Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
@flamesdraftwatcher
Well, using your 32 goal mark as the minimum requirement for going top five that clearly defines the players. The top five eligible players are De Brincat (51), Dubois (42), Gauthier (41), Abramov (38), and Mascherin (35). Out of their positions are Tkachuk (30) and Nylander (28). Can't score 32 goals you have no business being in the top 5 picks!
Thankfully there is a lot more that goes into judging top end talent than just an arbitrary measure of points scored. There are other things that make you a great prospect. Hall scored a bunch in junior, and he's a horrible hockey player. Yakupov scored a ton too, and he's got a first class ticket to Bustville. I hope our scouts don't get locked in on a statistic and use it as a mark for players to hit. I hope they review all these guys and base their selection on their talent and whether they think they will be good players in the NHL. There are some good players out there that didn't hit 32 goals.
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I'm not setting any minimum requirements. Just wanted to research the numbers for interesting conversation.
I'd be perfectly happy with Tkachuk or Nylander in the top 5 if the Flames scouts like them there despite them not hitting 32 goals. And I'm not saying McLeod isn't a great prospect. If the Flames had weak depth at centre he'd probably be one of the guys I'd be cheerleading because I think centre is a more important position than winger. But centre is arguably our biggest strength organizationally. I think we'd take a franchise centre (Matthews) if we get him. But if we're sitting at 6 or 7 with our pick of the rest of the secondary tier I think the Flames won't grab a guy who most people think has elite 2nd line centre upside. We've already got a potential 1st line centre in Bennett to play 2nd line. And we've already got a guy who is producing at elite 2nd line numbers in Backlund who can play 3rd line for us. And after all that we've Jankowski who I think has elite 2nd line centre upside as well.
If we had two less of those centres I'd probably be hoping and praying for McLeod at #6/7. But we're set at centre for hopefully a decade. This draft gives us the chance to grab a top two line winger or top 3 defenseman who is equally as attractive a prospect as McLeod or moreso. I'm arguing that McLeod is less attractive to us because of our depth at centre. It could edge him down on our list slightly because of our huge need for size/skill combination at the wing or a dman with top 3 potential. The #4-9 prospects look so close you can massage the list positionally to fit your needs.