Anyone having anxiety attacks over the roster, the players you’re likely upset about, will most likely be on the December roster.
But be prepared if they’re not.
The American depth is on par with Canada now. That’s a huge reason… but there is a bigger reason for a kid like Mazur being given so much respect, and even further, December’s team will likely have a couple more surprises to draft round watchers..
So even with it likely McGroarty, Gauthier, and Casey will be included in December, others may not be. In fact Casey might still be on the bubble too.
Still not everyone will be happy when 1st rounders (in the last two drafts) don’t make December’s team. There’s many 2003s who could have huge starts to their seasons and bump some highly drafted players..
There’s a big issue most fans don’t understand about the 2003s. You almost have to throw out draft status completely with them.
Just like Mazur being ridiculously downgraded (this team) by some because he wasn’t a first rounder, those same people will likely complain in December about a kid like Buium, who’s a lock for the team if it was made today. Savage too btw. Same as Mazur…. Buium came on really strong at the NCAA level in the second half, and in the college tournament last season. A far better league than the CHL and USHL.
People need to understand, there are a lot of 2nd and 3rd rounders who very well could’ve been 1st round picks in the last couple drafts, but specifically the 21’ draft.
Because of the Covid restrictions that limited scouting and games played, teams just didn’t have enough info on 2003 players. At least in most cases. Especially North American players. We’re already seeing it play out with a lot of 2003s. They barely played in their draft year. Look at Red Savage and Pasquale Zito. Two players who certainly wouldn’t have been drafted in the 4th or 6th round in re-drafts. Two more of Detroit 03’s btw, and there’s a reason it looks like they killed that draft.
Watch how many 1st round North American busts we end up with from 2021. Or at least, players who should’ve been drafted a lot lower. Same with players drafted in all rounds. The entire draft will be the strangest ever to look back on.
A kid like Buium for example, was just considered too raw but nobody argued about his skillset and talent. Just really didn’t know if he’d have to move to forward AND he was still drafted 36th overall, and is developing very, very nicely since the 21’ draft. A draft at this point that could ultimately go down as one of Detroit’s best ever the way it’s starting to look, and that says something with their history. Edvinsson, Cossa, Buium, Mazur, Savage, Nillson and Zito. Savage is another player who’s a lock for December’s team, and don’t count Zito off of Canada’s December team, or Nillson off Sweden’s.
Someone made a comment about this not being a NYR/Detroit show, but obviously doesn’t understand why. Those are just 2 teams of the 5-6 teams (Detroit, Carolina, Tampa, NYR and Dallas) who scout differently.
Look at all the crap Dallas took for taking Wyatt Johnson. Nobody is laughing today. Anaheim (Verbeek coming from Detroit and Tampa) too just contracted with like 20 guys in Ontario, Michigan, and BC.
They use the old Jimmy Devellano scouting method. They contract with a lot of old AAA coaches for most of their preliminary info. They don’t rely on Central Scouting services at all really. They may cross reference to see where a player might be drafted, because so many teams do rely on it, but they rely very little on those services, where most teams use these services and then narrow down their scouting to how those players rank.
So because of the Covid restrictions, those teams likely just had more info. Especially on North American kids in the 21’ draft. Central Scouting rankings were atrocious for that draft. Understandably so, because they so heavily rely on current draft year info to rank players. Where those 5 teams probably knew how the kid ate, his work ethic, tendencies, etc… at 15-16 years old, and were already very familiar with them.
So you likely had 25+ teams who rely on a lot of scouting service information, have Mazur ranked way lower than Detroit had him ranked. It would not be a stretch to think, if Detroit had let’s say the 29th and 30th overall, they may very well have drafted Buium and Mazur. They just simply had more in-depth info. Especially with Mazur coming out of the Detroit AAA system. So Draper himself, who was coaching those age groups, would’ve known Mazur since he was 12. Maybe younger. Savage since Bantam Minor.
So fans who put so much weight on a player’s draft status, draft year stats, etc, firstly, need to understand it’s not the same as it used to be due to depth, but with the 2003’s, they should disregard it altogether.
A 2nd, 3rd and even 4th round pick from the 2021 draft, could very well be better than your 2022 1st round pick. It’ll be interesting in 5 years, what the redrafts from 21’ will look like. We already know Wyatt Johnson, Shai Buium Red Savage and Mazur would have been drafted higher. There’s likely many more to come.
Enjoy the tournament but don’t for a minute think there’s some grand conspiracy regarding the roster.
