Love Nico, but he wasn't the right pick considering any of the players from 3-5 would have been a better choice.
Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason edition
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Blissfully Mediocre
I've gone through my posting history and don't believe that I've ever said anything about Makar, so I'm going to say that I knew 100% that Makar was going to be who he was because you can't prove that I'm lying.
Eggtimer
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i just remember a lot of people questioning the league he played in inflated his numbers and ability. Kinda of like Jankowski looked like a stud but he was playing in a shit league and dominating , but just dominating shit opposition.
Captain3rdLine
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- Sep 24, 2020
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That doesn’t matter. There’s a major crapshoot element to the draft and it’s impossible to predict exactly how all of the prospects will develop and turn out. Nico was the best prospect in the draft. None of the players who went 3-5 were considered #1 pick contenders.
It’s a lot easier to say in hindsight that they would have been a better choice but it came down to Nico and Nolan and the draft and the devils made the right choice.
No one saw Heiskanen having this much offensive potential. Makar was viewed as a very high risk, high reward pick and Petterson wasn’t anywhere close to the number 1 pick discussion.
There was always a good chance in a draft like that that Nico wasn’t gonna be the best player. It came down to Nico and Nolan and we chose Nico which has proven to be the right pick. No one in the league would’ve taken Makar, Petterson or Heiskanen first overall.
If there was legitimate conversations around the those guys could be or should be the first overall pick than we can talk about them. But there wasn’t. It was widely talked about as Nico be Nolan.
MauDevils
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I don't agree with "right pick"
You can say he wasn't the best player in his draft, but the only choice at that time was Nico or Nolan and we made the right pick.
Eggtimer
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Same here . That’s why I’m somewhat open to trading him for a known commodity . Just not sure who that is yet
- Dec 1, 2019
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All I want is to watch this guy score a game winning goal late in a playoff game for NJD in the near future. Is that too much to ask?
A ton. That skating a longgggggg way to go
SteveCangialosi123
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MauDevils
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Are there players that actually turn their skating around?
I feel like bad skaters tend to stay that way.
Bad to good? I don’t think happens. Bad to workable? That’s possible
Hmmm I'm not sure about players who just had ridiculously flawed fundamentals in their skating. But Brayden Point was not a very good skater. Neither was Kucherov. I can't remember specifically how their skating was as a prospect though.
Mercer had some concerns related to his skating as well. There's plenty of prospects whose skating were their weakness but improved it a lot to be enough for the nhl.
I don't think Boucher was held back by lack of skating. I think he just couldn't keep up with the pace of the nhl speed in terms of processing what's happening and where to go. Obviously, it's a lot easier to make up for that if you're a good skater but if you're not, you need to be really good at that. Apparently, few people here have stated concerns about Holtz not being able to process things fast as well.
Zajacs Bowl Cut
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Nonsense.
I take Nico over Heiskanen no questions asked.
Makar obviously is the better player as it stands now
if Nico continues his 2nd half play from last year, I would take him over Pettersson too. Fight me. (Nico had a slightly better ppg last year than EP)
Eggtimer
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Marchment in Florida went from dig shit to passable / decent . Google it . He was a terrible terrible skater when he got drafted .It us actually a pretty cool story how he worked his ass off and has come a long ways . Toronto gave up on him .
I mean he was a 24 year old good not even great AHLer. It’s not like there wasn’t reason to “give up on him”
ZachaFlockaFlame
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- Aug 24, 2020
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Yeah, it rarely ever changes because hockey players are creatures of habit when it comes to skating. Once they learn how to skate, it's something super hard to change. Will Butcher is a prime example of that from what we saw recently here. The best example recently of someone who got better at skating is Kopitar, he went from a disastrous skater to above average.
I have faith in Holtz because I’ve heard he’s a super hard worker but it is really rough right now
It’s opinion. Define “right”. I can understand the Petterson argument but as someone who watches a lot of Heiskanen I’d disagree on him.
Maybe in the neutral or defensive zone. To me he looks like he knows where to go when allowed freedom in the offensive zone.
ZachaFlockaFlame
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Yeah, it's understandable. Part of me thinks he turns into a Mike Hoffman type where he's incredible on the powerplay but meh at 5v5, which I mean I would take but at 7th overall it's a tough pill to swallow.
Billdo
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This is only because of the benefit of hindsight. It was always either him or Patrick. The rumor that we were really interested in Makar was never going to become reality. Hischier went where he was supposed to be drafted. It was the right pick then. I'd still only take Makar over him at this point.
- Dec 20, 2018
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Makar was in the AJHL. That’s a crappy feeder league.
The top Feeder leagues are competitive in part because the NCAA doesn’t care that much if guys played in European men’s pro leagues (I used to think they cared but they don’t at all lol) but if a kid coughs in the direction of the CHL they lose their NCAA eligibility forever.
Yes, Sword Through the Goalie guy is prone to ranting but the NCAA literally makes a BS exception for “Ice Hockey and Skiing” when it comes to Pro Teams & their eligibility rules so they can continue to feud with the CHL. You can do all sorts of things with Pro European hockey teams but if you play even part of a single Exhibition game with a CHL team when two different teams are involved that’s it, you crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed forever and marked a PRO for life. (I don’t know what the skiing part is about.)
They get younger, smaller, rawer or newly arrrived players working their way into the USHL or CHL or cooling their heels until they can play in the NCAA.
Top of the feeder school food chain by far is the USHL, it’s very close to the CHL level and is the Tier 1 US Juniors league.
Then the top feeder league for the NCAA in Canada is the BCHL. Behind that is the NAHL, the top tier 2 US Juniors league.
Behind all that is the AJHL (and the OJHL and etc). Back in the day it was simply a feeder league for the WHL. The top players who had played there and then we’re drafted in the 1st round in 1980s & 1990s were typically out after their age 16 season at the latest and they played a couple seasons in the WHL before getting drafted.
Only 2 players before 2008 were playing in the AJHL in their draft season:
1980 #17 Brent Sutter F
Also played in WHL in his draft season.
1986 #4 Zarley Zalapski D
Played for Team Canada for 2 years.
After that only 4 1st Rd picks were also drafted out of the AJHL:
2008 #16 Joe Colborne F
Went to Denver for 2 seasons.
2009 #29 Dylan Olsen D
Went to Minnesota-Duluth for 2 seasons.
2018 #26 Jacob Bernard-Docker D
Went to North Dakota for 3 seasons.
2021 #25 Corson Ceulemans D
Went to Wisconsin.
That’s it other than Makar.
The only other 1st round picks that played in the AJHL who didn’t come out of the WHL:
2000 #2 Dany Heatley F
He opted out of the 1999 Draft because he was still playing the AJHL & got drafted after a season at Wisconsin.
2000 #19 Krys Kolanos F
He opted out of the 1999 Draft because he was still playing the AJHL & got drafted after a season at Boston College.
2020 #14 Dylan Holloway F
September birthday, he was drafted out of Wisconsin.
That’s it.
Makar was a late bloomer playing in inferior Junior league at a very advanced age, he has a very late birthday too (Oct 30, 1998). Quinn Hughes has an October birthday as well, which is why he was drafted out of Michigan. Makar not only started college in his D+1 season, he started it in his age 19 season.
Makar obviously wasn’t on Team Canada, so all you had to go on was his play in the AJHL. He was inarguably more of an unknown.
His rookie year was 2019-20 and some people have insisted he could have started earlier. He himself chose to stay in college that extra season because he wanted to get physically stronger. So the pressure to go pro earlier from going 1OA would have been a very bad thing for him personally.
He certainly benefited from being drafted by a better team but the fact is no one that old still playing in the AJHL is going 1OA. There’s too much demand for instant gratification.
We wouldn’t have gotten Makar or anyone else very good who was taken near the top of that draft if we didn’t win the lottery, we would have picked too late. We might have taken him with a lower lottery pick but there would always be a danger of ending up with Patrick.
I don’t even understand how this bothers people, how and why the decision was made is pretty understandable and reasonable.
I'm just trying to imagine the reaction in 2017 if we'd taken Makar instead of Nico...
"What, why are we taking an undersized offensive defenseman #1? Doesn't Shero know we need centers?!"
"What, why are we taking an undersized offensive defenseman #1? Doesn't Shero know we need centers?!"
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