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2025 DRAFT Thread

Klimovich is the posterchild for not taking toolsy skill with questionable hockey IQ and compete. Pro coaches will not let you attempt a fraction of the shit you tried to do in junior.
 
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Credit where credit is due, this management group did find the reigning SHL rookie of the year with their third last year, so if Idzan is a guy they like, I'm game
Really impressed with their find of Ty Mueller also, his statistical profile and draft rankings made it seem like a really odd choice but he has actually become a decent prospect and AHL contributor at the least.
 
Really impressed with their find of Ty Mueller also, his statistical profile and draft rankings made it seem like a really odd choice but he has actually become a decent prospect and AHL contributor at the least.
Yeah, the bitching and moaning on draft day from the box score scouts on here was really something but obviously our scouts saw something in him that wasn’t showing up as gaudy point totals. Targeting the right kind of overagers is a good strategy as Mueller is a key player in Abby on only his second season since being drafted and a big part of their playoff run.
 
Klimovich is the posterchild for not taking toolsy skill with questionable hockey IQ and compete. Pro coaches will not let you attempt a fraction of the shit you tried to do in junior.
Kind of ironic that this AHL series between the Stars and Canucks, features three guys originally selected in the second-round by Benning--Woo, Lind and Klimovich. They were among the last picks he made.

Woo and Lind are closing in on being AHL-lifers; and Klimovich can't even get into the lineup despite leading his team in goals with 25. He's probably closer to heading back to Europe to play, than he is finding his way to the NHL.

It's almost funny how, once the Canucks got past the first round in those years, it was basically one bust after another.
 
Yeah, the bitching and moaning on draft day from the box score scouts on here was really something but obviously our scouts saw something in him that wasn’t showing up as gaudy point totals. Targeting the right kind of overagers is a good strategy as Mueller is a key player in Abby on only his second season since being drafted and a big part of their playoff run.
I gotta admit I was one of them, glad it worked out thus far even if it is a relatively small win atm.
 
I'm sure this will stop being funny eventually.

Not yet though.
It might be my favorite meme of the last year on the internet, and the fact that he won't drop the flimsy 'it was a trolling attempt and you fell for it' guise means it never stops being funny. If he copped to it and admitted it was a dumb move and he got caught (which is very human) then it would get let go or gently chided with a smile.

But it's like high-brow performance comedy art, like something Nathan Fielder would do, except without the self awareness. lol
 
Klimovich is the posterchild for not taking toolsy skill with questionable hockey IQ and compete. Pro coaches will not let you attempt a fraction of the shit you tried to do in junior.
I don't think you can speak in absolutes. Because swings like that are also how you occasionally find a Jamie Benn type, or a Mark Stone type in later rounds. By betting on standout traits overcoming massive drawback traits; those being retrospectively, lack of fitness and seriousness about hockey in Benn who liked Baseball, and skating in Stone.

But in general you dont want to to take swings quite that recklessly until the third round at the earliest. Usually in the 2nd you want someone with a higher floor.

I will say though, a guy like Woo becoming a culture carrier in your franchise isn't nothing. It's less than you want with a 2nd, but it's still a reminder that throwing away seconds on bad trades is bad practice because usually even a lower 25th percentile outcome means getting someone who benefits your franchise in small but meaningful ways even if not in the NHL.
 
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A guy who interests me instinctively through reading scouting reports and watching some highlight videos is Cole Reschny.

Sounds like he works hard, has good hockey sense, skates well enough to get into space and create, and has a finisher's instinct, but isn't a massive burner. And my observation of highlights suggests the same thing.

I think I like the bet that his hockey sense and instincts make him a very serviceable middle six trending towards 2nd line or really luxury 3rd line center who is always just fast enough to create the space his brain needs to create.

A guy who isn't a higher pick because he doesn't have all his traits while being 4 inches taller or a quarter of a standard deviation faster

Did anyone on these boards go to a handful of Victoria Royals games and carry an opinion?

I'm curious what he looks like if you watch full games, does he also make a lot of bad reads? Cause the highlights show a smart player.
 
McQueen has really dropped down the draft board after a back injury basically cost him more than half his season.

But he's listed at 6'5" and 200, as an 18-year old. He's exactly the kind of 'swing for the fences' kid the Canucks should be targeting at #15 overall.

But I fear his combination of size and skill will prove too tantalizing to the teams drafting ahead of them--and he won't likely be on the Board when the Canucks pick.
 
McQueen has really dropped down the draft board after a back injury basically cost him more than half his season.

But he's listed at 6'5" and 200, as an 18-year old. He's exactly the kind of 'swing for the fences' kid the Canucks should be targeting at #15 overall.

But I fear his combination of size and skill will prove too tantalizing to the teams drafting ahead of them--and he won't likely be on the Board when the Canucks pick.
He's still top 10, usually around 6th OA. If he wasn't extremely tall I'm not sure he'd be top 10, maybe not even top 15. I'm a thoroughly crap scout but I was, not seeing the elite vision and upside when I watched him.
 
Yeah, the bitching and moaning on draft day from the box score scouts on here was really something but obviously our scouts saw something in him that wasn’t showing up as gaudy point totals. Targeting the right kind of overagers is a good strategy as Mueller is a key player in Abby on only his second season since being drafted and a big part of their playoff run.
I was okay at that draft with Mueller. He was tracking like you'd expect a previous mid round pick/B prospect would, except they basically skipped a few years of development.

The Perkins pick, also in the 4th, was much much worse and worthy of criticism. As an overager, Mueller was already a solid NCAA player. But Perkins, in his D+1 (when they drafted him), was not even a top-of-the-lineup USHL player.

I got the logic of the Alriksson pick at the draft. And drafting Macklin's brother as a wink-wink nudge-nudge...hey...worth a shot.

But I think people lumped Mueller and Perkins together when they were categorically not equivalent prospects.
 

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