Quote:
Originally Posted by Wastedyouth
I think when you have a vision for what your team is going to be in 2-3 years, you look at roles players need to be in to succeed.
You need scorers who can excel both on the rush but also on the cycle after a dump and chase.
You need defenders who can move the puck, but also willing to throw their body around against a hard forecheck or on the PK.
Every prospect can't just be a guy who produved a signifiance amount of points in Junior/Lower levels. those guys don't PK. They don't throw their bodies around (typically).
If you dont have defined roles and character players on your team, you end up like teams who seem to get very high grades at the draft and in various prospect ranking, and yet never go anywhere in the playoffs or set themselves apart in the regular season.
Tampa, Vegas, St Louis all had role player D and forwards who did the things the high skilled, PP/5v5 players won't or couldn't do.
Is Grushnikov one of these? Who knows. But he's another lottery ticket for that type of player and that is exactly what this franchise needs. Picks and options at every role.
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I disagree with that approach. Just take the best players and work it out down the road. I'd rather draft 15 Johnny Gaudreau's than one (insert grinder here). You can trade one Gaudreau and get 5 grinders down the road. I think its a mistake to try to fill the lesser roles on team.
Identify the roles that you can rarely get in a trade or free agency (i.e. 1st line centre) and draft/trade for prospects who have a chance to fill that role whenever you can get it.