2021 NHL Draft

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by Sandman

LHD Brian Zanetti,6'2"176lbs (Lugano U20): 41gp/9g/20a/29pts,19PIM, tied for 4th amongst D, 1st for D under the age of 18. His performance was one of the best in league history for a player his age. 1pt in 5 games for Switzerland at the U-18s. Two-way defenseman who provides stability on the backend, and is dangerous in all three zones. He uses his frame and his long reach to battle in the corners, and along the boards. Good stick that he uses to disrupt the rush, and snuff out the cycle, and he's adept at poke-checking. Closes gaps, and pressures attackers with his stick, and his physicality. His defensive awareness is quite high-he blocks shots, boxes out opponents in front of the net, and keeps play to the outside. Physical, and hard-working along the wall. Zanetti has good offensive awareness as well-he jumps into the play at the right time to create space and opportunities, create odd-man situations, or keep the play alive in possession. Good instincts, and fantastic passing skills-he can find teammates through traffic, or from long-range. Smooth skater, with good edgework that provides him with good elusiveness and escapability. Nice top speed, smooth in turns, and tough to beat 1-on-1. With his puck-control and stride, he's effective in skating the puck out in transition. Great first-passer, makes smart plays and outlets to get the puck up-ice.

Zanetti's shot could use more power and velocity-he can score goals at this level, but he'll need an upgrade for the NHL. He plays with physicality, but he could use more of an edge. His puckhandling needs improvement to help him better make plays off the rush. He's a good skater, but has room to improve his balance and agility. He's still quite raw, and he'll need time to fill in his frame and get stronger, but we may see him in North America as early as next year, as he was drafted 35th overall by the Peterborough Petesin the 2020 CHL Import Draft. Plenty of potential, and a pretty high ceiling here. Central Scouting rates him a "C", so they think he'll be taken in the 4th-6th round.

I would definitely take a chance on Zanetti in the 4th to 6th round.
Awareness is one of the hardest things to teach/improve on. This guy seems to have it on both ends of the ice.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Lol applauding them for trading down, missing out on Hertl, Teravainen, Vas, and Wilson to draft a bust? Who cares how he did the first year after 6 yrs development. At the end of the day he was a bust and screwing up Bennett along with him.

Just hate how liberally the word bust is thrown around.

Jankowski to date is 48th in his draft class in games played and 44th in points. That's not a bust.

When I look at the 2012 first round, the only player that I'd call a bust compared to expectations is Griffin Reinhart.

I mean I love all the sardonic responses, but all he's really saying is they targeted a player above most teams, and looked to have something on their hands.

I'd rather have a draft team with stones than just flipping through The Hockey News.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

I would take Wallstedt if he is available

But I doubt Treliving would, he needs a guy that can help quickly to save his job. My guess is the pick will be traded

Kind of a catch 22. Wallstedt probably puts the franchise in a very good place in 4+ years or so with a young franchise goaltender. The issue is that Brad probably knows he won't be around to benefit from that so does he pick what's best for the organization long term or what's may help him keep his job another year or two?

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Kind of a catch 22. Wallstedt probably puts the franchise in a very good place in 4+ years or so with a young franchise goaltender. The issue is that Brad probably knows he won't be around to benefit from that so does he pick what's best for the organization long term or what's may help him keep his job another year or two?

It shouldn't take a 1st round goalie four years to make the league.

Knight drafted in '19, played in 20/21.
Vasilevskiy drafted in '12, played in 14/15.

If Wallstedt is available at our pick, it would be hard to pass up - but I don't think he'll be there.

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

It shouldn't take a 1st round goalie four years to make the league.

Knight drafted in '19, played in 20/21.
Vasilevskiy drafted in '12, played in 14/15.

If Wallstedt is available at our pick, it would be hard to pass up - but I don't think he'll be there.

It's not just those two. The vast majority of the #1 goalies in the league played in the NHL before the age of 22. This is especially true for the elite (or formerly elite) goalies.
Most cup-winning goalies are 28 or younger.
Nearly all cup-winning goalies were drafted and developed by the team that developed them.

It's starting to seem to like drafting a goalie in the 1st round is a good idea.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Just hate how liberally the word bust is thrown around.



Jankowski to date is 48th in his draft class in games played and 44th in points. That's not a bust.



When I look at the 2012 first round, the only player that I'd call a bust compared to expectations is Griffin Reinhart.



I mean I love all the sardonic responses, but all he's really saying is they targeted a player above most teams, and looked to have something on their hands.



I'd rather have a draft team with stones than just flipping through The Hockey News.

Yeah I think Jankowski turned out quite well for a player drafted out of a Canadian HS prep programme, not exactly an NHL factory.

It's the draft capital that was used on him that on retrospect stings. Clearly the Flames didn't think they could hold out until a later round and still snag him and we'll never know if they were right.

But I think back to the draft year when both Patrice Bergeron and Brent Burns were selected in the first round, and neither player featured in any of the media draft lists going in. They both seemed like total reaches and headscratchers, at least for those of us reading the draft magazines and surfing the web.

Obviously the BOS and MIN drafting teams felt otherwise and weren't prepared to hold out for a later round, much like the Flames with Jankowski. But they both sure hit the nail on the head. (Especially impressive that Burns was drafted as a forward and hadn't played D for years but the Wild planned to develop him as a blueliner from Day 1.)

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Just hate how liberally the word bust is thrown around.

Jankowski to date is 48th in his draft class in games played and 44th in points. That's not a bust.

When I look at the 2012 first round, the only player that I'd call a bust compared to expectations is Griffin Reinhart.

I mean I love all the sardonic responses, but all he's really saying is they targeted a player above most teams, and looked to have something on their hands.

I'd rather have a draft team with stones than just flipping through The Hockey News.

Ok maybe bust is the wrong word but do you really think Jankowski was a success?

I am not arguing for the hockey news but Jankowski is not a good example to use for your drafting skill.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Ok maybe bust is the wrong word but do you really think Jankowski was a success?

I am not arguing for the hockey news but Jankowski is not a good example to use for your drafting skill.

Honestly it was.

If you look at the back half or third of the first round for say 2005-2010 you'll see a bunch of players play 500-600 games and a bunch play 100 ... he's played 350 to date and would pretty much count as an average result in that time frame.

At 6'5" and soft hands ... he had a chance to be a home run. Didn't happen, but it wasn't a whiff.

I just wish they would have acquired say Columbus' 2nd round pick instead of taking him at 21. Montreal was apparently set to take him in the second from some reports at the time.

The players selected between 21 and Montreal's pick at 33 included some NHLers that are similar to Jankowski, but not many that blow him out of the water (Maatta, Matheson, Skjei and Pearson are the only NHLers).

It really wasn't that much of a fail, especially since they got a 2nd rounder out of it.

[Knut]

Taking Wallstedt wouldnt be the worst thing. He has Markstrom to look up to and help guide him and the timing lines up to Walstedt supplanting Markstrom in the last few years of the contract.

[dammage79]

That'd be a hell of a goaltending prospect pool.

Parsons, Wolf (infuriating how so many write him off), Chechelev and Wallstedt. Thats a pretty good spread of goaltending talent.

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by dammage79

That'd be a hell of a goaltending prospect pool.

Parsons, Wolf (infuriating how so many write him off), Chechelev and Wallstedt. Thats a pretty good spread of goaltending talent.

Do people really do that? If so, I'm infuriated by proxy.

Here's a hot take: I think Wolf should play in the NHL this upcoming season.
I wouldn't even be opposed to him being the backup right out of the gate. Will this happen? No way. He'll likely be the starter for the Heat. But I think he's already the second best goalie in the organization after Markstrom.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by dammage79

That'd be a hell of a goaltending prospect pool.

Parsons, Wolf (infuriating how so many write him off), Chechelev and Wallstedt. Thats a pretty good spread of goaltending talent.

Curious, but who has written Wolf off? We have no idea what we have in Wolf at this point, but what we have seen so far is promising. He got his doors blown off in his first pro game, but bounced back well before going back to the WHL. I think there is promise there. Parsons is another story. I think he's close to being done, not really showing any development and sidetracked by injuries/off ice issues. The team can't be seeing him as a future player at this point. The lack of prospect depth may help him out, but he will be 24 by time the next AHL puck is dropped and he'll have made only one AHL appearance in the last two years. We'll know based on the contract he gets this summer.

I would be disappointed if the Flames picked a goaltender in the first round, but it would be nice to have a blue chip prospect at any position at the moment.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Curious, but who has written Wolf off? We have no idea what we have in Wolf at this point, but what we have seen so far is promising. He got his doors blown off in his first pro game, but bounced back well before going back to the WHL. I think there is promise there.

I think you see lots of people in some of the other threads or online in other places mention he's too small to be an NHL goalie, and that his success is because of Everett's system.

Overall though he has shown to have a lot of promise.

Should also be noted that his first pro game was also his first hockey game of any type in 11 months and he let in 5 goals on 11 shots.

The two games after that: 3 goals against on 65 shots for a .954 save percentage. So pretty impressive to adjust and bounce back the way he did.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

It shouldn't take a 1st round goalie four years to make the league.

Knight drafted in '19, played in 20/21.
Vasilevskiy drafted in '12, played in 14/15.

If Wallstedt is available at our pick, it would be hard to pass up - but I don't think he'll be there.

Yeah but with Markstrom's contract the team wouldn't need to rush him into playing. He would be backing up Markstrom for at least a few seasons much like Vasilevsky did in Tampa as he was behind Bishop for three seasons.

[Bingo]

Updated:

- Updated FC's massive 300 player list
- Added hockeyprospects.com

The latter really messed with some averages to be honest.

Link is below and in the sticky

https://www.calgarypuck.com/wp-conte...-Consensus.pdf

[Bingo]

^ with Raty sliding, and McTavish moving up it's really become a mini ledge around picks 11-13 with Lysell, Sillinger and Lucius

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Updated:

- Updated FC's massive 300 player list
- Added hockeyprospects.com

The latter really messed with some averages to be honest.

Link is below and in the sticky

https://www.calgarypuck.com/wp-conte...-Consensus.pdf

Thanks for doin this stuff Bingo.

Lots of work and really dumbs it down for dumb guys like me.

I was curious to see which list was the closest to the concensus/average of them all compiled. After a cursory perusal, it looks like McKenzie to me. Which is interesting in that so many take him as gospel.

The variations on Lysell are pretty wild too.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Honestly it was.

If you look at the back half or third of the first round for say 2005-2010 you'll see a bunch of players play 500-600 games and a bunch play 100 ... he's played 350 to date and would pretty much count as an average result in that time frame.

At 6'5" and soft hands ... he had a chance to be a home run. Didn't happen, but it wasn't a whiff.

I just wish they would have acquired say Columbus' 2nd round pick instead of taking him at 21. Montreal was apparently set to take him in the second from some reports at the time.

The players selected between 21 and Montreal's pick at 33 included some NHLers that are similar to Jankowski, but not many that blow him out of the water (Maatta, Matheson, Skjei and Pearson are the only NHLers).

It really wasn't that much of a fail, especially since they got a 2nd rounder out of it.

It’s not picking him at 21 that’s a fail. It’s not passing and picking up Wilson/Teravainen/Vasilevskiy/Hertl that’s the fail.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

It’s not picking him at 21 that’s a fail. It’s not passing and picking up Wilson/Teravainen/Vasilevskiy/Hertl that’s the fail.

For sure moving down at all was a fail when there were solid players, and potentially a hall of famer available.

I tried to find some draft rankings heading in.

First one I found on Sportsnet had Vasilevsky and Wilson at 16-17.

But hockeywriters had Wilson 25th and Vasilevsky 50th and Bob McKenzie had Wilson 18th and Vasilevsky 24th.

Button had Wilson at 30 and no Vasilevsky.

Not much of a consensus from initial searches.

[SuperMatt18]

Wilson is a weird case.

If you look purely at stats at the time of the draft you'd want nothing to do with him.

I'd bet you could count on one hand the number of forwards that put up 0.55 PPG in their draft year that actually end up becoming offensive contributors in the NHL.

And even then he's played his entire career playing in the top 6 with very talented players in Washington, and is still a 0.4 PPG guy for his career.

I'm not sure Tom Wilson becomes what he is today if he's drafted by the Flames to be honest. Situation and the team ended up perfect for him.