Can I just ask, since you've been patting yourself on the back on this one for a while, what were your viewings of Pastrnak back in 2013/2014? He was playing Sweden, in a league below the SHL, so I can't imagine much of the games were readily available to watch. Was it a YouTube highlight film? Was it couple of WJC games that you saw? Did you see somebody else call him "dynamic" and sort of latch onto it? A combination?
I'm not trying to be an a-hole or anything, but I just don't really get how you become so sure of something where the viewings are so limited.
No, it's just frustrating to watch him explode this season for me... I'm not trying to pat myself on the back.
Yes, I did manage to catch a couple recorded games online after I read about him which piqued my interest. What I saw was a player the had game changing skills that we were missing, thus that's the reason I latched onto him going into that draft.
We've needed a player with that potential skill level for a long time and still do. Picking as late as we do, those players are fewer and further between, so if you believe you see one available, IMO, you have to go for it. I'd rather swing for the fences on such a player in the first round than go with a safe two way player... Tuch,I was of the belief that he was more a product of his linemates by comparison. That was proven untrue, and I was starting to appreciate Tuch as a consolation prize, but then expansion happened and we lost even that.
The only reason I brought it up here was because of the post I quoted above. My repeated use of the term dynamic became a running joke here going into that draft, and apparently that joke lives on.
Edit: BTW - I'm the first to admit I usually don't have near enough information on most players in the draft from one year to the next... it can be a challenge to get viewings to form an opinion of your own on these players. If I don't get to see anything, I have only scouting reports to rely on, I generally won't latch on to one player vs another too strongly in such a case, which is why most seasons I generally don't have a horse in the race on who we should pick, but just hope we pick towards one style player vs another.
