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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Gotta disagree with almost everything in this post. We lack skill? Gaudreau, Baerstchi and Granlund are all highly skilled players with below average height and are arguably 3 of our top prospects. We're somewhat deep in skilled, smaller players.
No guys skilled and 6'3 this year? That's completely false. Dal Colle, Ritchie and Perlini are all highly skilled and likely to end up around 6'3. All are expected to go around our draft position.
Shakes head. It's highly unlikely we take Ehlers over the big wingers given our organizational needs.
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Is Gaudreau, Baertschi, or Granlund a future 35-40 goal scorer? Maybe Gaudreau if he really hits his top end potential. I'm not sure that Baertschi or Granlund is more than a 20-25 ish goal guy (They could be more, but it's not guaranteed)
Usually cup contending teams have 4+ guys that are 20+ goal scorers to spread the offense around, and usually it's 5 or 6. The Flames have Monahan....... and yeah. If we get lucky, 2 or 3 of Gaudreau, Poirier, Baertschi, Jankowski, Klimchuk, and Granlund will turn into 20+ goal scorers that can be mainstays as we build towards a cup contender. I like all of those players and am optimistic, but odds are that we won't get lucky with all of them. Because, I'm not much of a gambling person I would like as many high end flashy skilled guys as we can as long as we don't get guys that are extremely undersized.
The three bigger guys that you mentioned, Perlini and Ritchie are not good enough offensively to the degree where they will be impact players. When Ritchie is getting comparisons to Zach Kassian, who is having a hard showing that he's more than a 3rd liner, then I'd rather spend the pick elsewhere. Dal Colle is adequate, but he plays small, so it's not like he's physically imposing at all either.
I have been advocating for us to get bigger since before last season, but it doesn't make sense to take an inferior player just because he's big. If anything, I'd rather take the skilled guy and make a hockey trade to address the problem than taking the meh guy just because he's big. You don't need to address size when drafting at the top of the draft. There, you're trying to find the team's next star player (especially when you're picking in the top 10). In the 2nd/7th rounds, you can try to focus on getting bigger players (as long as they are close in skill to the other options).
You can always trade for size if need be.