Whom would you draft in 2023 with our first pick ?

[Kudo Shinichi]

Reinbacher would've likely went 3rd to Anaheim in this year's draft. He's exactly what they need.

 

[themilosh]

Don’t forget, Levshunov went 2nd. He was the only real RD stud in the draft. Tons of forwards, tons of LD. Dickinson going outside the top ten was pretty unexpected. Would he have gone so late if he were on the right? Probably not.

Hugo’s said in the past they they take scarcity into account. It was probably a big reason for going RB.

and Yakemchuk is a RHD = which is why he was selected 6th, ahead of pick movers like Buium and Parekh. Dickinson falling to 12 is purely because he is LD, if he was RD he would have been selected in place of Yakemchuk

Edit*
Levshunov 2nd (#1 RHD) PP1
Yakemchuk 7th (#2 RHD) PP1
Parekh 9th (#2 RHD) PP1

Silayev 10th (#1 LHD) PP2
Dickinson 11th (#1 LHD) PP1
Buium 12th (#1 LHD) PP1

It doesn't take an Actuary to clearly see that the entire league values RHD way more.. i'd venture a guess based on Supply/Demand that a #2RHD = #1LHD

If Reinbacher was in this draft, he would have gone either 2nd to Chicago or 7th to Ottawa. The kid is going to be our #1RHD and stalwart for a decade.. will he be top5 in the league? I think he has a chance, but more realistically top5-15. That is NOT a bad thing, not sure why so many fans are negative on him, seems like such a good kid too.

I honestly think the BlackHawks were in the same predicament btw Lev and Demi, and they too went with the stud RHD.. clearly they wanted Demi as they tried to trade into #4, but the smart pick is RHD... i would have (and still would take) Leonard instead of Mich.

 

[Rapala]

It’s the elephant in the room. Might as well process and deal with now.

I checked every corner of my room heck I even looked under the couch there is no elephant.

 

[Andrei79]

Well like you said though...teams still preferred Iginla and Catton ahead of right D. The only difference here is Yakemchuck...was he targetted for his position? Still...statswise, the guy had insane stats in the CHL too. For Reinbacher...and in the end they might not be wrong, it's heavily projection. And to me the D that is also more a projection is Silyaev.

Reinbacher had insane stats as well. I don't know why that would apply to Yakemchuk and not Reinbacher.

 

[xX SEYF Xx]

Looks like we dodged a bullet

 

[Whitesnake]

Reinbacher had insane stats as well. I don't know why that would apply to Yakemchuk and not Reinbacher.

Thing is this...it's not like we have a lot to compare with. It's not because he had better stats than Josi than all of sudden those stats are insane. Different times. Different leagues. Really the comparisons are tough to make.

 

[Andrei79]

Thing is this...it's not like we have a lot to compare with. It's not because he had better stats than Josi than all of sudden those stats are insane. Different times. Different leagues. Really the comparisons are tough to make.

We still have a few different comparisons. For example, Streit was 21 and Josi was in his D+1 when they put up similar production, but on much stronger teams. NLA is a strong league, what Reinbacher did in his draft year was unheard of in that league. I find it's unfair to say they drafted him based "heavily" on projection when he was both productive and heavily relied on in a strong pro league. He had an amazing season.

 

[calder candidate]

Except Benson, just no more room for small guys.

We aren’t competing for the cup we should juste always take the best player and we trade…

 

[calder candidate]

Looks like we dodged a bullet

He is a bit of a jerk… he will fit right in.
Still think we should have pick him at 134th and I would also have a chip on my shoulder.

 

[WeThreeKings]

We aren’t competing for the cup we should juste always take the best player and we trade…

for third liners like McLeod?

 

[Whitesnake]

We still have a few different comparisons. For example, Streit was 21 and Josi was in his D+1 when they put up similar production, but on much stronger teams. NLA is a strong league, what Reinbacher did in his draft year was unheard of in that league. I find it's unfair to say they drafted him based "heavily" on projection when he was both productive and heavily relied on in a strong pro league. He had an amazing season.

And yet....we're talking about 3 players here. And here's my issue...that league does not produce NHL players. So while most U19, the best of them, only had 5-8 points in a year means that they won't be NHL'ers...what does having 22 points means? Because if unhead of....it means top 5 pick? Just wondering what is the value of being unheard of......

Or do we solely go....if Josi 8 points deserved a high 2nd rounder, it automatically means Reinbacher 22 points deserved a top 5 pick?

I think that so far....with everything we know....it's still too soon to know where he end up being. I will still believe, till I'm wrong, that we had a safer yet still exciting players to take namely Michkov or Leonard. People talk about how rare a Reinbacher is based on his position...I'd say that talent like Michkov or the combination of bulldog/talent like Leonard is also rare.

Yet, I do understand that today, we would not have a RD with a possibility of 1st pairing without him. I would never have drafted anybody else than Demidov. And for Hage, well in my evaluation, there no RD in there that would be 1st pairing possibility. But...you can always try to trade.

 

[McGees]

 

[Playmaker09]

Benson was and still is BPA (assuming Michkov off the table).

RD could have been addressed this offseason and we had the cash to do it. Marino traded for peanuts, Montour, Roy and Pesce free agents. Chychrun's a LD but also wasn't an expensive price. I'm sure Parayko can be pried for the right price from St Louis.

Then you invest many of the mid 1st/2nd/3rd round picks in the coming years in drafting and developing RHD, while the D mentioned above hold the fort for the next 5-7 years. Most of the best shutdown D in the league are not top picks and I still don't believe you need to be investing top 10 picks to get them.

Just need to pick more of them. We have like 7 RHD in our entire organization and half of those are in Russia and probably never coming over.

 

[Hins77]

Benson was and still is BPA (assuming Michkov off the table).

RD could have been addressed this offseason and we had the cash to do it. Marino traded for peanuts, Montour, Roy and Pesce free agents. Chychrun's a LD but also wasn't an expensive price. I'm sure Parayko can be pried for the right price from St Louis.

Then you invest many of the mid 1st/2nd/3rd round picks in the coming years in drafting and developing RHD, while the D mentioned above hold the fort for the next 5-7 years. Most of the best shutdown D in the league are not top picks and I still don't believe you need to be investing top 10 picks to get them.

Just need to pick more of them. We have like 7 RHD in our entire organization and half of those are in Russia and probably never coming over.

Montour, Roy and pesce are all 3/4th dman. You don’t want that kind of player on the first pair. Reinbacher has every tool to become one. To build a contender, it’s to build a team when everybody are on the right chair. RD is a position we needed to adress and we did qith Reinbacher. The last first RD been on UFa market, it was Pietrangelo, and they win the cup

 

[Playmaker09]

Montour, Roy and pesce are all 3/4th dman. You don’t want that kind of player on the first pair. Reinbacher has every tool to become one. To build a contender, it’s to build a team when everybody are on the right chair. RD is a position we needed to adress and we did qith Reinbacher. The last first RD been on UFa market, it was Pietrangelo, and they win the cup

If there's potentially a legit #1 available, then by all means draft them top 5.

I don't think Reinbacher is that guy, and I don't think he moves the needle much more than the players I mentioned.

As far as building a contender goes, many of the best defenses in the past 10 years have been built without any top 10 picks.
Nashville, Carolina, Boston, the Rangers (2014) and the Islanders immediately come to mind. If anything, wasting high picks on D is what's held Carolina back from winning a cup (Ryan Murphy, Haydn Fleury, Jake Bean, Noah Hanifin is a fine player but Carolina has nothing left to show for it).

Pittsburgh even won a cup without Letang and I can't even name you another D from their top 4 other than Dumoulin. Carolina in 06 same thing.
Washington (Carlson a second pair PP specialist) and Florida's (Forsling - a waiver pickup - was their best defender, not Ekblad) defenses were pretty mediocre as well.

 

[Hins77]

If there's potentially a legit #1 available, then by all means draft them top 5.

I don't think Reinbacher is that guy, and I don't think he moves the needle much more than the players I mentioned.

As far as building a contender goes, many of the best defenses in the past 10 years have been built without any top 10 picks.
Nashville, Carolina, Boston, the Rangers (2014) and the Islanders immediately come to mind. If anything, wasting high picks on D is what's held Carolina back from winning a cup (Ryan Murphy, Haydn Fleury, Jake Bean, Noah Hanifin is a fine player but Carolina has nothing left to show for it).

Pittsburgh even won a cup without Letang and I can't even name you another D from their top 4 other than Dumoulin. Carolina in 06 same thing.
Washington (Carlson a second pair PP specialist) and Florida's (Forsling - a waiver pickup - was their best defender, not Ekblad) defenses were pretty mediocre as well.

Ekblad is also a first pairing Dman. Building a stanley cup champion to me, you needed a true 1st centerman, a first and a second solid Dman. Size on the wing. A player Point per game. I don’t really care about the goalie personnally, I prefer to put money elsewhere. You add some complimentary piece.
Reinbacher will become the best of our dman we already have. Leonard is the kind of complementary winger. I rather like to pick a futur top Dman vs conplimentary winger

 

[Guess]

As this question of any other fanbase in the league and whom would they select?

31/31 would take Michkov because he's simply the far better player.

This doesn't take into account other factors besides individual skill. You don't draft skill in a bubble, there's other factors to consider.

That being said, none of us know the whole story behind the player so of course we'd pick the talented player. But it's not an obvious choice.