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GDT: 2024 NHL Draft (June 28 - June 29, Las Vegas Sphere)

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Marshall said:
Having trouble seeing it.
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I think they think they're getting a foundational bottom six center. And that's possible. For a team in their competitive situation it kinda makes sense, though you'd also have to think that rather quickly they'll be back in cap hell once the McDrai extensions kick in. At that point, yeah, you'd probably want more upside.
 
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Jags said:
I'm baffled by the reaction to this pick. I watch an off-the-charts stupid amount of hockey, and Parascak was a real standout. A big thing to look for in a top prospect is how they adapt to their next levels. So since there was such a strong negative reaction from posters here and many of those posts included comments like "Who's THAT guy?" I'm assuming that by now you've read up on him.

Putting up the numbers he did as a rookie is pretty unheard of. That'll be in a lot of the "expert" blurbs written about him. What they'll miss because most of them don't actually watch these kids play is that Parascak THOUGHT his way to the top of the next level. A rookie without the physical skills to suggest he'll excel big at the next level got to the very top in his rookie year by being smarter than everyone else.

Elite hockey sense, and the knocks on his skating are mostly nonsense. There's bad mechanics and then there's stride, and the knock is on his stride. He's a strong skater, but it ain't pretty. It's fixable. A total non-issue. Yes, he plays with talent on a team that scores, but he's definitely not a passenger. He's a catalyst.

His size is a question, but that's true of damn near everyone at this age. Almost every prospect after the first dozen or so each year are gambles in one way or another. Taking a guy that has one of the best brains in the draft and very few overall weaknesses to his game isn't a bad call. The bad reaction from most fans has to be about those rankings and prediction models, because I don't believe for a second that most Caps fans have ever seen any of these kids play more than a couple times at most.

Internet pre-draft lists and rankings aren't all that meaningful.

The best people qualified to make a list at all are NHL scouts and execs. People from other leagues are biased, pundits don't know shit because they rightfully spend all of their time covering the only league most people care about, and all the prognostication sites with their "expert rankings" are mostly horseshit but at least less biased.

This is why I don't get too involved in pre-draft discussions, because most people on the street and in forums are operating off rankings I don't believe in without seeing any players actually play. I see tons of these guys play, have lots of feelings about how good I think they are, but find it impossible to weigh a standout in this league versus that one.

So on draft day you have to trust your team's staff, for better or worse. There are 31 other staffs, but they don't share info, so your scout team is a lot like your actual NHL team that way. About a dozen respectable news outlets put out "expert" rankings, and none of them have a scintilla of the first-person insight NHL scout teams do. I'm sure they have access to scouts off the record, but those people are at least equally interested in delivering misinformation to reporters as they are good information. All other info comes from hugely biased and mostly secondhand sources.

So we're all just along for the ride. I GREATLY appreciate people in forums like this that appear to also do the deep dive on young players, whether it's for their exhaustive knowledge and honest interpretive insight, gathering and distilling stats and opinions so I don't have to, or just the knowledge with unfiltered opinions, whether I agree or not.

Having free access to a resource like this forum makes me feel better about watching way more hockey than is probably healthy. Let them do the work. ;)

Thanks for making draft days better, HFCaps...
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Great post by the way.

Maybe they reached a bit, but we’ve hit on some guys with these mid to late firsts.

As an aside, I knew nothing about Prince George before last night. Would love to make it there some day to watch a hockey game.
 
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At 52 or in a trade up scenario I'm not sure I'd pick a winger unless they have a first round grade on them. That's entirely possible but...there are a lot of defensemen in this class: Hutson, Mews, Pulkkinen, Elick, Shuravin, Kiviharju, Freij, Sahlin Wallenius, Badinka, Fischer, Skahan, Kleber. That would be my inclination.

Of my top 20 still available I have ten forwards (with just one center), nine defensemen and a goalie. But the top four and four of the top five are forwards that I wouldn't expect to slide too far. So if they stay put it seems like more of a D range unless there happens to be an earlier run.
 
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pman25 said:
From Scott Wheeler -

Pick No. 17: Terik Parascak
My ranking: No. 20

“ ... Those I spoke with about the pick expected the Capitals to take a defenseman, given the lack of draft capital they’ve spent there over the last several years, but I wonder if Jiricek going to St. Louis changed the calculus.“
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I suspect this is very likely what happened. I specifically noticed the jersey that gave Parascak had #24 but no name.

I also suspect Parascak was next on their list and either hoped he'd be at 52 or maybe they were considering a move up to get him in the 2nd.

I like the kid. I get how much we like Hockey IQ. I get how we have had succes helping prospects improve skating and strength. I also believe they have looked hard at him and are really just sticking to their list.

Now I hope we can get a bunch of big, mean, strong, agile D prospects today...
 
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For today I'll repost what I put in the other Draft thread a few days ago (day two part):

2nd pick: (if we trade for, or trade up): any of Pulkkinen / Emery / Badinka / Letourneau

52. Shuravin or Skahan

82: Gill / Ralph

83: Best Available Goalie

90: Protas!

114: Lavoie / Roberts / Kol

146 : trade chip

178: random French Goalie
 
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ArmadilloThumb said:
For today I'll repost what I put in the other Draft thread a few days ago (day two part):

2nd pick: (if we trade for, or trade up): any of Pulkkinen / Emery / Badinka / Letourneau

52. Shuravin or Skahan

82: Gill / Ralph

83: Best Available Goalie

90: Protas!

114: Lavoie / Roberts / Kol

146 : trade chip

178: random French Goalie
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Emery and Letourneau have already been selected.

My bad, seeing this is a repost.
 
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