voyageur
Hockey fanatic
- Jul 10, 2011
- 10,554
- 9,994
I think the Jets should be in the bottom 3rd of the prospect rankings.Our prospect pool lacks the high end pedigree which makes sense since we haven’t drafting high since Laine.
Can we get lucky YES, will it take luck YES. I look at Lambert a bit like Roslo at the same age (hopefully Brad pans out better), McGroarty is a good prospect but once I factor in the probability he’s moving on then I am somewhat ignoring him now. That leaves Salamonsson who I am excited about but it’s going to take a bit of luck still.
There are worse prospect pools out there but without McGroaty we are probably lower middle of the NHL pack now. I don’t mind our depth but we are missing #1 and maybe #2. If we had one high end blue chip future #1 centre type prospect at the top of our pool I would feel really optimistic.
Since 2016, Samberg and Perfetti are the only players drafted who have grown into what is a good prospect ranking, top 6 F/top 4D, and there have been struggles in getting there.
The amount of draft picks traded to keep the team competitive is concerning, when the Jets miss on secondary picks...
A guy like Torgersson is coming off a 1 goal AHL season, while Faber gets his name in the Norris hat, and Evangelista is already scoring as a pro, with over 100 games under his belt.
Wyatt Johnson was 3rd in scoring on the Stars, and their leading scorer in the playoffs. Jets haven't even got a full AHL season out of Lucius yet.
Looking at the Milwaukee Admirals roster from last year and they have their prospects lined up exactly where you want them, at the top of the scoring on the team, including Kemell, taken after Mc Groarty, and Nashville has a lot more draft picks to play with down the road.
It's not now, when we have some prime time players that Chevy has hit on that our prospect pool is going to hurt. But down the road, competing against wily GMs in Nill, Poile/Trotz, Guerin, Doug Armstrong, not to mention the Utah team being gifted a litany of picks for being a failure and a dumping ground in the desert, and the Hawks being gifted a franchise player, and some good supporting pieces in a tear down rebuild, Chevy's recent draft history is disconcerting.
Lambert I think has a better IQ than Roslovic to play centre, but that's part hope on my part.
You have to think that if the Rangers went out earlier in the playoffs after acquiring Copp, our #1 prospect wouldn't even be on the board.
But that is one part of the risk in staying in the murky middle, and having to trade picks to stay competitive.