Craig's List 2014 Prospects

[The Fonz]

Is Ritchie fat? I've just never heard of an 18 year old kid being 220lbs+ unless he's out of shape.

He's tall, but not a giant @ 6'2''.

[PeteMoss]

He's big and fights some. I don't know if he's fat or not. I could see a situation where Burke trades down if they are outside of the Bennett/Ekblad/Reinhart group to get Ritchie and an extra 2nd or 3rd rounder

[The Fonz]

We really need to be a part of the top 3. For the love of God.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

We really need to be a part of the top 3. For the love of God.

Yeah, it's pretty maddening. Honestly if it wasn't for Monahan and Gio this year, this would be a really tough season to swallow. These loser franchises can #### off any time now.

[MoreDrank]

Originally Posted by nik-

Yeah, it's pretty maddening. Honestly if it wasn't for Monahan and Gio this year, this would be a really tough season to swallow. These loser franchises can #### off any time now.

I shudder to think of the epic suckitude next season as the bottom five jockeys for position in the McDavid lottery.

[Mr.Coffee]

this draft is going to suck, isn't it?

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

this draft is going to suck, isn't it?

No. Dal Colle and Drasaitl/Virtanen etc are in the range of Horvat. Not star caliber guys, but they would be likely our 2nd or 3rd best prospect only possibly behind Gaudreau.

[Wastedyouth]

Nick Ritchie is the Tyler Biggs of this draft. Do not want. Which means Burke is thinking "I want"!


Ugh.

[RyZ]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

No. Dal Colle and Drasaitl/Virtanen etc are in the range of Horvat. Not star caliber guys, but they would be likely our 2nd or 3rd best prospect only possibly behind Gaudreau.

Most of these guys already had more points than Horvat in his draft year in January and they aren't playing on one of the offensive power houses in the country. You are either under rating some of this current crop or greatly over rating Horvats offensive upside. Horvat wasn't even on a point per game pace last year.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by RyZ

Most of these guys already had more points than Horvat in his draft year in January and they aren't playing on one of the offensive power houses in the country. You are either under rating some of this current crop or greatly over rating Horvats offensive upside. Horvat wasn't even on a point per game pace last year.

I was giving a conservative comparison because the Class as a whole this year is not as good as last year. Those guys should be at worst as good as a guy like Horvat potential wise. None of them are as good as Monahan or those taken above him. Mono would be fighting with Reinhart for #1 if they were together in the same class.

[Money Baer]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Nick Ritchie is the Tyler Biggs of this draft. Do not want. Which means Burke is thinking "I want"!


Ugh.

He's really not. Ritchie is miles ahead of Biggs and a much better prospect at the same age! I know Burke loves his tough/big guys, but he's also smart and drafts BPA even if they're smaller/skilled players.. (Rielly, Kadri.. trades for Kessel)

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by RyZ

Most of these guys already had more points than Horvat in his draft year in January and they aren't playing on one of the offensive power houses in the country. You are either under rating some of this current crop or greatly over rating Horvats offensive upside. Horvat wasn't even on a point per game pace last year.

Yeah I think Horvat is over-rated.

He was slotted by most in the 15-20 range prior to the Memorial Cup. He had a great MC (as did his linemates) and moved up into the 10-15 range.

Then Van took him 9th.

I think the combo of the MC and the 9th selection have him over-rated by some people.

Klimchuk: 50G, 26G 40A 66P
Horvat: 49G, 26G, 43A, 69P

London scores 4.6GPP and Regina scores 3.6GPP

[strombad]

I'm still pretty comfortable in my estimation that Horvat is going to end up as a bonafide 3rd liner (2nd liner on a bad team).

That said, I think if you're picking in the top 3 this year you're going to get a great 2nd line type with serious 1st line potential. After that? Well, we can argue about Virtanen, or Dal Colle, or Draisatl, or Ritchie etc, but the upside of all of those guys is probably 2nd/3rd line once we're near contention, so I'm not really that into one over the other. I guess it depends what you want your middle lines to look like. I think a guy like Virtanen fits better in that role as opposed to a guy like Dal Colle, but we'll see.

Honestly, if we're not getting Ekblad, Reinhart, or Bennett, we've already kind of lost out.

[FlameZilla]

Originally Posted by strombad

I'm still pretty comfortable in my estimation that Horvat is going to end up as a bonafide 3rd liner (2nd liner on a bad team).

That said, I think if you're picking in the top 3 this year you're going to get a great 2nd line type with serious 1st line potential. After that? Well, we can argue about Virtanen, or Dal Colle, or Draisatl, or Ritchie etc, but the upside of all of those guys is probably 2nd/3rd line once we're near contention, so I'm not really that into one over the other. I guess it depends what you want your middle lines to look like. I think a guy like Virtanen fits better in that role as opposed to a guy like Dal Colle, but we'll see.

Honestly, if we're not getting Ekblad, Reinhart, or Bennett, we've already kind of lost out.

I do think Fleury has top 4 D potential, so all is not lost. I like the look of Virtanen but picking him that early would be quite the reach.

Also, I still think we'll be making a strong push for one of those top 3 picks. It's unfathomable that there could be this many teams worse than the Flames this year.

PLUS it's about freakin' time we win a draft lottery or something.

[Completely]

Id rather win next years lottery. Hopefully finish 3rd and get whatever is left for us (Bennett most likely).

[sureLoss]

Redline report's latest rankings:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...semen/5952761/




According to them the tiers are as follows:

The top tier consists of three — maybe four — players, depending on how we feel on a given day. Aaron Ekblad, Leon Draisaitl and Sam Reinhart are in for certain, though their final draft order is still up for grabs. Depending on what day you ask us, Sam Bennett might join the group as well. It's so close, sometimes it just comes down to our last impression at our most recent viewing.

The next tier includes perhaps Bennett, and then Michael Dal Colle, and William Nylander in a tightly bunched group of forwards.

There's a bit of a dropoff after the top six, and our third tier consists of a varied mix of skilled forwards and a big rearguard. In loose order, we have Jake Virtanen, Haydn Fleury, Nick Ritchie, Robby Fabbri, and Nikolay Goldobin.

Beginning with Goldobin at No. 11, it becomes a United Nations list, with three Russians (Goldobin, Nikita Scherbak and Ivan Barbashev), a Czech (David Pastrnak), a Swiss (Kevin Fiala), and a Dane (Nikolaj Ehlers).

After another dropoff to a group of about eight to 10 guys, things start to get pretty thin. We are particularly struck by comparing the players we had ranked in the 20s right on through the mid-40s in 2013 to the corresponding group this year. It's not a pretty comparison for this year's group. Once you get past the mid-20s in 2014, there are a lot of warts and no sure bets.

[Canada 02]

^nice try. I'm not clicking on a link for 'sports semen'

[YogiBerra]

Interesting rankings i wonder what is keeping Bennet from being in their top tier "It's so close, sometimes it just comes down to our last impression at our most recent viewing.". Seems like they're putting a lot of stock in play from game to game when you look at his whole season though i don't see how he isn't at least on draisatl's level.

I can see how Draisatl is in the top tier too though he has good vision and just had his best month production wise this past month. Always good to see a prospect trending upwards.

[Enoch Root]

I sure hope Buffalo also thinks that Draisaitl is better than Reinhart

[the_only_turek_fan]

We need help on defence. If not Ekblad, I hope it's Fleury.