Phaneuf was a monster for his first 4 years in Calgary but the minute he lost his D partner Hamrlik he stopped looking like a top-pairing guy. He was a 2nd pairing guy for most of his time in Toronto, and his time in Ottawa and LA was pretty forgettable.
Now it's true that a mostly 2nd pairing guy who has a 4 year peak as a top pairing guy is solid value from that pick. But there are definite Komisarek vibes where you question how good he actually was during his peak vs how much his partner allowed him to play to his strengths and cover up his weaknesses.
I don't think Komisarek like players get drafted this early anymore. The league has changed and stay at home big physical Dmen don't really go in the top 10 anymore.
But a guy like Phaneuf, a big Dman who can throw his weight around with devastating hits, and pot in 40-50pts, even if it requires help from his partner, I'll gladly take it.
Imagine a guy like him playing next to Weber or Petry right now? Massive boost to our team in some many ways.
Kostitsyn could have developed better, but what makes you think this future pick will have a good development with us? If anything we have a history of terrible development. Do you honestly think Sergachev would have developed the same way he did had we not traded him? You think Therrien and Julien would have worked with his defensive mistakes and let him play through them and develop or would he be scapegoated and benched by those dinosaurs?
But then, if you go down that path, might as well trade all our prospects and draft picks to get already developed guys here instead.
I am always holding on to the hope Bergevin gets booted the F out relatively soon and that Bouchard/Ducharme have their say in the development.
The point isn't that you can't get a good player, having a top-10 pick is better then not having one but people tend to overrate what you get from those late top-10 picks. For example looking past 03, the next 5 years it's Smid, Lee, Sheppard, Couture, Bailey at 9th. The odds of getting a core player at 9th just aren't that great. So yeah we'll get a great prospect, it's just a great prospect isn't the same as a great player.
Right but those other years are a bit pointless because this is meant to be a deep draft. Sure, maybe it'll flop out but we're still in a rebuilding stage so I'll take that and if the 24th seed team ends up winning the cup during this tournament, the only thing this shows me is how ridiculous silly it was to pursue the season after a 4 1/2 month hiatus. It would be a farce. So give me a top 9 pick.
Just to clarify I wasn't talking about the fan ambiance but the player. Yes the games right now are a bit sloppy, and that's what I think is going quickly change. It will get back to the usual NHL playoff level calibre of play fairly soon. And development wise the fans simply don't matter, Suzuki going toe to toe against Crosby in a do or die situation is great for his development regardless of whether there are fans in the seats chanting "you suck" or not. It's still a case of going up against the best in the world in pressure packed games and proving to yourself that you have the stuff to be a winner.
I don't see this happening at all. PO calibre level? Most teams will be eliminated a month into this thing. Some teams will have been knocked off before playing more games than they usually do in preseason.
October hockey is sloppy in general, takes about the 20 game mark to get it going and that's after a normal camp and summer training, on top of a lot of practicing.
So I don't see the level ever reaching the usual level of PO.
Sure, any experience is good for the youngsters, from an individual standpoint. But they very likely will get this experience at some point anyways, I'm looking at what's best for our team moving forward and adding another talent like Sergachev or Phaneuf on D or up front would be much better for us imo.
