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2025 NHL Draft: Lose a ton for Porter Martone

I have a gut feeling that Grier’s target for the draft will be James Hagens, even with the first overall. The east coast connection is too obvious to overlook. He might as well be dining with Hagens for Christmas dinner right now somewhere in upstate NY.
 
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Star Platinum said:
My concern is that as a team, we don't ever seem to be getting better at this which makes me wonder how good the coaching is. I can accept that the innate talent of the players puts a cap on this sort of thing, but even if many of them are not great players, they still are NHL-worthy players and they should be able to get an organized breakout going.
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But we are getting better at this. We're a far more competitive team. We have games where we outshoot the other team, we have periods where we dominate. This barely happened last year. You said it - the innate talent of the players puts a cap on this sort of thing. We do have successful organized breakouts this year - rarely happened last year. The problem is the inconsistency, and because our talent cap is lower, the margin for error is lower as well.
 
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Hogde said:
I have a gut feeling that Grier’s target for the draft will be James Hagens, even with the first overall. The east coast connection is too obvious to overlook. He might as well be dining with Hagens for Christmas dinner right now somewhere in upstate NY.
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Schaefer is my top choice, but I’ll be thrilled with any of the top four. If we end up at one, and Grier picks Hagens I’ll happily support it. That said, Grier seems to value skating, size, and competitiveness, which I think lends to the other three.

I think it’s reasonable Grier targeted one of the top D last year. We definitely know the Sharks valued Dickinson over Buium. Given this, it’s possible they had BDE 2nd or 3rd in the draft (it’s also possible they had him 9th or 10th). In the case he was that high, they may feel he’s a #1 guy. However, Schaefer, a year younger, is going to get more opportunity at the world juniors and seems likely to demonstrate he’s in a different class today prospect. If this happens I imagine it’d be hard for Grier to look at BDE, and think no we solved D last year.
 
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Barrie22 said:
Thankfully no matter what, we are still available for the chance to land mckenna next year also.
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If it’s not in SJ, let’s just hope he goes East. Not keen on him in Chicago or Anaheim. Course I think there Hams will be under the gun to get out of the basement this summer as drafting McKenna would likely benefit their successor.
 
matt trick said:
If it’s not in SJ, let’s just hope he goes East. Not keen on him in Chicago or Anaheim. Course I think there Hams will be under the gun to get out of the basement this summer as drafting McKenna would likely benefit their successor.
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I would be happy if chicago wins the lottery this year, as that removes them from mckenna.
 
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Barrie22 said:
I would be happy if chicago wins the lottery this year, as that removes them from mckenna.
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If I recall correctly, the draft lottery restarts this year. Meaning that the team can win twice before being made in eligible to pick again. Therefore, if Chicago wins this year, they can also win next year‘s draft to get McKenna.
 
Hogde said:
If I recall correctly, the draft lottery restarts this year. Meaning that the team can win twice before being made in eligible to pick again. Therefore, if Chicago wins this year, they can also win next year‘s draft to get McKenna.
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I thought it was twice in a 5 year span for a certain team.

So the hawks will reset in 2028 as bedard was there first move up.
 
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Barrie22 said:
I thought it was twice in a 5 year span for a certain team.

So the hawks will reset in 2028 as bedard was there first move up.
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Believe this is correct. Don’t want the hawks taking Schaefer? But they’re going to suck next year, so keeping them away from McKenna is a win. To be bottom 3 for each year of Bedard ELC would be shameful.
 
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matt trick said:
Believe this is correct. Don’t want the hawks taking Schaefer? But they’re going to suck next year, so keeping them away from McKenna is a win. To be bottom 3 for each year of Bedard ELC would be shameful.
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Ideal for this year for them is they finish 3rd to last and move up to 2nd locking them out of a McKenna lottery win (they could still finish dead last and win the lotto) but not giving them a 1oa
 
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Hogde said:
I have a gut feeling that Grier’s target for the draft will be James Hagens, even with the first overall. The east coast connection is too obvious to overlook. He might as well be dining with Hagens for Christmas dinner right now somewhere in upstate NY.
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You think so? To me that would indicate that Grier believes the solutions to our defense are internal and that he doesn't believe in Smith as a center long term.

Based on how the season has gone I could maybe see the latter, but certainly not the former
 
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tiburon12 said:
You think so? To me that would indicate that Grier believes the solutions to our defense are internal and that he doesn't believe in Smith as a center long term.

Based on how the season has gone I could maybe see the latter, but certainly not the former
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I don't think what @Hogde said has anything to do with the former. In all likelihood, only the team with the first pick will get to decide whether they want an elite defenseman or an elite forward. Picks 2-4 will be picking which forward they like best.
 
I haven't followed this year's draft class nearly as much as last year, but something tells me that Schaefer or Martone are still the best solution long term. Positional long term solution that is, even though high end centers are veery hard to acquire outside of draft.

Martone could be stapled to Smith wing for life, because Celebrini can probably carry less productive players on his own by the time Martone is in the NHL line up. Schaefer doesn't need any introductions, he would help that defence by a country mile.

All in line 1st line: Eklund - Celebrini - Martone

Balanced:
Eklund - Celebrini - ?
? - Smith - Martone
or
? - Celebrini - Martone
Eklund - Smith - ?

even all in 2nd line could be crazy good:

? - Celebrini - ?
Eklund - Smith - Martone
 
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We have enough holes at the positions of the top 4 guys that you can get excited about any of them.

I’d love our next three picks to be an elite D, first line wing, and shutdown center (Erikson Ek would be the dream). Hopefully we can find a top 4 RHD without a Sharks first pick. However the D is going to be so young that acquiring a couple vets for the top few pairings would be just fine.
 
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matt trick said:
We have enough holes at the positions of the top 4 guys that you can get excited about any of them.

I’d love our next three picks to be an elite D, first line wing, and shutdown center (Erikson Ek would be the dream). Hopefully we can find a top 4 RHD without a Sharks first pick. However the D is going to be so young that acquiring a couple vets for the top few pairings would be just fine.
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Pionk would be perfect, but he will probably re-sign with Winnipeg.
 
mogambomoroo said:
I haven't followed this year's draft class nearly as much as last year, but something tells me that Schaefer or Martone are still the best solution long term. Positional long term solution that is, even though high end centers are veery hard to acquire outside of draft.

Martone could be stapled to Smith wing for life, because Celebrini can probably carry less productive players on his own by the time Martone is in the NHL line up. Schaefer doesn't need any introductions, he would help that defence by a country mile.

All in line 1st line: Eklund - Celebrini - Martone

Balanced:
Eklund - Celebrini - ?
? - Smith - Martone
or
? - Celebrini - Martone
Eklund - Smith - ?

even all in 2nd line could be crazy good:

? - Celebrini - ?
Eklund - Smith - Martone
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Eklund - Celebrini, Misa - Smith looks more advantageous, IMHO
 
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Star Platinum said:
I don't think what @Hogde said has anything to do with the former. In all likelihood, only the team with the first pick will get to decide whether they want an elite defenseman or an elite forward. Picks 2-4 will be picking which forward they like best.
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Juxtaposer said:
Hodge parody account. Not to be confused with Hodge's burner account.
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For those who Didn't notice the imposter account was named:

Hogde not Hodge I saw that right away but questioned myself that I might have read the Hodge Avy Name wrong before, but with these postings, I now know I read Hodge correctly. :D:cool:
 
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