Prospect Info: The Missing Piece

[Yak]

Elite #1 Center
Elite #2 Sniper
Elite #3 QB Defenseman

 

[Carl Karlsson]

Owen Power. Great name. He's my pick.

Owen Power, he's the man whose name you'd love to touch, but you mustn't toooouch

Not as great as Max, but really cool name indeed.

Just can't take his name seriously. When I pronounce it, it sounds way to close to Austin Powers.

I'd be ecstatic with him or Beniers.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I'm taking Beniers for now.. but will definitely be watching to see how KJs game develops .. he's got that game breaking kind of ability.
Luke Hughes also intriguing.

 

[aragorn]

Why isn't Dylan Guenther RW in this poll?

When I look at the 2021 draft I don't see a big difference between the top 8 players, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the defencemen or forwards, picking the BPA will be very difficult depending on where Ottawa ends up drafting. Even Bob McKenzie says it's going to be one of those yrs, I assume he means anything can happen.

- I don't see a huge difference between Beniers, & Johnson both project to be excellent players & I don't see a huge difference between them & J. Norris. Ottawa also has L. Brown & White who could fill in the three top 9 centre spots not to mention Nick Paul or Stutzle at some future point, even Greig is looking like a good future player for this team maybe at centre.

- Eklund plays LW & this team has Tkachuk, Stutzle, Formenton & Paul playing LW, I doubt they need him.

- Owen Power is a left shot so is Edvinsson & Hughes & Ottawa has a young Chabot with Sanderson & Kleven coming who are all left shots. Clarke is a right shot & could be an interesting choice even though they have JBD & Thomson coming & Brannstrom who can play the right side. I would love to draft Power, but I'm not sure he would make a greater difference than a goal scoring winger. Would love to draft both Power & Schmidt in 2021 lol.

- Ottawa has Chabot running the PP & I don't see anyone else on this team or in future taking that job away from him unless he is injured or traded. Sanderson most likely would be next in line to QB the PP & Wolanin & Brannstrom have both shown they can QB a 2nd PP unit.

- IMO the weakness on this team will be at RW where Ottawa has very little depth & needs another goal scorer on the right side. Dadonov has two yrs left & most likely won't be resigning here, C. Brown is 27 yrs old & has shown some offence, but is better defensively. Pinto IMO is going to be a great player & should take a RW spot some day soon.

- I think Dylan Guenther is the missing piece & the best RWer in the 1st rd who can do everything well. He looks to be a better version of Batherson & he can put the puck in the net with or without any help. He's a very good skater, fast, skilled & tenacious on the forecheck stealing pucks & turning them into goals. When I look at the forwards at the top of this 2021 draft I don't see a clear difference in them which is why filling a need with a player who is as good as any other in that spot makes sense. This is not to say that picking them would be worse, they are all going to be goo players in the NHL, this IMO fills a need on this team woth a player who could easily be the BPA wherever they pick.

 

[NHL Dude 120]

I have not looked at this year's draft crop but I think we need another high impact C or RW.

We have lots of decent dmen in our prospect pool, we should look at getting quality d vets to help them out as they filter in.

For RW your choice is Guenther

For center its Johnson and Berniers although Berniers to me seems like a safe-ish player whereas I’d like to go for the high skilled guy in Johnson.

For D the options are more open in terms of Power, Clarke, Hughes, Edvinsson and Lambos for example.

Eklund at RW would be awesome but sadly he’s a LW.

 

[NHL Dude 120]

Why isn't Dylan Guenther RW in this poll?

When I look at the 2021 draft I don't see a big difference between the top 8 players, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the defencemen or forwards, picking the BPA will be very difficult depending on where Ottawa ends up drafting. Even Bob McKenzie says it's going to be one of those yrs, I assume he means anything can happen.

- I don't see a huge difference between Beniers, & Johnson both project to be excellent players & I don't see a huge difference between them & J. Norris. Ottawa also has L. Brown & White who could fill in the three top 9 centre spots not to mention Nick Paul or Stutzle at some future point, even Greig is looking like a good future player for this team maybe at centre.

- Eklund plays LW & this team has Tkachuk, Stutzle, Formenton & Paul playing LW, I doubt they need him.

- Owen Power is a left shot so is Edvinsson & Hughes & Ottawa has a young Chabot with Sanderson & Kleven coming who are all left shots. Clarke is a right shot & could be an interesting choice even though they have JBD & Thomson coming & Brannstrom who can play the right side. I would love to draft Power, but I'm not sure he would make a greater difference than a goal scoring winger. Would love to draft both Power & Schmidt in 2021 lol.

- Ottawa has Chabot running the PP & I don't see anyone else on this team or in future taking that job away from him unless he is injured or traded. Sanderson most likely would be next in line to QB the PP & Wolanin & Brannstrom have both shown they can QB a 2nd PP unit.

- IMO the weakness on this team will be at RW where Ottawa has very little depth & needs another goal scorer on the right side. Dadonov has two yrs left & most likely won't be resigning here, C. Brown is 27 yrs old & has shown some offence, but is better defensively. Pinto IMO is going to be a great player & should take a RW spot some day soon.

- I think Dylan Guenther is the missing piece & the best RWer in the 1st rd who can do everything well. He looks to be a better version of Batherson & he can put the puck in the net with or without any help. He's a very good skater, fast, skilled & tenacious on the forecheck stealing pucks & turning them into goals. When I look at the forwards at the top of this 2021 draft I don't see a clear difference in them which is why filling a need with a player who is as good as any other in that spot makes sense. This is not to say that picking them would be worse, they are all going to be goo players in the NHL, this IMO fills a need on this team woth a player who could easily be the BPA wherever they pick.

Guenther is in my top 12 list btw and with how erratic this draft is things can change. I expect us to be bad in 2022 as well and if we can get one of Lambert/Wright/Savoie we can move a player to the wing. Ive seen Lambert classified as a RW as well as a center.

Clarke for me gives us the making of a future elite D-core and a decent forward core.

 

[JungleBeat]

Shane Wright and Brad Lambert only.

 

[Imnotagoodposter]

Berniers is basically Ryan Oreilly that can skate.

Ah damn that’s exactly the kinda player we need

 

[OmniSens]

..............POWER

 

[MrGuyPerson]

Why isn't Dylan Guenther RW in this poll?

He absolutely could have been, but so far these are my top 5. I think Beniers is the clear top FW. Primarily because of his 200ft impact. If he doesn't light up the score sheet right away his motor, talent, and awareness defensively are pretty untouchable. He has the scoring talent of a first line, top 3 team scorer and can play anywhere on the ice a team could need.

Johnson/Eklund/Guenther are a lot more of a pick your poison scenario. Each are better at different specific areas/aspects of the game. My unofficial reason for not including Guenther is... polls with more than 5 options are too dispersed. The official reason is I like Johnson and Eklunds strengths more and believe they have a higher chance to elevate their team without hitting their ceiling. Could Guenther be a stud? No doubt. Will he be? That's where uncertainty plays a role. I lean towards yes, but when there is more room for growth, there is inherently more questions about quantity of areas they grow, the quality of the growth, how the growth will translate to the show, and how high the added development will raise their consistent minimum impact. IE more question marks. Question marks are uncertain. With uncertainty comes chance. And with chance comes the possibility of either the areas for development not improving or their improvement does not have the kind of impact you expected. All 3 are great players. Of the toss ups I prefer Johnson because he has the highest IQ and Eklund because he has the most raw potentially electric talent in terms of speed, handles, and shooting/puck movement(nasty in his game yesterday against HV71).

I guess just to simplfy it I skipped
Guenther because:
***I wanted a poll of only 5 spots. My top 3 FWs and top 2 D-Men***
Johnson's IQ > Guenther's
Eklund's raw talent > Guenther's

 

[DrakeAndJosh]

I’m always a fan of BPA, but if it’s close between a LD and anything else we need to consider going elsewhere. Our LD is locked in for the next decade and if we pick one we’re just gonna have to trade someone. If it’s a huge difference then obviously just do it and figure it out later, but I’d rather not risk losing value in a trade if we can fill other needs.