Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
Too early to tell yet. Just look at the 2009 draft, only now are guys like Hedman and Ekman-Larsson being realized as top 4 d-men. Seems like you need to wait a good 5 years after a draft to see real quality defencemen emerge
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So, thinking about that, lets go back a few years in our drafting record.
In 2008, we drafted TJ Brodie and Deilert....who is Deilert?
2009 we only drafted Tim Erixon as a defenseman.
2010, Joey Leach and John Ramage. Only Ramage is still in our system and could pan out but he has already been in our system for 5 years. So he gets another few years before any decisions are made on him?
2011, one dman was picked by the flames and that was Wotherspoon. Still up in the air what becomes of him, seems like he will become an NHLer in the next few seasons, possibly even next year. Kind of seems right on course to become an NHL player in 5 years from his draft. Maybe by this time next season he is a full time NHLer. I hope so.
2012, Sieloff, Kulak and Culkin. So by the 2017-2018 season, we will likely see at least 1 of these guys playing in the NHL I would imagine. It would be great to see 2 of these guys. It is a good sign that the team started to pick more D prospects in 2012, since we didn't draft many the seasons prior.
2013, Kanzig, Rafikov, Roy and Gilmour. I think we have a couple of good assets here so far, maybe not top 4 at this point but we like what we see in Rafikov and will get a better idea next season if he comes to NA. It seems to be one of the more interesting prospects IMO.
2014, Brandon Hickey and Ollas-Mattsson. Well, seems to me that Brandon Hickey could be a diamond in the rough from the 3rd round. Will it take him 5 years to reach the NHL? probably since he is in the NCAA and will likely play some time in the AHL. I don't know much about Mattsson so far.
I think that in the next 3 years we will have a completely different bottom 4 that will be made up of our younger prospects from the last 3 drafts. During the Sutter years of drafting, we didn't do much for getting a dman, picking just 1 it seems each year. I see Gio being here for his whole career, whether it is in a top pairing role or not I don't know but we will have Russell and Brodie leading the way I am sure if Gio regresses in the next 3 years. I don't know that Wideman will be here after his contract is done and I doubt Engelland, Smid, Diaz, etc are re-signed.
Picking up a blue-chip dman isn't easy, but I think our org is on the right track in finding one. Good job by Feaster and co to start drafting more of them, knowing we were quite short on top d prospects and I am happy to see the trend continue last year and hopefully this season too.