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Anze Kopitar Archive: Scouting Reports Circa 2005

Reclamation Project said:
LOL Blue Jackets.
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While I can't fully blame them for taking Brule at the time, the Jackets sure did have an awful draft record with Doug MacLean. Sam McMaster was one of their head amateur scouts too. McMaster, the former Kings GM, ruined the mid-90s Kings with a series of terrible trades. He latched on with Columbus from their first year in 2000 and is still with them to this day. Although it appears that he's now a pro scout instead of an amateur one.

Gare Joyce wrote a book where he was allowed to be a pseudo-scout for the Blue Jackets during the 2006 and 2007 Drafts. During one of their pre-draft meetings for 2006, McMaster said he had Derick Brassard ranked #2.......over Toews, J.Staal, Kessel, and Backstrom.

Former Kings scout Grant Sonier mentioned in an ESPN article last year that the Kings top 4 was Crosby, Ryan, Kopitar, and Johnson.
 
Love that 10 teams, okay 9 because we all know nobody would've passed on Crosby, passed over him. You do that draft over and Kopitar is without a doubt the 2nd overall pick and it's not even close.
 
Scottkmlps said:
Love that 10 teams, okay 9 because we all know nobody would've passed on Crosby, passed over him. You do that draft over and Kopitar is without a doubt the 2nd overall pick and it's not even close.
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... and plays for Anaheim Ducks... :naughty:
 
Part 3 (Gilbert Brule or Anze Kopitar):
[/QUOTE]


"Brule - Zherdev on the powerplay does that sound good?" Two tremendous draft picks by the Jackets! Love these pre-draft clips.
 
The one that stings is the Nucks and SJ scouts are on record saying that Kopitar was overrated.

Folks, ALWAYS take the BPA in your draft slot.

Kings scouts learned that lesson as well in 2006....

Joey Ryan(picked at 48) was not rated in the top 60 picks, and some Kings scouts wanted a guy that was rated about 45 to 55.....Milan Lucic.

Also guess who was picked at 52.....Keith Seabrook rated right at 53.
 
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damacles1156 said:
The one that stings is the Nucks and SJ scouts are on record saying that Kopitar was overrated.

Folks, ALWAYS take the BPA in your draft slot.

Kings scouts learned that lesson as well in 2006....

Joey Ryan(picked at 48) was not rated in the top 60 picks, and some Kings scouts wanted a guy that was rated about 45 to 55.....Milan Lucic.

Also guess who was picked at 52.....Keith Seabrook rated right at 53.
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Ouuuuch! Milan in a Kings Uni would be riiiidiculous! Oh wells every team has these blunders.
 
When talking about hindsight and picks, nothing infuriates me more than the 2003 draft. Four picks in the top 60 of the deepest draft in NHL history and only one of them pans out. Also hated how Taylor NEVER budged from his draft position and sat on his hands, every damn year.

They really lucked out in having Kopitar drop to 11th thanks to a bunch of fools being skeptical of his talents due to his birthplace, despite him spending his prime development years in Sweden.
 
Given how the Kings handled players raises in salary under Taylor/Leiweke, Perry probably would've been a goner. It's probably a good thing Lombardi was here when Kopitar and Doughty came on board, because we all know how often players entered into contract disputes under the previous management group.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
When talking about hindsight and picks, nothing infuriates me more than the 2003 draft. Four picks in the top 60 of the deepest draft in NHL history and only one of them pans out. Also hated how Taylor NEVER budged from his draft position and sat on his hands, every damn year.

They really lucked out in having Kopitar drop to 11th thanks to a bunch of fools being skeptical of his talents due to his birthplace, despite him spending his prime development years in Sweden.
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Will go down as the greatest draft of all time in my opinion. The players who have already won a Stanley Cup is pretty crazy. The funny thing about this draft is we hit two major duds with Boyle and Tambellini and actually via trades get Richards and Carter. :handclap:
 
damacles1156 said:
The one that stings is the Nucks and SJ scouts are on record saying that Kopitar was overrated.

Folks, ALWAYS take the BPA in your draft slot.

Kings scouts learned that lesson as well in 2006....

Joey Ryan(picked at 48) was not rated in the top 60 picks, and some Kings scouts wanted a guy that was rated about 45 to 55.....Milan Lucic.

Also guess who was picked at 52.....Keith Seabrook rated right at 53.
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And guess which scouting department was gutted shortly after this draft...

You don't always take the BPA though (in terms of draft ranking). Classic example is Derek Morris in 1996. Was rated I think an early 3rd rounder, Calgary grabbed him 13th overall and if you go back and do that draft again that might even be to low.
 
Reclamation Project said:
Jeff Tambellini over Corey Perry...

Konstantin Pushkaryov over Patrice Bergeron...
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31623963.jpg
 
The one that got away that stings most is Shea Weber in 2003. With four picks in the top 50 of that draft, you go and select four ****ing forwards, only one of which panned out? God damn Al Murray.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
The one that got away that stings most is Shea Weber in 2003. With four picks in the top 50 of that draft, you go and select four ****ing forwards, only one of which panned out? God damn Al Murray.
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Imagine a defense that had Weber, Doughty, and Voynov down the right side...

That's hall of fame worthy.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
Given how the Kings handled players raises in salary under Taylor/Leiweke, Perry probably would've been a goner. It's probably a good thing Lombardi was here when Kopitar and Doughty came on board, because we all know how often players entered into contract disputes under the previous management group.
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It's hard to know how much of that was Taylor's fault though. It's not like Lombardi hasn't had his fair share of contractual disputes with players.
 
Idk guys, some of you are fans of this team for twice my lifetime but what's the point of looking back and sigh over draft picks? Well, unless you're not one of those teams who passed on Kopitar and still long for a championship, hehe.

If Kings drafted Weber, Doughty would play for the Blues and I'd hate to see that.
 
johnjm22 said:
It's hard to know how much of that was Taylor's fault though. It's not like Lombardi hasn't had his fair share of contractual disputes with players.
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That is true, and I attribute most of that fault to Leiweke. Every year Taylor was GM it seemed like they had a holdout or contract dispute. Happened with Blake, Norstrom, Storr, Stumpel, and of course other ugly disputes we don't want to revisit with Blake, Robitaille and Boucher. This team was piss poor in handling raises in players' salaries.

Under Lombardi, the two most notable contract negotiations were with O'Sullivan (and he made the right call there) and Doughty, which was thankfully taken care of before it got ugly. Cammalleri was handled via arbitration and they made the right call with him as well because he was never worth nor ever will be worth $6M per year.
 
Another blast from the past from HF, a review of the Kings' 2005 draft:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/7870/kings2005_draft_review/
Anze Kopitar, C
Round 1, 11th overall
Sodetal Je Jr Sweden

The top rated European skater by Central Scouting, Kopitar is the complete package for an NHL center. He has the ability to score goals, set up plays, win faceoffs and play a two-way game. Kopitar is the first ever player drafted from Slovenia and has been honing his skills in the Swedish Elite League.

Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Al Murray said about him: “Anze is a very good puckhandler, he can both score goals and set up plays. For a guy his age, he is very solid defensively, he is very good positionally and is very committed to playing defense. He is also very good on faceoffs. He was really well liked by all his teams and is a very humble, very hardworking guy. If you are looking to compare him to someone in our organization, he is similar to Alex Frolov.”
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The blurb on Quick is pretty interesting, they had him fourth on their list of goalies. What's surprising to read is some teams had him pegged as a 1st rounder? Imagine if a team took a flyer on him... would the Kings be in the position they're in with Bernier in net instead of Quick? I'm glad we'll never know.
 
johnjm22 said:
It's hard to know how much of that was Taylor's fault though. It's not like Lombardi hasn't had his fair share of contractual disputes with players.
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Any contract dispute was Lie-weekly's fault. (Trust me on this)

Lombardi's contract disputes on SJ were mostly the fault of the new cash strapped owners, who layer fired him because a few vets wouldn't waive NTCs
 
Reclamation Project said:
Imagine a defense that had Weber, Doughty, and Voynov down the right side...

That's hall of fame worthy.
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It'd be interesting to see who wouldn't be on the team right now due to Weber's $7.857 million cap hit too. Our D might be hall of fame caliber but at least two players wouldn't be here right now either (I'd assume Regehr would be one since he was the last D brought in and if we had Weber there'd be no need to get him in the first place).
 
Plenty of teams passed on Weber, and who knows, if Weber becomes a King the team may not be bad enough to draft Doughty five years later in 2008. But yes the 2003 draft was the final straw that cost Taylor his job.

I still think 2008 was the biggest blunder because the lack of an elite partner for Doughty that exists today and that right there was the spot it should have been filled.
 
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