Prospect Info: All-Purpose 2024 Draft Thread & Celebrini discussion (also the 14th pick and whatever else is draft related)

[jMoneyBrah]

Ha ha.

What I will be doing is making generic threads based on the picks we have and then fill them in with the player selected when it happens…

 

[The Nemesis]

So weird Wheeler overlooked the referring to himself in the 3rd person thing. If I was. GM, that would warrant “do not draft” status.

The what? When did he do that?

That's, admittedly, super weird. Maybe not full blown "do not draft" weird (Ricky Henderson used to refer to himself in the 3rd person too) but "furrowed brow, uncomfortable fake smile" if you pick him weird.

 

[The Nemesis]

View attachment 887892

Ok, look. Fine. If it'll get you off my back tomorrow's lottery numbers are 6, 9, 25, 47, and 49. And take the over on combined runs in the Rangers/Orioles MLB game. I can't give you anything else because this will screw up the timeline enough as it is. Just maybe don't buy a Dickenson Sharks jersey.

 

[Cas]

The what? When did he do that?

That's, admittedly, super weird. Maybe not full blown "do not draft" weird (Ricky Henderson used to refer to himself in the 3rd person too) but "furrowed brow, uncomfortable fake smile" if you pick him weird.

Rickey could walk the walk (2190 times, as it turns out), and was legitimately weird enough to be considered "eccentric" rather than 'arrogant." Playing independent baseball into his mid-40's when he had already accomplished as much as he had certainly helped.

As an aside, looked up who broke Rickey's stolen base title streak in 1987, and I didn't realize just how awful Harold Reynolds was as a baserunner, despite his speed. Just astonishing.

 

[drunksage]

Ok, look. Fine. If it'll get you off my back tomorrow's lottery numbers are 6, 9, 25, 47, and 49. And take the over on combined runs in the Rangers/Orioles MLB game. I can't give you anything else because this will screw up the timeline enough as it is. Just maybe don't buy a Dickenson Sharks jersey.

Are any of the big jackpots due to hit at the Venetian?

 

[The Nemesis]

Rickey could walk the walk (2190 times, as it turns out), and was legitimately weird enough to be considered "eccentric" rather than 'arrogant." Playing independent baseball into his mid-40's when he had already accomplished as much as he had certainly helped.

As an aside, looked up who broke Rickey's stolen base title streak in 1987, and I didn't realize just how awful Harold Reynolds was as a baserunner, despite his speed. Just astonishing.

*appreciative Harold Reynolds whistle*


I will never forget having to watch the MLB international feed of that Texas/Toronto playoff series a few years ago (the Jose Bautista bat flip one) where Reynolds was one of the color guys and like 90% of his contributions were either the most inane platitudes possible or just a "whew" impressed whistling noise. Also his bizarre comments about Canadians not being able to catch foul balls because "they don't play much baseball up here" that got him absolutely roasted on social media including by Larry Walker.

 

[timorous me]

So weird Wheeler overlooked the referring to himself in the 3rd person thing. If I was. GM, that would warrant “do not draft” status.

 

[Mattb124]

The what? When did he do that?

That's, admittedly, super weird. Maybe not full blown "do not draft" weird (Ricky Henderson used to refer to himself in the 3rd person too) but "furrowed brow, uncomfortable fake smile" if you pick him weird.

I am over 50, apologies if this fails.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1787171097328169275

Damn, that worked. Matt is impressed…with Matt.

 

[LadyStanley]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1805716346614776112

 

[Patty Ice]

I think I said before that I don't believe I will be angry with any choice that could be made at 14 except for Trevor Connelly. I might be disappointed if it's Jiricek or whatever but I'll get over it because that 14 pick is more or less found money so I'm willing to let them gamble on it a little bit. Nothing will actually upset me though unless they take the kid with the bajillion personal red flags.

I don't expect him to be drafted by us but Connelly is a top 10 talent. Yea, he got caught being an edgelord at 16, color me shocked that a teenager did something stupid. He went above and beyond to correct that mistake which shows growth and maturity. If people want to linger on a dumb comment (and it was dumb), there's going to be a very lucky team that'll come up on a big time talent, and I just know that team will be Vegas

 

[ChompChomp]

Agreed. Dude has an elite shot. Get someone to spend time developing other factors in his game and he could be the steal of the draft

If Eiserman is drafted by the Sharks, good thing he'd start at a great program like BU and then "graduate" to developing under a developmental coach like Warsofsky.

 

[Star Platinum]

I don't expect him to be drafted by us but Connelly is a top 10 talent. Yea, he got caught being an edgelord at 16, color me shocked that a teenager did something stupid. He went above and beyond to correct that mistake which shows growth and maturity. If people want to linger on a dumb comment (and it was dumb), there's going to be a very lucky team that'll come up on a big time talent, and I just know that team will be Vegas

Agreed. People will beat up the team that drafts him, especially in the current political climate, but teenagers do stupid things. So do adults. There are way worse things that have been done by athletes that have been swept under the rug because the player was too important.

I mean it's not like he said that Doug Wilson, Jr. was great at identifying talent.

If Eiserman is drafted by the Sharks, good thing he'd start at a great program like BU and then "graduate" to developing under a developmental coach like Warsofsky.

I was thinking maybe an additional year of development under this guy

 

[The Nemesis]

I don't expect him to be drafted by us but Connelly is a top 10 talent. Yea, he got caught being an edgelord at 16, color me shocked that a teenager did something stupid. He went above and beyond to correct that mistake which shows growth and maturity. If people want to linger on a dumb comment (and it was dumb), there's going to be a very lucky team that'll come up on a big time talent, and I just know that team will be Vegas

There's more than just the swastika thing. The Athletic did a piece on him in February that went more in depth about his history of questionable/ghastly decisions:

• Prior to that incident he had been suspended from his youth league for allegedly uttering a racial slur at another player. The suspension was later rescinded after the league's governing body held an inquiry that featured Connelly denying that it happened but strangely did not include the player who claimed to be the victim nor said player's coach after they were not informed by the league that the inquiry was even taking place. Which is weird.
• During his longest tenure with that same youth league in California (I think it was the Jr Ducks program?) there were repeated instances and accusations of bullying and abuse by him. The Athletic's reporters spoke to like 40 parents, coaches, and former players and heard I think over a dozen accounts of him punching teammates because he lost his temper during practices, whacking them with sticks when he wasn't allowed to cut the line during drills, or harassing and bullying them away from the rink. It was apparently bad enough that multiple players quit the league rather than be subjected to further abuse by Connelly. The comments of several people giving info for the story was that his behavior went beyond simply being a dickheaded kid and that he was actively mean and callous. This was when he was younger than 12.
• He played for something like 7 different youth organizations over a 3 or 4 year span, with some tenures lasting mere weeks and having been removed from several of them. The shortest was two weeks for a high school program back east somewhere. Publicly they refused to discuss the fact that he was kicked out of the program but the story that has circulated was that he may have been hazed by some of the players on the team and as retaliation he peed in one of those players' equipment bag. This is not excusing hazing, but come on.
• In discussions with talent and personal evaluators about conversations with Connelly in the wake of everything (keeping in mind that this is from like 4 months ago well before any of the draft interviews or the like) several of them said that they didn't feel comfortable saying that he showed requisite levels of remorse or ownership of his problems. That while it was commendable that he had done some outreach and community service seemingly designed to address and offset his behaviors (such as volunteering with a hockey organization that focuses on providing opportunities to underserved groups and minorities wanting to get into the game), he still chose to deflect responsibility for what happened and choose to blame the other parties for making this such a big issue. Hell, his family had a letter drafted by a lawyer and sent to The Athletic that excoriated the authors responsible for the article (Katie Strang and Corey Pronman), called into question their integrity and responsibility. Said lawyer was also, pointedly, previously involved in a different lawsuit against The Athletic's reporters (though it was later dropped)

Maybe he is trying to be better. But this is not a case of him making one mistake and being submarined for it. This is him having a repeated and significant incidents over a multi-year span that all paint him as worse than just being a dumbass teenager that said something edgy.

Who will draft Trevor Connelly? Inside the NHL's evolving scrutiny of top prospects

NHL evaluators are encountering new areas of concern when judging the suitability of prospects for their franchises.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Star Platinum]

There's more than just the swastika thing. The Athletic did a piece on him in February that went more in depth about his history of questionable/ghastly decisions:

• Prior to that incident he had been suspended from his youth league for allegedly uttering a racial slur at another player. The suspension was later rescinded after the league's governing body held an inquiry that featured Connelly denying that it happened but strangely did not include the player who claimed to be the victim nor said player's coach after they were not informed by the league that the inquiry was even taking place. Which is weird.
• During his longest tenure with that same youth league in California (I think it was the Jr Ducks program?) there were repeated instances and accusations of bullying and abuse by him. The Athletic's reporters spoke to like 40 parents, coaches, and former players and heard I think over a dozen accounts of him punching teammates because he lost his temper during practices, whacking them with sticks when he wasn't allowed to cut the line during drills, or harassing and bullying them away from the rink. It was apparently bad enough that multiple players quit the league rather than be subjected to further abuse by Connelly. The comments of several people giving info for the story was that his behavior went beyond simply being a dickheaded kid and that he was actively mean and callous. This was when he was younger than 12.
• He played for something like 7 different youth organizations over a 3 or 4 year span, with some tenures lasting mere weeks and having been removed from several of them. The shortest was two weeks for a high school program back east somewhere. Publicly they refused to discuss the fact that he was kicked out of the program but the story that has circulated was that he may have been hazed by some of the players on the team and as retaliation he peed in one of those players' equipment bag. This is not excusing hazing, but come on.
• In discussions with talent and personal evaluators about conversations with Connelly in the wake of everything (keeping in mind that this is from like 4 months ago well before any of the draft interviews or the like) several of them said that they didn't feel comfortable saying that he showed requisite levels of remorse or ownership of his problems. That while it was commendable that he had done some outreach and community service seemingly designed to address and offset his behaviors (such as volunteering with a hockey organization that focuses on providing opportunities to underserved groups and minorities wanting to get into the game), he still chose to deflect responsibility for what happened and choose to blame the other parties for making this such a big issue. Hell, his family had a letter drafted by a lawyer and sent to The Athletic that excoriated the authors responsible for the article (Katie Strang and Corey Pronman), called into question their integrity and responsibility. Said lawyer was also, pointedly, previously involved in a different lawsuit against The Athletic's reporters (though it was later dropped)

Maybe he is trying to be better. But this is not a case of him making one mistake and being submarined for it. This is him having a repeated and significant incidents over a multi-year span that all paint him as worse than just being a dumbass teenager that said something edgy.

Who will draft Trevor Connelly? Inside the NHL's evolving scrutiny of top prospects

NHL evaluators are encountering new areas of concern when judging the suitability of prospects for their franchises.

www.nytimes.com

The right people to ask are the ones who he's interacted with since 2021. Did he show remorse and growth or was he just doing and saying the right things to not jeopardize his career? The person from Hockey Players of Color said nice things about him. Also, I feel like it's worth pointing out that during the period he was with the Junior Ducks listed above, the kid was in the age range of 7-13.

There's certainly enough smoke there that you want to do your due diligence. My thoroughly uneducated guess is that this kid probably has not the greatest family situation and kids are often a reflection of their parents in many ways. Add to that the culture of high-level youth sports and you can see how a kid could go wrong. We all know of lots of stories of high-level athletes who have abused being stronger and bigger than their peers and done bad things, often times criminal things and it often all gets swept under the rug if the player's talent is high enough.

I also know of many instances of kids with troubled pasts who overcame bad home situations because they got paired with a teacher or a mentor or a coach who took an interest in a kid beyond just what they could do athletically and helped turn that kid's life around. Some of my favorite athletes of all time fall into that category.

I don't know enough about this kid to know what person he is. He will certainly pay for it in terms of losing significant draft position. He also is going to get drafted at some point. That's just the way the world works. Have a unique enough ability and you get more chances. Hopefully he makes good decisions going forward and ends up being a good human.

 

[dmcccdmn]

I'm a bigger Golden State Warriors fan than a Sharks fan, but watching both teams, I think the Sharks are at a better place than the Warriors are right now. The Warriors are where the Sharks were before the tear down. Aging star players with sky high salary and not particularly competitive any longer. That's a sucky place to be. The Warriors don't even have a 1st round pick this year.

I think above all else, above having good young players, good coach, salary cap structure, I think the most important thing is a good GM. Grier seems to have a good start to his career. Dunleavy of the Warriors might end up mortgaging the Warriors' future trading all their youth, their draft picks and they might not even make the playoffs or go far. That's a very dark dark place for that fan base to be in if that's their course.

 

[STL Shark]

I'm a bigger Golden State Warriors fan than a Sharks fan, but watching both teams, I think the Sharks are at a better place than the Warriors are right now. The Warriors are where the Sharks were before the tear down. Aging star players with sky high salary and not particularly competitive any longer. That's a sucky place to be. The Warriors don't even have a 1st round pick this year.

I think above all else, above having good young players, good coach, salary cap structure, I think the most important thing is a good GM. Grier seems to have a good start to his career. Dunleavy of the Warriors might end up mortgaging the Warriors' future trading all their youth, their draft picks and they might not even make the playoffs or go far. That's a very dark dark place for that fan base to be in if that's their course.

Warriors won a bunch of championships and NBA Draft picks are sort of worthless outside of the top 5 so the comps aren’t really there outside of them getting old now.

 

[Patty Ice]

There's more than just the swastika thing. The Athletic did a piece on him in February that went more in depth about his history of questionable/ghastly decisions:

• Prior to that incident he had been suspended from his youth league for allegedly uttering a racial slur at another player. The suspension was later rescinded after the league's governing body held an inquiry that featured Connelly denying that it happened but strangely did not include the player who claimed to be the victim nor said player's coach after they were not informed by the league that the inquiry was even taking place. Which is weird.
• During his longest tenure with that same youth league in California (I think it was the Jr Ducks program?) there were repeated instances and accusations of bullying and abuse by him. The Athletic's reporters spoke to like 40 parents, coaches, and former players and heard I think over a dozen accounts of him punching teammates because he lost his temper during practices, whacking them with sticks when he wasn't allowed to cut the line during drills, or harassing and bullying them away from the rink. It was apparently bad enough that multiple players quit the league rather than be subjected to further abuse by Connelly. The comments of several people giving info for the story was that his behavior went beyond simply being a dickheaded kid and that he was actively mean and callous. This was when he was younger than 12.
• He played for something like 7 different youth organizations over a 3 or 4 year span, with some tenures lasting mere weeks and having been removed from several of them. The shortest was two weeks for a high school program back east somewhere. Publicly they refused to discuss the fact that he was kicked out of the program but the story that has circulated was that he may have been hazed by some of the players on the team and as retaliation he peed in one of those players' equipment bag. This is not excusing hazing, but come on.
• In discussions with talent and personal evaluators about conversations with Connelly in the wake of everything (keeping in mind that this is from like 4 months ago well before any of the draft interviews or the like) several of them said that they didn't feel comfortable saying that he showed requisite levels of remorse or ownership of his problems. That while it was commendable that he had done some outreach and community service seemingly designed to address and offset his behaviors (such as volunteering with a hockey organization that focuses on providing opportunities to underserved groups and minorities wanting to get into the game), he still chose to deflect responsibility for what happened and choose to blame the other parties for making this such a big issue. Hell, his family had a letter drafted by a lawyer and sent to The Athletic that excoriated the authors responsible for the article (Katie Strang and Corey Pronman), called into question their integrity and responsibility. Said lawyer was also, pointedly, previously involved in a different lawsuit against The Athletic's reporters (though it was later dropped)

Maybe he is trying to be better. But this is not a case of him making one mistake and being submarined for it. This is him having a repeated and significant incidents over a multi-year span that all paint him as worse than just being a dumbass teenager that said something edgy.

Who will draft Trevor Connelly? Inside the NHL's evolving scrutiny of top prospects

NHL evaluators are encountering new areas of concern when judging the suitability of prospects for their franchises.

www.nytimes.com

I read that article as well so I was aware of his transgressions, whether they are real or not, it's still attribute to be being a shithead teen who was failed by the adults around him (coaches and parents) to rein him in. All these things happened 16 and below and he has realized the error in those behaviors and has taken steps to correct them. Kids grow up, some grow faster when they realize they are f***ing up their dreams, others don't (as was the case it appears with Merkley). Connelly seems more the latter than former.

 

[WSS11]

still reads like a bust to me but maybe he can right his ship.

I get people wanting others over Eiserman (same with me) but I wouldn’t be super disappointed with the pick. If the light turns on for him, we get the steal of the draft. Big gamble though

 

[Jargon]

I get people wanting others over Eiserman (same with me) but I wouldn’t be super disappointed with the pick. If the light turns on for him, we get the steal of the draft. Big gamble though

Same. Big gamble but I also think it’s a reasonable gamble, especially when his uber competitive, future Captain bff is here to make sure he keeps working hard.

 

[STL Shark]

I get people wanting others over Eiserman (same with me) but I wouldn’t be super disappointed with the pick. If the light turns on for him, we get the steal of the draft. Big gamble though

I go back and forth on it. I can see it being smart for SJ to target him because they don't necessarily need him to be the all situations fully engaged player that others might because they have Celebrini. They could let him be an OZ heavy role player and PP specialist sort of like what Washington has done with Ovechkin the last 3-4 years (70-75 percent OZ starts and 4.4 PP minutes per game).

That could oddly be a sweet line with Smith's playmaking and RH shot from the center position with Eiserman on the LW with a ton of OZ starts. Add a bruising wing on the other side to sit net front and that's a cool 2/3 line (albeit sort of gimmicky and maybe not the most effective come playoff time).

Think Eiserman could be a very good regular season player and then disappear come playoff time, but we haven't sniffed the playoffs in 5 years so I will take that risk and figure out how to win in the playoffs once we start losing there.

 

[gaucholoco3]

I go back and forth on it. I can see it being smart for SJ to target him because they don't necessarily need him to be the all situations fully engaged player that others might because they have Celebrini. They could let him be an OZ heavy role player and PP specialist sort of like what Washington has done with Ovechkin the last 3-4 years (70-75 percent OZ starts and 4.4 PP minutes per game).

That could oddly be a sweet line with Smith's playmaking and RH shot from the center position with Eiserman on the LW with a ton of OZ starts. Add a bruising wing on the other side to sit net front and that's a cool 2/3 line (albeit sort of gimmicky and maybe not the most effective come playoff time).

Think Eiserman could be a very good regular season player and then disappear come playoff time, but we haven't sniffed the playoffs in 5 years so I will take that risk and figure out how to win in the playoffs once we start losing there.

Eiserman - Smith - Halttunen

Smith might never need to shoot.

 

[coooldude]

If you're a gambler, Cole isn't a bad gamble.

But if you want to draft like the teams that everyone seems to admire (like Dallas), you take a player who already has the tools AND the playstyle for the NHL. If you want a Wyatt Johnson or a Stankoven, you draft Chernyshov, MBN, Solberg at 14. That's my opinion, which is only that.

I think we're going to draft Eiserman but I'd rather anyone else except Jiricek that is being considered.

 

[Jargon]

If you're a gambler, Cole isn't a bad gamble.

But if you want to draft like the teams that everyone seems to admire (like Dallas), you take a player who already has the tools AND the playstyle for the NHL. If you want a Wyatt Johnson or a Stankoven, you draft Chernyshov, MBN, Solberg at 14. That's my opinion, which is only that.

I think we're going to draft Eiserman but I'd rather anyone else except Jiricek that is being considered.

Package 2 firsts to move to like 20, get Cherynshov AND Eiserman! Be the only team that has an all-forward lineup! Fun must be always!!!

 

[Hodge]

If you're a gambler, Cole isn't a bad gamble.

But if you want to draft like the teams that everyone seems to admire (like Dallas), you take a player who already has the tools AND the playstyle for the NHL. If you want a Wyatt Johnson or a Stankoven, you draft Chernyshov, MBN, Solberg at 14. That's my opinion, which is only that.

I think we're going to draft Eiserman but I'd rather anyone else except Jiricek that is being considered.

We also need to draft prospects who will hold their value as trade assets. Eiserman and other boom/bust guys are the complete opposite of this.

 

[landshark]

Ok, look. Fine. If it'll get you off my back tomorrow's lottery numbers are 6, 9, 25, 47, and 49. And take the over on combined runs in the Rangers/Orioles MLB game. I can't give you anything else because this will screw up the timeline enough as it is. Just maybe don't buy a Dickenson Sharks jersey.

What about the Powerball number!?! that's only 5 of 6 numbers... Don't leave us all hanging! C'mon man!!