Craig's List 2014 Prospects

[icarus]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

What's the skinny on Nylander? Never hear much about him.

Short snippet from Kyle Woodlief's most recent pre-playoffs article FWIW:

Speaking of Draisaitl, has everyone noticed just how hot he has been these last several weeks as he just put Prince Albert on his back and took the Raiders for a ride? The big center's play took a little dip just after he came back from the world juniors (a quite natural letdown), but he has come roaring back to make it a tightly bunched four-horse race to the wire.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, while William Nylander has recently rebounded from some early doldrums, we have soured somewhat on all the drama that surrounds his attitude. Having said that, we can't knock him out of the top 10 because, well… he's very likely the most purely skilled offensive player in this draft.

[Bourque's Twin]

I'm cheering hard for the Islanders against Panthers tomorrow. That's a huge game for Flames fans. Islanders catch us and Panthers lose , helping their chances at 2nd overall. The good thing is that it's in Long Island and it's Florida's 2nd game in as many nights. No Luongo.

[PeteMoss]

Islanders have been fighting hard... their current playing line-up is awful. Kind of reminds me of the Flames last year when they called up a bunch of guys who worked hard and ended up playing better.

[Poe969]

It's more than annoying that teams that are tanking so bad (oilers) are going to end up ruining a good young prospect. At what point does the NHL step in and fix things? I think it would be amazing if one of these prospects "Lindross's" the oilers or islanders.

[Da_Chief]

The Islanders have just had some ####ty luck in terms on injuries and a dumb GM. Dipietro was suppose to be good and was really good till his knees gave out. They try hard and their drafting is good.

The team that's getting a pass is the Panthers, making playoffs couple years ago was nice but they blow.

2004 draft Olesz @ 7th, big bust.
2005 draft McCardle @ 20th, big bust.
2006 draft Frolik @ 10th, give up on him too soon.
2007 draft Ellerby @ 10th, looks like a bust.
2008 draft Markstrom @ 31st, big hype, bad development, not NHL ready
2009 draft Kulikov @ 14th, rumors of wanting to trade him
2010 draft Gudbranson @ 3rd, looks like a 3rd pair at best
2010 draft Bjugstad @ 19th, looks like a good prospect
2010 draft Howden @ 25th, looks like a bottom liner
2011 draft Huberdeau @ 3rd, going through sophmore slump, changed his position

That looks pretty bad, at least the Oilers top picks score and look like NHLers (minus Yak this year) the Panthers have been dismal. For the number of years they've had top 10 picks multiple times they're a bad team.

[Vinny01]

Really hard to call a 21/22 year old Dman 3rd pair at best considering that position takes longer to develop

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Poe969

It's more than annoying that teams that are tanking so bad (oilers) are going to end up ruining a good young prospect. At what point does the NHL step in and fix things? I think it would be amazing if one of these prospects "Lindross's" the oilers or islanders.

I think this is one of the reasons why the NHL wants to change the draft lottery rules. It's tiring to see how year after year, the same bad teams keep ruining the top prospects. It's bad for the league. It doesn't happen with every top prospect, but it happens enough that it it annoying.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I think this is one of the reasons why the NHL wants to change the draft lottery rules. It's tiring to see how year after year, the same bad teams keep ruining the top prospects. It's bad for the league. It doesn't happen with every top prospect, but it happens enough that it it annoying.

It is more of a function of Drafting 18 year olds. For every Monahan that is a man at 18 there are 5 guys that are kids (or at the best teenagers).

The NHL Draft needs to be changed so that any 18 year old drafted has to play in the NHL in his draft year and have a 3 year 9M contract.

That way the obvious top talents Mackinnon, Barkov, Seth Jones, Monahan get paid as 19 year olds.


The top 5-6 from last year would have been drafted.... Drouin would have been picked either where he was or behind Seth Jones and Nichushkin who were obviously more physically ready.

This year Nurse, Horvat would be vying for the #1 pick overall.

Did the Oilers already mess up Nurse? They had to take a chance on him as he had the most potential when they were drafting him.

There would be a lot less of a lottery for the bottom teams. The bottom 10 teams would be getting a player that was on their NHL team.

Someone like Jankowski would never get picked in the 1st round. Someone like Gaudreau might have been picked in the 1st round as a 19 year old.

Comparing the value of NHL draft picks to NFL players. The NFL teams can expect their first round pick to make a major contribution as a 21 year old 22 year old rookie.

[sureLoss]

Aaron Vickers @AAVickers
Virtanen battled strep throat and a nagging shoulder injury in the first round exit to Kootenay. He insists he is good to go. #NHLDraft

[Imported_Aussie]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Really hard to call a 21/22 year old Dman 3rd pair at best considering that position takes longer to develop

Quoted as I agree, and I see Gudbranson as a guy who has the upside to be part of a solid top 4, a 2-3 guy. Not the #1 guy back there, but topping out either complimentary on the top pairing or leading the second pairing.
Defenceman, especially those who are a bit bigger, need time to adapt their game to the NHL and fully mature. Also, playing on a bad team can make the job of a defenceman trying to learn the trade more difficult. I think it is easier for the smaller, puckmoving defencemen to blossom earlier, as they have never been able to rely on their size to win battles on the ice.

[Poe969]

Speaking of Gudbranson; I wonder if he could be the next Colborne? He seems to have fallen out of favour in florida and if they end up with Ekblad, they might be willing to part with him. I would love to get a young guy like him off of a team that wants to give up on them the way the leafs gave up on Colborne. There are a few out there and if we can't manage to get Ekblad, maybe we can pick up a "late bloomer" and develop them into a good player.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Speaking of Gudbranson; I wonder if he could be the next Colborne? He seems to have fallen out of favour in florida and if they end up with Ekblad, they might be willing to part with him. I would love to get a young guy like him off of a team that wants to give up on them the way the leafs gave up on Colborne. There are a few out there and if we can't manage to get Ekblad, maybe we can pick up a "late bloomer" and develop them into a good player.

I'd be a fan of that too but the cost is going to be much higher. (Well, at least you'd expect it to, but Florida is a gong show.) Hedman had his first really good seasons last year and this year and he was touted as a guy who could step in and make an impact at 18. That didn't happen.

It's very, very rare for d-men to make an impact before the age that Gudbranson is right now. Giving up on him now doesn't make much sense for Florida. It would be like us giving up on Baertschi right now. Lots of potential still, has hit some rough patches, and you're not going to recover the value of your initial investment (3rd overall pick) nor even reasonably hedge against downside based on the timing. It's just totally the wrong time to move him.

But like I said, Florida is a gong show so anything is possible.

[Poe969]

Well I guess we can just wait for the oilers to draft Ekblad, treat him like garbage and then we can sign him and turn him into a Norris winning defensman in a few years...

[PeteMoss]

Gudbranson was always low upside. He was a lot like Bogosian. Big and can skate... but not great with the puck so at the top end you're looking at a Regehr, which is fine but still more of a support guy than a #1 defenseman at the top end and 5-6 guy is the most likely result.

[IgiTang]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Speaking of Gudbranson; I wonder if he could be the next Colborne? He seems to have fallen out of favour in florida and if they end up with Ekblad, they might be willing to part with him. I would love to get a young guy like him off of a team that wants to give up on them the way the leafs gave up on Colborne. There are a few out there and if we can't manage to get Ekblad, maybe we can pick up a "late bloomer" and develop them into a good player.

Originally Posted by Five-hole

I'd be a fan of that too but the cost is going to be much higher. (Well, at least you'd expect it to, but Florida is a gong show.) Hedman had his first really good seasons last year and this year and he was touted as a guy who could step in and make an impact at 18. That didn't happen.

It's very, very rare for d-men to make an impact before the age that Gudbranson is right now. Giving up on him now doesn't make much sense for Florida. It would be like us giving up on Baertschi right now. Lots of potential still, has hit some rough patches, and you're not going to recover the value of your initial investment (3rd overall pick) nor even reasonably hedge against downside based on the timing. It's just totally the wrong time to move him.

But like I said, Florida is a gong show so anything is possible.

Quite honestly, I would like to see a player like Gudbranson targeted with the use of Beartschi going the other way. Sven is looking like a ruined prospect also. The game this weekend, he looked bad... And with the emergence of some of our guys like Street, Sven is losing ground on a roster spot and fast.

I would suggest we move him before he becomes our next Kris Chucko TBQH..

This would allow us to focus on more forwards early on in this draft.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by IgiTang

Quite honestly, I would like to see a player like Gudbranson targeted with the use of Beartschi going the other way. Sven is looking like a ruined prospect also. The game this weekend, he looked bad... And with the emergence of some of our guys like Street, Sven is losing ground on a roster spot and fast.

I would suggest we move him before he becomes our next Kris Chucko TBQH..

This would allow us to focus on more forwards early on in this draft.

What an incredibly bad post.

We turned Colborne from a "ruined prospect" into an NHL player this season, and he's four years older than Baertschi. Sven has 0.5 ppg in the NHL as a 20 year old. He's had some struggles this year but calling him a ruined prospect at his age is asinine.

I'm not against a struggling prospect for struggling prospect swap but calling him the next Kris Chucko is quite possibly one of the most off the mark statements I've ever read on this board.

[nik-]

If we're moving Baertschi, which I don't think we should even though so many have turned on him, we should be trying to target Larsson in NJ.

Ruined prospect lol.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Baertschi is a ruined prospect? Can't believe so many people have already put him out of the Flames' future.

24 points in 51 games, was moved down because he had to work on playing in all three zones. I see him coming back on the Flames and playing better than ever, I thought he had good chemistry with Sean.

[Saqe]

Dale Tallon has stated several times that Gudbransson is their future captain and that he isn't trading the kid away. I know GM's always say they aren't trading and still might do it but since he has stated it several times I don't see Guds going anywhere.

What comes to his upside I think he'll end up being a solid defensive #3-4 guy. But his development has been slowed down by injuries so it's hard to say how he will turn out in the end. I think his upside is a bit underestimated here though.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by IgiTang

Quite honestly, I would like to see a player like Gudbranson targeted with the use of Beartschi going the other way. Sven is looking like a ruined prospect also. The game this weekend, he looked bad... And with the emergence of some of our guys like Street, Sven is losing ground on a roster spot and fast.

I would suggest we move him before he becomes our next Kris Chucko TBQH..

This would allow us to focus on more forwards early on in this draft.

so many sig worthy things in that post. Sorry man, but that's ... let's just say your post wasn't thought through very well.