Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
With most people at home (from what I hear) I hope I can encourage you to watch as many dedicated positional videos of the players that you would like to see us select in this coming draft. You may have to look for them but they are out there. I wouldn't recommend highlight reals for the obvious reasons and try to find scouting footage or full games if possible. I think that if people would spend some time doing this (a luxury for sure) that people would have a different opinion of some of the top ranked kids. Like I said when we drafted Tuebert "this is going to be a massive mistake". Button referred to Colton as a Chris Pronger but meaner. We all make mistakes, I know I do when covering the minor leagues every year but there are a few major pundits every year that just seem to get things a bit wrong but keep there jobs anyways. Meh I guess.
Drysdale can really skate but he isn't a comparable to Doughty on any level. The two seasons before DD's NHL draft an argument could be made that he was one of the top ten Dmen in the world. He was so ahead of the play mentally and so physically skilled that there wasn't anyone that I would say was even close to his level of skill anywhere else in the world with the exception of very few NHL'ers. I said it then and would say it still today, I would have taken DD over Stamkos all day every day without hesitation. I was truly stressed out that TB might have taken DD first. Even with all the "welcome to Tampa Steven" billboards.
I would say that a solid comparison to Drysdale providing he pans out would be more of a Josi type. Maybe an Erik Karlson type with less O and more D if he really hits his projections spot on. I see him as a Visnovsky clone and that is all the reason that you would ever need to draft him of course but IF he pans out I will be surprised if he makes it as a #1D or at least not for 7 or 8 years down the road. I hope he does it with us and even have him as my 4rth choice out of this years draft but my expectations of him are less than some.
I think that you could put Laffy/Stutzle and Rossi all in the equally talented category for sniping O types and DD as the best Dman from this years draft (although)....
We have several highly skilled young players who could give us one of the best Kings lineups since the mid 80's (Luc JimmyC Bernie Wells Duesch etc). We are well on our way to having a seriously solid foundation for the future already.
Out of Byfeld or Stutzle I would take Stutzle all every time. To me Byfeld has an even chance of ending up a 3rd liner as he does a top 6 forward. When he plays his game he is very solid but there are games where just doesn't do it and with his size at his level of play he should be in the argument for first overall. I think Stutzle goes 2nd and Drysdale goes 3rd then it will come down to Rossi and Byfeld with QB getting the edge. I would love and I mean love to see us land Rossi, that kid is all hustle and hands. A Panarin with more two way to his game. Out of Rossi and QB I would take Rossi only because of his compete level. If we are lucky enough to nab QB then that would be great and I hope to be proven wrong and that he becomes a hard working 2nd line C for us and plays for years wearing the crown. There is an element of size queen to the people that are all ramped up on him and I think that the game and league are changing (have changed) enough to where we will see more and more Joe Sakic types making their marks in the game.
I don't think that Raymond is going to be the monster that many think he will be at the NHL level. A very skilled solid player no doubt who would be a good add but I am not entirely sold on his being able to become an entirely different player then he has been up to this point. One scout recently said that Raymond is a step below Kakko but only just. If that is the case then he (LR) would be worth the risk but if not he should still be a serviceable 3rd liner. I will put my mocking draft up tomorrow. I hope others will do so here too.
I'm huge on Rossi too. I'm glad we can agree on that one!
I think with Byfield the consistency is something that comes with time. He's insanely young. Guy is gonna be bigger than Kopitar, but faster. I don't really see the size queen thing because he doesn't hit much, and like I said above, I feel like people (not you in particular) are 'punishing' him for his size while giving other guys the boost for it being a 'smaller man's league' now--I don't buy that anyway but Byfield plays that kind of game already anyway. That's why I keep going back to the Wheeler comparison, I can't think of any other similarly huge, great skaters that actually have hands to go with them. It seems as if a lot of people are treating Byfield as if he's big so he must be a plodder or a power forward instead of a skilled player like Stutzle when I just can't agree with that.
But I guess that's the rub, he leaves you wanting more. When he's on, he's Malkin. When he's not, he's Brock Nelson. IMO he's got higher upside than anyone in the class but he's less likely to reach it. If he gets the consistency down and is assertive/aggressive night after night AND starts really drilling people there's really not a player in the NHL like him, shades of Lindros.
My top picks for us in particular at this point would be 1. Lafreniere 2. Byfield 3. Stutzle (but I'll flipflop those two every day, it's a tough call) 4. Rossi 5. Drysdale 6. Raymond 7. Perfetti then I'd say Holtz.
Edit: 8:35 of this video shows his hands off a bit.
Edit Edit lol the more I watch this guys videos the more I realize I agree heavily with him