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Prospect Info: Devils Win #2 Overall -- Slafkovsky vs. Jiricek vs. Nemec

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What should we do with #2?

  • Slafkovsky

    Votes: 220 61.5%

  • Jiricek

    Votes: 56 15.6%

  • Nemec

    Votes: 30 8.4%

  • Trade it

    Votes: 39 10.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 13 3.6%
  • Total voters
    358
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beekay414 said:
Where I stand is, if we pass on one of the RHD for a forward, it damn well better be a forward of Slafkovsky's mold, and not another small, skilled prospect. I'm all for taking talent for talent but, at some point, the pieces need to fit.
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If they took Cooley and he became a superstar and the clear cut best player I don't think any Devils fan would care about his size. Jiricek is my #1 player on the board but I'm not going to act like this year's draft is clear cut at the top and there's multiple ways they could go with this pick. Let's just hope whoever they do pick ends up being an impact player because no matter what you can't have too many of those.
 
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TrufleShufle said:
Nope, if need, or helping the team or filling a hole is anywhere in the thought process whatsoever, even in a tiebreaker, it's bad. No team has ever, nor should ever do that. Don't bring it up again. He has spoken.
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I almost fell for it.
 
Lou Bloom said:
If they took Cooley and he became a superstar and the clear cut best player I don't think any Devils fan would care about his size. Jiricek is my #1 player on the board but I'm not going to act like this year's draft is clear cut at the top and there's multiple ways they could go with this pick. Let's just hope whoever they do pick ends up being an impact player because no matter what you can't have too many of those.
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Which is why many are putting team need in the equation.

If Cooley was clearly a better prospect then of course he'd be the choice. But it seems pretty close. Considering where we are organizationally, if its pretty close between a small fwd, and a big RD, it's the latter all day in my book.
 
Lou Bloom said:
If they took Cooley and he became a superstar and the clear cut best player I don't think any Devils fan would care about his size. Jiricek is my #1 player on the board but I'm not going to act like this year's draft is clear cut at the top and there's multiple ways they could go with this pick. Let's just hope whoever they do pick ends up being an impact player because no matter what you can't have too many of those.
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You could literally say this about anybody they pick. The simple fact is, Cooley offers us nothing we don't already have. How does he become a superstar and clear cut best player when he likely doesn't get a PP role that fits his strengths since we have two different options that are clearly better? That's the point. Unless we hit a dead end in contract talks with Jesper Bratt and there's no way he's coming back, there's no place for Cooley to become that "if" that you just described. There is a such thing as too much of the same thing.

This draft's forward crop is separated by a razor's edge from Slafkovsky to Nazar to Cooley to Savoie. When all things are equal, you absolutely take into account the needs of the team and the system. This idea that you just throw out need as if it plays no part in the evaluation process is just pure fiction and naive.
 
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Lou is God said:
Zacha was never projected to be a power forward the way Slaf is, why are we comparing these two?
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Doesn't really sound like Slaf is a true pf either.

Sounds like a pretty similar draft bio imo. Big guy with skills who didn't produce a whole lot.

But we've seen those guys pan out, just as we've seen small skilled fwd's not pan out.

Zacha's issue seems to be lack of motor. I think he outthinks himself. Are those concerns with Slaf? If not then that would be an important divergence in the comparison.
 
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devilsblood said:
Doesn't really sound like Slaf is true pf either.

Sounds like a pretty similar draft bio either. Big guy with skills who didn't produce a whole lot.

But we've seen those guys pan out, just as we've seen small skilled fwd's not pan out.

Zacha's issue seems to be lack of motor. I think he outthinks himself. Are those concerns with Slaf? If not then that would be an important divergence in the comparison.
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Every scouting report I read on Slaf he talks about his great work along the boards and his physicality, from what I remember Zacha was sold more on his finesse and as we can see today they were correct, he's more finesse than he is physical.
 
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All that being said, I'm going to do my damnedest to support whoever we take because it's in the best interest of this team that they click. I told myself I wasn't getting involved in this process because I didn't wanna fall for someone that ended up on the Flyers lol. Let's just enjoy the fact that we're about to get another blue chip prospect.
 
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devilsblood said:
Doesn't really sound like Slaf is a true pf either.

Sounds like a pretty similar draft bio imo. Big guy with skills who didn't produce a whole lot.

But we've seen those guys pan out, just as we've seen small skilled fwd's not pan out.

Zacha's issue seems to be lack of motor. I think he outthinks himself. Are those concerns with Slaf? If not then that would be an important divergence in the comparison.
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I'd say the fact that one was in the OHL and one in Liiga makes the stats comparison pretty much a moot point when comparing Zacha and Slaf.
 
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devilsblood said:
Doesn't really sound like Slaf is a true pf either.

Sounds like a pretty similar draft bio imo. Big guy with skills who didn't produce a whole lot.

But we've seen those guys pan out, just as we've seen small skilled fwd's not pan out.

Zacha's issue seems to be lack of motor. I think he outthinks himself. Are those concerns with Slaf? If not then that would be an important divergence in the comparison.
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Huh. That’s just not true. Zacha was a big, fast, skilled center.

Slafkovsky is a big skilled power forward winger who is great along the walls. Slafkovsky is really good on the forecheck too.

Everything about Slafkovsky is power forward.

beekay414 said:
I picked Jiricek. The minimal difference between these forwards makes me want to lean towards the top pair defenseman every time.
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I’m not sold on Jiricek. Would much rather Nemec
 
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devilsblood said:
Which is why many are putting team need in the equation.

If Cooley was clearly a better prospect then of course he'd be the choice. But it seems pretty close. Considering where we are organizationally, if its pretty close between a small fwd, and a big RD, it's the latter all day in my book.
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That's not how the draft process actually works. Each teams have their own draft board and will come up with their own conclusions on players. It's possible the Devils have Cooley #1 on their board come draft day and players like Slafkovsky, Jiricek and Nemec outside their top 5. That doesn't mean they should go off their board and take one of those guys because the industry or online scouts think these players are close in value. If they come out of the draft process thinking one of these guys separates themselves from the pack in terms of talent then they should draft that player.

If Logan Cooley has a Trevor Zegras like year in college next season he'll likely be the #1 prospect in the NHL and you have a great problem to have where you can either run 3 Centers with Hughes/Hischer/Cooley, you can potentially switch him to the wing to play alongside them or you could trade him for a player that fits what you're looking for as far as a power forward/2 way RD/young franchise G.
 
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beekay414 said:
I'm not sold on anybody so I'm in "shoot the moon" phase. We don't need more depth, we need more impact talent so I'm all for Fitz and Castron going with whoever they see has the highest upside within the construct of the team.
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We’re gonna sit here and spend a ton of time arguing about Slafkovsky, Cooley, Jiricek, and Nemec just for Fitz to take Kemell.

Devs3cups said:
Seeing our 3 Devils boys right after for Canada will be sweet too!
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I’m not sure who I’m most excited to watch.
I’m really excited to see Nico and Jones with Switzerland too.
 
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beekay414 said:
You could literally say this about anybody they pick. The simple fact is, Cooley offers us nothing we don't already have. How does he become a superstar and clear cut best player when he likely doesn't get a PP role that fits his strengths since we have two different options that are clearly better? That's the point. Unless we hit a dead end in contract talks with Jesper Bratt and there's no way he's coming back, there's no place for Cooley to become that "if" that you just described. There is a such thing as too much of the same thing.

This draft's forward crop is separated by a razor's edge from Slafkovsky to Nazar to Cooley to Savoie. When all things are equal, you absolutely take into account the needs of the team and the system. This idea that you just throw out need as if it plays no part in the evaluation process is just pure fiction and naive.
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Ya, I factor this in when looking at potential acquisitions at the NHL level. Boeser scored a lot of PP goals, but if we were to acquire him, he would take away PP time from either Bratt or Hughes. Fiala on the other hand does most(not all) of his scoring 5v5.

People like Nuke, and if we were to acquire him, he could play net front on the, PP. Not sure if he even played that with the Avs, but that could be a spot where we could get even more out of him then what he was producing in Co. (I acknowledge the issues with Ruff, noting this merely as an example).

So yeah, Cooley, he'd play either the Bratt or Hughes role. Even if he were to win top pp minutes it would diminish the impact of the other guys. Could Slaf be a net front on the PP? It is something to think about, especially at 2nd oa.

Now whatever D we might draft probably wouldn't get much PP time either, not any time soon at least. But it's less of a concern for D, imo, but we should note that if we draft Jiricek he's not going to be racking up pp points. If anything the less glamorous PK would be a nice addition from any potential D-man draftee.

So yeah, team construction. Definitely a thing in my book.
 
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