That's a bummer to hear the potential lingering/serious nature of Lindstrom's injuries.
In that case, I will revise my hope for our early first to be (beyond Celebrini or Demidov): Berkly Catton, Zayne Parekh, Zeev Buium, Tij Iginla, or Carter Yakemchuk.
Not that these players will be available at our spot, but in addition to Levshunov, I also do not think Anton Silayev deserves to be drafted in the top 5 players like many of the rankings have him listed. He reminds me a lot of Brayden Coburn (6'5 mobile beast that was taken 8th overall in 2003). Coburn had a nice 16 year career don't get me wrong, but not worth a high first rounder IMO. Silayev has great speed for his size, turns in either direction without looking awkward for his size as well, and has the requisite physicality one would expect out of a 6'7 mammoth, but he truly lacks offensive skills, and his defensive play although good, isn't otherworldly to warrant a top 5 selection IMO. Several things struck me when watching Silayev. His speed was great, but his stride makes him appear gangly mostly noticeable when skating backwards. Although his backwards crossover speed is quite fast, he consistenly crosses over a really wide area, crossing into his partner's lane, while also leaving him more prone to the fakes of onrushing attackers. Secondly, the angles he takes towards opposing players in many instances leaves him unnecessarily vulnerable to allowing dangerous plays against, making me wonder about his defensive IQ. Thirdly, while he does seem to point out coverage issues to teammates giving on ice cues, and while he does recover defensively for his teammates with his speed, he also can be seen unable to stop a crafty offensive player because he unnecesarily angles his skates/feet in a way that leaves him again excessively prone to a change of direction by the player, whether it is via skating, passing or shooting. These obviously can be cleaned up, but if his defensive game is where he is hanging his hat on, it has to be elite to make up for his lack of offensive skills. He strikes me as one of the rare mammoths of a man that skate well enough to have scouts overly salivating over what he could potentially become. While a few do hit like Chara once did, is it really worth the risk in the top 2-5 spots? I think there's far too many misses with players of his ilk. He checks the boxes for size, skating, physicality and a good first pass, but what else? For number 2-5, especially with guaranteed decent players like Catton available, he has to check more boxes, even if we are projecting into the future. It will be interesting to revisit this thread in a few years.
|