Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
I'd be surprised if there wasn't teams with worst centre prospect depth. IMO we're actually deepest in centres and goalies at the moment.
Jankowski, Reinhart, Granlund, Arnold, Byron, DeBlouw
A few guys who could be top 6 centres, a few guys who could be checking centres. Several teams must be worse off at centre.
I don't see the D pool as being way better.
Wotherspoon, Sieloff, Culkin, Kulak, Breen, Ramage, Cundari, Lamb, Martin
Most of those guys look like 4-7 defensemen at best IMO. No potential top pairing guys at all.
Add Backlund to our centre group and we'd actually be looking very good if Jankowski evolves into a top line centre.
Add Brodie to our defensive group and we clearly still lack a couple top 3 defensemen.
I see defense as the bigger weakness but I think we can grab a great defenseman with our 2nd pick. Potential #1 centres don't usually fall outside the top 5-10 in most years so our best chance of getting one could be this year.
I'd love to trade up to grab MacKinnon/Barkov or stay where we are and grab Lindholm/Monahan. Then trade up or stay with the STL pick and grab a defenseman there, hopefully one with a lot of size.
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Sorry but to me that center list is terrible. Jankowski is still on that boom or bust list for me. Its going to take at least another year to know what we have in him. I like Reinhart and think he will be a great 3rd line center with potential for 2nd line. The rest are 3rd and 4th line centers. I don't know for fact, but i have to guess every team in the NHL has 3rd and 4th line centers in the pipeline. Byron has his work cut out for him to even get 100 games as a winger.
I agree we have a young Backlund, but he still needs to take the next step to be an every team NHL 2nd line center. As of now he is a 2nd line center on a bad team but would not be a 2nd line center on a good team.
Wotherspoon, Sieloff, Culkin, Kulak all have potential as top 4 d-men. Maybe "way better" was not the correct wording, but i see a deeper d-pool over center.
Don't get me wrong we need both, but the first pick should go for one of Barkov, Lindholm or Monahan. Top 6 centeres are hard to trade for and barely become available in the UFA market. For some reason top d men make it to the UFA market.