I'm liking all of the options to increase our forward scoring, but reading up on Schaefer by Brock has me wanting Schaefer. Here's what Brock summed up on Schaefer, "He has the chance to be a real defensive cornerstone and a potential Norris candidate. If the team picking first has a real need for a cornerstone on the back-end, Schaefer is going to be difficult to pass up."
Anaheim has a lot of OFD's on the squad and are lacking in potential NHL top-4 defensive d-men. The closest we have to that kind of d-man now are LaCombe and Minty, with LaCombe ahead of Minty defensively. Both are fringe middle pairing D at the moment. It does suck that Schaefer is an LD, but that could also mean we have more trade capital in the near future if Schaefer progresses faster than expected. Or we can convert some LDs to RD in LaCombe, Zell, or Hinds. All three have played exclusively RD with their junior or NCAA teams before going pro.
Top-10 drafted forwards in the Anaheim system since both rebuilds
- 2019, 9th OA, C Zegras
- 2021, 3rd OA, C McTavish
- 2022, 5th OA, LW Cutter
- 2023, 2nd OA, C Carlsson
- 2024, 3rd OA, RW Sennecke
Top-10 drafted d-men in the Anaheim system since both rebuilds
- 2022, 10th OA, LD Mintyukov
If the opportunity presents itself that Schaefer is available to us, then I hope we can draft him. We are relying late first round or later draft picks to populate our blueline. Not many teams are willing to trade young, top-4 defensive d-men. Anaheim would have to draft one and the likelihood of grabbing one of those is in the top-3.
Of course, we still have a lot of season left to see if Schaefer can continue to build up his resume to be the BPA.