VERY Cool—Devils draft Reilly Hoagland from Toms River. Great story—
OT: NHL Draft
- Thread starter RU Cheese
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The Sharks announcing their first round pick in sign language because the player's mom is deaf was pretty cool too. Also the Senators having Alex Trebek announce the draft pick as if it was a question on Jeopardy was a nice touch as well.
The kid is good. But as we have seen from last years draft and many before there is a big difference between juniors, European leagues, USNDT and the NHL. The adjustment period can be longer then fans expect or want
Not sure what experts are saying he is the best prospect since Crosby. McDavid was and has been the best prospect since Crosby and I don't really think it's close. I would put Mathews up there also. For what it's worth Chris Peters ESPN Hockey writer wrote an article on this. He did just the last 4 drafts and he has Lafreniere 4th behind Mathews, laine, and Hughes. https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/st...reniere-quinton-byfield-rank-recent-top-picks. Great pick-up by the Rangers but seems like a generational title in hockey is being thrown around almost every year now.
Interesting name in the Devils 4th round pick of Ethan Edwards, for those who are fans of John Wayne westerns.
Quite serious, at least I provided you with a paid analyst opinion on the subject. Funny that watching the whole first round I didn't read or see one person compare him to Crosby, McDavid, or even Matthews. Take off the blue shade glasses and enjoy an incredible hockey player.
-- "I am serious — and don't call me Shirley.”
His 2.15 points per game were the best in Canadian Hockey League history since Connor McDavid's 2.50 PPG in 2014-15 for the Erie Otters (Yes the Connor McDavid that most here say was better)
From NHL.com Possible NHL comparable: Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers forward
From Central Scouting - deemed Florida Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau as a player comparison
I'm fine with saying best since McDavid, even though many say since Crosby. That's a reasonable opinion to have.
You are the only person I have seen say that Lafreniere is the best prospect in 15 years, unless you're only talking about the Q. I've seen the aforementioned Huberdeau comparison in multiple places though.
I am also a Ranger fan, so I will jump in with what I have seen.
Nobody since Crosby has been considered on McDavid’s level. I have seen Lafreniere paired with Matthews as the next best prospects after that, with Matthews given the edge because he is a center.
I have seen the Huberdeau comparison, but I see Lafreniere’s style of play compared to Mikko Rantanen more often.
He will never be as valuable being one of the top LWs as a top C would be, but with RHD being the harder side for teams to fill, having him and Panarin coming at you is going to put a crazy amount of pressure on teams‘ 2nd and 3rd pair RHD.
After the Rangers picked up Mark Messier in one of the greatest heists in sports history, anything is possible.
You can shuffle that deck around too. Say Holtz turns into a legit goal scorer, and one of the D or Goalie becomes a legit player then the draft is a success.
Really if you get one impact player, not just a regular, out of a draft then it's a good draft. I'll write off the rest of our draftees if Shak is a #1 d-man, or Holtz is a consistent 30+ goal scorer.
The fact that that was nearly 30 years ago speaks to the difficulty of pulling off such a deal.
The best thing about the Devils draft this year might very well be Dawson Mercer.
Rangers also killed it yesterday and did very well for themselves on Day 2.
Canes (as usual), Ducks and Wild all had great drafts. The worst showing was the Coyotes who didn't have a pick till the 4th round and then spent it on a kid who is a piece of ****:
Rangers also killed it yesterday and did very well for themselves on Day 2.
Canes (as usual), Ducks and Wild all had great drafts. The worst showing was the Coyotes who didn't have a pick till the 4th round and then spent it on a kid who is a piece of ****:
It does take a disgruntled player and a stupid GM. We've seen that plenty of times before. Also tougher in the salary cap era. If the leafs win a cup in the next 3 years, you could say they did it.
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anon_ivydyf0amkzay
Guest
You’d think cities like Quebec, Regina/Saskatoon or Halifax would be attractive candidates...
Only QC has the population and corporate base to support the NHL out of those cities. From what I've read
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anon_ivydyf0amkzay
Guest
As above, Seattle made more sense then Quebec because they needed a 16th team out west.
I do wonder how much of an issue how deeply french speaking QC is. Montreal is, but I believe they are more fluent in English. Mtl is also a significantly bigger market.
I do like the idea of QC though. Just because of how passionate they are for hockey.
True but Stars have also always put out a decent team, plus when I think Houston I can't help but think of Atlanta, which never embraced hockey.
Ya, I really don't know how well Houston would embrace hockey.
But I'm pretty confident in thinking if Arizona were to move they would remain a Western team.
Well, as long as Ottawa is around there is always the chance of stealing a young player from them who you think might turn into a top 1C like Mika did.
I probably follow the draft more closely than the majority of hockey fans, and I'd agree with basically everything you said.
It's hard to compare prospects across time periods because people are directly/indirectly influenced by how the older picks pan out. In terms of pre-draft hype and consensus number 1, Lafraniere is the highest since (although not as high as) McDavidThe only other player with that degree of hype was McKinnon. These were all guys who were consensus number 1 18-24 months before the draft.
Matthews and Laine were nowhere close to that. They gained hype given how they burst onto the scene in the NHL.
How good is this Shane Wright for 2022? I was already hearing about him a year or so ago.
Matthews had plenty of hype pre draft, I'd say clearly more then Lafraniere. I'd say Hughes did as well, especially with his USDP records and his showing in the U-18's, but if you google, you do see alot of "best prospect since Matthews" results for Lafer.
I also remember more hype for Jones then MacKinnon, it was close though.
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This kid Holtz really does have sniper instincts, this is a goal he scored today in Sweden's top league, watch how he waits for traffic to get in front of the goalie and then pinpoints through the crowd: