Something that stayed with me a while back was an HF thread ranking top center/forward and top defenseman prospects for each team. This was two seasons ago and I believe the top three were Zegras/Drysdale, Stutzle/Sanderson and Raymond/Seider (they were being a bit light on prospect qualifications). I remember immediately thinking we need to have a similar combo and immediately wished we had taken Mateychuk.
I guess we finally have this in Cooley/Simashev. Time will tell how this combo ranks but there is part of me that is happy that we aren't going into our third draft of BA's rebuild without having what should be our top defenseman. So as much as I wanted to wait until the 24 draft, I am happy have used a top 10 pick on a defenseman.
I was never a huge fan of Reinbacher, I always felt like I was putting higher on lists just because was a defenseman (I believe I voted for him at 9 in our little poll and he was 10th on my list). But going into the draft I had already convinced myself that if we took him at 6 I would be alright with it just because of our lack of top end defensive prospects. I have the same rational for Vrabal, I don't like using a 1st or 2nd on a goalie but because of our lack of top end goalie prospects Im happy to finally have a stud in our stable.
After the initial shock of drafting Simashev and obviously trying to justify it with my very Coyotes friendly bias, I'm glad we took the grand slam approach with our first defenseman drafted in the top 15. I can honestly say I would be more disappointed had we drafted Reinbacher at 6 instead of Simashev. More risks absolutely, and I still would have preferred Leonard, but I'm starting to like this pick more than going Dvorsky.
This kid is humongous and his skating is top notch. He has all the traits of a top defenseman besides his offense which I believe is more a product of being in the KHL and is something that is much easier to learn than his natural traits.
I selfishly wish he would be able to play some big stage games like WJC just because I'd like to see him skyrocket on redraft and talking heads lists. But after researching him more I'm not too concerned of him not improving his stock considerably next season.
I don't know how to say this in a more worldly manner but he also seems very "western" for a young Russian so I'm also not so concerned about him coming over. But actually worries me a bit more, especially seeing the Fedotov contract, but again maybe that's a big reason why we grabbed both.
I'm not ready to put him at #2 on our prospects list and not sure he would crack my top 5 of under 24 list. But he's the type of player that if he shows signs of putting it all together he will fly up both lists.
Exciting prospect for sure. The uneasy feeling we all have is going into the uncharted (aka Russia) territory.
(This is another late night ramble because I can't sleep by Grimes)