Bob McKenzie's mid-season draft rankings: Schaefer the unanimous #1

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You probably don’t even believe this sad intellectualization yourself and are just trying to speak it into existence to soothe your fragile sense of identity. Hockey is just another sport in America. Literally none of the best American athletes ever entertain the idea of putting on a pair of skates. The US does not apply itself in hockey to remotely the same degree that Canada does.
plus the cost in the USA take a lot of kids out of the game . If every state had the Minnesota model 60% -70% NHL would be USA.
 
Just from a TOI perspective, Hagens almost never PKs, while Leonard regularly PKs. So I don't see how this could be true.
Hagens isn't bad defensively by any means but he kinda has the Tyson Jost false Toews/Bergeron elite defense myth going. Per Instat Hagens averages 0:08 pk time per game so yeah he isn't a factor in the PK. For forwards it's Berard 2:14, Posma 2:03, Gasseau 1:29, Stiga 1:12, Jellvik 1:00, Leonard 0:56, Joyce 0:24, Sondreal 0:23, Perreault 0:22, Vote 0:18, Hagens 0:08, Letourneau 0:04.
 
For the record, I do think Hagens has the best chance to hit the highs of his ceiling from what I have seen, but your worries about Turcotte 2.0 are very valid, he does share many similarities to when I saw Alex's pre-draft. Nonetheless, I would be surprised if he falls that much, I still see him being an average to below-average 1st line centre and I think that's where our disagreement falls. I see somebody who resembles Crosby's game and is a workhorse at both ends of the ice. Crosby didn't have any outstanding qualities as a junior player, he was just great at everything (insane IQ though) in a non-flashy sort of way and Hagens plays a similar style if you'd ask me, where he uses a lot of IQ to know where to go in all three zones. If that's the case and a team dislikes Hagens, then they should draft Misa IMHO. Even though he's on the smaller side, he to me is the most talented player in this draft even if might play a bit too much of a junior style of game at times. His talent is worth a top 3 pick alone if you'd ask me.
It's trying to win the cup compared to trying to win the draft. I do think Hagens has quite a bit of risk while only having a moderate reward. Schaefer and Misa seem to have higher upsides, and more ways they can be successful picks which makes them less risky.
 
Very surprised that Schaefer has become the unanimous 1oa. Really think Hagens has become underrated (as much as the consensus 2oa can be) recently
 

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