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Official 2015 NHL Draft Thread

LGR4GM

By LGR4GM
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North Buffalo All Star

North Buffalo

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if they trade Myers then a guy like Hanifin would be what is needed. Plus I don't think saying no forwards is quite accurate either. They took Reinhart, Lemieux, Cornel, Karabacek in top 2 rounds last year. Compher, Hurley Bailey and Baptiste in 2013. Grigorenko and Girgensons in 2012 and Armia in 20111. I can't forget the Swedish Stamkos either!

 

Throw in Fashing and assuming a high end forward prospect for Myers, plus 2 more 1st and 3 seconds next year - hardly Anti-Edmonton.

 

That said - still prefer McDavid or Eichel just preparing for the worst (but not so bad possibility of drafting 3rd)

 

Sabres don't need forward, they need high end guys who can play center. Rare commodity, but they need at least one. Remains to be seen if any of the above mentioned fit the bill. Sabres need a sure fire #1 center.

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dudacek Hall of Famer

dudacek

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Don't be so sure we don't need defencemen.

Pysyk, Zads, Risto and McCabe are a promising group, they are still prospects.

The only guys we have coming behind them (Ruhwedel and Florentino) are long shots at best.

 

Our best prospects are on the blue line, but our depth is up front — nine forwards in the top two rounds the past three years, plus Carrier and Fasching in trades.

 

What we need most is elite talent. Hanifan is better than anyone in the system right now.

If we pick at three, he's too good to ignore, unless another team in the top ten is offering a young top-six forward to flip picks.

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Robviously First Liner

Robviously

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Shea Weber or Sidney Crosby, who do you take? A top line center can carry your team. Weber makes the Preds good, but Crosby makes the Penguins great

Best thing you can have are elite forwards. But if your choice is between an elite player and a good player, take the elite player.

 

As far as I can tell, there are three elite players in this draft. The first two are generational talents and the third one is Hanifin. If we end up with the no.3 pick, we have to take Hanifin.

 

And if we take Hanifin, we have to make other moves with Reinhart and Hanifin as the two pillars of the new team we're building. We'll need more help up front.

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bunomatic All Star

bunomatic

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Best thing you can have are elite forwards. But if your choice is between an elite player and a good player, take the elite player.

 

As far as I can tell, there are three elite players in this draft. The first two are generational talents and the third one is Hanifin. If we end up with the no.3 pick, we have to take Hanifin.

 

And if we take Hanifin, we have to make other moves with Reinhart and Hanifin as the two pillars of the new team we're building. We'll need more help up front.

 

I agree. You can't pass on Hanifin with the 3rd pick with the reasoning that he's a D man and you need offence. He's the type of player that will create offence from the back end. And as Rob said he's elite. I'm not sure Myers was considered elite when drafted.

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WildCard Hall of Famer

WildCard

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Best thing you can have are elite forwards. But if your choice is between an elite player and a good player, take the elite player.

 

As far as I can tell, there are three elite players in this draft. The first two are generational talents and the third one is Hanifin. If we end up with the no.3 pick, we have to take Hanifin.

 

And if we take Hanifin, we have to make other moves with Reinhart and Hanifin as the two pillars of the new team we're building. We'll need more help up front.

I agree with all of this, but the bold is where the rub lies. We don't have anything, or we aren't willing as of now, to move someone to get elite forward talent. Now, that all changes come June and we happen to have 3rd overall. At that point, what do we do? Myers is probably already gone, and that leaves us drafting Hanifin with Pysk, McCabe, Risto, and Zadorov as a very crowded d-corps. Only two of those get you elite rather than very good forward help. So my question is, instead of drafting Hanifin 3rd overall, why not trade him/that pick out for some elite forwards?

 

Agreed with what you're going for, but is Hanifin Shea Weber anyways?

I don't know much more about him beyond what's posted around here and the rankings, but I doubt he'll be the next dominant d-man for a decade haha. Frankly, I don't want him. If we get 3rd, trade out.

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LabattBlue All Star

LabattBlue

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Don't be so sure we don't need defencemen.

Pysyk, Zads, Risto and McCabe are a promising group, they are still prospects.

The only guys we have coming behind them (Ruhwedel and Florentino) are long shots at best.

 

Our best prospects are on the blue line, but our depth is up front — nine forwards in the top two rounds the past three years, plus Carrier and Fasching in trades.

 

What we need most is elite talent. Hanifan is better than anyone in the system right now.

If we pick at three, he's too good to ignore, unless another team in the top ten is offering a young top-six forward to flip picks.

You say that the dmen are all "still prospects", but then talk about all the forward depth. Aren't they also "still prospects"? This team needs an elite forward in the worst way. I'm with wildcard, if they end up with the 3rd pick, I am hoping that by the end of the season, a forward prospect is worthy of the 3rd spot. If not, trade out of it. Not too far. In the 4-8 range.

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Iron Crotch All Star

Iron Crotch

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Shea Weber or Sidney Crosby, who do you take? A top line center can carry your team. Weber makes the Preds good, but Crosby makes the Penguins great

 

Elite scorers get you to the playoffs, elite d-men put you over the top to win you the Cup. With the exception of 2009 (Pens), all of the recent Cup winners have had Norris-type defensemen to go along with good scorers. Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Chara, Lidstrom, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, etc.

 

Edit: I'll add that many of the best d-men in the game were not Top-5 picks.

Edited by Potato
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LabattBlue All Star

LabattBlue

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Elite scorers get you to the playoffs, elite d-men put you over the top to win you the Cup. With the exception of 2009 (Pens), all of the recent Cup winners have had Norris-type defensemen to go along with good scorers. Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Chara, Lidstrom, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, etc.

 

Edit: I'll add that many of the best d-men in the game were not Top-5 picks.

Interesting that you drew the line at the year after TB and CAR won the Cup without a "Norris" caliber blueliner. ;)

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WildCard Hall of Famer

WildCard

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Elite scorers get you to the playoffs, elite d-men put you over the top to win you the Cup. With the exception of 2009 (Pens), all of the recent Cup winners have had Norris-type defensemen to go along with good scorers. Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Chara, Lidstrom, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, etc.

 

Edit: I'll add that many of the best d-men in the game were not Top-5 picks.

I disagree. I think rolling out 4 solid lines and timely scoring win you the Cup, not a dominate d-man. Crosby doesn't show up, and Kane, Kopitar, Toews, and others do. On the flip side, Suter shows up for the Wild, and they get bumped by the Blackhawks, namely Kane.

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Hoss Hall of Famer

Hoss

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Elite scorers get you to the playoffs, elite d-men put you over the top to win you the Cup. With the exception of 2009 (Pens), all of the recent Cup winners have had Norris-type defensemen to go along with good scorers. Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Chara, Lidstrom, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, etc.

 

Edit: I'll add that many of the best d-men in the game were not Top-5 picks.

 

Good point. Between Risto, Zadorov, Pysyk and McCabe there's a decent chance we already have one.

 

We still "need" dmen. We have four good prospects and then a couple mediocre ones. Adding to that would be nice, but we have zero top-end all-around forward prospects. Girgensons is nice, but I don't think he's "top-end" as much as he is "safe."

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dudacek Hall of Famer

dudacek

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Good point. Between Risto, Zadorov, Pysyk and McCabe there's a decent chance we already have one.

 

We still "need" dmen. We have four good prospects and then a couple mediocre ones. Adding to that would be nice, but we have zero top-end all-around forward prospects. Girgensons is nice, but I don't think he's "top-end" as much as he is "safe."

 

We have two top-end prospects: one forward (Reinhart) one D (Risto). And even top-end prospects don't necessarily become top-end players. At this point Zemgus is the only prospect we have that has proven he is even an NHL player. Hanifan is a better prospect than all three. I don't know if you can say the same for Barzal or Strome, or whoever you peg as the next forward after Eichel.

 

You say that the dmen are all "still prospects", but then talk about all the forward depth. Aren't they also "still prospects"? This team needs an elite forward in the worst way. I'm with wildcard, if they end up with the 3rd pick, I am hoping that by the end of the season, a forward prospect is worthy of the 3rd spot. If not, trade out of it. Not too far. In the 4-8 range.

 

Absolutely agree to the bolded. But we need an elite defenceman more than we need another Grigorenko (meaning potential first-line centre, but no sure thing)

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Crusader1969 First Liner

Crusader1969

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How much offense is created by a guy like Doughty? If you draft 3rd Hanifin is the pick end of story. He will lead the Power Play, he will skate the puck out of the D zone allowing the team to retain possession of the puck, he plays physical.

 

Lets also not jump the gun saying Reinhart isn't or wont be elite.

 

I'll be as disappointed as anyone if the Sabres don't draft 1st or 2nd but the Tank wont be a total disaster if we end up 3rd.

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bunomatic All Star

bunomatic

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You take Hanifin and he plays for you right away or you take a forward slotted 4th or lower who potentially takes 2 or 3 years till he makes the bigs. If we draft 3rd its an easy choice. Hanifin who plays all situations and has the potential to quarterback your powerplay for 7 or 8 years creating offence from the backend.

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Iron Crotch All Star

Iron Crotch

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Interesting that you drew the line at the year after TB and CAR won the Cup without a "Norris" caliber blueliner. ;)

 

Scoring was way up that first year post-lockout (Carolina won the Cup). Since then we're back to the new old NHL where defense and goaltending wins Cups (and timely scoring, of course).

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TrueBlueGED Hall of Famer

TrueBlueGED

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Well, yeah, but it's completely out of our hands. Carolina looks worse than us and then we'll need luck in the lottery.

 

I don't think Carolina is worse than us long term, simply because we're a worse possession team right now and they'll be getting back some huge pieces from injury, whereas we've basically been unscathed.

 

 

I stand by my gloom.

 

Hey now, you did say last year that if we completed the tank and finished last, you wouldn't subject us to your gloom this year. Well we finished last, there was no glorious run to drafting 8th overall...the Sabres upheld their end of the bargain, now you need to follow suit! :)

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Derrico First Liner

Derrico

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I agree with TBP, I really can't say Carolina is a worse hockey team then we are. Our possession stats are through the roof bad, we can't seem to score more then 2 goals a game (usually less than 2) and our goaltending likely won't keep us in it every game. Carolina has already been hit with the injury bug and has guys returning whereas this is our team at full health. God forbid a guy like Gorges, Myers or Girgs goes down for a month. All hope is far from lost.

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mcbainforprez Prospect

mcbainforprez

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Best thing you can have are elite forwards. But if your choice is between an elite player and a good player, take the elite player.

 

As far as I can tell, there are three elite players in this draft. The first two are generational talents and the third one is Hanifin. If we end up with the no.3 pick, we have to take Hanifin.

 

And if we take Hanifin, we have to make other moves with Reinhart and Hanifin as the two pillars of the new team we're building. We'll need more help up front.

 

I disagree with the assessment that Hanifin is elite. While I think he is a great prospect and will be a top 5 pick, there are still a handful of people I would rather draft over him. His hands in tight are phenomenal and has great speed for his size, but i don't think he has the vision necessary to be an elite defender. Maybe he will develop this and I see sights talking about how good his vision is, I just don't see it myself. I think he will be good, just not elite. This season is McEichel or bust for me. I like Zacha and a few others a lot but I haven't seen players jump off the tape like these two do since MacKinnon and even that might not even be fair to them. They are can't miss and it would be shame to miss out on one of them.

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