More than half the teams surveyed by the retired ‘insider’ had picked Slaf as their number one. When the close majority of teams pick you instead of the others, it means that the others ARE the gamble. Not you.
Was he my choice? No. I had believed the Wright hype, even though all of the year’s showcase games had disappointed me. I even expressed discontent at the posters amd McScagg who were pimping this lanky feller.
Well, if 50%+ of teams thought he was the least troublesome pick, then I have to rally, and that’s what I did.
The Ds you are talking about? Well, they have shown squat as of today. In fact, you could argue that the best 18 year old at camp in the league was Beck.
I really don't concern myself with what Bob's friends said. It was a coinflip between two flawed players. I think Slaf is more rare, and has more appreciable upside than Wright but he also has more bust-potential. My own conservatism informed me that Wright was the better choice for 1OA despite Wright's own downsides (which, imo, are more easily remedied than teaching the lanky guy to play hockey). If not Wright than the other players whom I can't comment on so readily at this time as I haven't thought about them since the draft.
Nobody has shown
anything so far, I'm not talking about today -- I'm clearly talking about my general impression of this past draft. It's perfectly fine to disagree with me (hell, many do) but it's silly to pretend Slaf isn't a huge swing for the fences. The guy had 10 points total in his main league play ffs. He couldn't put up more than 0.39 ppg in Liiga for heaven's sake, and he was like one of the biggest players in the entire league. Everybody is tired of hearing it but they won't accept the basic fact: this is a huge red flag and nothing he's shown since the draft has done a single thing to encourage anybody that he knows how to produce or is capable of doing so.
That means if you want his success you want him to learn how to put up points and make plays in an effective manner. To the Habs Organisation: Good luck teaching him with 9min TOI after you rush him to the NHL so he can learn the north-south game from
Brendan Gallagher.
I completely disagree with the bolded part. He definitely doesn't have the lowest floor of these guys. He is the best of the class as of today 18 October 2022. Only he and Wright have played in the NHL. He is the only one of the lot that can be debated as "NHL ready" even though there is admittedly no consensus in this regard. With the other prospects there is no such debate though.
What evidence do you have to support your claim? Are there any scouts who have said something to that effect?
Well we disagree. I think his floor is lower and bustier than others. He's a playmaker big guy who can't make plays in a game setting at this time. Either they change his game to be a crash and banger or he learns how to make plays, both are huge asks. And no, I don't think he was NHL ready and nothing he's done since these four games says he's NHL ready. He's NHL rushed is what he is.
To be fair to Slaf, he is a fast learner and I've seen him develop confidence before my very eyes on a game-by-game basis. Maybe he'll click in 20 games, maybe in 30, maybe in 10. I have no clue. Maybe it'll take another season. Everybody develops differently. But the longer it takes the higher the chances of it failing at some point. So I'd rather he be in a place where he can produce big time from the get go.
