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2019 NHL Draft - June 21st - With The 14th Selection, The Coyotes.......

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I'm also very happy this is on a Tuesday. The past couple years the lotto was always on a Friday/Saturday. The next morning was not a pleasant experience...

Now if we win the lotto it may not matter that it's a weekday, but the hangover won't be as painful either having a top three pick.
 
rt said:
If we won the 3rd pick, that would be a very, very interesting spot. There are at least five guys who could realistically go in that spot.
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Apparently Podkolzin made some polarizing comments as well. So naturally if we draft there we will grab Byram, which I would oddly enough be fine with until three seasons down the road and Q Hughes is a Norris candidate, Zadina wins the rocket and Dach is a Selke candidate.
 
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I don't want Byram. He's not a RHD, we don't need him. Podkolzin is definitely the 3rd best prospect, but yes, with some of the things he's said, we certainly wouldn't draft him 3rd.
 
Podkolzin's comments are being sensationalized a bit. He basically said he's not interested in playing amateur or minor-pro hockey in North America. Basically, he's fine with continuing his development in Russia. He wasn't talking about the NHL, as far as I can tell. I think he just said he didn't see the point in leaving home and being away from his family just to play in the CHL or the AHL. Which is really fine with me, honestly. I get that. I think he has two years left on his deal with SKA. Assuming he can crack that line-up next season, a couple of years on a premier KHL team isn't exactly the worst place he can develop. When his KHL deal is up, he'll likely be ready for the NHL anyway. At least you'd hope a top three pick is ready for the NHL after two post-draft seasons.

So I think Podkolzin's comments can really practically be boiled down to, "I have two years left with SKA. I'm not looking to get out of that deal. I'll sign my NHL ELC once my SKA contract is up." Which, to me, is pretty innocuous.
 
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rt said:
Podkolzin's comments are being sensationalized a bit. He basically said he's not interested in playing amateur or minor-pro hockey in North America. Basically, he's fine with continuing his development in Russia. He wasn't talking about the NHL, as far as I can tell. I think he just said he didn't see the point in leaving home and being away from his family just to play in the CHL or the AHL. Which is really fine with me, honestly. I get that. I think he has two years left on his deal with SKA. Assuming he can crack that line-up next season, a couple of years on a premier KHL team isn't exactly the worst place he can develop. When his KHL deal is up, he'll likely be ready for the NHL anyway. At least you'd hope a top three pick is ready for the NHL after two post-draft seasons.

So I think Podkolzin's comments can really practically be boiled down to, "I have two years left with SKA. I'm not looking to get out of that deal. I'll sign my NHL ELC once my SKA contract is up." Which, to me, is pretty innocuous.
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Yes, unless you're a team he doesn't want to go to and just continues his career in the KHL until his rights are traded to a team he wants to play for. I'm just saying it's too big of a risk to select him if by some miracle actually get into the top 3.
 
ctwin22 said:
Yes, unless you're a team he doesn't want to go to and just continues his career in the KHL until his rights are traded to a team he wants to play for. I'm just saying it's too big of a risk to select him if by some miracle actually get into the top 3.
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There is very little precedent for a Russian player being highly coveted by the team that owns their rights and they refuse to play for that team. There is Kuznetsov early in his career for Washington. Then there is Tryamkin more recently for Vancouver. Beyond that, there's nothing much to speak of:

1st and 2nd Round Russians:
1. 2014 - Scherbak(1), Goldobin(1), Barbashev(2), Kamenev(2), Letunov(2)
2. 2013 - (!)Nichushkin(1), Zadorov(1), Zykov(2)
3. 2012 - Yakupov(1), *Grigorenko(1), Vasilevsky(1)
4. 2011 - Namestnikov(1), *Khokhlachev(2), Jaskin(2), Kucherov(2)
5. 2010 - (!)Burmistrov(1), (1)Tarasenko, (!)Kuznetsov(1),
6. 2009 - Kulikov(1), Orlov(1)
7. 2008 - Filatov(1), Voynov(1), Kugryshev(2)
8. 2007 - Cherepanov(RIP), *Bashkirov(2)
* = NHL team did not offer contract
! = Possible "Russian Factor" issue

I'd put Burmistrov in a similar boat as Nichushkin. Mutual unhappiness between player and team.

2008 is interesting. Filatov was a straight bust. Voynov beat up his girlfriend and got kicked out of the country. Kurgyshev ended up in the ECHL and ended up leaving which is fine.

For me, Tryamkin and Kuznetsov are the only examples there that I'd worry about. I don't personally find this to be a particularly big deal. These Russians tend to head home when it starts to become clear they won't be impact NHLers.

Boston Bruins: Remembering Alexander Khokhlachev – KHL Update

“Boston should make a decision with me,” Khokhlachev said. “I’ve waited for my chance already. Two years. I’m just still waiting. We’ll see. They should make a decision. Give me a chance, or I don’t know. We’ll see [what] they’ll do.”

Khokhlachev went as far as to say that he wouldn’t play in the AHL for his entire career. “This is my last year of my contract. I’m 22 already. If they don’t give me the chance to play, why am I here? I will not play in Providence all my life. They told me, ‘Just wait for your chance.’ I’m still waiting for it.” Khokhlachev said.

In Khokhlachev’s defense, the opportunity was never really granted. His minutes were inconsistent at best. When speaking of his games in the 2014-15 season, Khokhlachev expressed as much. “Well, I played two games and the third game I played two minutes. I don’t think that’s really a chance,” Khokhlachev said. “I played fourth-line — it doesn’t matter what line I play — but I don’t know if that’s really a chance if you play two games.”

In the end, Khokhlachev played out his contract and left for the KHL. The Bruins didn’t trade his rights, and though they still hold his rights, the mention of Khokhlachev has died down ever since. So what has Khokhlachev done since joining St. Petersburg SKA?
In short, Khokhlachev hasn’t done much in the KHL.
That's an older article and he's doing well in the KHL now, it seems. That's tough one. He put in three years at the AHL level and was never given/didn't quite earn a real shot in the NHL. It was five years after he was drafted.

I don't interpret the Russian factor as: "If I draft this Russian in the 1st round, and he fails to make the NHL for the next half-decade, he might go back to Russia and I lose him." Is the fear that you might not get a sixth year in N.America after the draft for his last shot of cracking the NHL roster finally? Isn't the KHL threat really very secondary at that point? The larger problem would be that five years had gone by and he still hadn't made the show.

The idea that you draft a kid you want to be on your team, he does really well and you really want him on your team, but because he’s Russian you can’t sign him and he stays in Russia is basically just an urban legend. The guys who stay in Russia seem not to be good enough to make it in the NHL anyway. The guys who go back to Russia are are almost always doing quite poorly in the NHL anyway. There’s no reason at all to be concerned about drafting Russian player.

^ that’s a bunch of stuff copy pasted from myself from an argument this time last year.
 
If we picked 3rd and our team does the due diligence, then I'd have no problem taking him. He's going to be an extremely dynamic player in the league and would improve our team greatly.
 
Although the name wasn't brought up as part of any deal or outlook on the player, would we consider trading for Nichushkin?

I feel like he has played himself out of the Stars organization altogether. Would something like a conditional 2020 3rd (turns into a 2nd if Nichushkin reaches a certain incentive and/or gets re-signed) do the trick?

I just wonder if we go with Galchenyuk and Nichushkin as our wings and then see if Stepan, Dvorak, or Schmaltz works well with them. There are worse ways to try and get something out of a player and putting two Russians on the same line may invoke some chemistry. Probably a long shot, but I would rather try picking up a player at the low point in his career and seeing if something can be improved there.
 
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Mosby said:
0 goals in 57 games. Is there anything there?
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Good point, but that's like how snake-bitten we have been for goals scored.

His possession numbers are still pretty good, and relative to his first few seasons with Dallas, his role has almost flip-flopped. He went from about a 53-54% offensive zone start to a 46-47% offensive zone start this year.

Seems like there are some elements that would intrigue us:
1. player with some discernible talent who is signed to a deal that probably prohibits some teams from going after him
2. next year, he will be on a deal for $3.2 M for the last year of his first RFA bridge deal. We send them a pick for some salary retainment and basically give Nichushkin a prove it year to him by coupling him with a country mate in Galchenyuk.

If he fails to produce, we minimized our risk by sending a low value pick and asked for retainment on salary to help. If he hits the mark of where he might have been (25-35 points), then we have a good year out of him at a small discount and have a choice to look at another $2.5 - 3.5 M AAV for his final RFA deal. If he goes off in this last year, he'll only have one year to base a massive bridge deal on, which means it is unlikely that he gets above $3.5 M AAV anyhow.
 
I'd be willing to take a flyer on Nichuskin. Low-risk, meh reward. He at least has some size at 6'4" and skates well. He's also not terrible defensively unlike most projects. So he's at worst another fourth-liner.
Not even pro-rating, only six forwards had more hits. He'd be ninth on blocked shots for forwards. Even counting this year, his career ppg only drops to .33 which would put him above Cousins, Archibald, Crouse, Fischer, et al performances this season. If you can get him back to 30 point territory or beyond, that'd be pretty solid.
 
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Can't imagine he's a consideration given his age (he was born 10 days after last year's draft cut-off date) but I hope we at least take a look at Raphael Lavoie. Huge C/RW who is having a great playoff with Halifax. 11 goals and 7 assists in 9 playoff games. First in Q playoff scoring. McKenzie had him at 14 in his latest ranking, which admittedly seems a tad high. Plus I love Halifax as a development program.
 
Mosby said:
Can't imagine he's a consideration given his age (he was born 10 days after last year's draft cut-off date) but I hope we at least take a look at Raphael Lavoie. Huge C/RW who is having a great playoff with Halifax. 11 goals and 7 assists in 9 playoff games. First in Q playoff scoring. McKenzie had him at 14 in his latest ranking, which admittedly seems a tad high. Plus I love Halifax as a development program.
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McMicheal or Lavoie? London’s system or Halifax’s?
 
I like McMichael a great deal. Always involved in the play. Quick thinker, quick decision maker, good hands in tight and under pressure. Good quickness. Executes reliably in the thick of the action.
 
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