NHL Draft Topic

[Corizzle]

First round line-up as of 8pm Friday:

1. Washington Capitals

Can't win Cup, might as well win lottery 

2. Pittsburgh Penguins

Picking second could be as good as first 

3. Chicago Blackhawks

Shallow draft is two players deep. Figures 

4. Columbus Blue Jackets

Nash, Zherdev need skill to play with 

5. Phoenix Coyotes

Likely to go with best athlete available 

6. New York Rangers

Pick one: Goaltending or defense 

7. Florida Panthers

Last thing Cats need: more young talent 

8. Carolina Hurricanes

Need a young D with top-four potential 

9. Anaheim Mighty Ducks

Ditto 

10. Atlanta Thrashers

Heatley, Kovalchuk need help 

11. Los Angeles Kings

Skilled forward to offset exodus 

12. Minnesota Wild

More than enough forwards in system 

13. Buffalo Sabres

Quality D is the most pressing need 

14. Edmonton Oilers

More depth on D wouldn't hurt 

15. Nashville Predators

F, D, offensive, defensive -- doesn't matter 

16. New York Islanders

Long-term need is on D 

17. St. Louis Blues

Highest pick since Barrett Jackman in '99 

18. Montreal Canadiens

Need skill at both ends of the rink 

19. Calgary Flames

Playoffs exposed need for scoring depth 

20. Dallas Stars

New D needed badly in Big D 

21. Colorado Avalanche

Stash of skilled forwards will soon be gone 

22. New Jersey Devils

Depth on D is running thin 

23. Ottawa Senators

Need more grit ... this is a recording 

24. New York Rangers (from TOR)

... for Brian Leetch 

25. Edmonton Oilers (from PHI)

... for Mike Comrie 

26. Vancouver Canucks

Need size and skill, preferably in one player 

27. Washington Capitals (from BOS)

... for Sergei Gonchar 

28. San Jose Sharks

Just adding talent to the franchise pool 

29. Washington Capitals (from DET)

... for Robert Lang 

30. Tampa Bay Lightning

'Punishment' for winning Stanley Cup 

Ovechkin confident at #1 prospect in draft: ESPN Article about him

It's all but certain Ovechkin will go #1, but after about the first 5-6 picks I think this draft is sub-par and uncertain. Players could drop majorly and others could go up majorly because teams have there own preferences that they think is great, where as another team would have him ranked to go in 4th or 5th round.

[Clawson]

Three people I think will be stars in the league: Ovechkin, Evegny Malkin (I think), and Cam Barker. Boring draft this should be, which is got because Toronto has a shit pick again.

[gunnar hendershow]

What is with weak drafts in sports lately?

Both the NHL and NBA had their drafts go like 5 deep. Very few stars will come out of this draft if any.

[caucasianheat]

To be honest, I didn't even know the draft was this weekend, there's been very little of the usual buz surrounding it. Looking more closely at it, it does look like Ovechkin will probably go first but that seems to be the only certainty as far as placement at this point.

[Clawson]

Somehow the Rangers have already made the Stupid Pick of the Night: Al Montoya, who is a solid goaltending prospect, but the Rangers already have Blackburn. Morons.

[paidelr]

Go Edmonton!

Stoll last year in the second round

+

Shremp this year in the first round

=

A Happy Paidy!!

[Gabriel]

Yeah, the Rangers have Blackburn, but they shoved him into the #1 spot WAY before he was ready, and now the kid is just shellshocked.

[sahyder1]

Somehow the Rangers have already made the Stupid Pick of the Night: Al Montoya, who is a solid goaltending prospect, but the Rangers already have Blackburn. Morons.

←

Looks like Blackburn might not be recovering well from his injury. That's the only reason I could think of. I thought the Rangers would try moving up to #1 because they had so many picks

[grind your soul]

Yeah, the Rangers have Blackburn, but they shoved him into the #1 spot WAY before he was ready, and now the kid is just shellshocked.

←

Blackburn played about NO TIME last year because of an injury, and he keeps getting re-injured while rehabbing.

No sense taking chances, and Montoya is pretty much a sure-fire prospect.

Plus, if they have no need for him, they can ship him off in a trade for someone who they could use.

It may not have been the smartest pick [schremp would've fit nicely there], but it wasn't terrible.

[Corizzle]

The rule of hockey is you can never have enough goalie prospects.

[Gabriel]

The rule of hockey is you can never have enough goalie prospects.

←

Unless you're San Jose, and end up trading away Mika Kiprusoff, who ends up sending your team packing in the playoffs.

[grind your soul]

Kiprusoff was shit in San Jose. Sure, he fucked the Sharks over in the play-offs, but what they did for him was good for both parties: It gave Toskala more confidence as the back-up, gave Kipper a shot at a starting job, and gave Calgary life as a contender.

I'm sure San Jose wouldn't agree to the "positives", though.

On another note, my MAIN MAN Sami Lepisto was taken in the third round by Washington. A great selection, that.

[Guest bruins72]

I was pretty bummed that the Washington Capitols scooped up Chris Bourque (Ray's son) at the beginning of the first round. The Bruins didn't even have a chance to pick him because they didn't have a pick until late in the second round. It would've been sweet to see another Bourque play for the Bruins.

[oldskool]

Toronto needs draft picks.

Did I misread, or did we not have a pick until the third round?

[sahyder1]

Toronto needs draft picks.

Did I misread, or did we not have a pick until the third round?

←

well we've traded picks in the last two years for the likes of Nolan and Leetch. Big market teams trade picks all the time because of the "win now" attitude.

[oldskool]

well we've traded picks in the last two years for the likes of Nolan and Leetch. Big market teams trade picks all the time because of the "win now" attitude.

←

When will we trade enough picks to get by the Flyers in the playoffs?

*hates the Flyers*

[Mike Ockizitchy]

Kid from my league got drafted, last pick of draft. I was kinda shocked but then again he is a pretty good player. He had one really good game against us with like a hat trick and an assist or 2, but I guess he really shined at Hockey Night In Boston and got scouted by some NHL scouts...

[Guest Takayamanofear]

Well Hockey drafts like baseball drafts the picks are good just most people don’t know them. They are either European, playing in juniors or college hockey all of which get very little attention in the draft. Its also about future, I sometimes look at drafts 3 or 4 years later and say wow that was a good draft before I was like who the hell are these guys.

Montoya will be great I have had the privilege of seeing him live about 5 times now. He is getting better and better. He almost was the MVP of the frozen four in his freshman year it will be interesting to see how long Michigan keeps him.

They also got Darin Oliver, I go to Northern so I watched him play every game this year he is really good. He will also be a good player in the future for the Rangers.