[News] With the 104th overall pick, the Flames select LW John Gaudreau

[sworkhard]

Originally Posted by kirant

Gaudreau I believe is much more of a scorer. He seemed to be extremely keen on shooting the puck and burning them past goalies at close range. Kozun seemed to alternate between sniping and passing more often. I believe he played on a line with Broda, who did more of the scoring.


Kane has much better hands to work with. Gaudreau keeps reminding me of Dawes in terms of skill.

Gaudreau's skillset is pretty much the opposite of Dawes IMO. Decent hands, but weak (but accurate) shot. Dawes had a pretty decent shot, but his hand's weren't great. Gaudreau is also much more of a playmaker than Dawes. In terms of skillset, Kane's a lot better skater (might be partly due to strength) than Gaudreau, but Gaudreau's elite vision, accurate shot (but weak,due to not being strong enough again), and decent puck skills mean that if he turns out, he's going to be a very good player, but due to his size, the chances of him putting it all together are quite a bit lower than someone like Kane was when he was drafted. IMO, Gaudreaus' biggest weaknesses are strength, skating, and size - in that order. Gaudreau's coaches claimed that he's a pass first player, has a very weak shot as he's not very strong, but his shot is accurate enough to make up for it at the level he was playing.

[DionTheDman]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...624/story.html

They liked him. They liked him a lot.
So they wanted to avoid tipping their hand. No easy thing in a world as small as hockey’s.

To keep their degree of admiration hidden, they didn’t approach the player — not even once — leading up to the 2011 National Hockey League draft.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by wise_one

Should have picked St. Croix

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Waste of a pick.

Originally Posted by The Original FFIV

Michael St Croix goes 2 picks later to the NYR.

Don't really know either guy from Adam - but St Croix at 5'11 at 176 seems more promising than 5'6 at 137 and both are skilled guys. Not sure how much more filling out our guy can do but growing 5 inches and putting on 40 pounds (to achieve NHL size) seems a stretch. Hope I'm wrong and the kid is a steal.

Gotta love hindsight.

[Textcritic]

What a fun thread!

Originally Posted by The Original FFIV

...Not sure how much more filling out our guy can do but growing 5 inches and putting on 40 pounds (to achieve NHL size) seems a stretch. Hope I'm wrong and the kid is a steal.

Congratulations! You were SO wrong, and we are all better for it.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by PlayfulGenius

They likely could have waited a round or 2 on this guy, oh well, let's hope he becomes a total phenomenon!

^The most accurate half assed guess of all time!

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...624/story.html

Button's stock just rose in my eyes (silly I know, but it's cool to hear that he had Gaudreau and Kucherov as wildcards). Can you imagine if we would have gotten Kucherov with a later round pick as well? That draft would have been insane. Baertschi, Granlund, Wotherspoon, Kucherov and Gaudreau?

[FBI]

Yeah that was a fun read.. Might be some crow eating going on

[codynw]

This thread is funny. This is why I try not to complain about what the team does at the draft, you really never know what can happen.

[Poe969]

To be fair, a lot of people were right about him being small, he is small. He's just freaking amazing and was a great pick.

[Point Blank]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

Gotta love hindsight.

Wait I don't know much about St. Croix but is he really that much of a bust at the to be calling hindsight? I am excited about Johnny as anyone else, but let's not forget Gaudreau has only played one NHL game

[shermanator]

Just continues to show that unless someone has seen the draft pick play live, they don't know a damn thing about them.

[Poe969]

Originally Posted by Point Blank

Wait I don't know much about St. Croix but is he really that much of a bust at the to be calling hindsight? I am excited about Johnny as anyone else, but let's not forget Gaudreau has only played one NHL game

and scored one goal in that game.
and played against NHL players and still looked good
and dominated at the world championship
and is being recognized more and more because of his skill

It would be funny if St. Croix did turn out to be a great player too though

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Oilers suck.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

^The most accurate half assed guess of all time!

I'm thinking that drafting Johnny Gaudreau may have been one of the most accurate half-assed guesses of all time.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Point Blank

Wait I don't know much about St. Croix but is he really that much of a bust at the to be calling hindsight? I am excited about Johnny as anyone else, but let's not forget Gaudreau has only played one NHL game

Hahahahaha! ... Really?

Gaudreau has played one more game in the NHL than St. Croix, who turned pro a full season earlier. Even though St. Croix has a full year's head start, Gaudreau has more NHL goals and points than St. Croix has scored in 13 games played in the AHL. "Bust" is a bit strong, but I think it is safe to conclude that at this point, Gaudreau is almost certain to be a better player in the long run.

[djsFlames]

Button rubbing in the fact that he knew about the kid all along, that article was a chance for him to get a laugh in at everyone else, including skeptics in the fanbase.

However, I'm happy to say I wasn't one of them. I remember listening to his phone interview on draft day and thinking wow 5'6 and he doesn't seem to know anything about calgary (indicating the story above), seems like an out of nowhere pick, but his numbers are impressive, and Jay had also claimed him to have 'top 10 skill' so maybe they're onto something. I also have always liked the idea of a small guy beating the odds and the doubters to make it, so I had kind of kept track of him since (though not that closely initially), and his first season in BC really impressed me, since I knew you had to be at least pretty good to score a PPG clp in the NCAA, and as a rookie, wow. Second year safe to say everyone else caught on and my attention grew about tenfold. Since the WJCs, all doubt in my mind has been erased.

Can't wait to see him against NHL opposition (although EDM, so debatable) again on sunday!

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!

I'm thinking that drafting Johnny Gaudreau may have been one of the most accurate half-assed guesses of all time.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Read the article that DionTheDman posted. Flames scouts were VERY high on Gaudreau, and were all VERY excited about his NHL potential for a long time before the 2011 draft. Feaster furthermore deserves a lot of credit for wisely deferring to his soucts, and also for giving Button a ton of latitude with this pick to ensure that they got him.

It might be a little early yet, but this is developing into what should be considered a well executed home run.

[bubbsy]

i'm hoping we can toot management's horn about the real "let's go out on a limb here" with the Jankowski pick in a year or two.

Taking your "shot" in a later round is one thing, but then trading down your first round pick, and then going off the board with the pick, now that's where you are really taking a shot.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

i'm hoping we can toot management's horn about the real "let's go out on a limb here" with the Jankowski pick in a year or two.

Taking your "shot" in a later round is one thing, but then trading down, and then going off the board with the pick, now that's where you are really taking a shot.

There is no board.

[bettman]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/g...r-well-earned/