Wright, Slafkovsky, Cooley : Time to make that final decision

[le_sean]

Slaf is going to be an Anthony Mantha 2.0, big, fast and soft. Good but not great... Wright at worst a Ryan O'reilly... Pretty obvious choice.

Slaf isn’t soft whatsoever. Weird comparison.

 

[Runner77]

Have you seen Nemac play?
Gotta trust Hugo right now............but I do feel there is a big splash coming at the draft....

Finally, a post where you don’t make a low hanging fruit pun involving Wright.

Agreed with you on giving Hughes a chance. From what’s being reported, he’s being thorough and that can only bode well.

 

[Runner77]

Vinny was scared to come to Montreal though................

How about Martin Lapointe, who as a player, used Montreal to get a better deal elsewhere. The guy who is co-heading the draft also didn’t want to come to Montreal.

But, you can’t hold that against them when they become suits.

 

[Runner77]

Unless one of those scouts is employed by the Montreal Canadiens...Bob MacKenzie's list is just anectodal.

Doesn't mean anything or have any influence on who the Habs will pick.

It shouldn’t but when your sampling consists of scouts from a representative sample of the market, it may be an indicator of how the Habs may be grappling with the decision internally, at their FU Meetings.

let's hope you are wright

I love you Sam but please, no more low hanging Wright puns. That train has already crashed several times over.

 

[WeThreeKings]

How about Martin Lapointe, who as a player, used Montreal to get a better deal elsewhere. The guy who is co-heading the draft also didn’t want to come to Montreal.

But, you can’t hold that against them when they become suits.

Lecavalier was going to come here until we hired Therrien. Can't blame the man for that.

 

[Runner77]

Lecavalier was going to come here until we hired Therrien. Can't blame the man for that.

You mean, the guy who used to scout for us when he was on his last legs?

 

[Runner77]

Our scouts' track record – pre-Caufield – scares the crap outta me. Luckily, it's harder (though not impossible) to screw up when you pick 1OA. All experts seem to agree there's not much separating Wright and Slaf, so I won't blame our scouts if the other guy turns out better than ours. As long as we add a core player.

The real scouting happens with our next two picks. Caufield was a somewhat hidden gem; we need to duplicate that radar, nail this draft, and find core pieces outside the top-10, like other teams manage to do.

This might be the one draft where having more darts to throw may actually bear results. There are too many ranking unknowns that are attributable to lost development time and lack of scouting data as a fallout from the pandemic, so there may just be more hidden gems from later picks than in more normal drafts.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Are you new to hockey ? Bob's been making these lists this way for decades. It's a consensus list from scouts he talks to, usually head scouts or directors of player personnel like Timmins was. It's not about agreeing or not, it's about making a list that's representative of what might happen at the draft. Like Bob mentioning rumors of trades he's heard from his sources. He doesn't have to agree with it, he relays the information. That's been his job for decades This is pretty simple stuff.

Pretty embarrassing to have Slafkovsky at #1 , everyone else in the world has Wright #1 , don’t act like this would be happening if Toronto was picking #1 , TSN would be praising Wright and he would be #1 on Bob’s list.

We can agree to disagree, I see the bias going on, it started with Bettman’s enthusiasm when we won the lottery.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

Pretty embarrassing to have Slafkovsky at #1 , everyone else in the world has Wright #1 , don’t act like this would be happening if Toronto was picking #1 , TSN would be praising Wright and he would be #1 on Bob’s list.

We can agree to disagree, I see the bias going on, it started with Bettman’s enthusiasm when we won the lottery.

 

[SlafySZN]

He was also mentoring two 16 yo’s on his wings the first half of the year.

Soto is 16, yes but ludwinski is the same age as Wright, he’s just a ‘’rookie’’ because of the covid year they missed.

 

[Runner77]

As you mentioned, this draft doesn't seems to feature top elite talent......
Who's the BPA? There's not one. All of them have questions marks.

When there's not a clean BPA, like this year, that's where position becomes more relevant.....Hughes mentioned the exact same thing himself. If you go around the room and 15 out of 20 of your people tell you this is the guy you go with, then screw the position they're playing, but if you end up 10-10....then and only then it becomes a factor.

And being right....it was a way to say that it's easy for us to make our decision but it's a lot of harder for them as they will have to live with their mistake and the criticism that comes with them, not us.

That’s just it. I don’t think this is the draft that will define HuGo’s tenure. They should get the benefit of the doubt regardless of outcome. Too many individuals from the scouting community are more and more divided. Margarita’s scouts have no anti-Hab agenda — and if they can’t nab the first to be drafted then Hughes should be afforded leeway.

I’d hate to see position as the deciding factor. I would much rather they take the player who has the best chance of becoming a first line player even if both current targets have been anointed as having 2nd line ceilings.

 

[SlafySZN]

Gorton himself has been on record in a 2019 interview saying if a team gets the 1st overall, it's the General Manager who makes the call, not the head scout.

He also said he doesn’t want a guy with a full beard already at 17

 

[BenchBrawl]

We got doubly unlucky to get the 1st overall this year, AND that the draft is in Montreal.

If we could play optimally, we'd trade down a few spots and use the added assets to secure Nemec and Lekkerimaki.

Then tank next year and pick a center.

Where is our #1D gonna come from for this upcoming core? This year seems like an excellent opportunity to grab one.

Plus, defensemen take longer to develop in general. May as well pick him up in the first draft so everyone can peak around the same time.

Not worried about the #2D-#5D spots with our prospect pool. But we have no #1D and they don't grow on trees.

 

[BenchBrawl]

He also said he doesn’t want a guy with a full beard already at 17

Yeah I know lol That goes against Wright. Plus Gorton has shown a tendency to pick wingers.

 

[OnTheRun]

Pretty embarrassing to have Slafkovsky at #1 , everyone else in the world has Wright #1 , don’t act like this would be happening if Toronto was picking #1 , TSN would be praising Wright and he would be #1 on Bob’s list.

We can agree to disagree, I see the bias going on, it started with Bettman’s enthusiasm when we won the lottery.

You're not making any sense here.

Button have Wright at #1 (and the Habs are picking Wright in is mock draft), he work for TSN too you know and he's much more a Leafs cheerleader than Bob ever was.

Button's list = 100% Button's OPINION
Bob's list = 100% NOT Bob's opinion

 

[MTL-rules]

Slaf isn’t soft whatsoever. Weird comparison.

Neither is Mantha, but both aren't power forwards

 

[Andrei79]

Pretty embarrassing to have Slafkovsky at #1 , everyone else in the world has Wright #1 , don’t act like this would be happening if Toronto was picking #1 , TSN would be praising Wright and he would be #1 on Bob’s list.

We can agree to disagree, I see the bias going on, it started with Bettman’s enthusiasm when we won the lottery.

Oh ok, so Bob's lying or fabricating stuff. Thank god I was taking a shit while reading this, at least something productive was going on.

 

[Runner77]

Oh ok, so Bob's lying or fabricating stuff. Thank god I was taking a shit while reading this, at least something productive was going on.

TMI.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Yeah I know lol That goes against Wright. Plus Gorton has shown a tendency to pick wingers.

I wouldn't call it a tendency at all. They were just the unanimous choices that 98% of scouts/teams would have made at those picks.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

Oh ok, so Bob's lying or fabricating stuff. Thank god I was taking a shit while reading this, at least something productive was going on.

...hope ya didn't forget to wipe in the aftermath, amigo...

 

[BenchBrawl]

I wouldn't call it a tendency at all. They were just the unanimous choices that 98% of scouts/teams would have made at those picks.

Fair enough.

 

[le_sean]

Neither is Mantha, but both aren't power forwards

Slafkovsky is clearly a power forward. His best work is along the boards and bulldozing through the middle of the ice. You don’t need to take yourself out of position to hit someone, or to punch someone in the mouth, to be considered a power forward.

 

[Milhouse40]

That’s just it. I don’t think this is the draft that will define HuGo’s tenure. They should get the benefit of the doubt regardless of outcome. Too many individuals from the scouting community are more and more divided. Margarita’s scouts have no anti-Hab agenda — and if they can’t nab the first to be drafted then Hughes should be afforded leeway.

I’d hate to see position as the deciding factor. I would much rather they take the player who has the best chance of becoming a first line player even if both current targets have been anointed as having 2nd line ceilings.

Debatable but Wright is still views as the BPA. It has been Shane Wright draft for the last 3 years.....not one prospect showed me enough to take that place....and he happened to be exactly what we need, why complicate thing?

Whoever they pick, I'll support....but if they pick Wright, it's not going to be only because he's center either, he's going 1 or 2 regardless.

 

[dcyhabs]

Slaf isn’t soft whatsoever. Weird comparison.

Well not in international competition with a very different idea of physical play than the NHL. It's very possible that Slafkofsky thrives in the NHL but it is certainly far from proven so far. Who knows, maybe he can fight, too.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

Slafkovsky is clearly a power forward. His best work is along the boards and bulldozing through the middle of the ice. You don’t need to take yourself out of position to hit someone, or to punch someone in the mouth, to be considered a power forward.

...anymore...you forgot to add "anymore"...