Drafting outside of the top 3 picks 2016

[SeanCharles]

If we end up drafting 5-8 who would you want to draft the most?

[devo22]

Dubois
Chychrun
Nylander

in that order.

[RyZ]

I'm all about a high end forward this draft so for me it's...

Dubois
Tkachuk
Nylander

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Dubois/Tkachuk are tied for most wanted. After that it gets really tough for me. I'd be fine with Nylander but I'm not sure how many d-men we should be slotting ahead of him if any. I'd be fine with Chychrun, Juolevi or Sergachev. I usually have a slight bias against Russians but it does help that Sergachev came over already and is learning english and playing the North American style.

We're guaranteed one of those 6 so it'll be fine. In fact we're guaranteed to have a choice of 3-4 of them.

It's a no lose situation now. If we win the lottery fantastic. If we lose the lottery then we're still guaranteed somebody pretty good.

[Bingo]

Dubious
Tkachuk
(gap)
Chychrun
Nylander

intrigued by McLeod

and I'm back and forth on the first two

[FlamesAddiction]

It's got to be Dubois IMO.

If we aren't drafting top 4, it seems like the next 4 or 5 are a wash.

[polak]

Just say no to 1st rounders from the Q.

[Huntingwhale]

I don't really know much about any of them. But I picked Dubois because everyone else says he's really good and he had the most votes.

[nik-]

I'm in the Chychrun/Sergachev camp in that order. Then Dubois, but mainly based on others high opinion of him here, I haven't seen a lot of him.

I have my worries about Nylander and Tkachuk

[Ashasx]

It's really unfortunate that there seems to be a pretty significant drop off after 3.

[Itse]

Voted Dubois, but would also like Juolevi largely because he's a Finn I'd like to follow.

[bigrangy]

I like Dubois. He's got size, skating, and good IQ, but there's also the Q wildcard factor.

2nd choice would be Nylander. Not at all impressed with Tkachuk or McLeod, and I prefer Nylander over all the defensemen.

Right now I also think that Pulju isn't really all that special of a prospect. He compares better with Joel Armia than he does with Laine, and he went 13th. I still want him (and prefer him over Dubois/Nylander/Chychrun etc) because he seems like the coolest dude of the top prospects this year, but I wouldn't expect him to be the Flames' best forward at any time in the future, maybe not even second best. Pulju still has then u18s to impress me though. :P

[Lanny_McDonald]

McLeod. Elite speed and vision, and he's a right shot. Just needs his hands to catch up to the rest of his package. Seems like he plays a game very similar to Bennett's.

If the choice is between Dubois and Tkachuk I would take the guy with better skating skills which is Dubois. Not sure which of these guys I like best long term. I can see why there was so much conflict coming into this draft after the top three. The next 6-8 players are all close but have definite weaknesses the top three do not have.

[SeanCharles]

I think Nylander might be the most highly skilled player left available albeit I don't know much about Dubois but I wonder if Nylander would be a good fit though due to organizational needs for big physical wingers.

Nylander is a somewhat big RWer who has a great shot so I'm slightly inclined to lean towards him even though we could use more physical wingers..

Does taking a defenseman seem like a likely scenario for anyone? It doesn't really to me but its a crapshoot after top 3 seemingly.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by polak

Just say no to 1st rounders from the Q.

Bold will be busts, italics will be disappointing players who still ended up NHLers.

2003 - Fleury (1st), Steve Bernier (16th), MA Pouliot (22nd)
2004 - Picard (8th)
2005 - Crosby (1st), Bourdon (10th), Zagrapan (13th), Bourret (16th)
NOTE: Bourdon died before becoming an NHLer but was a good prospect
2006 - Brassard (6th), Sheppard (9th), Jonathan Bernier (11th), Giroux (22nd), Vishnevsky (27th)
2007 - Voracek (7th), MacMillan (19th), Esposito (20th), Perron (26th)
2008 - No one
2009 - Kulikov (14th), Paradis (27th), Depres (30th)
2010 - Gormley (13th)
2011 - Huberdeau (3rd), Couturier (8th), Beaulieu (17th), Danault (26th), Phillips (28th)

Probably a little premature to judge any of the newer drafts fully. Bit of a mixed bag. I'm sure we'd find a ton of busts from all areas in the 2nd half the first round. There are a bunch of top 10 busts too but same could be said of most regions.

I don't think QMJHL is more risky overall. 2011 4/5 players taken looks like solid NHLers, that's actually a very good success rate. There's still some solid picks there like Giroux, Voracek, Huberdeau, Couturier, Perron, Crosby, Brassard, Fleury, Depres, Beaulieu. I don't think avoiding the league completely is a smart or well thought out suggestion.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It's really unfortunate that there seems to be a pretty significant drop off after 3.

There's a small drop off there. The big drop off is around 20 or so.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...epth/80668094/

"But there’s a steep decline in talent in the mid-20s, and then things drop off a cliff around the middle of the second round."

Redline actually thinks the 2nd tier is from 3rd to 5th.

"Let’s focus on the positive for now. The top tier is probably a two-man group of Auston Matthews (who we all knew heading into the year would be in this discussion) and Patrik Laine (who has seemingly overcome his maturity and coachability issues from previous years to let his wondrous natural gifts take over).

It can certainly be argued that any of the three members of Red Line’s second tier — Jesse Puljujärvi, Matthew Tkachuk, and Jakob Chychrun — should be included in with that top pair. Each has been impressive enough at times to be considered among the elite.

But we think there’s a clear break after those top five down to the next tier, which runs about a dozen deep — from No. 6 to No. 17."

[albertGQ]

Dubois
Nylander
Tkachuk
Chychrun

[Bingo]

I'm really surprised at how much of a landslide this is ...

[ricardodw]

As there does not seem to be a default forward (like Monahan at #6 or Bennett at #4) I think the Flames should draft the best D-Man... sounds like the first d-man taken in the last 6 Drafts has done very well:

2010 - Erik Gudbranson
2011 - Adam Larson
2012 - Ryan Murray
2013 - Seth Jones
2014 - Aaron Ekblad
2015 - Noel Hanifin

It is a bit harder for the GM to pick a D-man as it might take an extra year or 2 and the GM could be fired waiting.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Bold will be busts, italics will be disappointing players who still ended up NHLers.

2003 - Fleury (1st), Steve Bernier (16th), MA Pouliot (22nd)
2004 - Picard (8th)
2005 - Crosby (1st), Bourdon (10th), Zagrapan (13th), Bourret (16th)
NOTE: Bourdon died before becoming an NHLer but was a good prospect
2006 - Brassard (6th), Sheppard (9th), Jonathan Bernier (11th), Giroux (22nd), Vishnevsky (27th)
2007 - Voracek (7th), MacMillan (19th), Esposito (20th), Perron (26th)
2008 - No one
2009 - Kulikov (14th), Paradis (27th), Depres (30th)
2010 - Gormley (13th)
2011 - Huberdeau (3rd), Couturier (8th), Beaulieu (17th), Danault (26th), Phillips (28th)

Probably a little premature to judge any of the newer drafts fully. Bit of a mixed bag. I'm sure we'd find a ton of busts from all areas in the 2nd half the first round. There are a bunch of top 10 busts too but same could be said of most regions.

I don't think QMJHL is more risky overall. 2011 4/5 players taken looks like solid NHLers, that's actually a very good success rate. There's still some solid picks there like Giroux, Voracek, Huberdeau, Couturier, Perron, Crosby, Brassard, Fleury, Depres, Beaulieu. I don't think avoiding the league completely is a smart or well thought out suggestion.

This post has nothing at all to do with drafting 5-8.