[GT] June 22-23: The 2012 NHL Entry Draft!

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by joe_mullen

My big take from the draft: is there a worse dressed group of executives in the world than NHL management/scouting types? I say no. Just a debacle when it comes to suit choices, fitting, etc.

Have you seen what sports announcers wear? I can believe the combinations of pin stripes and polka dots and whatnot.

Patrick Bateman is rolling around in his grave.

[Drake]

“Where you go, ‘Well, this was a guy who was (due to be picked), so we took him.’ ”

“I got excited seven times — I’m happy about that,” he said. “Each in their own way and in their own place, I find myself excited over every guy — you’re supposed to be at this point. We got guys who fit the description and criteria of what we want a Flames player to be.”

“We got a real good blend of players,” said Weisbrod. “It’s sort of an organic process. You have your list, you have your calculations, and there’s strategizing along the way as you see how things unfold.”

“That felt like a gift,” Weisbrod said of landing Sieloff in the middle of the second round. “I was particularly tickled with that one. This is a tough, tough, tough kid, and the kind of time-and-space-eliminating defenceman that we’re starving for. And demeanour-wise, he’s one of us, not to make it seem cultish. We were particularly pleased with that pick.”

“You know, it’s a human game — it’s people,” said Weisbrod. “What makes people successful in any field is the calibre of the people. We’re shooting for that.”

“Now it’s a whole new process — Ron Sutter and player development — to continue to push these guys along and grow them,” said Weisbrod. “They’re all just pups right now. All you can do is make the picks, then the work begins. But we’re happy with the way it worked out.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...567/story.html

[Roof-Daddy]

Man would I love to see what Button/Weisbrod's finalized list looked like.

[Azure]

Are all the possible prospects in attendance? Even the guys in the 7th round?

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Azure

Are all the possible prospects in attendance? Even the guys in the 7th round?

Just guys that might go in the top rounds. Deblouw was the 51st ranked player in the CSS.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Azure

Are all the possible prospects in attendance? Even the guys in the 7th round?

No, most of the guys who aren't sure things don't make the trip. Kulak and Gordon weren't there today for the Flames.

It sounds like Deblouw had a lot of people there and everyone was surprised after the Flames announced his name because there was a huge cheer from his family in the crowd that no one was expecting that late.

They say it's heartbreaking to watch the kids who make the trip and don't get picked leave the building with their families.

[sureLoss]

Boomer mentioned that it was quite unusual for 5 Flames prospects to be in attendance at the draft. Said there were usually only 1 or 2 in past drafts.

I also recall Don Cherry had a few rants advising prospects not to go to the draft unless they were expected to go in the 1st or 2nd round because it was tough on the Families of players that didn't get drafted

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Boomer mentioned that it was quite unusual for 5 Flames prospects to be in attendance at the draft. Said there were usually only 1 or 2 in past drafts.

I also recall Don Cherry had a few rants advising prospects not to go to the draft unless they were expected to go in the 1st or 2nd round because it was tough on the Families of players that didn't get drafted

Yeah, it did seem strange.

However, if you look at all their Central Scouting rankings, maybe it makes more sense?

Jankowski - 43rd (taken at 21)
Sieloff - 31st (taken at 42)
Kulak - 55th (taken at 105)
Culkin - 66th (taken at 124)
Gordon - 61st (taken at 165)
DeBlouw - 51st (taken at 186th)

Also, Gillies was the 6th ranked NA Goalie.

Seems as though, other than the Jankowski and Sieloff, most of the guys the Flames picked today were ranked a lot higher than where the Flames got them.

Might explain why most of them were in attendance? Looked they'd likely go in the first 3 rounds or so.

[Caged Great]

I've never seen a draft with so many reach players not ranked high or at all on the CSS list.

In the CPHL draft, occasionally a guy that's drafted in the 2nd round might slip through our selections, and maybe 2 or 3 guys in the 3rd round, and about 8-10 guys total overall. This year, we "missed" 3 guys in the 2nd round, and another 6 or 7 in the 3rd and a lot more after that. Only about 1/3 of our 5th round even got drafted at all. That isn't even remotely close to normal, but it goes to show how strange and off the wall this draft was.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by OILFAN #81

Leafs drafted a guy today who was -72?

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/p...php?pid=130232

that whole team was brutal, they only won 10 games this year and had 10 players 17 or younger play 40+ games for them. The Otters could be a pretty good team down the road though.

Also they used 8 different players in goal this season, I say players in honour of Connor Crisp

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Jankowski - 43rd (taken at 21)
Sieloff - 31st (taken at 42)
Kulak - 55th (taken at 105)
Culkin - 66th (taken at 124)
Gordon - 61st (taken at 165)
DeBlouw - 51st (taken at 186th)

Also, Gillies was the 6th ranked NA Goalie.

Good point about their rankings. Also, since CSB splits the Euro and NA skaters, as well as the goalies, if you do the same with the draft order:

Jankowski - 16th NA Skater chosen (43 final rank, 74 mid-season)
Sieloff - 32nd NA Skater chosen (31 final rank, 34 mid-season)
Kulak - 82nd NA Skater chosen (55 final rank, 67 mid-season)
Culkin - 95th NA Skater chosen (66 final rank, 89 mid-season)
Gordon - 124th NA Skater chosen (61 final rank, 38 mid-season)
DeBlouw - 140th NA Skater chosen (51 final rank, 37 mid-season)


Gillies - 4th NA Goalie chosen (6 final rank, 4 mid-season)


154 North American skaters were picked today, so looking at the final rankings, all of the Flames' picks were ranked to go in the first half of the draft. Based on that, it isn't surprising that so many of them were in Pittsburgh. Only the Alberta boys who were picked weren't in attendance.

[minnow]

Patrick Sieloff could be the Flames new "ears"!
Now, if he could just work on getting "the tunnel of death" down pat!

[JurassicTunga12]

Originally Posted by minnow

Patrick Sieloff could be the Flames new "ears"!
Now, if he could just work on getting "the tunnel of death" down pat!

If he does.

I'm looking forward watching him nail Yakupov 6 times a year.

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by JurassicTunga12

If he does.

I'm looking forward watching him nail Yakupov 6 times a year.

This is an interesting sentence, you know, between another meaning of the word "nail" and the winky face

[devo22]

Some people obviously - to put it mildly - aren't too happy about our picks, but I'll hold judgement until I see how they develop. It will be interesting to look back at this draft in a few years, it could very well be a defining draft for the franchise. The thing that stands out most for me is that when you look at the scouting reports of these guys, you'll almost certainly read things like "high hockey IQ", "skilled" and "hard working" ... and looking at the interviews they had after the draft, these kids seem to be intelligent and well-spoken guys. The team's scouting staff tries to build a certain culture here and I for my part love how they obviously put more emphasis on the draft. The guys have done their homework and they seemed more than happy with the guys they got this weekend.

Plus looking at all the selections, I can't help but feel that they got a little bit of everything. A potential first-line center in Jankowski. A hard-hitting defensive D in Sieloff. A big goaltender in Gillies. Two solid two-way defensemen in Kulak and Culkin. A scoring winger in Gordon. A good two-way forward with faceoff skills in DeBlouw. After all the years of typical Sutter drafts which brought in a plethora of bottom line forwards and bottom pairing defensemen, I find it refreshing. Think out of the box, go for the raw guy with the high ceiling instead of the safe guy with the low ceiling. Gaunce and McNeill last year would have been typical Sutter choices - I like the Feaster/Weisbrod approach more. It's more risky, but it could turn out to be more exciting. Count me as a pretty happy Flames fan after this weekend. I can't wait to see how this draft plays out down the road.

[Francis's Hairpiece]

Well, not that this is that big a deal, but bleacher reports had Gillies, Gordon, Kulak, Culkin, and Deblouw all going in the 3rd round. That's kind of impressive, no?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...y-draft/page/4

[devo22]

I looked at the mock draft on draftsite.com (http://www.draftsite.com/nhl/mock-draft/2012/s/), and they had Kulak and Gordon in the 3rd and Deblouw in the 4th. They had Sieloff, Gillies and Culkin correctly in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th:

# 33 Jankowski
# 46 Sieloff
# 85 Gillies
# 68 Kulak
# 131 Culkin
# 63 Gordon
#112 Deblouw

The Flames really seem to have grabbed some fallers this year.

[Francis's Hairpiece]

I certainly have no complaints. Exciting to see such potential.

[tkflames]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Yeah, it did seem strange.

However, if you look at all their Central Scouting rankings, maybe it makes more sense?

Jankowski - 43rd (taken at 21)
Sieloff - 31st (taken at 42)
Kulak - 55th (taken at 105)
Culkin - 66th (taken at 124)
Gordon - 61st (taken at 165)
DeBlouw - 51st (taken at 186th)

Also, Gillies was the 6th ranked NA Goalie.

Seems as though, other than the Jankowski and Sieloff, most of the guys the Flames picked today were ranked a lot higher than where the Flames got them.

Might explain why most of them were in attendance? Looked they'd likely go in the first 3 rounds or so.

Any other year, we would consider this a draft where we had 4 second rounders and 2 very high third rounders.

I hope it turns out that way and two or three o fthose guys become legitimate NHL'ers

[devo22]

John Weisbrod, Tod Button and Jim Cummins talk about the selections. They all seem extremely happy with the group they drafted: