Quote:
Originally Posted by Chingas
They may not be as rare but they are definitly valuable. If the concern is that someone might be so good that you will have to pay for their services later, then I am not sure what end game you are acutally after. Not drafting someone for fear of the end result of their success seems odd to me.
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Well in a salary cap era you can only spend so much on key players. And I think history has shown us that if you spend a large percentage of your cap on a goal scoring winger then you are going to struggle to fill out the rest of your team.
I think Kessel in TOR was a good example of this. You draft him. He scores 40 goals. You have to pay him 8 million+. But in the cap world its hard to win with Kessel eating up that much of your cap space playing the least important position in the league. I'd much rather be paying an elite centre that much or an elite d-man that much because they are more valuable towards winning.
Other teams/players that struggled to compete? CBJ with Rick Nash as their highest paid player as a goal scoring winger. CGY with Jarome Iginla as our highest paid player and a goal scoring winger. ATL with Heatley/Kovalchuk. OTT with Heatley. WSH with Ovechkin.
I'm skeptical you can win with a goal scoring winger eating up the biggest chunk of your cap. Wing is the least important position. A goal scoring winger doesn't make his line mates better as much as a playmaking franchise centre does. And a goal scoring winger doesn't help you win as much as a franchise d-man does. Look at how a mediocre EDM team was dragged to the cup by Pronger. Look at Pronger/Niedermayer in ANA. Look at Lidstrom in DET.
Anyways this discussion got kind of off track. I was trying to prove that goal scoring wingers can be found in trade/UFA and aren't the most valuable commodities for winning. Maybe I didn't explain it clearly.
The bottom line for this draft is that if there are potential franchise centres or top pairing d-men available then I definitely take them over a soft, finesse goal scoring winger. So to me Nylander isn't one of the top 8-9 most attractive players in this draft.