I know there was a thread for the previous incarnation of the draft, but I just wanted to consolidate any discussion and get a name for who wants to make the pick. Is it going to be Nail, or patch up the positional holes with Murray?
Posted Jun 19, 2012, 4:10 AM UTC
I thought our mod has to make the pick? If not it doesn't really matter. You could do it.
The pick has to be Yakupov. You ALWAYS draft the best player possible. It's a unspoken rule. It opens up tons of options. If Yakupov works out ,as mick14731 said, it opens up the door to trade away Hemsky (plus extras) for a quality dman. If Murray didn't pan out as quickly as we wanted or at all we would be stuck with no options to improve our defense.
Is there a dream player out there we need? For the sake of fun, I say let's try to message other teams and see what they offer for the #1 pick.
I still don't understand why people are wanting to draft defensemen.. We have very talented dmen that just need experience. If any of you remember, we were the best defensive team at the start of last season. People just need to click and work together. Smid and petry are proving themselves as top notch defense, sutton is an experienced player that brought a lot to the team. Schultz was a nice addition as well. Whitney is great, he just needs to find his wheels again. Defense is not what we need. Plus, drafting defensemen is risky because it's usually the lower seed drafts that end up maturing better. We all saw what happened with barker...
I think you are overestimating our defense. The biggest problem with our blueline is we lack a number 1 defenseman. A number 1 must be able to be both an offensive threat and always reliable in our own end. Whitney was supposed to be that guy when he was signed (despite never really succeeding elsewhere) and he was doing well until he was injured. Ever since coming back from his injury he has wavered between mediocre to a liability. It's a contract year for Whitney and I really doubt that he will get re-signed here unless he plays a full season (which he has only done twice in the NHL) and nets 40+ points. Smid is a great defensive dman. He will be a great long term #3-4 dman. Petry has the potential to be a #2 defenseman if he tightens up his defensive zone play. Right now he is pure offense. Schultz is okay. He is definitely nothing special and is classic #5-6 shutdown guy. Now Sutton is not that good of a defenseman. I can appreciate he brings some toughness to the team (although he is not that good of a fighter) but he is not really good at anything. At best Sutton is a #7 dman, only to be used in case of injuries. Potter is okay. But he is still unproven and last year might have been a fluke.
A true number 1 defenseman can push a team to the next level. As much as I hate the guy when we had Pronger he at times seemed to carry the team. We need someone to do that. Now people want to draft a dman because it's damn hard to find a quality one on the free agent market. This year is an oddity with Suter, and potentially Weber up for grabs. But It's doubtful that either would sign here. Edmonton has to push hard for Justin Schultz. He has the makings of a truly elite defenseman.
Just wait until Klefbom comes over from Sweden.
He has been described by some scouts as being better than Murray, who a lot of people REALLY wanted us to draft with the #1 pick this year.
Apparently the Swedish kid we drafted in the 5th is a player too. Not to mention Nuge's buddy LaLeggia who is outscoring Justin Schultz at the same age and competition level..
Our NHL Defense is terrible. But our prospects have some really solid looking players that will be ready for the show by the time Hall, Eberle, Nuge, and Yaks are in their prime.
i think its nail. historically it's when you draft for need that problems occur. Take the best available talent and that's nail. That also allows us to get rid of Hemsky on RW. I
can'tdont want to imagine the Oilers paying $5m for a third line player. Assuming Eberle and Yakupov are 1/2