suzuki bro tandem type prospect fall to us but if we get could get a Gostisbehere style Ld for our 1st and someone other than Drouin I'd be extremely happy as well.

We have a great prospect pool coming up already with Poehling, Romanov, Suzuki, Brook, Fleury, Ylonen ect.. and with our 2 2nd's we'll just add to that young core of 50 pt + players we already have in the Nhl with Drouin, Domi, Danault, 30g Gally and even Kotka whom is projected to be there or higher in a season or 2. Its time to start trying to make and not just lose the 1st rd of the playoffs.

If this team could aquire a 1st pairing Ld and maybe sign a Panarin/Duchene/Lee 50-60 pt + forward we'd be pretty dangerous when Weber and Price are on their games and thats worth trading our 1st this year imo

 

[xNogaitx]

My personal feeling is that I'd rather they stay away from Caufield (small winger benefiting from awesome talent around him.) and Kaliev (lack of effort, no game breaking ability.)

My focus would be:

Harley
Newhook
Heinoia
Soderstrom
Broberg

I hope Montreal manages to get another 1st Rd pick to go get a guy like Poulin to reinforce the depth of W prospects which is lacking right now.

 

[Canadienna]

Suzuki

I want a high powered offense, and I'm not sure we have all the pieces yet. Then the brother factor plays in, would be fun having both. Would give us good karma with David Suzuki as well, which can never hurt.

I'm not a scout, so I'll just say I've watched his highlights and he seems like a prototypical montreal canadien. Like his game.

 

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I’d be ok with Harley, Heinola has looked very good in a men’s league though and that’s impressive for a defenseman in his draft year.

This.

Playing with the big boys and averaging 20+ minutes a night is very promising. I feel he would be ready for the NHL sooner rather than later!

 

[Guns n Roses]

Just because they are the 'elite' on the roster, does not make them truly elite. If if if...doesn't change the fact that the lack of truly elite talent (outside of the crease) has continually sunk the Habs every year since the dynasty ended.

Yup, 4 more points, and in the playoffs, while the Habs with their so called elite have missed the playoffs 3 of the last 4 seasons.

Finally, while the prospect pool is much improved, they are still lottery tickets as far as I am concerned. And I suggest that you ask anyone who follows prospects league wide, and see if anyone thinks that a Hab prospect projects as having elite potential.

Ok sorry I didn’t know that we were drafting our saviour at #15.

 

[Deebs]

He had around a 0.5 ppg as a D year defenseman. He's a smooth skating LD with a complete skillset. I dont see how thats a reach at 15.

If he's ranked higher than 15, doesn't that mean it's a reach for us? Might not be a massive reach but I see both Mackenzie and Cosentino have him outside their top 20. He could be like Kotka and rise late as well though

 

[Andrei79]

If he's ranked higher than 15, doesn't that mean it's a reach for us? Might not be a massive reach but I see both Mackenzie and Cosentino have him outside their top 20. He could be like Kotka and rise late as well though

Well, there's a lot of variability after around 10. Bob's list had Heinola at 24 in January, and he usually compiles the list from comments he gets from the preceding months, so there's always a delay between a players actual value among the scouting community and when the list gets published. The most accurate one is always the last one he compiles, after the U18s - just before the draft. Even there, you always need to look at how much every player's a consensus at the rank he's listed. Meaning, there's likely a much stronger consensus with less variability for someone like Boldy at 7, vs Heinola at 24. It's just the nature of the draft and how there's a steep dropoff in "guaranteed" talent after the very top.

I don't see someone with his pedigree as a reach at 15, personally. As far as production, he had the best ppg season in the last 30 years for an U18 in Liiga. Well, it's Honka, but he only played 20 games.

Unlike Kokkonen, he doesn't have skating issues (though Kokkonen is excellent himself). Unlike Honka, he neither has size+strength or defensive issues. I wouldn't call him a reach even higher than 15.

 

[Deebs]

Well, there's a lot of variability after around 10. Bob's list had Heinola at 24 in January, and he usually compiles the list from comments he gets from the preceding months, so there's always a delay between a players actual value among the scouting community and when the list gets published. The most accurate one is always the last one he compiles, after the U18s - just before the draft. Even there, you always need to look at how much every player's a consensus at the rank he's listed. Meaning, there's likely a much stronger consensus with less variability for someone like Boldy at 7, vs Heinola at 24. It's just the nature of the draft and how there's a steep dropoff in "guaranteed" talent after the very top.

I don't see someone with his pedigree as a reach at 15, personally. As far as production, he had the best ppg season in the last 30 years for an U18 in Liiga. Well, it's Honka, but he only played 20 games.

Unlike Kokkonen, he doesn't have skating issues (though Kokkonen is excellent himself). Unlike Honka, he neither has size+strength or defensive issues. I wouldn't call him a reach even higher than 15.

Sounds good

 

[A55P2]

If you look at the prospect board thread on Heinola, people are very very high on him, calling him a potential 15-10th pick.

 

[BargainBinSpecial]

Ryan Suzuki. I would like to see the Suzuki line one day in MTL. Second choice would be Thomas Harley, good skater and quite big D.

 

[Dhafol]

Trade the pick and Drouin to Edmonton for Poolparty and someone like Lucic to make Edmonton's cap situation work.

 

[Tim Wallach]

Trade the pick and Drouin to Edmonton for Poolparty and someone like Lucic to make Edmonton's cap situation work.

Insanity. Edmonton is already driving their guys to the airport based on this post.

 

[Dhafol]

Insanity. Edmonton is already driving their guys to the airport based on this post.

It's not that insane. Poolparty hasn't had a great start to his career but he's still young with potential, so I'd gladly trade the pick for him. Drouin for Lucic is pretty much a wash since they have as many years left on their contracts with similar caphits. Drouin brings more speed which could work on McDavid's wing, and Lucic brings more size which the Habs are lacking. Lucic also played well under Julien in Boston.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Trade the pick and Drouin to Edmonton for Poolparty and someone like Lucic to make Edmonton's cap situation work.

I mean you’re not even including their 1st or swapping them??? No thanks.

 

[Dhafol]

I mean you’re not even including their 1st or swapping them??? No thanks.

I thought about it, but that would be an overkill. No way EDM says yes to that.

 

[1909]

It's not that insane. Poolparty hasn't had a great start to his career but he's still young with potential, so I'd gladly trade the pick for him. Drouin for Lucic is pretty much a wash since they have as many years left on their contracts with similar caphits. Drouin brings more speed which could work on McDavid's wing, and Lucic brings more size which the Habs are lacking. Lucic also played well under Julien in Boston.

Lucic, like Alzner, doesn't belong to NHL anymore... Come on !

 

[Dhafol]

Lucic, like Alzner, doesn't belong to NHL anymore... Come on !

Dunno, I think that a fresh start could do some good for him. Maybe I'm wrong and the trade blows up in Montreal's face but you gotta take risks if you wanna win.

 

[1909]

Dunno, I think that a fresh start could do some good for him. Maybe I'm wrong and the trade blows up in Montreal's face but you gotta take risks if you wanna win.

Habs have already a mega bad contract with Alzner + some questionable one with Weise. Lucic is not fast enough to follow Habs current brand of game, at all.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

Heinola is more dynamic

Soderstrom even more