Craig's List 2014 Prospects

[nik-]

If we end up with Ekblad I'm not going to be upset. I just prefer a center, because it's safer and we also really need a center too.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Psytic

I can get a Weber a Keith a Subban etc Dman don't have to be drafted high to find good ones.

You can pick up a guy like that in the later rounds if you get very, very, very lucky. Do you want to leave the most influential position on the roster up to chance?

[Psytic]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

You can pick up a guy like that in the later rounds if you get very, very, very lucky. Do you want to leave the most influential position on the roster up to chance?

the whole draft is up to chance. You guys act like the top 5 forwards are a gamble and Ekblad is a sure thing. That isn't the case guys.

[AltaGuy]

I always compare Ekblad to Seth Jones last year. Jones was spectacular every time I saw him, and I thought he looked like a franchise DMan every time I saw him. Rob Blake 2.0.

I agree fully with the Bogosian comparisons with Ekblad. I really hope we go Reinhart or Bennett.

[Red John]

Haven't seen Ekblad play more than a handful of times but his upside seems to be higher than Bogosian.

Ekblad thinks the game at a good level and tends to never repeat his mistakes. Bogosian is a player with skills but not great hockey sense, Ekblad has an understanding of when to step up and when to just make the safe play. He's going to be a top-pairing defenseman but agreed that he is likely behind Seth Jones and will probably never win a Norris.

However he is going to be a great top-pairing all-situations guy with a RH shot - and the Flames are desperately going to need a guy to man the blueline for 15 years because by the time they're contenders Giordano won't be that guy anymore.

Then on the other hand you have another No. 1 centre who similar to Ekblad will likely never be the top player in the NHL at his position but intelligent top-line centers are hard to find (the Flames should know) so you really can't go wrong with either.

If the Flames actually land the top pick and are in a position to choose, that's a great problem to have. Either way they'll be landing a franchise cornerstone.

[sun]

BPA is a myth.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Psytic

I can get a Weber a Keith a Subban etc Dman don't have to be drafted high to find good ones.

Edit: i'll even add in Gio who was undrafted and we can now consider to be a solid number one since he's an injury call up for team Canada.

Just because one team a year out of thirty hits a homerun with a 2nd or 3rd rounder doesn't mean you can rely on winning that lottery as your strategy for acquiring a top two defenseman.

We need a top two defenseman with size for our rebuild. I'm not convinced we'll be getting a Weber or a Keith in the 2nd round, that seems like a hope and a prayer. So Ekblad seems like a great option to me. Reinhart and Bennett also look like solid options. Personally I think the right handed d-man with size might be rarer if he's the real deal.

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by sun

BPA is a myth.

How so?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by sun

BPA is a myth.

It isn't a myth. It's a philosophy of taking the guy your scouts like best regardless of whether he fits an organizational weakness or not.

It also happens to be completely subjective based on what someone thinks makes the best NHLer. Fans would love if BPA was objective.

Sounds like this year that many teams will disagree on who the best player available at #1 will be. I'd be pretty happy with any of Bennett, Reinhart or Ekblad at this point.

[PeteMoss]

Saying Ekblad doesn't think the game well is ridiculous. You don't play and excel in juniors at 15 because you are some kind of physical beast. Ekblad played 30 minutes a game last year on a team that was in game 7 of the OHL championship. I don't know if Bogosian ever even played on a junior team that made the playoffs. Bogosian was widely overrated in his draft year. He should have been been in the discussion of the top defenseman but teams decided to invent flaws on the other guys (Doughty = fat, Pietrangelo = soft) while Bogosian was the big ole rugged safe guy.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Just because one team a year out of thirty hits a homerun with a 2nd or 3rd rounder doesn't mean you can rely on winning that lottery as your strategy for acquiring a top two defenseman.

We need a top two defenseman with size for our rebuild. I'm not convinced we'll be getting a Weber or a Keith in the 2nd round, that seems like a hope and a prayer. So Ekblad seems like a great option to me. Reinhart and Bennett also look like solid options. Personally I think the right handed d-man with size might be rarer if he's the real deal.

Say we get a 25-30 overall pick for Cammy, and a 3rd for Stajan.

Use the 1st on one of the forwards. Then spam the next 4 picks on defensemen.

Next year, use the top pick on a forward, and then spam the top 3 round picks on defensemen.

We'll then have a glut of defenders coming up, and some should emerge with the talent required to be top 4 guys.

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Say we get a 25-30 overall pick for Cammy, and a 3rd for Stajan.

Use the 1st on one of the forwards. Then spam the next 4 picks on defensemen.

Next year, use the top pick on a forward, and then spam the top 3 round picks on defensemen.

We'll then have a glut of defenders coming up, and some should emerge with the talent required to be top 4 guys.

The NY Islanders school of drafting?

[Vinny01]

I do think Feaster had it right when he said "work the list". Rank all the prospects and take the guy who is highest on your list. If it happens to be a LW so be it.

I still am hoping for Ekblad myself because I want a big Dman to get excited about. If we get the first pick and take Reinhart or Bennett I will have no problem with that either. The Flames can't miss on this pick though it has to be a game changer

[sun]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

How so?

We all lambast the oilers for taking the "consensus" #1 pick when they were all undersized forwards. Yes, oilers are easy pickin's, but still. What if oilers pick #1 again this year and select Reinhart instead of Ekblad? We'd all have a field day and rightly so, even if Reinhart becomes the consensus #1.

Jones was #1 or #2 going into the draft on every list and he dropped to the preds.

People in this thread are saying draft the centre, not the dman since they are so close. Well one of them has to be BPA, so why not pick that one? Because maybe if Ekblad is slightly better (or equal); good teams are strong down the middle, dmen are harder to predict, dmen take longer to develop, etc.

Flyers had a draft video last year where they have all their first round names on a list. Monahan was on there, say 4-6th (can't remember exactly). They debate their list and go back and forth and suddenly Monahan has dropped to ~13th with ALL the players who passed him being dman in the span of a single meeting. Why? Flyers wanted to pick a dman. And they did, even though half the players picked between Morin(?) and Monahan were forwards (ie, they would have passed on Horvat and Nich too if they were available).

You can't just blindly pick BPA with no regards to your organizational needs. People band the BPA drum, but it ain't that easy. I could be convinced otherwise of course, but that's my opinion.

Now, our team has so many holes, any of the top players will fill one, but my vote is Ekblad.

[Vinny01]

If the Oilers draft Reinhart they would be wise to trade one of their young pieces for a Dman. I think you take the best player regardless of need. If you have 2 ayers that are really close together then that is when position of need comes into play

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

I do think Feaster had it right when he said "work the list". Rank all the prospects and take the guy who is highest on your list. If it happens to be a LW so be it.

I still am hoping for Ekblad myself because I want a big Dman to get excited about. If we get the first pick and take Reinhart or Bennett I will have no problem with that either. The Flames can't miss on this pick though it has to be a game changer

From Feaster's comments on the draft, that they always got their top rated players, I don't believe much of what Feaster said.

I think when picking your players, BPA and needs should both be in the mix of how you make your choice. Forcing things by trying to satisfy a need ends up with being a gamble while say taking a goalie because he's the BPA when you are already stockpiled with goalies isn't a good plan either. Sure you can make trades after you're overstocked at any one position but other teams know you need to trade and so take advantage, like how we got Kiprusoff.

[lanny9]

Ekblad is a stud dman that every team needs to be successful, we currently do not have these going forward. We can all agree that it takes longer to develop dmen so why not take that dman this year and then look to next year where the top end talent is a lot better than this year for forwards. Seems like a no brainer to me, and hopefully Burke & Co.

By taking Ekblad this year he has one more year development ahead of our next building block in what is expected to be a very high draft pick next year and a chance at what are some very, very good centermen.

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by sun

We all lambast the oilers for taking the "consensus" #1 pick when they were all undersized forwards. Yes, oilers are easy pickin's, but still. What if oilers pick #1 again this year and select Reinhart instead of Ekblad? We'd all have a field day and rightly so, even if Reinhart becomes the consensus #1.

Jones was #1 or #2 going into the draft on every list and he dropped to the preds.

People in this thread are saying draft the centre, not the dman since they are so close. Well one of them has to be BPA, so why not pick that one? Because maybe if Ekblad is slightly better (or equal); good teams are strong down the middle, dmen are harder to predict, dmen take longer to develop, etc.

Flyers had a draft video last year where they have all their first round names on a list. Monahan was on there, say 4-6th (can't remember exactly). They debate their list and go back and forth and suddenly Monahan has dropped to ~13th with ALL the players who passed him being dman in the span of a single meeting. Why? Flyers wanted to pick a dman. And they did, even though half the players picked between Morin(?) and Monahan were forwards (ie, they would have passed on Horvat and Nich too if they were available).

You can't just blindly pick BPA with no regards to your organizational needs. People band the BPA drum, but it ain't that easy. I could be convinced otherwise of course, but that's my opinion.

Now, our team has so many holes, any of the top players will fill one, but my vote is Ekblad.

If the Oilers ever figured out that they could get a great dman if they traded one of their young Turks (Hall, RNH, Eberle, Yakupov or whoever) then they'd be on the way to a better team. They don't because they have poor management. Flames traded Hull for Ramage, Gilmour, Wamsley and loom how that turned out for them.

BPA just makes sense. You end up with a glut of centres? Teams ALWAYS need a centre and you can trade for your needs. Pretty hard to try and pick positions for what you'll need 5 years down the road because circumstances always change.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

If the Oilers ever figured out that they could get a great dman if they traded one of their young Turks (Hall, RNH, Eberle, Yakupov or whoever) then they'd be on the way to a better team. They don't because they have poor management. Flames traded Hull for Ramage, Gilmour, Wamsley and loom how that turned out for them.

BPA just makes sense. You end up with a glut of centres? Teams ALWAYS need a centre and you can trade for your needs. Pretty hard to try and pick positions for what you'll need 5 years down the road because circumstances always change.

If we're picking in the top 3, we shouldn't have to wait 5 years to see if they fill a need.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

Flames traded Hull for Ramage, Gilmour, Wamsley and loom how that turned out for them.

Gilmour wasn't part of the Hull trade.