2017 NHL Draft -- General NHL Thread

[I-90 W]

I'm hoping we have our pick of dman, all of the mock drafts that I have seen lately have Lijegren as #1 D.

[Two or less]

Miro won best D in the U18. Vesalainen won best forward and tourney MVP! No way Veselainen goes in the bottom 3rd of the 1st rd. He looks close to NHL ready.

 

Makar vs Heiskanen is a tough decision. I'm going with Miro right now because of size and what I saw in this tourney. I think Liljigren had a tough tourney, but on Hockeyprospects radio on the NHL network they were talking about he may be a little worn out from playing with 3 different teams in three different leagues plus 5 different international tournaments. They said he'd be this year's Eric Karlsson or Jacob Chychrun, a guy falling in the draft for really no reason.

 

Personally, if we loss the lottery and draft 8 or 9, I'm trading down and trying to get Liljigren and Vesalainen.

 

If we lost the lottery, we can still maybe draft Makar if Miro is the first d-men off the board. While i understand trading down and adding assets, we have two second round picks and two third round picks in already what is considered a weak draft so i'm not so sure if it makes much sense to trade down. If anything, they could try to move up a few slots and try to get someone who might just not make it to our pick.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I'm not sold on the bad draft theory. I'm not sure there are generational players at the top, but the depth in the first seems very good. It's why I'm advocating trading down in the right circumstances. I think the prospect we could get at 20 might be just as good as the guy drafted 10 picks higher. I'd love to cash in those 2nd rd chips and find a way back into the first rd. In fact this draft reminds me of 2014, but with a much deeper high quality group of D.

 

I want to come home with a D and Vesalainen.

[LGR4GM]

Hockey is not football. It's almost impossible to trade back into a round. Also in a draft that is muddled on opinions for players 6-20 you don't trade down and assume your guy will be there. The NHL draft always sees some surprise players up or down. Anything our scouting staff can see, so can another.

[thewookie1]

If we won 3rd overall would you trade it to Carolina for #11 and Pesce?

[I-90 W]

If we won 3rd overall would you trade it to Carolina for #11 and Pesce?

Oooh yes I like that trade a lot. Very good idea he's a true two way defenseman who plays top minutes and very young. Yes please.

[inkman]

Oooh yes I like that trade a lot. Very good idea he's a true two way defenseman who plays top minutes and very young. Yes please.

Yeah there is less than zero percent chance Carolina would do that.

[I-90 W]

Yeah there is less than zero percent chance Carolina would do that.

Agreed but we could tweak it/ sweeten the pot. There is some foundation here to go on.

 

If (big if) we won 3rd overall pick would you trade it straight up for him? How about if we added a prospect too?

Edited April 25, 2017 by Saratoga Sabres Fan

[Randall Flagg]

If we won 3rd overall would you trade it to Carolina for #11 and Pesce?

I would do that if we won 1st. 

[I-90 W]

I would do that if we won 1st.

Same here, and it's not an unrealistic scenario. I think there is wiggle room for a good trade for a top 4 dman this summer.

[LGR4GM]

I would do that if we won 1st. 

I wouldn't. Take Hischier. We need more talent throughout the lineup. 

[Trettioåtta]

Same here, and it's not an unrealistic scenario. I think there is wiggle room for a good trade for a top 4 dman this summer.

 

Wookie, after years or trial and error, is honing his trade proposals. It's almost sad :(

 

That said, it sounds like a nice idea and I would do it. Although that probably means its a little too good for us. Maybe we toss in a 2nd or something.

[Randall Flagg]

Anyone else inexplicably confident that we win one of the lotteries Saturday?

[WildCard]

Anyone else inexplicably confident that we win one of the lotteries Saturday?

As is tradition

[ct fab]

Anyone else inexplicably confident that we win one of the lotteries Saturday?

Nope. If we ever were going to win one it was the mcEichel one. Best odds there.

[Randall Flagg]

Nope. If we ever were going to win one it was the mcEichel one. Best odds there.

Actually I think we have a ~3% better chance of moving into the top 3 than we did of picking 1st that year.

[inkman]

Nope. If we ever were going to win one it was the mcEichel one. Best odds there.

Nope. This is Buffalo. We will win it when it matters the least.

[dudacek]

Nope. This is Buffalo. We will win it when it matters the least.

It just feels right, don't it?

[inkman]

It just feels right, don't it?

Yep kinda like if Buffalo ever wins it all they will call it a fake season, or false champion or they will stop the season after the Sabres are up 3-0 on the Oil.

[Taro T]

Anyone else inexplicably confident that we win one of the lotteries Saturday?

Pretty sure they keep their perfect streak going this weekend. :(

[North Buffalo]

Yep kinda like if Buffalo ever wins it all they will call it a fake season, or false champion or they will stop the season after the Sabres are up 3-0 on the Oil.

Sigh... still winning the lottery this year would be apropos...

[ubkev]

Anyone else inexplicably confident that we win one of the lotteries Saturday?

We're moving backwards.

 

Again!

[Thorner]

Nope. This is Buffalo. We will win it when it matters the least.

Meh, still better than not winning at all.

[JohnRobertEichel]

Meh, still better than not winning at all.

 

Exactly. So much negativity around here lately. I COMPLETELY understand it and am guilty of a fair amount of it as well. 

 

However, also consider that we get the privilege of drafting a top-9 player for the 5th straight time. In a now 31-team league with a distribution of >620 professional players, that is some serious concentration of young hockey talent. Kane and Okposo make a total of 7 top 9 draft picks soon to be on the 20-man roster (not counting Bogosian for obvious reasons). Before 2013, the Sabres had only drafted top 9 10 times:

 

1970: Perreault (#1)

1971: Martin (#5)

1972: Schoenfeld (#5)

1982: Housley (#6)

1982: Cyr (#9)

1983: Barrasso (#5)

1986: Anderson (#5)

1987: Turgeon (#1)

1996: Rasmussen (#7)

2003: Vanek (#5)

 

By my count, that's a 70% historical success rate for high-end top-9 hockey talent (88% for top-6), and I'd argue that we can expect an even higher probability of success at the top of the draft given modern scouting standards.

 

Now I fully realize that a high draft pick doesn't necessarily equal high quality, a low draft pick doesn't necessarily equal lesser quality, etc...

 

All I'm saying is that this is a unique time in Sabres franchise history in that we have never collected so much high-end physical hockey talent in such a short time span. And that's quite obviously because we have never truly bottomed out for any sustained period of time like we have during the past 5 seasons.

 

I'm excited to see what a competent GM with a coherent vision - as well as a competent HC who coaches a team based on the talent and not on a rigid system - can do with all of this young talent.

 

Apologies for the semi-coherent late-night rant. I was just disheartened to see so many fellow Sabres fans so indifferent to this year's draft. Even if there's no obvious McDavid/Eichel/Matthews/Laine this year, there's still a lot of high-quality talent for the taking at the top of the first round.

[ct fab]

Actually I think we have a ~3% better chance of moving into the top 3 than we did of picking 1st that year.

You're comparing 2 different things. In the mcEichel draft we had a 20% chance of picking first and a 100% chance of picking 1 or 2. This year we have a 7.6% chance of first and a 23% chance approximately of 1-2-3.