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Draft 2021 NHL Draft and Undrafted Free Agent Thread

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Boston is an older team and I have a lot of questions about their team going into next season. I don't think their middle 6 forward group is particularly strong--they have some good players--Krejci (if he can stay healthy), Debrusk and Coyle but other than that I don't know. Kase does not do a whole lot for me. Other things are who is going to replace Krug to run their powerplay from the blue line. McAvoy no doubt will get some of that. McAvoy is just an all around better player than Krug but Krug's offensive instincts are superior to McAvoy's IMO. Does Chara come back?--if he doesn't that's a leadership hole--and what about Rask?---will he play in a bubble if that's how the season begins? are the Bruins going to move on from him anyway? Losing Chara and Krug would be losing two very established vets in front of him. They're absolutely going to need to have guys take a step up this year. They're hoping Studnicka will be one of them but they're not really deep in prospects.

I can see the Bruins easily falling back this year. That could happen to the Pens, the Caps and the Islanders as well.
 
eco's bones said:
Boston is an older team and I have a lot of questions about their team going into next season. I don't think their middle 6 forward group is particularly strong--they have some good players--Krejci (if he can stay healthy), Debrusk and Coyle but other than that I don't know. Kase does not do a whole lot for me. Other things are who is going to replace Krug to run their powerplay from the blue line. McAvoy no doubt will get some of that. McAvoy is just an all around better player than Krug but Krug's offensive instincts are superior to McAvoy's IMO. Does Chara come back?--if he doesn't that's a leadership hole--and what about Rask?---will he play in a bubble if that's how the season begins? are the Bruins going to move on from him anyway? Losing Chara and Krug would be losing two very established vets in front of him. They're absolutely going to need to have guys take a step up this year. They're hoping Studnicka will be one of them but they're not really deep in prospects.

I can see the Bruins easily falling back this year. That could happen to the Pens, the Caps and the Islanders as well.
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And it can also happen to the Rangers who were carried in production by Panarin, Zibanejad and DeAngelo all having career years. It's rare enough for 1 to replicate a career year, but all 3? I don't see it
 
Amazing Kreiderman said:
And it can also happen to the Rangers who were carried in production by Panarin, Zibanejad and DeAngelo all having career years. It's rare enough for 1 to replicate a career year, but all 3? I don't see it
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Panarin to me is a catalyst player and the more talent you surround him with the more likely he's going to produce. Having him on a separate line from Zibanejad gives us pretty much what amounts to two first lines. Putting those two on the power play together with the other talent of Fox or DeAngelo running it from the point and Kreider with net front presence--it's like having the personnel in place to play off each other--if Kakko improves and Lafreniere also is a factor the Rangers should have a pretty deadly power play. Guys like Chytil, Buchnevich and Strome are good support players too. I don't see offense being an issue and if anything I expect we'll have better goaltending. How well the Rangers defend is going to be the biggest question and putting together a cohesive bottom 6 and decent penalty kill are also questions.
 
Amazing Kreiderman said:
And it can also happen to the Rangers who were carried in production by Panarin, Zibanejad and DeAngelo all having career years. It's rare enough for 1 to replicate a career year, but all 3? I don't see it
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Depends on how often or if they decide to go with 7 and 11. You rack up the shifts, especially if Zibs, Bread and Alexis are on three different lines. I think the team overall is going to end up playing a more structured game in the defensive zone. The Rangers were very good in the neutral zone and the offensive zone last year where you saw a lot of creativity and skill.

But I see less pressure in the neutral zone, especially if teams do what CAR did and chip the puck into an open area if the Rangers pressured and created a race. All depends on how the system unfolds. There are some pretty innovative teams out there when it comes to set plays across all three zones. With Jacques coming in and the team being as young as it is, I am looking more towards team evolution rather than having just 3 big scorers. Would be great to have three offensive predators out there almost every shift with Fox and DeAngelo as an additional playmaker.
 
eco's bones said:
Panarin to me is a catalyst player and the more talent you surround him with the more likely he's going to produce. Having him on a separate line from Zibanejad gives us pretty much what amounts to two first lines. Putting those two on the power play together with the other talent of Fox or DeAngelo running it from the point and Kreider with net front presence--it's like having the personnel in place to play off each other--if Kakko improves and Lafreniere also is a factor the Rangers should have a pretty deadly power play. Guys like Chytil, Buchnevich and Strome are good support players too. I don't see offense being an issue and if anything I expect we'll have better goaltending. How well the Rangers defend is going to be the biggest question and putting together a cohesive bottom 6 and decent penalty kill are also questions.
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If a combination of LAF, Chytil, Kakko/Gauthier can essentially provide the depth level threat that Pouliet-Brassard-Zuccarello gave us in 2014 that would really solidify the roster and put us firmly in the playoff hunt.
 
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Ghost of jas said:
Career year or establishing a new norm?
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With Panarin, I would feel comfortable saying it's 50-50 he replicates since he's elite.

Zibanejad and DeAngelo are far more likely to be one-hit wonders. Zibanejad was 2nd in the league in G/GP (All praise Morgan Geekie haha). DeAngelo top-5 in points among D-men.

Are we really banking on them replicating those career years? And if they do, that still does not make us better. We need THAT to happen, AND improve in other areas.
 
eco's bones said:
I don't see offense being an issue and if anything I expect we'll have better goaltending. How well the Rangers defend is going to be the biggest question and putting together a cohesive bottom 6 and decent penalty kill are also questions.
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This is more or less where I'm at with the current roster.

I think they'll get their points, I think barring a key injury they'll be pretty balanced through their top six, on the right side of their defense and in goal.

I see the challenge being the left defense, the bottom six forwards, and special teams --- with a particular focus on the PK. I think center is a wildcard position with some question marks that could have a big impact --- in both a positive or negative way.

There are a lot of intriguing individual parts, but the question is how they all work together and how those individuals perform in their respective roles. Sometimes having three LWs capable of playing in a first or second line role works out great. Sometimes it doesn't.

This is a bubble team.

Right now I think if everyone is healthy, the veterans more or less maintain, and some young talent take their next steps forward, this team can make the playoffs by finishing 17 or 18th in the league.

If there's a key injury, or they get off to a slow start, or we see one or two guys come back down to earth, the bubble probably bursts the other way and they finish closer to 13th or 14th in the league.
 
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n8 said:
If a combination of LAF, Chytil, Kakko/Gauthier can essentially provide the depth level threat that Pouliet-Brassard-Zuccarello gave us in 2014 that would really solidify the roster and put us firmly in the playoff hunt.
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I would want Chytil, Kakko and Gauthier's two way games to be a lot more dependable than they are now. The closest to that of those three is Chytil. The two bottom lines IMO should at least give us 4 penalty killing forwards.
 
Edge said:
This is more or less where I'm at with the current roster.

I think they'll get their points, I think barring a key injury they'll be pretty balanced through their top six, on the right side of their defense and in goal.

I see the challenge being the left defense, the bottom six forwards, and special teams --- with a particular focus on the PK. I think center is a wildcard position with some question marks that could have a big impact --- in both a positive or negative way.

There are a lot of intriguing individual parts, but the question is how they all work together and how those individuals perform in their respective roles. Sometimes having three LWs capable of playing in a first or second line role works out great. Sometimes it doesn't.

This is a bubble team.

Right now I think if everyone is healthy, the veterans more or less maintain, and some young talent take their next steps forward, this team can make the playoffs by finishing 17 or 18th in the league.

If there's a key injury, or they get off to a slow start, or we see one or two guys come back down to earth, the bubble probably bursts the other way and they finish closer to 13th or 14th in the league.
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Most other teams have issues too. Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington and the Islanders are all carrying a lot of age. They're not really teams that are on the way up. They're teams that are trying to maintain where they are and the clock has been ticking on that for some time. With a flat cap for the next 3 (maybe 4) years---IMO that will make it a lot more difficult for them to try to replicate what we did a couple/three years ago. Over those next 3 years I could see two, three or all of those teams start falling apart. To me it's only a matter of when and us and the Hurricanes and the Flyers are pretty much the teams that will be taking most advantage of that. Maybe the Devils too.
 
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Edge said:
Also a note from a while back, which was prior to McKenzie's article, the Rangers were higher on Beniers than Johnson.

I have a feeling that Beniers is going to be pretty high on the Rangers list all season. I don't think they'll be in a position to nab him, but he strikes me as someone their people will continue to really like.
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Going to need to be real high to pick him. Him and Hughes are my early favorites.
 
Savant said:
Going to need to be real high to pick him. Him and Hughes are my early favorites.
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Unfortunately, this is correct. If you're eyeing one of the stud centers, you're likely going to have to get fairly high.

Right now, on a preliminary level, I am eyeing that 12/13 spot as potentially being the drop point.

And within that top 12/13, I'm currently thinking there's a bit of split around the 6/7 spot.
 
Oscar Lindberg said:
If they’re planning to start 2021-2022 on time, how would a December 2021 draft work?
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If they went down that route, you might have a scenario where players are only eligible to join an NHL club after the mid-point or mid-season break, or quite possibly the playoffs, if at all.
 
Edge said:
If they went down that route, you might have a scenario where players are only eligible to join an NHL club after the mid-point or mid-season break, or quite possibly the playoffs, if at all.
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That doesn’t sound ideal haha
 
Or they move to a January start date for seasons. IMO the NHL stands to make a lot more money and grow the game by gaining crossover fans from college and pro football.
 
Mikos87 said:
Or they move to a January start date for seasons. IMO the NHL stands to make a lot more money and grow the game by gaining crossover fans from college and pro football.
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And have a few shortened seasons? Or push the playoffs back into the summer? Because neither of those seem like something the NHL would want to do for fans that could crossover half way through the season anyway, or even at the beginning because college and NFL games are just Saturday's and Sunday's. I think the NHLs best bet to get those fans is to finally do a better job selling their product
 
Edge said:
If they went down that route, you might have a scenario where players are only eligible to join an NHL club after the mid-point or mid-season break, or quite possibly the playoffs, if at all.
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They would have to re-negotiate with the IIHF to change the deadline of the transfer agreement, which is August 15th.
 
The nhl can’t figure out how to announce the start of training camp. There is no way they can figure out the logistics of moving the draft

It’s going to be a weird draft with so much unknown and in a few years you might find steals all over cause teams couldn’t scout normal. But all teams are in the same situation so it’s still fair.

the nhl should use the unknown to generate excitement. Fans of playoff teams that care less about the draft cause they are picking later can now end up with top talent
 
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