Guadana
Registered User
Carolina vs Devils draft is baffling to me.Ustinkov went undrafted, which is baffling to me.
Carolina vs Devils draft is baffling to me.Ustinkov went undrafted, which is baffling to me.
I think the NJ Russian scouting is just as good as Carolina's, but Carolina is smart enough to listen to the Russian scouts again and again and keep dipping into the same well. I think the Devils want to give all their scouts "a guy".Carolina vs Devils draft is baffling to me.
They literally drafted all of my guys who were high on my depth list. And even all of my guys who were in the middle of my depth list.I think the NJ Russian scouting is just as good as Carolina's, but Carolina is smart enough to listen to the Russian scouts again and again and keep dipping into the same well. I think the Devils want to give all their scouts "a guy".
The Devils would have been better off -- far, far better off -- taking "best available Russian" with every pick this year than with the players they actually drafted.
Must be the name.Ustinkov went undrafted, which is baffling to me.
The Silayev pick was great. The Yegorov pick is also easy to defend, as he is a goaltender with visible upside. Pikkarainen and Traff were solid picks taken too early. Graham was maybe the dumbest Devils pick in the past decade. Louhivaara we will have to wait and see. Melovsky was a decent chance to take but poor asset management.Drafting grinders is stupid and I hate basically everything we did this weekend. Fitz has done a lot of good but his drafting is approaching late Lou levels. It's getting unforgivable. You never draft for need. You always draft the most talented BPA. You can always find depth in FA. It's almost impossible to find high end talent in FA. And if any of those highly talented players hit but you don't need them, you have a way more valuable trade chip than some guy who might hit people on your 4th line. I wonder, would Fitz rather have Bratt, or some 4th line grinder with that 6th round pick?
Just an assinie draft strategy.
Thank you. Succinctly put and well reasoned. And added to the questions about Fitz’s two trades today, raises some troubling questions about the performance of our front office. It seems we could have done markedly better.The Silayev pick was great. The Yegorov pick is also easy to defend, as he is a goaltender with visible upside. Pikkarainen and Traff were solid picks taken too early. Graham was maybe the dumbest Devils pick in the past decade. Louhivaara we will have to wait and see. Melovsky was a decent chance to take but poor asset management.
To me this entire draft would be amazing if just one of the 3rd-round-and-later picks were a home run swing. Why not Shuravin instead of one of Pikkarainen and Traff, who are very similar players at the same RW position? Why not Poirier, Misa, Krutov or Kol instead of Graham?
To me, it's bit myopic. It's a problem which sorely needs to be fixed going forwards. From the 3rd round on, division rival Carolina got two potential top 6 Fs (Poirier, Krutov) and one potential top-4 D (Kol). The Devils got a lot of guys likely to throw a lot of hits in the AHL and a lottery ticket on a goaltender.
Did the Devils still gain on Carolina? Yes, because they got a potential all-world defender in Anton Silayev at #10 overall, while Carolina lacked an early pick. But Carolina blew us away depth-wise, getting two late-1st round values in the 2nd round (Badinka, Artamonov) and swinging for the fences multiple times in the later round. Next year, the Devils will not have a 1st round pick at all, and they cannot afford to mismanage and/or throw away a handful of mid-to-late round picks.
Next year, the Devils will not have a 1st round pick at all, and they cannot afford to mismanage and/or throw away a handful of mid-to-late round picks.
Kevin He is without doubt one of my big steals of the 2024 draft. Plays with a ton of pace and energy and checks every offensive skill across the board. He's smart and physical and offers great size and the ability to play an interior game. He's strong in transition and a very impressive finisher.View attachment 889829
"Congrats Kevin, no pressure but I did draft you in my fantasy league last week."
That got a laugh from him. Winnipeg had a jersey with a sewn nameplate ready for him, so they must have liked him.