Yeah why is OP assuming that the Hawks are picking Byram?
Suprising more don't have Chitown taking the homegrown kid.A series of polls on the corresponding team's board. I will post the ongoing results here:
1.Jack Hughes, C, USNTP 88.6%
2.Kappo Kakko, RW, TPS 94.0%
3.Bowen Byram, D, Vancouver (WHL) 63.2%
4.
2 day poll
Link to results thread.
Pod and Dach to be honest. Basically consensus 3 and 4 and this board wants anyone but the two of them.
I think Dach is the better player and will stick at C while I do like Cozens I don't see as high of upside in him while also a slight chance he moves to RW. Dach has improved upon all his weaknesses this year as he's shooting more(always had a good shot) and his skating isn't a weakness like some say. Dach will be a force once he fills out and he pushed through injuries that most kids wouldn't this year. Cozens is more north south player who isn't dumb by any means but does skate himself into trouble at times where Dach slows the game down and lets the play come to him while also having the ability to play up tempo. Both are great 2way players who have good height and still need to fill out but I see Dach as having a much higher upside and similar floor to Cozens. I'd also take Krebs and Boldy over Cozens/Turcotte but I doubt that'll happen come draft day. Cozens vs Turcotte is an interesting debate as I see similar upsides and floors in both of them as 1B/2A C's and if we were picking 6 or later I'd be happy with them.
We don't have time for this shit.
Not sure Chicago is really going with Byram. They have drafted D with their last three 1st rounders + one 2nd round pick, their best prospects are defensemen and there are no high end forward prospects.
I didn't watch any of his KHL games but I've seen about 5 of his VHL and 5 MHL games and he'll flash his ability a couple times like I said but overall he had issues reading the play and tried to just do everything on his own. Maybe he was frustrated but for most of those games he had good linemates imo. There were numerous times he simply couldn't see passing lanes that his counterpart in Dorofeyev does. When you compare those 2 in league play Doro looks like the much better player and because he's a late bday doesn't get the exposure. If seen about 5 of his KHL games and 10ish MHL. Both to me are still top 10 talents but it's curious when a person asks why Podkolzin is so much higher they never answer(imo because they only watch tournaments and not league play). Like I said previously Pod has a very high upside but for me there's just to much risk to take him at 4. If the Avs do take him I hope it pays off and we can get a Tarasenko level player out of him and the worst thing would be for him to play in the AHL next year(which I don't think would ever happen)I know two people can see radically different things from the same footage, but that really doesn't sound like you were watching the right player; unless you're jumping to these conclusions based entirely off of a couple of bad games, in a season that has seen him play over 60 already...like the two post-WJC matches he played in the MHL simply because SKA had nothing better for him to do that week or the three KHL games in which he may or may not have topped three total shifts. But there's enough of his games on youtube for me not to doubt that you've actually seen enough of him & so to just chalk this up to radically opposed differences of opinion.
I mean, yes his highlight reel plays are very sexy & his assist totals aren't very high this year, but he's an intelligent passer off of the cycle (and not just the break), who has quite a knack for finding the soft spot in the offensive zone from which to launch that nasty one-timer, and reads the play extremely well against the puck; which is why he makes such an impact against the puck on a shift-to-shift basis. Which is why it's odd to me that someone would criticize his hockey IQ, as it's literally one of his biggest strengths
It's a shame he hasn't gotten to play with better players or to establish enough chemistry with the guys he has played with for them to anticipate his passes better; because I can recall 6 or 7 more primary assists, off the top of my head, that he would've had in the VHL if he had played with linemates who could finish instead of the Russian-AHL's grindiest of grinders that he was playing with. And I just can't help but wonder how different the perception of him would be -- despite absolutely nothing changing in the way he played -- if those pucks had bounced more favorably and so the paper looked much prettier...
PS - feel free to judge him by his stats; just use his /60 #s instead of raw totals that ignore sample sizes or differences in playing time and he has spent equal time in the MHL, VHL & with the NT, so you need to look at all of his production, not just the set that fits your argument best.
