French Collection

Your autocorrect put Outland where you probably meant Ostlund?

Here we go… 1 S.Wright 2 J.Slafkovsky 3 L.Cooley 4 S.Nemec 5 C.Gauthier 6 D.Jiricek 7 J.Lekkerimaki 8 P.Mintyukov 9 M.Savoie 10 K.Korchinski 11 J.Kemell 12 D.Yurov 13 B.Lambert 14 C.Geekie 15 L.Ohgren 16 M.Kasper 17 F.Nazar 18 J.Kulich 19 J.Snuggerud 20 N.Östlund 21 I.Miroshnichenko 22 R.McGroarty 23 O.Pickering 24 F.Mesar 25 D.Mateychuk 26 N.Gaucher 27 L.Bichsel 28 G.Trikozov 29 J.Firkus 30 I.Howard 31 L.Del Bel Belluz 32 L.Hutson

I see a lot of middle six forwards in the first round. Wright and Cooley are probably 2Cs and they are in most people’s top 3. The second round forwards are bottom six in my opinion. The Dmen may have a few 1st pairing guys, four years down the road. Goalies are wild cards and there could be none picked until the 3rd round. I see some solid NHLers but a lot of depth players.

Very long read with tons of information from this “scout”. He watches tons of footage, for example he says he watched every shift that Julian Lutz played this year. It took me an hour plus to read about his evaluation of 32 players and a few other mentions. Some very different evaluations. Bichsel at 13, a beast among men. Lutz at 16 Perevalov at 17 Gauthier at 22 Neuchev at 24 Duda at 26, best defensive D in the draft. Kemell at 28, one trick pony who is a give away machine. He likes a lot of the Russians, 5 in the first round. Mateychuk is not in the top 32.

Chiarot was an important part of their playoff run, he played big minutes in a shutdown role.

I am not a huge Campbell fan but if the alternative is Tokarski, Subban, UPL then I would give him term. I am of the opinion that he would play well enough to move that contract in 3-4 years if he gets pushed out by a young goalie. The cap will go up and his numbers will be decent on an improving club. UPL would be the only guy above ELC $ for a few years anyway. It is a good year to be a UFA goalie, there are more chairs than players. A guy like DeSmith may not demand term so I would consider him. Holtby could be had on short term, I believe. I think KA is exploring trades as well so that increases the chances of landing someone. As an old boss of mine used to say, just do something!

They travel that way in a lot of arenas. They have many, many fans in every Canadian city and they will do the same in Detroit. Leafs games in the southern USA draw many snowbirds as well. They aren’t very annoying right now after another losing season. They will start up again on July 13 because every player is dying to play there and win a Cup. Many of the fans don’t seem to grasp that they are cap strapped and many players don’t want to be under that microscope.

I’ll throw my mock in there but I will wait until the last minute in case some prospect sprains an ankle or gets caught wearing some team’s pyjamas.

Sounds like McDonough was not happy with the deal. According to Nick Kypreos, he was told that if he didn’t accept the trade to Nashville he would be waived and Columbus had committed to claim him. https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/how-the-lightning-made-ryan-mcdonagh-agree-to-be-traded

Shawinigan was built to compete this year. Most of their best players are ‘02 (Bourque, Bourgault and goalies) Dube, Has and Massicotte were good overage players. My guess is they are going into rebuild mode and Nadeau might get another playoff run elsewhere. Gatineau has a lot of ‘03 and ‘04 players so they will probably be a team to watch this year.

The draft is a gamble to begin with and as you get into the later rounds it is even more difficult to find NHLers. Adding a Russian or two into the mix doesn’t affect very much. They will take years to develop and if they do then getting them over is the next hurdle. The Sabres know it could take around 4 years to get that sorted out. From a pure hockey standpoint, you should not exclude 20+ prospects from your list. The next Kaprizov could be among these guys. They are in the business of winning hockey games so they should look at every prospect and seek out the best.

I liked his game at the U18s, he was a top scorer for the USA. He was paired with Nazar most of the year and produced at a good clip. He is not viewed as a top guy from the US program by scouts. I have read some reports on him to try and understand why he is not ranked higher. The knock on him is his defensive game and that he goes through shifts without being engaged. One report said he was often cherry picking while the team was in the D zone. He is not overly small but plays like a small guy was another comment I read. He and Nazar produced more points than any other pair at the program but do not get ranked as high as Cooley, Gauthier and even MCGroarty and Snuggerud on some lists. BTW, I am not a draft guru, I just read a lot of information on these guys along with a bit of video.

Many lists have Kemell and Lekkerimaki around the #9 spot. They sound like good prospects but the Sabres have Quinn, Peterka, Rosen, Kisakov and Poltapov as skilled wings. I really want the Sabres to take a C at that pick unless Nemec /Jiricek slide. My order of preference, assuming Wright and Cooley are gone, are: Savoie Nazar Kasper (would rather pick at 16 but I think he won’t be there) Gauthier (may be better suited to W but will be a C in the NCAA)

They lost me when they said he was like Nylander.

Good luck, what you are doing is never easy. My advice is try not to lose your cool, be direct and honest and get the feel of her response. A heated exchange will just have all kinds of accusations and emotions boiling over. Easier said than done.

My mistake, I cannot find a source that says his contract was up. Because he signed with Philly I assumed he was a FA. Newsweek says he self term8nated his contract with CSKA, that would trigger a response.

Nemec Kasper Beck Nelson Perevalov Leinonen I only went 4 rounds.

That’s a good haul.

Yurov sounds like a top 10 talent but I would wait as well. Savoie, Nazar and maybe Kasper or Gauthier would be better at 9. That slot may be early for Kasper but the scouts will have a better idea. I hope they take someone who plays C at 9. I am not opposed to Yurov at 16, a lot can change in a few years and he seems like a sure thing to have the talent to make the NHL. If they don’t get Yurov at 16 then Miroshnichenko would be a possibility at 28.

Fedorov’s contract was up and he was signed by the Flyers after the World Championships. Sounds like everything was above board. Perhaps all they want is more money from the Flyers. My guess is the Russian government is clamping down on people leaving and keeping an elite level athlete is a form of retaliation vs the countries that have imposed sanctions. Teams will be wary of drafting Russians more than ever. Maybe CSKA is where this can be enforced but who knows what measures they can take.

I was listening to a mock draft by Locked on Senators. Both guys there talked about Stevie Y going off most people’s lists. The two of them guessed that the Wings were going to pick Lambert at 8. That would give the Sabres more options, butI doubt he goes that early. Top 3 talent but needs a lot of development and teams need to determine if he has the IQ to make the jump.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/593365/maddox-fleming I was curious. Looks like he was with the USNDTP and dropped out. He played in the USHL and had decent numbers. I haven’t seen his name mentioned anywhere this season.

Sabres sign Holtby 2x$4M. Dahlin gets 70 points and is in the Norris conversation. JJP and Quinn combine for 40 goals. Thompson scores 40 goals. Cozens and Krebs take a big step forward. Sabres make the playoffs.

Subban would be OK in Rochester and a possibility in Buffalo if they need to go 4-5 deep again. Heaven forbid.

I think they need to get one RHD in their first four picks. 41 is the most likely impo. Nelson, Salomonsson, Rinzel, Havelid may not become top 4 guys but would help the pipeline. Shea Weber was a second rounder that did OK.