Sorry if you feel that I'm hounding you or something. I know I'm "allowed" to disagree.
Last time I watched Barkov was two days ago. To me, "below average" suggests a prospect with skating issues. I don't think he has skating issues, in fact I think he has a decent stride and good leg strength for a teenager. His style doesn't involve a ton of full-tilt skating like you'll see with Canadian junior players.
He is the guy I would draft to be honest still. At worst I think he makes a good 2 way 2nd or third line guy with size and at potential Kopitar.
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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
When's the last time a top US player signed in Canada as a free agent? The only one that comes to my mind is Bryan Gionta but and he's not even elite and I feel he probably knew no other team was going to offer him that contract.
Not many top free agents sign in Canada period.
Seth Jones looks like the next Rob Blake and maybe better, but I'd definitely go with the forward every time. Preferably a center, but Drouin wouldn't bug me at all.
To be fair management will interview all the prospects in the top 40 (even more?), and some will have more than 1 interview so problems like this come up. Obviously players can lie and say they'd love to spend their entire career in Calgary, but I'm sure our scouts realize these kinds of things.
I agree and management/scouts didn't get their jobs by overlooking things like this. I feel this Jones talk is wishful thinking anyway as I don't feel the Flames would be in position to draft him anyway.
If the Flames pick Jones over MacKinnon, I will snap.
Consider us warned.
Seems a bit silly to be worried about drafting Jones when we don't even know our draft position. Massively up in the air at this point. I highly doubt we'd end up with the #1 pick unless we win the lottery.
Trade deadline will play a big role in this. Feaster dealing off a few players may increase our chances of finishing bottom 3-5.
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Originally Posted by Erick Estrada When it comes to Jones I am concerned about how long he would want to play in a Northern Canadian city. I feel chances of retaining him when he is UFA is lower than a Canadian born player. There seems to be a preference for top American Born players to play for US teams. I know this long term stuff is just small part of the big picture but I feel you have to evaluate everything.
Lets see, he'll be here between the ages of 18 to 25. Chances are he'll hook up with a local girl.
Did anyone ever consider that finishing dead last doesn't guarantee the first overall pick. With the changes in the draft lottery (Edmonton Oilers rule), team barely missing the playoffs can get the first overall pick.
Maybe but most NBA players wanted nothing to do with playing in Vancouver and even today Toronto still has issues keeping top players.
Off topic, but most NBA players actually loved Vancouver. The team leaving had nothing to do with people not wanting to play there. The only player of note that balked at playing there was Steve Francis. In the same draft, Lamar Odom made it clear Vancouver was his choice destination.
Did anyone ever consider that finishing dead last doesn't guarantee the first overall pick. With the changes in the draft lottery (Edmonton Oilers rule), team barely missing the playoffs can get the first overall pick.
Sure. But finishing dead last guarantees a top 2 pick which this year is pretty much as good as getting the #1 pick (unless your organization needs Jones more than anything.)
He is the guy I would draft to be honest still. At worst I think he makes a good 2 way 2nd or third line guy with size and at potential Kopitar.
Pretty much. Plus you can get him to NA next season if you want to. He won't set the league on fire but I can see him getting at least a few NHL games. He's the type that can learn the game in the bottom 6 without costing the team. He understands the center game extremely well.
Sure, his skating is average, but he has too many things going for him for that to be an issue. With his size and intelligence, he just doesn't rely on skating speed at all.
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Die hard flames fan. Always prefer a competitive team over a tanking team. However, our group of guys here have developed a mind set that almost seems unfixable. For the first time we are in position where we have literally no chance for playoffs and coming up on trade deadline. We would have to go 15-5 and that is putting together five 3 game win streaks to finish the season. It is possible, but odds are we maybe put together one or two of them.
Jay-bo: if there is a chance to get a 1st then you pull the trigger on it. If not, then we are better off holding on to him.
Gio: having a terrible season, but if a team is willing to overpay we got to take it.
Kipper: same thing as Gio.
Iggy: This is still up to him, but this is a chance for him to win a cup and help improve the flames. He can come back next season and noone would fault him. If he wants to stay then Im ok with that too.
This fan base and team desperately needs young talent. This draft year looks deep and a drouin or seth jones is exactly something we need.
Enough with giving veterans all the chances in the world to fix their PP. Give the young guys chances. We got nothing to lose anymore. Lets see what they can do when they have the best chance to succeed.
Can you direct to certain articles on Jones. I just have not read as much on him as the others. Not that I don't believe you or Tinordi, just probably have not seen the same reports (as apparently many others have). Obviously have not seen him play either.
Watching him in the World Juniors was all I needed.
As a Flames fan I would be thrilled with any of McKinnon, jones, drouin, barkov. I can't recall the last time Calgary had a prospect close to there skill level. Dion in his junior glory perhaps is the closest?
I'm still pretty excited if we are adding guys like lindholm, netuskin (sp?) and Monihan.
Jones is special but I don't like D at 1 unless the gap is meaningful, which I don't believe it is.
Mckinnons game transfers to the pros the best of the forward crop I think. Drouin has the most puck skills and is a very dynamic and flashy player. Barkov looks like a beast but I'm also a little wearing on what his success really means in finlad. I get the kid vs. men thing but I watch the struggles of someone like granlund who dominated overseas and has really struggled with the NA game. Granted, Inbelive granlund has really struggled due to being under sized and that clearly won't be a challenge for barkov.
Anyway, any of the top 4 are very special players. If we are lucky enough to get our choice of them all then I don't envy whoever has to make that call. If we end up picking in the next tier I think there are some very very good players who get a lot more attention in most other draft years.
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Pretty much. Plus you can get him to NA next season if you want to.
I was actually thinking about this. No matter where the Flames draft, even if it is 1st overall, I don't know if I want the Flames to have that person in their line up for more than 10 games next season - unless they are really special.
No need to burn a year of UFA status on what is probably going to be a lengthy rebuild or risk long term injury on some guys. I think the Oil have actually been too quick to add RNH, Yakupov and Hall to their lineups - both RNH and Hall may have damage to their health long term. I'd rather them dominate in junior and take another year to physically mature, than go against men.
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When it comes to Jones I am concerned about how long he would want to play in a Northern Canadian city. I feel chances of retaining him when he is UFA is lower than a Canadian born player. There seems to be a preference for top American Born players to play for US teams. I know this long term stuff is just small part of the big picture but I feel you have to evaluate everything.
Unfortunately, I think this is something that needs to be considered. If we are finally drafting top 5 for the first time, I want to make this player a lifer.
I would imagine that the Flames would have an indication of his personality and intentions through the interview process though.
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I was actually thinking about this. No matter where the Flames draft, even if it is 1st overall, I don't know if I want the Flames to have that person in their line up for more than 10 games next season - unless they are really special.
No need to burn a year of UFA status on what is probably going to be a lengthy rebuild or risk long term injury on some guys. I think the Oil have actually been too quick to add RNH, Yakupov and Hall to their lineups - both RNH and Hall may have damage to their health long term. I'd rather them dominate in junior and take another year to physically mature, than go against men.
I think you play any prospect whereever it's best for there development, regardless of burning a contract year or not. I think the oilers have done a good job with there kids, although I though RNH could use another year to bulk up a bit - skill clearly was there though.
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