Remember our pick was 37 in 2020 so Wallinder (#32) and Peterka (#34) were off the board.
I liked Peterka before the draft (I will never know a draft class better since we waiting 8 f***ing months for that one lol) but I fell a bit in love with JJ when I saw him in a couple of Utica vs Rochester playoff games. He was a lot of fun and absolutely murdered us lol.
Losing out on that 2020 #37 hurts enough, there’s a ridiculous number of good prospects in that range, but if we could have gotten Peterka my rage would fuel a 1,000 suns.
Also Detroit drafting the giant defenseman and not the amazingly fun and dynamic offense prospect is very Detroit. No fun for you ever Red Wings fans and 100% fun only for the Sabres.
Our pick was #36 in 2021, so Zellweger (#34) was already gone. Detroit took another defenseman, Shai Buium*, with that pick.
I liked Scott Morrow (#40) and Francesco Pinelli (#42) but yeah, Stankoven (#47) has crazy upside and was a very Dallas pick (go for the guy generating monster offense, profit).
Picking early in the 2nd round looks like so much fun, I wish we did again after 2017. (We could have picked at #37 in 2022 but I think we can all agree the Vanacek trade was kind of necessary and we still Casey.)
*Shai will undoubtedly in the future only be known as Zeev Buium’s brother because that’s a cooler name.
Detroit did okay in those seconds with Wallinder (size, skating) and Buchelnikov(undersized but with upside, fast, skilled) ).
We could draft Khusnutdinov and Knies. Knies is overall better version of Stillman. With potential to be ppg player. Khusnutdinov is a two way center with skill, vision, skating and great 200 foot game. He already produced 40 points in 60 games this season in khl as 20 yo player. I told it. I fckn told it. I repeated. I made breakdowns of his game. It was there. He was available. His upside was obvious. Frkn fckn dmn sheros trades. I said he could be evem top 10 player from the draft. "2nd round picks are not so important". Pathetic. Sheroholismic syndrome.
Now we could have Jack-Nico-Marat in center, Meier-Knies-Gritsyuk on the left and Mercer--Bratt-Holtz on the right. Its frkn unbeatable. Even without Knies we still have Filmon for scoring potential or Bardakov for forechecking and defensive game. Khusnutdinov would be huge piece for Devils to build third line around him, use him in PK and produce points against third lines like in video game.
Stillman pick was bad too. There were tonns of players with known upside. Its not like no one knows about Stankoven, Morrow, Zellweger and Raty, if we don't talk about Knies. Who was better all around than Stillman. Fitz know nothing about his game and when he was asked about Dannish league, he was surprised, but I can't forget him that he didn't make a dive. CHL scout was fired finally, Castron was replaced as head scout. You can't make a miss when there were so many known prospects with top-6/top-4 potential.
Our second round pick(traded by Shero) could easily be a good. Even with Stillman, we still have good picks in Mukhamadullin, Casey, Lenny(I'm rooting for this guy) is a questionable, but from late firsts and seconds we have at least 2 good picks from 4 picks. If Shero could focused on buying, not selling, we could have four five picks(instead of losing three our picks in 18, 20, 21) and draft more nhl players. Like Marat!
I said enough about defensive building, coaching decision, wrong strategy and weak providing outside of 2017. Unstopable gambles and wishful thinking. Wasting years that lucked and bring two 1oa. He was so bad as manager and strategist, so his defense is fun and pathetic. Sheroholismic syndrome or Sherotism. No tolerance and no love to Shero. "Success" of his tenure wasn't the result of his moves and decisions.
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