If We Win Draft Lottery: Lafreniere or Byfield?

[Hunter Gathers]

Byfield is also almost a whole year younger than Laf. Put this years Laf up against Next years Byfield and give byfield a two month advantage and see how the draft would shape out.

Byfield is also a giant who can bully around CHL kids. He won't be able to do that nearly as easily in the NHL. Caution is very much warranted.

The gap between Laf and Byfield is pretty decent. I think the WJC showed that.

 

[Polar Bear]

Devils fan coming in peace. Don’t hate the rangers as I live in Toronto and have no reason too.
You have to take the BPA but I think that the Rangers May have a case for a team that doesn’t. I’ll explain.
1. This is probably The most depth I’ve seen on a young roster with prospects in my 44 years. If there’s any team that could Get away with not taking the best player available in exchange for needs it would be the Rangers.
2. The Kings might bite on a trade. They need prospects on the wing as they have Turcotte and Vilardi at centre currently.

I like Chytil and think he can be a #2 but I don’t think everyone is in board with that. Although if Laf is drafted having Deep wings isn’t going to be an issue with a weaker centre. Not to mention Zibby is only signed two more years. Rangers might not be competitive next year due to youth and then The year after that they should be near the top of the league with only one year of Zibby. You have to assume he cashes in and you are left with 3-4 top wingers and no top centre

Byfield is also almost a whole year younger than Laf. Put this years Laf up against Next years Byfield and give byfield a two month advantage and see how the draft would shape out.
I’ve been watching byfield play for about 5 years since minor hockey.
Best player to come out of the OHL since McDavid.
I’m sure LA would easily trade up one spot for their second pick. They have three seconds.
I understand it’s tough decision. You ALWAYS take the BPA. I’m not saying that it should be done, but I think if there ever was a good opportunity to do it, this would be it.

No. We just take Laf and can easily find a #2 C with other trade assets including the CAR 1st. You're making this way more complicated as an outsider than it's in reality.

 

[Polar Bear]

Lafrenier is the top scorer, but I have a gut feeling that we'll take Byfield since we need better centers, and the team would become more diverse like NYC really is.

We have Kreider, Buchnevic, Panarin, and Lemieux at LW already, and really just Fast and Kakko on RW. If Buchnevic or Krieder plays RW, we still need a real 2C. Mika is obviously our 1C and Chytil is passable, but is really a 3/4C. Howden and Strome are completely expendable, and Byfield would be a huge addition to the team.

Lolz, delete this nephew. We only take him if we moved down to 2. The damn Twitter account already posted about Laf. Also, Laf is the CLEAR consensus number 1 via Bob's scouts which we know we are on.

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

Make an Eric Lindros-like trade proposal.

And that is about what we'd want.

Lindros was a C and higher regarded than Laf. Laf is basically a French Taylor Hall.

 

[bl02]

Wow I’m so looking forward to other teams fans coming in here every 5 minutes and telling us why we should trade away our right to select a homegrown franchise player for the next however long until the draft

As long as it’s done without trolling I’m ok with it. I think it provides good debate as long as it doesn’t turn into really dumb proposals.
I think the poster from Montreal wasn’t totally out of line and adds to some good banter

 

[Puckclektr]

Byfield is also a giant who can bully around CHL kids. He won't be able to do that nearly as easily in the NHL. Caution is very much warranted.

The gap between Laf and Byfield is pretty decent. I think the WJC showed that.

his speed has been more of his advantage than his size.
His size is an advantage that will help him in the NHL. as for the WJC. Laf clearly had better players and more opportunity than Byfield did.

 

[Polar Bear]

his speed has been more of his advantage than his size.
His size is an advantage that will help him in the NHL. as for the WJC. Laf clearly had better players and more opportunity than Byfield did.

Laf is clearly a better player right now, it's not even close. I don't know why a very small group of people are trying to make a discussion which is just not happening tbh. Same exact thing happened with the idea of passing on Kakko last year, it's dumb.

 

[Puckclektr]

No. We just take Laf and can easily find a #2 C with other trade assets including the CAR 1st. You're making this way more complicated as an outsider than it's in reality.

Not trying to make it complicated. I also said that I wasn’t saying that they should do it. But there are rangers fans that are trying to justify it and I said if there ever was a time to do it it could be now.
Top centres have always been difficult to trade for.

 

[Puckclektr]

Laf is clearly a better player right now, it's not even close. I don't know why a very small group of people are trying to make a discussion which is just not happening tbh. Same exact thing happened with the idea of passing on Kakko last year, it's dumb.

Of course he is a better player. And that year older also plays a big part as well.

 

[Polar Bear]

Not trying to make it complicated. I also said that I wasn’t saying that they should do it. But there are rangers fans that are trying to justify it and I said if there ever was a time to do it it could be now.
Top centres have always been difficult to trade for.

It's a small handful of people who tried this same stupidity last season with passing on Kakko for a C or a Dman like Byram. We need a 2C, which we can easily get via other trade assets.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

As long as it’s done without trolling I’m ok with it. I think it provides good debate as long as it doesn’t turn into really dumb proposals.
I think the poster from Montreal wasn’t totally out of line and adds to some good banter

Nah he needs to piss off. Comes in here offering scraps and gets mad when ppl are like “lol no” then tries downplaying Laf bc of it. “He’s basically just French Taylor Hall lol” okay why do you want him so bad then?

 

[Polar Bear]

Of course he is a better player. And that year older also plays a big part as well.

It does, of course, but that's sort of the point. No team is going to pass on a sure franchise type player for Byfield, who while is a great prospect, has A LOT of projecting to do which may not fully develop. There's a reason Laf is a unanimous 1st overall pick.

 

[bl02]

Just curious. You guys need that future 1C don’t you? How are you going to get it if not through trading? Building through wingers doesn’t get you the cup.

How is Mika not considered a future number 1 center? He’s 27 and plays both ends of the ice.
Anyway, I think your posts have brought some good hockey discussion but before you think “damn all these Ranger fans are delusional” think about if the shoe was on the other foot. If you guys won the draft and we had the 16th overall or worse what kind of additions would you be asking for? I’m sure it would not be just two or three good prospects and a mid round first

 

[bl02]

Nah he needs to piss off. Comes in here offering scraps and gets made when ppl are like “lol no” then trys downplaying Laf bc of it. “He’s basically just French Taylor Hall lol” okay why do you want him so bad then?

I don’t think Suzuki is scraps but all the other pieces are big ifs. We all know Montreal fans want him. They’ve been talking about tanking for him since the winter. Anyway, it’s all in fun unless someone is really trolling. We all know Laf isn’t going anywhere

 

[Puckclektr]

It does, of course, but that's sort of the point. No team is going to pass on a sure franchise type player for Byfield, who while is a great prospect, has A LOT of projecting to do which may not fully develop. There's a reason Laf is a unanimous 1st overall pick.

Majority.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Lindros was a C and higher regarded than Laf. Laf is basically a French Taylor Hall.

Cool. So you don't want him or need him, then. So stop asking.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

I don’t think Suzuki is scraps but all the other pieces are big ifs. We all know Montreal fans want him. They’ve been talking about tanking for him since the winter. Anyway, it’s all in fun unless someone is really trolling. We all know Laf isn’t going anywhere

Suzuki isn’t scraps in a vacuum but relative to Laf he is

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Majority.

Who has Byfield or someone else as #1?

 

[Polar Bear]

Majority.

Bob's scouts were 10/10, that's just about unanimous. Obviously there can always be one or two rogue scouts that don't go with the flow. We also know we're on Bob's list every year. I feel as if we're arguing semantics and a reality that isn't happening.

 

[Puckclektr]

Who has Byfield or someone else as #1?

I’ve seen some people that have had him.

 

[bl02]

Suzuki isn’t scraps in a vacuum but relative to Laf he is

Fair enough. Only team that realistically would entice me is Ottawa and they would need to overpay obviously

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

Majority.

Nah he's the unanimous #1

Name any professional scouting organization that doesn't have him #1

Regular people like us don't count

 

[Polar Bear]

Who has Byfield or someone else as #1?

Just as a comparison, Hughes was only I believe 7 or 8 out of 10 with Bob, so he wasn't unanimous, but more so just the clear cut number one. This is way different.

 

[DramaticGloveSave]

How is Mika not considered a future number 1 center? He’s 27 and plays both ends of the ice.
Anyway, I think your posts have brought some good hockey discussion but before you think “damn all these Ranger fans are delusional” think about if the shoe was on the other foot. If you guys won the draft and we had the 16th overall or worse what kind of additions would you be asking for? I’m sure it would be just two or three good prospects and a mid round first

There have been some reasonable responses.

if the shoe was on the other foot, and the Habs had the first pick and the guy was a NY native and the Rangers were all in, I’d be looking for something like Kakko and a 1st from you guys. Let’s assume your first is equivalent to our first, is Kakko really worth more than Suzuki, Caufield and a former first rounder in Poehling?

 

[mas0764]

Just for shits and giggles, what would it cost Montreal for #1 overall? Kotkaniemi could be in the package, 20 year old 1C Finn to play with Kakko. Domi could be available. Pick 16. Maybe Carey Price if Habs go full youth movement?

No thanks.