I would certainly put a premium on being a good defensive player over his offensive output.
lol should have gone with close to mid teens like I did. See 13 to me is close to mid teens; 15 is even closer. Not everyone will agree. But even that drew some play on words argument. There is nothing wrong with ranking players they way you see them and for reasons you have to rank them that way. Don't expect agreement .. People get emotional over prospects, get blinders on when they decide to like them, defend their position and some attack because you may point things out that they overlooked or disagree with. The Sens scouts ticked some boxes very important to them on Yakemchuk. RD, Big, physical, put up points. They probably had mobile too. That was enough for them. Its likely enough for many vocal supporters. One of the Sens top guys publicly proclaimed his skating to be elite. So he is now a 7th overall that went ahead of all defensemen not named Levshunov and he has elite skating.
Yah that makes 10. #1 ranked D Levshunov 4 Silayev 4 Parekh 2. (These people don't watch the games) amirite?
I guess but it feels like everyone outside of the Sens Org(and Pronman, lol) is critical of Yakemchuk's skating.
With the bolded happening as McDavid is putting up historic numbers in the reg/post season.
Catton was also voted ahead. We could have potentially passed over a Canadian Stutzle.
I liked Bouchard in his draft year and I argued at length for him being the top D target for our beloved Sens. But saying that, I think his exceptional processing ability and status as a special thinker wouldn't be given the same hype if he was in a different context, where he wasn't playing with two generational forwards. Hyman is great player, but he didn't hit 30 until he started playing with the Edmonton Oilers. His previous high was 21 goals before arriving Edmonton, where he was miraculously turned into a 50 goal scorers at like 32 . Does he even score 30 in Ottawa? How many goals would Brady have playing with McDavid, 55 or more? I would not be surprised.
They aren't biased against Ottawa, they just don't know anything that isn't spoon fed to them. They look at stats and what people are talking about and pick based on that; the Senators get no coverage from anyone outside of the market, so most people have no clue.
Yakemchuk thinks the game quite well (not as good as Bouchard), but has much better physical tools (i.e. bigger, taller, stronger and possibly faster in a straight-line), better stick-handling and plays with a greater level of compete/nastiness that will serve him well in the defensive zone - not that weird aloofness that Bouchard plays with at times. Bouchard measured at 6'2 at the 2018 combine, so his 6'3 listing now may be a little suspect, but players do grow after their draft year and I believe Yakemchuk will be closer to 6'4 when all said and done. Late growth spurts are apparently a thing in his family. Brady was 6'3 at the combine, but now is apparently 6'4, which I do believe because he looks massive out there. Yakemchuk, look at his brother Connor, has a much more projectable frame than Bouchard and should be about 15 to 20 pounds heavier.
Whole new coaching staff and the usual junior cycle of improvement.
Don't think Yak will be effected by that, he should hit the ground running regardless of what team he's on
I remember Hawgood stepping into the Bruins during the playoffs and looking like a player.
Brennan was an oaf who pissed all over that pick to begin with but watching Karlsson you knew he would always be the best skater on the ice and his explosiveness was going to be game changing.
I honestly don't remember much about Phaneuf from his draft year, his stats from his draft year don't jump off the page, so I'm not how well the comp lines up but if he turns into Phaneuf that's a damn solid pick imo
