Prospect Info: 2025 Draft discussion

[SEALBound]

Ryabkin is exactly the kind of prospect I mean. He’s bounced around from the MHL to the KHL and his production has regressed considerably in his draft year.

If you want further evidence look at McGroaty and Brunicke. One was taken mid 1st and the other a mid 2nd, but they have similar value. Especially considering Brunicke is two years behind McGroaty.

Mid first round picks you get guys like Yager and McGroaty. Once you get past the elite talent guys it’s a crapshoot and the separation between the first and second rounds just aren’t as apparent as people think.

Last year was really interesting too but the consensus was "after 10ov or so...there is ZERO consensus". 1-10 were fairly set, order not withstanding. Then from 10 to 50, it was the same level of player with team lists varying wildly. If there's a draft where you see duds in the first, studs in the 2nd, and steals in the 3rd, it was the 2024 draft.

That incredibly dumb Pens PR Kobasew post in another thread reminded me to go back and look at some earlier drafts and man, it's kind of wild drafts like 2001 were where you have guys that are clear consensus top 5 picks (like Kovachoooooo and AGM of the Future, Jason Spezza) and all the draft write ups go on about how deep the draft is and then... you look at how they actually turned out and you realize that scouts and scouting organizations are snake oil salesmen.

Also, Kovchewwwwww (or Spezza for that matter) is such a great example of how you cannot simply build a franchise around a franchise quality player without all the other necessary organizational components and expect success.

Which is what I think they are doing now with McGroarty, Pickering, Brunicke, Blomqvist, Howe, maybe Koivunen and Pono. What you need is McKenna in 2026. Then by the time the old guard is retired and gone, you have a nice foundation of early 20s talent to build on.

Top 5 this year and 1st OV in 2026. That's the redemption arc. As you point out in your last line there, you need quality pieces to surround a franchise guy. We had that with Whit, Orpik, MAF, Army, Letang, and then added Malkin and Sid and later Staal. We need to get our Sid again and I think McKenna is the guy.

If we were looking at having a good piece or two already, I would say that's fine. But I'm worried they'll pick a player to give Sid a winger for the last year or so and we'll end up passing up a more logical piece for a rebuild.

Top 5 is roughly:

Hagen - center
Schaefer - dman
Misa - wing
Martone - wing
McQueen - wing/center

If we pick top 5, what's the "logical piece" that's not one of them?

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Nikolai Ehlers - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Blake Lizotte/Noel Acciari - Porter Martone
Philip Tomasino - Cody Glass/Ville Koivunen - Valtteri Puustinen
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby - Isak Lundeström - Rutger McGroarty

Jakob Chychrun - Erik Karlsson
Owen Pickering - Kris Letang
Ryan Graves - Neil Pionk
Sebastian Aho

Malkin for Wood and Colton (in march) ?

Too many foreign names for this club. But Neil Pionk is a pretty legit hockey name.

It's just fun to say. Pionk. Pionk.

I'd love having Lizotte/Acciari as the second line center.

 

[HandshakeLine]

I just think it’s nice when family members show up to promote their kin.