Flames 2013 Draft Discussion

[StrykerSteve]

Absolutely NO goalies in the first round.

They have two positions they have decent depth in, LW and G. Center, RW and D are painfully thin, and should be the priority. Adding quality prospects in those three positions is essential to having a successful draft in my eyes.

They have 9 picks, ideally I'd to see the breakdown as follows:

1st round - C, D and RW
3rd - C
4th - RW
5th - D

Once you get past that point, draft BPA with your 3 remaining picks, regardless of position.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Absolutely NO goalies in the first round.

They have two positions they have decent depth in, LW and G. Center, RW and D are painfully thin, and should be the priority. Adding quality prospects in those three positions is essential to having a successful draft in my eyes.

They have 9 picks, ideally I'd to see the breakdown as follows:

1st round - C, D and RW
3rd - C
4th - RW
5th - D

Once you get past that point, draft BPA with your 3 remaining picks, regardless of position.

I say draft BPA, regardless of position, right from the start.

[Caged Great]

Never take goalies from elite teams in juniors.

[Caged Great]

I would go bpa with all picks but no goalies ever in the first round.

[dammage79]

I also have the feeling that Nichushkin becomes a center in the NHL.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by dammage79

I also have the feeling that Nichushkin becomes a center in the NHL.

...or he ends up being a center in the KHL and whatever NHL team wastes a top ten pick on him is left crying in their soup.

[Table 5]

Just for sh*ts and giggles, I looked at the 16 starting goalies of the 2013 playoffs to see where they were drafted.

Fleury - 1st overall
Price - 5th overall
Rask - 21st overall
Schneider - 26th overall

Crawford - 2nd Round
Howard - 2nd Round

Anderson - 3rd Round
Quick - 3rd round

Holtby - 4th Round
Reimer - 4th Round

Lundquist - 7th Round

Elliot - 9th round
Nabokov - 9th round

Hiller - Undrafted
Niemi - Undrafted
Backstrom - Undrafted


Some quick deductions:
4 out of 16 playoff starting goalies were drafted in the 1st round...with 3 of them still playing with their original team. While all solid, neither 1st rounder can be considered a generational talent, or significantly better than most goalies on this list. Arguably the best goalie today, and the only Vezina winner on this list, was drafted in the 7th round, while two of the better goalies (Niemi and Backstrom) on this list were not even drafted. The best young goalie (Quick, imo), was drafted in the 3rd.

Anyway, the point of this is not to say that you can't draft a good goalie in the 1st round (because all 4 of those guys are solid)... it's more that even the experts can't get this right more often than not. If they could, a lot of these guys would've been drafted much sooner....or drafted at all.

[PlayfulGenius]

It's worth a 1st round pick to grab a Rask, Price or Schneider ... One of the later picks, I mean.

I'm hoping they don't take a G, but it could work out grat if they did.

[PeteLFan]

All 3 of our 6th overall picks have been from the OHL. 3rd time wasn't the charm, time to head to Sweden to change up the luck.

[Table 5]

And just for fun, here are all the goalies picked in the 1st round since 2000. I went to 2008, since going any newer didn't seem to make sense.

2000:
Rick Dipietro - 1st overall
Brent Krahn - 9th Overall

2001:
Pascal Leclaire - 8th Overall
Dan Blackburn - 10th Overall
Jason Bacashihua - 26th Overall
Adam Munro - 29th Overall

2002:
Kari Lehtonen - 2nd Overall
Cam Ward - 25th Overall
Hannu Toivonen - 29th Overall

2003:
Marc-Andre Fleury - 1st Overall

2004:
Al Montoya -6th Overall
Devan Dubnyk - 14th Overall
Marek Schwarz - 17th Overall
Cory Schneider - 26th Overall

2005:
Carey Price - 5th Overall
Tuuka Rask - 21st Overall

2006:
Jonathan Bernier - 11th Overall
Riku Helenius - 15th Overall
Semyon Varlamov - 23rd Overall
Leland Irving - 26th Overall

2007:
None

2008:
Chet Pickard - 18th Overall
Thomas McCollum - 30th Overall

I've bolded the ones who I consider to be relatively successful picks (even if there were arguably better players picked after them). Bernier and Varlamov are still up in the air in my mind.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

...or he ends up being a center in the KHL and whatever NHL team wastes a top ten pick on him is left crying in their soup.

Has their ever been a top end Russian draft pick that hasn't come over to the NHL? Radulov went back, but I wouldn't consider him top end. While I wouldn't be thrilled with the pick I don't think we need to worry about him not playing in the NHL. Though they might have to wait 2 years.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Fire

Has their ever been a top end Russian draft pick that hasn't come over to the NHL? Radulov went back, but I wouldn't consider him top end. While I wouldn't be thrilled with the pick I don't think we need to worry about him not playing in the NHL. Though they might have to wait 2 years.

Probably forgetting someone but the closest is probably Kuznetsov right now and he has said that he plans on coming over several times and even then he was a late first round pick himself.

[Canada 02]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

He said the goalie crop is elite as well.

Every other scouting report I've read has said that the crop of goalies in this draft is average to below-average.

I'm very worried.

no, he said there were unique players at every position, including a couple goalies. Pretty much verbatim

it was a general remark on the quality and depth of the draft; you're making something out of nothing

[albertGQ]

Dubnyuk was drafted in the first round in 2004 as well

[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by Commandant

I see you guys are all in here now and the draft thread on the prospects board is dying.

Anyways, number 34 was released this morning in the ranks and scouting reports. Jacob de la Rose fromw Sweden. Big forward who loves to hit.

http://lastwordonsports.com/2013/05/...er-profile-34/

I want this guy with the pitt pick

[Caged Great]

He seems like a slightly quicker version of Ville Nieminen. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.

Would definitely be a fan favourite

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Fire

Has their ever been a top end Russian draft pick that hasn't come over to the NHL? Radulov went back, but I wouldn't consider him top end. While I wouldn't be thrilled with the pick I don't think we need to worry about him not playing in the NHL. Though they might have to wait 2 years.

Players drafted in the top-10 from Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall (draft position, player name, drafting team, NHL games played, first season in North America):

1992...
2) Alexei Yashin - OTT - 850 GP (1993-94)
5) Darius Kasparaitis - NYI - 863 GP (1992-93)
10) Andrei Nazarov - SJS - 571 GP (1993-94)

1993...
6) Viktor Kozlov - SJS - 897 GP (1994-95)

1994...
2) Oleg Tverdovsky - ANA - 713 GP (1994-95)

1996...
2) Andrei Zyuzin - SJS - 496 GP (1997-98)

1998...
5) Vitaly Vishnevsky - ANA - 552 GP (1999-00)
10) Nikolai Antropov - TOR - 788 GP (1999-00)

2000...
10) Mikhail Yakubov - CHI - 53 GP (2001-02)

2001...
1) Ilya Kovalchuk - ATL - 816 GP (2001-02)
3) Alexandr Svitov - TBL - 179 GP (2002-03)
5) Stanislav Chistov - ANA - 196 GP (2002-03)

2003...
4) Nikolai Zherdev - CBJ - 421 GP (2003-04)
10) Andrei Kostitsyn - MTL - 398 GP (2004-05)

2004...
1) Alex Ovechkin - WAS - 601 GP (2005-06)
2) Evgeni Malkin - PIT - 458 GP (2006-07)

2008...
6) Nikita Filatov - CBJ - 53 GP (2008-09)


The KHL was founded in 2008, and no Russian player (who played his draft year in Russia) has been drafted in the top-10 since.


To answer the question: Prior to the KHL, it was never really a problem to get Russians to come over. Since the founding of the KHL, teams have shied away from drafting Russians high in the first round.

So, the real question is: Which team is going to be the first to take the chance on a hot-shot Russian who might snub the NHL (for a couple of years, at least); and which player is going to be good enough for that team to take the risk?

[dammage79]

Now is there a chance that there will be a transfer agreement in place before the draft?
Will it be structured the same for the rest of the countries that sign it as well. From last I heard the KHL was taking its time mulling it over but it sounded optimistic that they would sign on this time.

And, will this transfer agreement put to rest the dreaded "Russian Factor".

Link: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=669998

EDIT: I may have stretched a little with the Optimistic comment but they haven't shot it down right out of the gate so there is that.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Now is there a chance that there will be a transfer agreement in place before the draft?
Will it be structured the same for the rest of the countries that sign it as well. From last I heard the KHL was taking its time mulling it over but it sounded optimistic that they would sign on this time.

And, will this transfer agreement put to rest the dreaded "Russian Factor".

Link: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=669998

EDIT: I may have stretched a little with the Optimistic comment but they haven't shot it down right out of the gate so there is that.

If the deal is the same as the Sweden deal ($250k to the Swedish club that owns the player's rights), the KHL will reject it or come with an exuberant amount as a counter offer.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by getbak

So, the real question is: Which team is going to be the first to take the chance on a hot-shot Russian who might snub the NHL (for a couple of years, at least); and which player is going to be good enough for that team to take the risk?

Arguably the Capitals have already taken that risk with Kuznetsov. While perhaps not as big a risk at 26th overall in 2010, some say he is better than Tarasenko and has publicly stated many times that he will not come to the NHL at least until the 2014-2015 season if ever.

There were rumors that the capitals were shopping him around at the trade deadline along with Filip Forsberg because they are reaching then end of their patience in trying to convince Kuznetsov to come over.