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

[John Pedro]

I feel like Jiricek has Makar/EK upside, Nemec seems like a surefire top4 D that can log a ton of minutes but may not become a big point producer.

Slaf is perfect fit for our team too, we need that big bodied winger that can screen a goalie, score a tip, great skills overall but skating seems like a problem.

I think either of these 3 are a good pick. Cooley may be the BPA, but you can't win only with smallish, skilled forwards in the playoffs.

 

[Devils090]

1. Slaf
2. Jiricek
3. Nemec

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Decent first game for Jiricek in a 5-1 win against Britain.
Some good and some bad.

13:41 TOI, +1, 2 shots, and 1 goal

A couple of bad turnovers early on leading to really good chances against and 1 questionable pass.
But, he looked pretty good on Czech’s 2nd powerplay unit and scored a nice goal with his heavy shot.
Otherwise nothing else really noticeably good or bad.

Will be interesting to see how he does against better teams that put more pressure on him defensively and with the puck.


Nemec and Slafkovsky play at 1:20pm vs Germany which should be a better test for them than it was against France.

 

[RSeen]

I’m good with that but is he better off developing for a year in the AHL where he can familiarize himself with NA and the Devils organization rather than going back to LIIGA where he’s struggled.

Thats fair, I meant in the context of the NHL but I should have been clearer when talking about a player playing overseas.

My preference would be for him to play in the AHL as well, given how well some of our young players progressed under Dineen and like you mentioned, there is value in familiarizing with the NA game.

 

[Nico Hischier]

It isn’t a 2019 draft redo and I certainly hope nobody making decisions is thinking like that.

Well IMO all of the recent #2 draft picks who were must picks at the time because of their rankings have turned to be pretty mediocre so far and players going later in the top 10 have looked like the best player of the draft. Yzerman looks like a genius for drafting Seider where he did. Colorado looks really good for getting cale makar. If we were drafting 2 in 2017 instead would you want to draft Nolan patrick or Cale makar? Sometimes the consensus picks are wrong. My gut says take the best RD whether they think that’s jiricek or nemec. I like jiricek and that’s who I hope they draft.

 

[Nico Hischier]

Winning the draft lottery shouldn’t change our game plan. We were hoping one of the two top RD would fall to #5 and now we have our choice of either one.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Well IMO all of the recent #2 draft picks who were must picks at the time because of their rankings have turned to be pretty mediocre so far and players going later in the top 10 have looked like the best player of the draft. Yzerman looks like a genius for drafting Seider where he did. Colorado looks really good for getting cale makar. If we were drafting 2 in 2017 instead would you want to draft Nolan patrick or Cale makar? Sometimes the consensus picks are wrong. My gut says take the best RD whether they think that’s jiricek or nemec. I like jiricek and that’s who I hope they draft.

That’s just not true. Some turn out, some don’t and it really shouldn’t affect who we take in this draft. Sure Patrick didn’t turn out from 2017. But what about Eichel and Laine before him?Svechnikov after him?
Kakko hasn’t lit it up yet and neither has Byfield but they both still have lots of time and could turn out good. Beniers looks great so far.

It doesn’t even really matter though.
Taking Jiricek instead of Slafkovsky because Seider has turned out better than Kakko would just be a terrible reason to take him.

Winning the draft lottery shouldn’t change our game plan. We were hoping one of the two top RD would fall to #5 and now we have our choice of either one.

Well it absolutely should if we have more options. We were mostly focused on them because there was pretty much no chance Slafkovsky or even Cooley fell to 5. Now we have more possible better options that we should consider.

If anything the fact that we weren’t talking about them before because we knew they wouldn’t get to us suggests that they are higher rated and possibly better prospects.

 

[Guttersniped]

Slafkovsky should easily surpass Holtz and Sharangovich by D+2. If he hits his ceiling, he probably passes all four.

He’s going to be 19 in his D+2 year. Ratanen played 9 NHL games and had zero points when he was 19, he spent the rest season in the AHL. (That was his D+1 year because he had a October birthday.)

Draisaitl also has an October birth so he was 19 in his D+1 year too. He was sent back to the WHL mid-season.

And these are obviously best case scenarios with superstar players who started producing in the NHL in the following season at age 20.

Bigger players take longer, Slafkovsky is going to need to physically mature to get the strength to move all that body mass with speed. Some patience is required.

 

[Devs3cups]

Sure I would take him too. either jiricek (who I would prefer) or nemec over slafkovsky for me. Maybe it’s a 2019 draft redo. Slafkovsky goes at #2 and is like Kakko and jiricek goes later and is like moritz seider

Maybe it's a 2016 draft redo and Jiricek becomes Juolevi and Slafkovsky becomes Tkachuk. See how easy that is?

Every draft is different. I think both Slaf and Jiricek will become good players.

 

[Forge]

Wright, hasn’t impressed me this year. My biggest fear, is that the Canadians go Cooley and Fitz feels obligated to take Wright. He is Canadian and has the pedigree (historical statistics) to be top 10, but I see higher upside in other players.

If they pass on wright, I'm taking him tbh

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I don’t know who I want. I do know I do not care about position with a pick this high.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

At the same time, it's also OK for posters to point out that those comments are silly like saying Slafkovsky is Zacha 2.0 or something.

Yea my memory might be failing me (good chance) but Slaf has 0 similarities to Zacha when he was a prospect. Completely different type of players.

 

[beekay414]

If they pass on wright, I'm taking him tbh

Yep. If Montreal is dumb enough to make the move, you run to the podium. You win Stanley Cups with guys like Shane Wright. This prospect fatigue from fans and the media is pretty laughable.

 

[Guttersniped]

Yea my memory might be failing me (good chance) but Slaf has 0 similarities to Zacha when he was a prospect. Completely different type of players.

We took Zacha because he was seen as having 1C upside and we needed centers, it wasn’t just because he was big. People keep forgetting that part.

Cooley isn’t a sure thing in terms of a massive point producer. I can throw Alex Turcotte out as comp for him too.

If Cooley is a way better prospect and is a C/W, then maybe? Nazar seems more Point-like to me though.

In regards to Tampa and 3Cs. not sure what Cirelli has to do with this, he’s mostly played with Point in the top six.

In the playoffs, Paul is their 3C and Bellemare is their 4C. Tampa is a good example of the value of C/W players vs true wingers though, they move guys back and forth from center to wing all the time.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

"Watching Slafkovsky is fun," said German national team team leader Tim Stützle, who is the most productive player in the 2020 draft in the NHL.



Seems like this guy is just going around getting NHL players to say Slafkovsky’s good.

 

[My3Sons]

Slafkovsky should easily surpass Holtz and Sharangovich by D+2. If he hits his ceiling, he probably passes all four.

Shara had 30 points with 16 goals in his last 38 games. That’s not going to be so easy for any 20 year old. If NJ picks Slaf it would be amazing if he was better than a 25 goal type player that early but it’s asking a lot for such a young guy even as big as he is.

 

[My3Sons]

Yeah this is how you stay a bottle dwelling team. Trade away your captain who is the only center we have that can actually play both ends of the ice for a unproven undersized center prospect. Great team building right there...If by some chance Montreal takes Slafkovsky then we trade down. We don't need need Wright or Cooley. Trade down then grab one of the top d prospects while picking up an extra first round pick. It's not rocket science. Trading away Nico would be such a big blow to this team.

Some folks will never forgive Hischier for not living up to their demands despite him being advertised as more or less what he is.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Shara had 30 points with 16 goals in his last 38 games. That’s not going to be so easy for any 20 year old. If NJ picks Slaf it would be amazing if he was better than a 25 goal type player that early but it’s asking a lot for such a young guy even as big as he is.

He’s also 23 and has played just 130 games. He very well could hit another level. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t a high pick, but there’s a tendency to think he’s a finished product here. That could be true, 23-24 is often a player’s peak. It won’t necessarily be in his case though.

 

[beekay414]

I just don't understand how people are watching these forwards and saying stuff definitively like "Cooley is BPA and we shouldn't pass on BPA." (paraphrasing here)

You could make a case for Slafkovsky, Nazar, Cooley or Savoie as the 2nd best forward in this draft and this doesn't included the 2 defensemen. So, whoever we take, we deemed BPA and that's really that.

 

[My3Sons]

Decent first game for Jiricek in a 5-1 win against Britain.
Some good and some bad.

13:41 TOI, +1, 2 shots, and 1 goal

A couple of bad turnovers early on leading to really good chances against and 1 questionable pass.
But, he looked pretty good on Czech’s 2nd powerplay unit and scored a nice goal with his heavy shot.
Otherwise nothing else really noticeably good or bad.

Will be interesting to see how he does against better teams that put more pressure on him defensively and with the puck.


Nemec and Slafkovsky play at 1:20pm vs Germany which should be a better test for them than it was against France.

I expect the Germans to try to force the Slovaks into submission with heavy schnitzel and various sausages. This will be a stark contrast to France which relied on unfiltered cigarettes Edith Piaf and ennui.

 

[beekay414]

I expect the Germans to try to force the Slovaks into submission with heavy schnitzel and various sausages. This will be a stark contrast to France which relied on unfiltered cigarettes Edith Piaf and ennui.

And beer...cannot forget the beer...

 

[My3Sons]

He’s also 23 and has played just 130 games. He very well could hit another level. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t a high pick, but there’s a tendency to think he’s a finished product here. That could be true, 23-24 is often a player’s peak. It won’t necessarily be in his case though.

I’m not suggesting anything specific beyond giving a young player a realistic time to develop before evaluating him for good or bad. How much did all of Jack Bratt and Hischier change their games this year and both Bratt and Hischier had plenty of experience.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I don’t know who I want. I do know I do not care about position with a pick this high.

Tampa did not spend top picks on Point or Cirelli, i.e. taking either of those players came with zero opportunity cost, which is not the case with the Devils taking Cooley to play 3C instead of a potential high impact winger or defenseman.

There’s a reason why Turtoro, who is very impressed with himself, is not wealthy from betting on pro hockey.

 

[Tretyak 20]

He’s going to be 19 in his D+2 year. Ratanen played 9 NHL games and had zero points when he was 19, he spent the rest season in the AHL. (That was his D+1 year because he had a October birthday.)

Draisaitl also has an October birth so he was 19 in his D+1 year too. He was sent back to the WHL mid-season.

And these are obviously best case scenarios with superstar players who started producing in the NHL in the following season at age 20.

Bigger players take longer, Slafkovsky is going to need to physically mature to get the strength to move all that body mass with speed. Some patience is required.

I may well be off on my timetables, we may be looking at D+2 or D+3, but the point really is that if he hits even close to his ceiling, I think Slafkovsky clearly forces other players down the roster.

 

[My3Sons]

I may well be off on my timetables, we may be looking at D+2 or D+3, but the point really is that if he hits even close to his ceiling, I think Slafkovsky clearly forces other players down the roster.

That would be a fantastic result if it happens. I’d love to be in the scouting meetings this year.