Quote:
Originally Posted by Wedge
Unless we get a top two pick, my vote goes for a d man with our first pick this year. I get the impression there are a handful of top pairing defensemen, but zero top line centers (although I find Bjorck intriguing). 2027 and 2028 look to have clear cut centers, and we will still be in the conversation for first overall those two years.
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This draft is also a little D heavy, so getting a few with out 8 picks in the top 66 will help also to stack the deck a little.
In my mind, it makes more sense to take defenders now because it takes them longer to develop. We see how top end forwards work, you pretty much just throw them in there and you're good from day one.
So if we get a D-man this year, it'll still likely take 2 years for them to be in the NHL as a regular (giving the same path as Parekh) and that way we can still get the good forward/center next year and the year after as we are going to be bad for a few years.
Makes a lot more sense to be absolutely stacked at all the important positions so that way when we air lift high end forward guys into the lineup then we can be ready to roll into contender mode shortly thereafter.