Don't confuse me questioning Verbeek's big picture with having Cutter as our prospect today. A person can hold both views. A couple of years ago, I said Verbeek reset the rebuild and ready to hunker down for five years. I disagreed with the path, but I was on board with the path.
Acting two years later? Maybe you're new here or maybe you haven't read enough. We know you're NOT new here on HFboards. I've been on the Snuggerud (and Kulich) train at 22nd since the 2022 draft, but still supported the Gaucher trade b/c not much else we can do. There was another poster who wanted Kulich and Snuggerud at the 2022 draft too, I'm think it's
@Kalv ... could be wrong. There was no point in arguing between who we picked at 22nd b/c nothing was affecting the system. Gaucher recently started to look better in San Diego, which is a plus for us.
Why is Snuggerud important now? Because Verbeek lacked foresight that we need top-6 scoring in our system despite recently opining his dying love for Cutter, a top-6 scoring forward. Verbeek drafted D Minty at 10 and then a shutdown, 3C at 22nd with Gaucher. Why did PV stray away from drafting a top-6 scoring talent at 22nd overall when he wanted one at 10th overall? Today, it's costing us a top-pairing RD that's in his D+4 season and we've don't have RD talent after Luneau that's NHL ready next year or two as well as a 2025 2nd round pick.
Cutter's a great prospect and a projected top-6 scoring forward. I support Cutter from here on out as long as he's a Duck. We needed a top-6 scoring talent in our system and before the trade, we were eyeballing forwards in the 2024 draft, which we'll probably be selecting in the top-5. Cutter is NHL-bound next year in his D+3 season. I like that a lot.
Teams will often trade for top-6 scoring forwards than bottom-6, shutdown forwards. We just did it with Cutter. Are teams lining up to trade for Gaucher? Nope. Not even we have trust in Gaucher producing top-6 offense. That's a huge problem with Verbeek's philosophy.
=======================
Drafting late first/early 2nd trends
=======================
Madden isn't the GM, he's the assistant GM. The final say goes to PV. Same goes with Murray. Murray took swings with his late first round picks/early 2nd rounders. PV has shown a more defensive route, renaming it "elite complementary forward" by asst GM Madden.
Murray's recent late first/early 2nd picks
- 2016
- 24th. LW Max Jones (potential goal scorer... but oft injured after his draft year)
- 30th. C Steel (late rising scorer)
- 2017
- no late first/early 2nd rd pick
- 2018
- 23rd. C Lundy (falling talent, defensive C)
- 2019
- 29th. LW Tracey (late bloomer, scoring fwd)
- 39th. LD LaCombe (high school product, scoring OFD)
- 2020
- 27th. RW Perreault (talent falling, goal scoring fwd with motor issues)
- 26th. RW Colangelo (big, goal scoring PF, USHL... not part of US NTDP)
- 2021
- 34th. LD Zellweger (small OFD... limited action... total big swing)
If there's a potential scoring forward in the draft, then Murray is usually all over it! Look at all those swings. His biggest swing was taking Tracey over Kaliyev, who had instant chemistry with Zegras at int'l tournaments.
- 2022
- 22nd. C Gaucher (shutdown C)... Snuggerud and Kulich available
- 2023
- 33rd. LW Myatovic (def minded F with offense popped in D+0 year only)
Myatovic wasn't at the top of my choice at 33rd overall. He was probably at the bottom of my 2nd round group of players I wanted. RW Haltunnen is a goal scorer, but needs to develop everywhere else (like Kaliyev and Perreault). I liked D Strbak over Myatovic. I liked C Terrance over Myatovic, but Terrance was selected 59th overall. So I can't complain (kinda like picking Rakell before Gibby).
We were desperate for offense in the 2023 draft that we did not draft a defensemen in first three rounds despite having six draft picks in the first three rounds.
Apparently, the GM has final say over an assistant GM. That's the pattern I shared above. The selections are different between GM Murray and GM Verbeek. I can only lead you to the trough.
=================
Effects of the trade
=================
Reiterating that I called out that Verbeek reset the rebuild, the effect was we will have to wait about five years to judge the reset rebuild. While many people have been complaining for the past two years and being impatient, I'm not b/c we're collecting and developing process all the while. That's the future.
I am not judging this trade. I am criticizing the effects of this trade. In your willingness to be the white knight for judging this trade, you omit the effects of this trade in our organization by "not reading" what I wrote. We lack NHL RD talent depth today and aside from Luneau, we don't have any true RD to take up a top-4 RD mantle. Any RD we draft in 2024 will need 2-3 years of development to get to the same point Drysdale was in this year.
Verbeek cited that we're in development mode for the next two seasons. That implies our 2025 2nd round pick will probably be in the top-half.
If Verbeek recognized the lack of top-6 scoring at the 2022 draft and prioritized it, then we end up with RW Snuggerud, who fits into Verbeek's 2022 draft agenda of "I want taller players" requirement. We are not losing NHL RD depth nor the 2025 2nd round pick.
Surprisingly, our 2022 fifth round pick, LW Connor Hvidston, was drafted as a shutdown forward. In the past two years, he's been playing center for Swift Current and put up offensive production akin to Gaucher. While many will point that Hvidston is doing it a year later, Hvidston is actually doing it at the same age as Gaucher b/c Hvidston is an early Sept birth. Hvidston is only a couple of months older than 2023 pick Myatovic. Finding shutdown forwards can be had in the middle of the 2nd round and beyond, unless there's no other talents late in the first round like in the 2018 draft.
