NHL Thread

[The Ascension]

Gudbranson is still young. Defenseman can take awhile to reach their peak. He has all the tools.

Which is why I don't think taking Ekblad is a good idea.

[Paul Smeenus]

Originally Posted by Thom Yorke

You have to hit on this pick if you're a team like Florida

Off topic to the draft, but IMO the Panthers are a team we should be trying to bring here, unless we get offered an expansion team. With the obvious condition of some kind of arena deal.

Or if not here, Portland (which has the arena right now).

[Thom Yorke]

Originally Posted by The Ascension

Gudbranson is still young. Defenseman can take awhile to reach their peak. He has all the tools.

Which is why I don't think taking Ekblad is a good idea.

I'm not ruling him out by any means, but when you have someone like Johansen drafted right behind him, it's easy to play the "what if" game. He's never had much of an offensive element to his game, but it remains to be seen whether he can develop into a top-pairing shutdown D-man. If you draft a D-man at #3, that should be at least what you're hoping to get with that pick.

Even outside of them taking a while to reach their peak, they really don't seem to pan out as well in the long run on a consistent basis anyways. Drafting D at the top seems much more hit and miss than drafting forwards.

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

Off topic to the draft, but IMO the Panthers are a team we should be trying to bring here, unless we get offered an expansion team. With the obvious condition of some kind of arena deal.

Or if not here, Portland (which has the arena right now).

Still might be a while for that, although Florida seems like a likely candidate. Can't believe Phoenix never moved (or rather Arizona now) with how long that went on for. I'd have to think Seattle may be Bettman's #1 choice though.

[Ninetales]

I'm always weary of drafting defensemen high too. I heard Ekblad get compared to Jason Smith earlier in the year and cringed.

Honestly I wouldnt want the Oilers to draft him even if he was available at 3 anyway. Pick the leftover of Bennett, Draisaitl and Reinhart. As much as our D is shit, we have really good defensive prospects (Nurse, Klefbom, Marincin who looks like a full-timer now,etc). Drafting Ekblad would likely mean putting him in the NHL now (probably a bad idea) and giving him big minutes immediately (another bad idea). Jones kind of did that on Nashville last year, but their team is a much better environment for a "trial by fire" approach for defensemen.

[Thom Yorke]

Plus side to drafting a defenseman high is that having a truly elite #1 d-man is more rare and arguably more important than anything else. Pittsburgh and Carolina are the only teams that have won the Cup since the lockout without one of the best defensemen in the league logging huge minutes on their blueline. I definitely understand wanting to swing for the fences to land one of them, but it just seems to be much more risky.

If you look at who most people consider the best defensemen in the league right now:

Doughty - 2nd overall
Pietrangelo - 4th overall
Ekman-Larsson - 6th overall
Suter - 7th overall
McDonagh - 12th overall
Karlsson - 15th overall
Keith - 2nd round
Subban - 2nd round
Weber - 2nd round
Chara - 3rd round

Sure, there are a lot of first round picks in there, but only 2 guys that were drafted top 5, and 1 that was drafted top 3 (which is where you start hearing those "franchise player" labels thrown around on draft day). For as highly as top 10 picks are touted, a 6th or 7th overall pick doesn't quite come with the same "absolutely have to hit" stigma that a top 3 or so pick does.

Meanwhile, almost every forward that gets drafted at or even close to #1 is becoming a bonafide top-line player with the way drafting is nowadays.

[The Ascension]

Lots of new coaching blood coming into the league. Pittsburgh lowballing every coach with their offers is hilarious. 2 year contracts and no power to choose assistants, all while being Sid and Geno's bitch. Sounds like a solid gig.

[Thom Yorke]

Man, Hextall wasn't pleasing anyone with that move. Fan favourite, Giroux's right-hand man, and a straight-up better player than Umberger, all while being identical in age/cap hit. Looking at it that way,the 4th round pick isn't near enough to justify that type of move. Still, it's obvious why he did it: getting rid of Hartnell's extra 2 years. Just think he could have got something better coming back; Hartnell doesn't have one of those contracts you "have to move" at all.

[Ninetales]

Yeah wow that was a terrible trade by Philly. Great for CBJ tho. They were going to buy Umberger out and now got an actual good player for him? Good job Kekalainen

[Thom Yorke]

Really predictable for awards tonight.

So glad to see Bergeron finally getting more recognition. He was 5th in Hart voting and was being recognized for things all across the board.

[Ninetales]

well its been a pretty fun hockey day today. Oilers sign Nikitin which is who i wanted, though i thought we could get him cheaper. $4.5mil is certainly too much but for only 2 years its manageable. And we need someone so im fine with it.

Callahan deal is awful. Gaborik deal is long as heck. And somehow Bolland is asking for more money and term than both. HOW

And i listened to this on TSN radio today. It was one of the more high profile hockey stats guys, Tyler Dellow, talking with Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. They were going back on forth on Bolland and then... Grabovski's name got mentioned (if you dont know Simmons, he hates Grabovski as if he slept with his wife). Basically ended up with Simmons yelling about dumb things and Dellow just sitting silently, presumedly stunned. Id recommend listening to it, it's pretty funny.

Simmons vs Dellow