Management UPDATE: Steve Staios GM and POHO, Dave Poulin Senior VP of Hockey Operations

[flyingfingers]

You want high skill and high smarts. Both are needed to produce significantly in the NHL.

Yakemchuk has one, not the other. Several other prospects available at 7 appear to have both, but we passed them up for Yakemchuk because he fits what the scouts look for in a prospect.

Yakemchuk has incredible smarts in the offensive end. When QBing a powerplay or making an offensive rush. The guy can make great plays.

He's lacking in knowing what to do when defending, or when to play offense vs defense. No different than Parekh.

We'll see if either guy figures that part of their game out.

 

[Senator Stanley]

It's hard to know how involved Pierre Dorion was in our drafting, especially in the 1st and 2nd rounds. He had "smartest guy in the room syndrome" so perhaps he was the one that went off the board to select Tyler Boucher (for example), against the consensus opinion of our scouting staff.

He was asked about this during his tenure. He essentially said that for picks in the top ten, the GM has a big role in the decision. This makes sense given it's a more significant asset, and also because the GM can actually scout the smaller group of prospects in consideration. After that, the GM relies on the head scout as the decision maker because they and their staff are the ones who know the prospects.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but that's how I remember him describing the process in general.

 

[flyingfingers]

No because Parekh would be taller and literally better than him at everything if that was case.

Parekh and Yakemchuk have very similar strengths and flaws, so it's bizarre to me that one is viewed as "high-skill" and the other as some lumbering oaf.

I'm very confident both of them will be able to quarterback a PP and score some points at the NHL level.

But will they be able to defend? That's the question. Will they show the effort they need to in their own end? We'll see.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Parekh and Yakemchuk have very similar strengths and flaws, so it's bizarre to me that one is viewed as "high-skill" and the other as some lumbering oaf.

I'm very confident both of them will be able to quarterback a PP and score some points at the NHL level.

But will they be able to defend? Who knows.

That might have something to do with Parekh being younger and breaking OHL records. Just my guess.

 

[flyingfingers]

That might have something to donwith Parekh being younger and breaking OHL records. Just my guess.

Different leagues, different teams. Can't compare stats across the OHL and WHL.

You can compare skillsets. Both are similar in their strengths and weaknesses. They're both high-skill players with great hands and offensive instincts, but neither has cared too much about defending.

It just so happens that one guy is 6'4... so he must be a grinder in the eyes of some people.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Different leagues, different teams. Can't compare stats across the OHL and WHL.

You can compare skillsets. Both are similar in their strengths and weaknesses. They're both high-skill players with great hands and offensive instincts, but neither has cared too much about defending.

It just so happens that one guy is 6'4... so he must be a grinder in the eyes of some people.

Not a single person thinks he’s a grinder.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

- He thinks a RW for Tkachuk and Stützle is available internally.

- He sees Zetterlund as a long-term piece

I'm not sure exactly who they think would be a good top line winger internally. Giroux certainly isn't it anymore, and Bath(if he stays) looks like he's slotted to be paired with Cozens long-term. Who else is there?

To me that exact spot is the biggest hole that needs filling on the roster, so to hear they have no plan to go find one on the market is concerning. At least they have plans to replace Jensen if he's not good to go next season.

 

[flyingfingers]

Not a single person thinks he’s a grinder.

Aren't you saying that our scouting staff doesn't draft skill early in rounds? What is Yakemchuk if not a skilled, offensive defenseman?

He may not be the guy you wanted, but he's a high skill player.

 

[Senator Stanley]

Yakemchuk has incredible smarts in the offensive end. When QBing a powerplay or making an offensive rush. The guy can make great plays.

He's lacking in knowing what to do when defending, or when to play offense vs defense. No different than Parekh.

We'll see if either guy figures that part of their game out.

I don't think this is true, unfortunately. It looks great when he pulls off a dangle, but the success rate is low (i.e. coaches are not going to put up with it at the NHL level) and the tunnel-vision with which he attacks on the rush is, to me, actually an indication that he doesn't see the game particularly well in the offensive zone. He's obviously not devoid of offensive smarts, but he's not a high-end offensive player in my opinion. Parekh's offensive game is on a whole other level.

 

[flyingfingers]

I'm not sure exactly who they think would be a good top line winger internally. Giroux certainly isn't it anymore, and Bath(if he stays) looks like he's slotted to be paired with Cozens long-term. Who else is there?

To me that exact spot is the biggest hole that needs filling on the roster, so to hear they have no plan to go find one on the market is concerning. At least they have plans to replace Jensen if he's not good to go next season.

Probably Zetterlund.

Shoot first guy that can score from distance, good skater, can forecheck well.

Obviously he didn't produce that well after the trade, but from a pure archetype perspective, he's the "type" you'd probably want to try on that line.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Yakemchuk has incredible smarts in the offensive end. When QBing a powerplay or making an offensive rush. The guy can make great plays.

He's lacking in knowing what to do when defending, or when to play offense vs defense. No different than Parekh.

We'll see if either guy figures that part of their game out.

No he doesn't, which is partly why he only managed 32 assists this year and didn't even hit a PPG at age 19 in the WHL.

He lacks vision and playmaking ability in the offensive zone and that's because he's not a very smart hockey player.

He's unquestionably extremely talented and has a fantastic shot, but he's not great at everything. We passed up far smarter players for the size/skill/snarl that he possesses.

We'll see if it ends up working out, but it's not looking good early on.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Aren't you saying that our scouting staff doesn't draft skill early in rounds? What is Yakemchuk if not a skilled, offensive defenseman?

He may not be the guy you wanted, but he's a high skill player.

He is skilled, but the size factor was definitely given a lot of emphasis and they probably left a lot of skill on the table for those few inches.

 

[PlayOn]

I'm not sure exactly who they think would be a good top line winger internally. Giroux certainly isn't it anymore, and Bath(if he stays) looks like he's slotted to be paired with Cozens long-term. Who else is there?

To me that exact spot is the biggest hole that needs filling on the roster, so to hear they have no plan to go find one on the market is concerning. At least they have plans to replace Jensen if he's not good to go next season.

Could be Zetterlund.

Mind you Staios just says the thing that will make the least amount of waves. He also said they were okay with the goaltending before he traded Korpisalo.

He will address the hole after he fills it, not before.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Parekh and Yakemchuk have very similar strengths and flaws, so it's bizarre to me that one is viewed as "high-skill" and the other as some lumbering oaf.

I'm very confident both of them will be able to quarterback a PP and score some points at the NHL level.

But will they be able to defend? That's the question. Will they show the effort they need to in their own end? We'll see.

One of them does one thing at an elite level The other is not even a pp qb in junior in his 19 y/o season and his defensive game mostly due to skating and decision making isn't very good.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Yakemchuk has incredible smarts in the offensive end. When QBing a powerplay or making an offensive rush. The guy can make great plays.

He's lacking in knowing what to do when defending, or when to play offense vs defense. No different than Parekh.

We'll see if either guy figures that part of their game out.

Not sure who you were watching or where you were watching him. This is a HUGE overstatement

 

[flyingfingers]

No he doesn't, which is partly why he only managed 32 assists this year and didn't even hit a PPG at age 19 in the WHL.

He lacks vision and playmaking ability in the offensive zone and that's because he's not a very smart hockey player.

He's unquestionably extremely talented and has a fantastic shot, but he's not great at everything. We passed up far smarter players for the size/skill/snarl that he possesses.

We'll see if it ends up working out, but it's not looking good early on.

Yakemchuk played on a defense-first team. 2 players on his team scored above a PPG. The best offensive forward was Kindel, a late-1st round talent.

Parekh played on a much more offensive team. 5 players on his team scored above a PPG, including top-3 projected pick Michael Misa.

 

[Dionysus]

No he doesn't, which is partly why he only managed 32 assists this year and didn't even hit a PPG at age 19 in the WHL.

He lacks vision and playmaking ability in the offensive zone and that's because he's not a very smart hockey player.

He's unquestionably extremely talented and has a fantastic shot, but he's not great at everything. We passed up far smarter players for the size/skill/snarl that he possesses.

We'll see if it ends up working out, but it's not looking good early on.

Watching his game in preseason, didn't see the lack of IQ that some harp on.

Headed smart passes, hit the open player, has deception on the lime to open up lanes and a big shot that teams will have to respect.

A bit slow pivoting when defending is something he will have to work on. Defends hard down low. Will see how his defensive reads look in training camp.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Every single NHL scouting staff is wrong A LOT in the draft. It's the nature of the draft.

Name a team. Any team. I'll bring up a list of very bad draft picks, in hindsight. The majority of picks amount to nothing.

You can question scouts all you want, everyone has their preferences in players.

But a blanket statement of "our scouting sucks" is asinine considering the core of our team is made up of players we recently drafted and developed: Tkachuk, Stutzle, Sanderson, Greig, Pinto, Kleven...

You're absolutely right that no scouting staff is perfect and everyone gets things wrong, but their scouting philosophy is very important in determining how often they get things right vs. wrong.

The track record of drafting players with questionable skill or IQ, low production but above-average size and PIMs (measuring toughness/physicality) is really really bad, which is why it's no surprise our last several drafts aren't looking very promising.

And I don't want to give any scouting staff too much credit for hitting on obvious picks in the top 5. Stutzle was the no-brainer at #3 and Tkachuk was the consensus guy at #4 (whether fans agreed or not), but no question picking the high-rising Sanderson at #5 was a fantastic pick. I don't think they deserve too much credit for Stutzle/Tkachuk, but absolutely for Sanderson.

 

[flyingfingers]

One of them does one thing at an elite level The other is not even a pp qb in junior in his 19 y/o season and his defensive game mostly due to skating and decision making isn't very good.

"Brady Tkachuk couldn't even score 10 goals in college and we picked him over the 44 goal scorer Filip Zadina."

 

[PlayOn]

Watching his game in preseason, didn't see the lack of IQ that some harp on.

Headed smart passes, hit the open player, has deception on the lime to open up lanes and a big shot that teams will have to respect.

A bit slow pivoting when defending is something he will have to work on. Defends hard down low. Will see how his defensive reads look in training camp.

Ya I’m not sure Yak has low IQ so much as he’s not consistent. It’s hard to pinpoint why he’s not consistent but I’m not convinced it’s his brain. At his best he plays smart hockey, at his worst… he’s all over the place.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Yakemchuk played on a defense-first team. 2 players on his team scored above a PPG. The best offensive forward was Kindel, a late-1st round talent.

Parekh played on a much more offensive team. 5 players on his team scored above a PPG, including top-3 projected pick Michael Misa.

Yakemchuk barely cracked being a + player ..he only got there in his last 8 games on a team that was +83 Saginaw was +60 and Parekh was +42

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

"Brady Tkachuk couldn't even score 10 goals in college and we picked him over the 44 goal scorer Filip Zadina."

sure makes perfect sense lol what a stupid argument

btw I was pushing for Brady and disliked Zadina... Yakemchuk is much more like Zadina than Brady ... no substance

 

[Hale The Villain]

Yakemchuk played on a defense-first team. 2 players on his team scored above a PPG. The best offensive forward was Kindel, a late-1st round talent.

Parekh played on a much more offensive team. 5 players on his team scored above a PPG, including top-3 projected pick Michael Misa.

Quality of teammates matters somewhat, but it does not make enough of a difference to make up for Parekh literally having double the production of Yakemchuk (1.75 PPG vs. 0.875).

 

[flyingfingers]

You're absolutely right that no scouting staff is perfect and everyone gets things wrong, but their scouting philosophy is very important in determining how often they get things right vs. wrong.

The track record of drafting players with questionable skill or IQ, low production but above-average size and PIMs (measuring toughness/physicality) is really really bad, which is why it's no surprise our last several drafts aren't looking very promising.

And I don't want to give any scouting staff too much credit for hitting on obvious picks in the top 5. Stutzle was the no-brainer at #3 and Tkachuk was the consensus guy at #4 (whether fans agreed or not), but no question picking the high-rising Sanderson at #5 was a fantastic pick. I don't think they deserve too much credit for Stutzle/Tkachuk, but absolutely for Sanderson.

The second you say "they don't deserve credit for...", you lose it. You deserve credit for the players you take who hit. Our organization deserves every bit of credit for taking Tkachuk at 4.

McKeens, Button, Pronman, ISS, Robinson etc all had Zadina ranked higher than him: 2018 NHL Draft Rankings

Geniuses Pronman and Robinson had Tkachuk ranked at 9th. Probably because he was just a grinder who lacked skill...

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Could be Zetterlund.

Mind you Staios just says the thing that will make the least amount of waves. He also said they were okay with the goaltending before he traded Korpisalo.

He will address the hole after he fills it, not before.

Probably Zetterlund.

Shoot first guy that can score from distance, good skater, can forecheck well.

Obviously he didn't produce that well after the trade, but from a pure archetype perspective, he's the "type" you'd probably want to try on that line.

As much as I've been pumping Zetterlund's tires and think he's a great long-term addition, I'd rather he be a middle-6 guy for us. If we're to move past being a bubble team we'll definitely need to add some real firepower in the top-6. Ideally someone who can score 5v5 and has a shoot first mentality.

Hopefully as PlayOn says this is Staios being his usual coy self where he doesn't talk about his plans for trades/UFAs until after he pulls them off.