2026 NHL Draft: We won #2! Reid or Stenberg for the win; taking Verhoeff is a drafting sin!

[weastern bias]

It's pretty obvious what kind of team build Mike Grier is emulating to build around the player he drafted 2 years ago when we were still at the very basement of our tank effort

I am very smart and everyone else on this board is very dumb

Please appeal to my authority

 

[Timo Time]

To be fair, it's pretty obvious that Grier is trying to go the Toronto or Colorado route, where they don't have any premium depth or role players and try to win on star power.

Wennberg, Toffoli, Graf, Sherwood.

"Am I a joke to you?"

 

[jMoneyBrah]

Always a fan of people who loudly proclaim they are the smartest person in the room. If you ever are in need of incurious or rigidly-minded perspectives these are your go to people. Bonus points if they will confidently insist solutions are simple and the best results can be had by just doing what others have done.

 

[matt trick]

To be fair, it's pretty obvious that Grier is trying to go the Toronto or Colorado groute, where they don't have any premium depth or role players and try to win on star power.

Not long ago we had neither stars nor premium role players. We had Eklund (2W) and that was it. We also had Karlsson, Meier, Hertl, Vlasic, Kane, Couture, and Burns declining and on major deals under a flat cap.

Grier had three objectives: 1) clear cap while getting worse (returning Dickinson, Musty, Muk, Raven, and 20OA to boot) 2) Bring in talent (picks, Graf, Wenny, Tof) 3) Find your franchise pillar. Yes, he got lucky with Mack, but he built a team with like a 70% chance of getting Mack, Schaefer, Bedard, Carlsson, or Fantilli based on where they finished for three years. He also spent to bring in Wenny and Tof so the kids had someone to play with.

Celebrini (1C), Misa (2C), Cherny (2W), Dickinson (2-3D), and Graf (3W), and Sherwood (3W) all look like they can play meaningful minutes on contenders. Askarov and Raven are very good goalie prospects. In my eyes that’s a remarkable turnaround.

Maybe we should have gone for Leonard/Benson over smith, but going for grit over skill without the benefit of knowing we’d end up Mack/Misa is an incredible bold call. With what we know now, I’m not certain that’s the right call.

The next objectives are harder, but less important than the first. 1) Add meaningful pieces (I.e top pair and top 4 d) from the prospect pool/futures and hit on a gift at #2 2) Bring in the right pieces around the core 3) Picks that aren’t flipped for talent need to hit some times. Can he find a meaningful contributor in round 3 on? Can he find a Hertl/Vlasic/Pavs/Clowe/Braun with similar picks?

 

[Jargon]

To be fair, it's pretty obvious that Grier is trying to go the Toronto or Colorado route, where they don't have any premium depth or role players and try to win on star power.

Ah yes like signing noted stars Wennberg and Sherwood.

 

[Zarzh]

Not long ago we had neither stars nor premium role players. We had Eklund (2W) and that was it. We also had Karlsson, Meier, Hertl, Vlasic, Kane, Couture, and Burns declining and on major deals under a flat cap.

Grier had three objectives: 1) clear cap while getting worse (returning Dickinson, Musty, Muk, Raven, and 20OA to boot) 2) Bring in talent (picks, Graf, Wenny, Tof) 3) Find your franchise pillar. Yes, he got lucky with Mack, but he built a team with like a 70% chance of getting Mack, Schaefer, Bedard, Carlsson, or Fantilli based on where they finished for three years. He also spent to bring in Wenny and Tof so the kids had someone to play with.

Celebrini (1C), Misa (2C), Cherny (2W), Dickinson (2-3D), and Graf (3W), and Sherwood (3W) all look like they can play meaningful minutes on contenders. Askarov and Raven are very good goalie prospects. In my eyes that’s a remarkable turnaround.

Maybe we should have gone for Leonard/Benson over smith, but going for grit over skill without the benefit of knowing we’d end up Mack/Misa is an incredible bold call. With what we know now, I’m not certain that’s the right call.

The next objectives are harder, but less important than the first. 1) Add meaningful pieces (I.e top pair and top 4 d) from the prospect pool/futures and hit on a gift at #2 2) Bring in the right pieces around the core 3) Picks that aren’t flipped for talent need to hit some times. Can he find a meaningful contributor in round 3 on? Can he find a Hertl/Vlasic/Pavs/Clowe/Braun with similar picks?

In what fairytale world do we not know what team he wants to build? We're already draft pick negative in a rebuilding year, and extended Wennberg while letting Ferraro walk.

He does not have the assets to do anything meaningful, all he can do is hope someone explodes in development. He should've been acquiring draft picks and drafting high-compete skilled forwards to surround the top draft picks, and mobile defensemen.

 

[weastern bias]

We're draft pick negative

*has 2 1st round picks in this draft*

 

[Star Platinum]

"we snorted some high grade Plutonian Nyborg and were tripping balls"

I think those guys do a great job of really being very thorough in their evaluations and explaining why they believe what they believe, so I'm interested to see why they like Bjorck ahead of the other three forwards and why they have the first three defenders in the order they do. I may not agree with what they say, but I'd like to hear a compelling argument for some of these guys.

 

[Star Platinum]

Always a fan of people who loudly proclaim they are the smartest person in the room. If you ever are in need of incurious or rigidly-minded perspectives these are your go to people. Bonus points if they will confidently insist solutions are simple and the best results can be had by just doing what others have done.

You know, the wheel doesn't have to be reinvented. You can just go down to the wheel store and pick a wheel right off the shelf.

 

[sharski]

You know, the wheel doesn't have to be reinvented. You can just go down to the wheel store and pick a wheel right off the shelf.

It's not a wheel

It's a carousel

It lets you travel the way a child travels

Around and around

Then back home again

To a place where we know we are loved