I'd say the distinction would be when they go out after the draft and day they picked a guy based on a factor that wouldn't have anything to do with being BPA. E.g. centerman for Kotkaniemi, big for McCarron.
I mean on Bob's list, Kotkaniemi was at 5 behind Zadina at 3 and Tkachuk at 4. He was in the mix for anyone at that spot, it isn't like they passed on Andrei Svechnikov at 2 who was consensus BPA there. McCarron absolutely, he was a projected mid 2nd rounder.
"The No. 5 spot on TSN’s final rankings goes to Finnish centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who was No. 19 on the mid-season rankings and No. 10 on the draft lottery edition rankings. His strong performance at the World Under-18 Championships in April has vaulted him into the top five and provided this draft with something that it seemed to be missing all season long — a potential No. 1 centre."
Gallagher has no skill whatsoever. No shot, no speed, no puck handling, no playmaking ability. All he does (and he does it reaaaally well) is crash the net.
Iginla does know how to dangle, is great at puck possession, is a good skater and has IQ.
The only thing he and Gallagher have in common is their love for driving the net.
the sum of all of this makes Iginla a freaking interesting prospect and I would be incredibly happy if we picked him.
I think that's pretty unfair. The prime Gallagher was a good player, he could score from the hashmarks, he was involved in the play.
Iginla has some dangles, sure, but he exposes the puck a lot in the middle of the ice and got routinely stripped of it against PG and in the U18s. Puck possession was great for Gallagher too.
I'm just using Gallagher as an example, you're not gonna find two players who overlay one another perfectly. What I'm saying is, is that, if his playmaking game and handle game doesn't improve then that's really what you are going to get, a shoot first/only guy who tries to get to the front of the net on the majority of his puck touches.
Not one bona fide C after Celebrini in that lot? To think that 4 Cs came off the board in last year’s draft and Habs fell just short.
We’re lacking in top 6 forwards and are porous at center and Dach is not a sure thing — where are they going to find a top 6 center if they keep getting trumped at the draft? It’s the toughest position to fill in hockey and teams that have cost controlled Cs are almost never making them available.
I get how we’re not drafting for need with a top pick which is why I wouldn’t be taken aback if the BPA were a D and then we could use one of our D (not Harris, Barron but someone that will hurt to trade) to land that coveted top 6 C. If the pick is a winger, then it might turn into a whole other trading scenario.
Unless Lindstrom is their BPA and the org believes he can be a C at the NHL level — and even at that, several things would need to line up for that to even happen.
Not a great time to get clarity.
However, it begs the question as to why we’re not seeing much more in depth analysis about how likely players who play center in the minors, are likely to remain centers at the NHL level and whether someone is conducting this exercise in anticipation of every draft. Maybe paywall articles or one of the annual draft guides? Seems to me that this is material info and it’s not getting enough attention.
There's no surefire center after Celebrini in the top 10 of the draft, Helenius has similar questions. I think you'd have to go down to Luchanko and Beaudoin to find a 1st round center, they're gonna get over drafted because of that too, imo.
I'm not sure that drafting a D with the intention of moving them for a center is going to pay off long term either. Like other than Seth Jones for Johansen and more recently Byram for Mittelstadt, that's the only two cases over the last what 15 years?
Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen Iginla complete a pass. Bust, DND.
I saw him miss a lot of very slam dunkish passes for scoring opportunities. Enough of a frequency for me to question that part of his game.
Again, these are my ? marks, the exercise should always be are these ? things we can see being fixed and if they can't be, can we live with the player with that question mark?
