First Round Grades

[ThatGuy22]

yay, the “I’m smarter than a fleet of professional scouts” knee-jerk thread

Year in and year out professional scouts draft players that never make it in the first round.

Forgive us for doing the same speculation

 

[Cenzo_]

Hawks

Levshunov = B
Vanacker = C (Not fan of moving #34 + #50 to jump to #27 for him)
Boisvert = Abomination as was dumb trade that made it happen and ruined night

Hawks overall grade can't be measured because of the Boisvert pick which outside of Flyers passing on Buium was the most idiotic dumb choice by a GM at draft

Just absolutely awful mistake that cant be properly placed into context

How is a Boisvert’s pick an abomination? He’s a very promising player that plays a power forward game and was picked close to where he was rated on many lists

 

[Chan790]

I'm not a believer thus far in new Canes GM Eric Tulsky based off the past 3 days. We've had several Necas trades (including two supposedly involving high 1sts) fall apart, can't seem to get Guentzel signed despite offering exactly what Jake asked for, and then...trading out of the 1st tonight was inexplicable.

Our farm system is deep to the point we're trading solid specs for late picks before we lose their rights for nothing, but we lack blue chip specs to take top spots and prolong our competitive window. The only direction we should be considering trading in is up to get guys we like.

Not drafting tonight makes our draft a probable waste. C-

 

[CycloneSweep]

yay, the “I’m smarter than a fleet of professional scouts” knee-jerk thread

You don’t remember the thing where if teams literally just picked the consensus picks from almost any of the scouting agencies they would be better off like 9/10 times.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Leafs - D Either the 1st or 2nd most puzzling pick in the whole draft. A player I ranked a lot lower than this. I thought Cowan was the worst pick last year and he had a good season, though I still don't see a star player there. Maybe Danford has the same kind of development, but as of now, I gotta say this was a strange pick. If you wanted a RHD, you go Elick or Badinka here.

lol at the team picking 31st getting your worst grade of the draft. Even though in other blurbs you also had "better" picks but yeah, at the end of the first round where the variability increases substantially this was definitely the biggest mistake, for sure. A “wrong” pick much higher in the draft has a much bigger impact than one at the end of the night. Though since you also had Cowan as the worst pick last year, I’d suggest it’s possible you are underrating compete level and hockey sense. Those are the qualities this Leafs scouting staff values highest.

 

[Donnie740]

Calgary gets an F - for this debacle.

San Jose gets an A+

Passing on Sam Dickinson to take Zayne Parekh is a catastrophic mistake that will haunt the Flames for years.

Parekh’s game does not translate to the NHL-level. Take a good look at the 20 or 25 highest scoring seasons by a defenceman in OHL history, and hardly any made an impact in the NHL.

Parekh is undersized, soft and mediocre defensively. He loves to jump into the rush, and can get away with it when playing against slow footed 20yr olds and 16yr olds who are hopelessly out of their depth, but that will never fly in the NHL.

Meanwhile, Dickinson is a prototype franchise defenceman - - big, mobile, and just as strong defensively as he is offensively. If you watched the Memorial Cup final, Dickinson put the team on his back and almost singlehandedly overcame a 3-0 deficit in the 3rd period.

Pairing Dickinson with the Celebrini pick is a franchise altering night for San Jose.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Calgary gets an F - for this debacle.

San Jose gets an A+

Passing on Sam Dickinson to take Zayne Parekh is a catastrophic mistake that will haunt the Flames for years.

Parekh’s game does not translate to the NHL-level. Take a good look at the 20 or 25 highest scoring seasons by a defenceman in OHL history, and hardly any made an impact in the NHL.

Parekh is undersized, soft and mediocre defensively. He loves to jump into the rush, and can get away with it when playing against slow footed 20yr olds and 16yr olds who are hopelessly out of their depth, but that will never fly in the NHL.

Meanwhile, Dickinson is a prototype franchise defenceman - - big, mobile, and just as strong defensively as he is offensively. If you watched the Memorial Cup final, Dickinson put the team on his back and almost singlehandedly overcame a 3-0 deficit in the 3rd period.

Pairing Dickinson with the Celebrini pick is a franchise altering night for San Jose.

Yeah I wanted Flames to draft Dickinson badly. You can also make the argument Ottawa should have picked Dickinson, but I feel for Ottawa going for the higher ceiling player in Yak especially with their need of a gamechanging RHD was more important, especially since Dickinson looks to be a less intelligent Sanderson.

 

[Ford Prefect]

A team that's confident in the prospect that they picked who would fit their timeline better than a prospect a year or two from now and a team that is confident in their ability to compete for a Cup the next two years so that the 2025 pick (which is the one Philly is probably getting) likely falls in the late 20s to early 30s. Maybe McDavid or Draisaitl gets a season ending injury and derails the whole thing so it's a risk but there's legit reasons why the trade was made. Makes sense for Philly too since the pick will likely be higher than 32 which a rebuilding team can have the patience to wait out.

Well it can't get any lower...

 

[Smif]

Really happy the Leafs traded down to add more draft capital. Danford was a surprise but I'm loving what I'm seeing of him now and Wes Clark has earned our trust with reaches the last few years.

 

[Soundgarden]

A!

Who ever picks up Surin off of waivers 7 years from now, after getting about 6 years AHL experience of course, is going to get one hell of a player.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

The only team that did worse than the Blues was the Flyers. And I actually loved the idea of trading 32 in a weak draft for a first rounder that almost certainly will not be 32 in a year or two.

There will be books written in 20 years about basically trading Buium for Luchanko. Maybe they’ll throw in a chapter on how Doug Armstrong couldn’t come up with a better offer than a third.

 

[IceHockeyDude]

What pops up not a single Swede were drafted like they usually do on the first round. Instead 2 norwegians, 2 finns and one czech.

 

[TheNumber4]

Oilers A+

They just got the steal of the draft.

 

[Flynn84]

What's up with the Yakemchuck's thread

!?

 

[FlyguyOX]

Philly

F

 

[Trojans86]

Sens:

Initially: C (Really did not want Yakemchuk)

As time as progressed I feel Yakemchuk probably isn't nearly as bad as I thought he was, so overall I'd give it a B. Just okay to above average 1st rounder.

Flames:

I'm high on Parekh, that's an A for me, but ngl I did want Helenius more.

IDK why we choose Grindan with our 2nd first rounder, C for me there. So overall like a B to B+.

Yak is criminally underrated. Elite puck skills and shot to go with great size, physicality and nasty. No surprise to me the guys who put the rankings together missed on him but he is exactly what you want in the nhl.

 

[BHFAN92]

Blackhawks- D+

• Levshunov-B+
• Boisvert-F
• Vanacker-F

How much different would have people felt if the Blackhawks took instead at #18 Cole Eiserman and at 27 took Tanner Howe

 

[TheKingPin]

Philly is an I for me. Incomplete.

Passing on Buium was a mistake no matter what. The Flyers drafted for need and not BPA.

That said, Luchanko looks good and is very young. He could end up having a great year next year. I think we will know pretty soon. I know Buium is highly ranked and will be good but I’m not sure on him personally.

MTL and SJ killed it. Congrats to their fans.

Anaheim and Chicago major fails

 

[67 others]

Yak is criminally underrated. Elite puck skills and shot to go with great size, physicality and nasty. No surprise to me the guys who put the rankings together missed on him but he is exactly what you want in the nhl.

The guys who put rankings together had reasons for him being ranked lower. Physical tools are good except a big one. Skating, which gets more important every level you go up from juniors to AHL to NHL and restricts your ability to use your other tools without good hockey sense. His decision making and hockey sense are also weaknesses, thus, his lower ranking.

But he's big, mean and shoots right so let's see how they develop him and work on his weaknesses.

 

[DFF]

Calgary gets an F - for this debacle.

San Jose gets an A+

Passing on Sam Dickinson to take Zayne Parekh is a catastrophic mistake that will haunt the Flames for years.

Parekh’s game does not translate to the NHL-level. Take a good look at the 20 or 25 highest scoring seasons by a defenceman in OHL history, and hardly any made an impact in the NHL.

Parekh is undersized, soft and mediocre defensively. He loves to jump into the rush, and can get away with it when playing against slow footed 20yr olds and 16yr olds who are hopelessly out of their depth, but that will never fly in the NHL.

So everyone else was wrong?
Have you applied for a job with central scouting? Or at least with the hockey news?

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

Habs, Wild, Sharks winners in that order

Blues, Flyers are the only real standout losers to me. I guess I don’t love the Oilers decision to make that trade? But it’s not a franchise destroyer.

Year in and year out professional scouts draft players that never make it in the first round.

Forgive us for doing the same speculation

Yep. NHL scouts aren’t that remarkable at this. Every year a guy falls and we all say “uh why” and the guy turns out very good. Every year a guy is reached for that makes no sense. It’s called out here and the guy plays in the AHL at best.

I still remember the “Brandon Saad falling to the middle of round 2 is the craziest shit I’ve ever seen” posts and the “lulz why u rnt a GM” rebuttals. Every year.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Detroit: B

The players they draft out of Europe in the first round nearly always hit, going all the way back to Niklas Kronwall. MBN will likely be a middle six winger who can either play on a gritty line with Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur, or a more skilled line centered by either Nate Danielson or Dylan Larkin. It sounds like he's likely to hit the Motor City in 2025-26 when the core Yzerman has built is ready to make their push for the playoffs. Not a sexy pick, but a guy built for playoff hockey.

 

[Richard88]

Obviously they really like Sam O'Reilly so if he pans out it might be a win/win for both teams.

With how many teams traded down in the late 1st surely Edmonton could have found a pick in that range without giving up next year's 1st...

 

[User1996]

Sens:

Initially: C (Really did not want Yakemchuk)

As time as progressed I feel Yakemchuk probably isn't nearly as bad as I thought he was, so overall I'd give it a B. Just okay to above average 1st rounder.

Flames:

I'm high on Parekh, that's an A for me, but ngl I did want Helenius more.

IDK why we choose Grindan with our 2nd first rounder, C for me there. So overall like a B to B+.

I don’t love who was left on the board in favour of Gridin, but he’s a better pick than 3/4 of the guys taken after him. The guys I had wanted are still on the board too, so hoping there’s a shot at them day 2.

 

[bert]

Hawks

Levshunov = B
Vanacker = C (Not fan of moving #34 + #50 to jump to #27 for him)
Boisvert = Abomination as was dumb trade that made it happen and ruined night

Hawks overall grade can't be measured because of the Boisvert pick which outside of Flyers passing on Buium was the most idiotic dumb choice by a GM at draft

Just absolutely awful mistake that cant be properly placed into context

Loved the hawks first round. Vanacker is unreal, brutal call on your part. Boisvert is gonna play you cant have all midgets around Bedard and he has an edge.

OP hilarious thread starter doesnt even talk about anyone else than his favorite team and starts to thump his chest. Classic Habs fan behavior.