Lol if you think it’s fine that a player taken 2nd overall ends up on your third line or even worse your former #1 pick from a few years ago ends up on your third line well then I dunno what to tell you.
Yea but the thing is you are making up and arguing against a situation that doesn't exist. If we were stacked at wing and RHD, the rankings would still look about the same, if we were in desperate need of a C and Slaf was ranked number 2, I would hope you would be arguing the same thing in reverse. "You take the wing because he will be the best, not Cooley just because we have no centers." Then it would actually make sense.
I’m ok if the Devils run 3 centers who are all talented enough to be on the first line and all play about 20 minutes a night.
No player is going to be equal. They are going to make the choice on who is going to they think have a better career. So even if we “need” a winger if they think Cooley will be the better player they will draft him. Again I’m sure it will be lost on many but I’m using Cooley as an example. But your type of thinking is perfectly fine with leaving talent on the board just because we have a need somewhere. To me that’s wrong.Good God
No, we'd be taking a winger because he's better than Cooley and the two defensemen. Simple concept.
And if they're on the same level as Slaf, then you still go Slaf because he fits a need more than the other two.
I'm not discounting Cooley because he's a center, I'm discounting him because he hasn't proven he's the best player on his own team, much less better than Slafkovsky. How many points would Slafkovsky have scored if he were playing on the US-NTDP this year?
I think it's fine if it works out that way through being best for the team and rolling 4 lines like a contender. I think three centers who could be top 6 on most teams, playing for our team is fine. I think using context is fine when considering what is and isn't a "massive fail."
I don’t care who they draft as long as it ends up being the best player they could’ve. I just don’t want to see them draft someone because we already have this or that and leave a better player out there. That’s all I’m saying and if that happens I really don’t want to hear in here “well what did you expect”?
At this point, Slafkovsky might look like the BPA, period.
Jordan Staal was a 2nd overall pick and played on the 3rd line behind Crosby and Malkin at centre if I remember correctly. That's not an indicative on Staal, who could've been a first line, top-6 centre on most teams. Pittsburgh's centre depth made it that way, it wasn't truly an indicative of Staal.
They both had very similar starts - Seguin NEVER hit a Pts/60 rate of 3.5 that Jack did this year so maybe you're right - But I personally think they are similar.
Yea, and by most accounts that will be Slaf, or possibly one of the RHDs. Whether we need them or not is irrelevant, even going by what you are saying over and over, Cooley should still not be brought up. That's the point you seem to keep glossing over to stand on this rock.
That's fine, then stick with just Slaf to keep this debate from getting muddier than it needs.
If you take Slaf, you're not leaving talent on the board if he's better (and he is) than what is available. You're creating arguments that simply don't exist.
I'm totally with you here.
If the Devils scouts decide Cooley is a better prospect than Slafkovsky at this point, then the Devils need new scouts.
Cooley could very well end up being the better overall player but the Devil's should definitely take Slavkovsky over Cooley. I think the points maybe don't show it, but Cooley I think is the far superior player to Nazar for example. His game I think is much more projectable to the next level. Cooley won't bust, Nazar has a decent chance to bust
He likes teams that can't win in the playoffs?
