NHL Draft

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Good to hear!

On the banks of the Red Cedar, Is a school that's known to all,
Its specialty is winning, And those Spartans play good ball,
Spartan Teams are never beaten, All thru the game they fight,
Fight for the only colors, Green and White,

Go right thru for M S U, Watch the points keep growing,
Spartan teams are bound to win, they're fighting with a vim, Rah! Rah! Rah!
See their team is weakening, We're going to win the game,
Fight! Fight! Rah! Team Fight! Victory for M S U

Up with the colors, Unfurl them on high!
Fight! Fight! Rah! Team Fight! Victory for M S U

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Havok

huh... i think my capitals are drafting basketball players instead of hockey players!

14 Washington Sasha Pokulok D Cornell Univ. (ECAC) 6 '5 220 pounds

27 Washington (from COL) Joe Finley D Sioux Falls (USHL) 6 '7 229 pounds

Pretty bad picks for McPhee. Neither one of those guys was expected to go in the first round.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Pretty bad picks for McPhee. Neither one of those guys was expected to go in the first round.

If you think that was bad, the Caps attempted to draft an ineligible player in the 7th round.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by bronconick

If you think that was bad, the Caps attempted to draft an ineligible player in the 7th round.

No, turns out he was eligible, Central Scouting said he was too young but the Caps had a birth certificate or something proving he wasn't.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by bronconick

If you think that was bad, the Caps attempted to draft an ineligible player in the 7th round.

Sweet. Another Bronco fan.

born at Borgess hospital in Kalamazoo and raised in Schoolcraft just south of there. I've watched countless Bronco games at Waldo Stadium.

[Havok]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Pretty bad picks for McPhee. Neither one of those guys was expected to go in the first round.

im just praying he knows something that other people don't.

Alot of people gave him hell for drafting Eric Fehr(sp?) 2 seasons ago and he is lighting it up right now.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Havok

im just praying he knows something that other people don't.

Alot of people gave him hell for drafting Eric Fehr(sp?) 2 seasons ago and he is lighting it up right now.

I have that guy in EHM right now, and he blows. Not that that means jack.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Havok

im just praying he knows something that other people don't.

Alot of people gave him hell for drafting Eric Fehr(sp?) 2 seasons ago and he is lighting it up right now.

If it was a year or two ago, the big guys would have made more sense. But with the new rule changes, most of the other GM's seemed to be looking for defensemen with good mobility, rather than the huge Zdeno Chara types whose game depends on their ability to tie people up. Devereaux Heshmatpour, a Chara-clone who's pushing 6'7, was getting a fair bit of hype a year ago, and was ranked #68 by Central Scouting, wound up not getting picked at all.

If McPhee's right and everybody else is wrong, he's in good shape. But having seen McPhee in Vancouver for a few years, I'm more inclined to bet on him just being out of step with reality.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Pretty bad picks for McPhee. Neither one of those guys was expected to go in the first round.

Pokoluk went too high, I think (could have traded into the 20's for him), but with that said I think you might get some production out of him. A lot of the Cornell fans, who are usually very hockey-savvy, were HUGE on this kid, and Cornell had a lot of good hockey player last year.

[Booj]

I was VERY skeptical about the Habs picking Price at #5 hoping that they would trade him to a team lower in the draft, but I feel they MORE than made up for it by picking up Latendresse in the 2nd round... some places had this guy in the Top 10.. and he's a big power forward.

Plus, I feel more and more like the Canadiens who have just qualified Theo will trade him at some point, or he will leave as an 8-year veteran unrestricted FA next year. He is very inconsistant but he can steal games and series... I can't wait for Price's development. I absolutely loved watching him at the under-18s this year. I have never been so excited for the World Juniors, mostly because the Canadiens never had any Canadians (no pun intended) but with Price slated to start for Canada, I will want Canada to win for an entirely different reason than just National pride.

And for people who say it was a reach, I whole heartedly disagree. This wasn't a reach. Nobody had him getting past Ottawa at #9... 4 spots is hardly a reach. It was an odd choice, but I wasn't really all too high on anyone but Johnson and Crosby on the front end of this draft.

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Yeah. You can't blame them too much. They didn't have much time to prepare for this. The date, how it was going to be run, all of that, was a moving target until just a few weeks prior to the draft. Also you just don't have the coverage (i.e., film) of junior/college/European hockey players that you do for college football players.

Watching the replay now, reminds me a lot of the NFL drafts I watched on ESPN from the late 80s.

Minus the highlights. And, yes I do blame TSN for lack of film. All it would of taken would of been 1 phone call to the Players Agent and a day later you would of been able to see that kids highlights from PeeWee hockey if you wanted.

[Karim]

Sutter did his typical thing, drafting guys with work ethic above all else. Daniel Ryder, brother of Habs Michael Ryder, was the only skilled forward he picked up, but his lack of size is the big question mark. Everyone he picked up is a project and most casual Flames fans who go by ISS or the Redline Report are not particularly happy.

He drafted his son, Brett Sutter, with the #179 pick. The strange thing (and apparently unbeknownst to him), Darryl Sutter was also drafted #179 in the 1978 draft.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

As an aside, TSN really needs to watch the NFL draft and take some notes. This is the most boring presentation I've ever seen.

I thought it was far better than the NFL draft.

The NFL draft usually has a bunch of loud mouths at the table shouting over each other and just four picks per hour.

The NHL draft program had everything you need. Quick picks, an interview with each scout/gm and player and a little analysis. Everything was wrapped up in a few hours.

I am not someone who enjoys drafts anyway, mainly because I watch sport to see what happens on the field, not in the front office.

[WrongWay]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

I am not someone who enjoys drafts anyway, mainly because I watch sport to see what happens on the field, not in the front office.

Wow, you are missing half the fun then.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by WrongWay

Watching the replay now, reminds me a lot of the NFL drafts I watched on ESPN from the late 80s.

Minus the highlights. And, yes I do blame TSN for lack of film. All it would of taken would of been 1 phone call to the Players Agent and a day later you would of been able to see that kids highlights from PeeWee hockey if you wanted.

Not to mention the "highlights" they showed of Marc Staal over and over and over again -- in one of them his man gets free in front of the net and scores an easy goal, the other, he takes himself totally ou tof h e play with a bad check that leads to a 2-on-1 and scoring chance the other way.

[TurnerONU22]

I think the Blue Jackets might have been in the top 3 "winners" of the draft so far. Got very lucky when the Habs went off of the board to pick Price, and allowed MacLean to snatch Brule, who has been rated #2 up until the past few months. On top of that, they get a good pickup in the 3rd round with D Kris Russell. In the 4th, they pick up G Tomas Popperele, a overaged Euro at 21, and was the top goalie in the Czech Elite League, playing for Sparta.

However, the biggest coup might have come in the 6th round, picking up C Kirill Starkov, who was projected by a couple different major mock drafts such as McKeen's and Redline's Kyle Woodlief.

I'm definately happy with MacLean today, and I think he's had his best draft as our GM so far, and his best two drafts the past 2 years

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by General Mike

Will they black out the Sabres games to people in the NY/NJ area, and Rangers games to people in the Buffalo area?

It's not like MSG is going to have anything better to show anyway. They lose the Mets after this season, and MLS is MLS.

I think so. We never got the live Ranger games anyways. I hope they retain the guys announcing the previous Sabres game. They were great.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Sooooo....how's that basketball team doing over in Ann Arbor?

Ugh do you even have to ask?

But football season his here first