2021 NHL Draft Rankings

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

I wouldn't once you get past the top 5 or 6 picks in most drafts, in becomes a crap-shot at best. 

Take the best forward available at 3, IMHO.   Its not like the cupboard is stock full at wing.

what he said!

This isn't true, it's just that the Sabres are the worst drafting team in the league. 

[Thorner]

13 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Draft a center. Then draft another center. Draft all centers and 1 goaltender. 

 

24 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

There's only 1 top 6 center in this draft and that is Beniers. There may be 2-3 more after the dust settles in 5-6 years but right now it would be hard to project that. I would take the most talented forward we can and then at pick 33 we can look at some of the centers with questions like Cole Sillinger (unlikely he slides) or you can say screw it and take Matt Coronato who is a winger that produces. Other centes for round 2 are Francesco Pinelli, Dylan Duke, Fyodor Svechkov

Ok. So draft a centre but don't lol 

[Thorner]

The draft is apparently totally "non consensus" yet tiers and ranks are being formed so solidly that "best player available" can be touted as if that would get us any more accurate value than factoring in positional need, and attempting to use the most likely way to get a good centre we are ever going to get to try and get that good centre. Good teams are built through the middle and we are weak at centre and do have more wing prospects in the system. 

Go ahead and draft a winger or a dman i guess but then you have to go ahead and use a more difficult route and go get the centre help you need through trade. You can't just go year after year after year without adequately addressing the position and act like you have a chance of winning by stocking up with talented players at wing. You have to address centre one way or another. We have by far the weakest C pipeline in the league if Cozens is considered an NHLer now. Again, we are sitting at the "everything at C will be fine if everything works out in the best way possible" stage, like we frequently find ourselves in with this org.

Drafting back to back right wingers with high 1st picks is not sound strategy IMO, you can't just look at BPA in a vacuum every year. You can't just ignore the space and investment you've allotted to Quinn this past draft, I think that should weigh on where else you seek to address when there are so many areas of need organizationally. 

I know we've drafted Cs in the past that didn't pan out, but same goes for any position - it shouldn't stop you from continually trying to address the most important position on your team. Particularly when the system is in fact weakest at C. 

Just my view 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Thorny

[French Collection]

This discussion makes me want Beniers that much more.

They hopefully feel the same and ensure he is their pick. May have to make some moves on the draft floor.

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

 

Ok. So draft a centre but don't lol 

No. I was mad last night. If Beniers is gone you can't draft a center in the first. 

36 minutes ago, French Collection said:

This discussion makes me want Beniers that much more.

They hopefully feel the same and ensure he is their pick. May have to make some moves on the draft floor.

We're going to draft 1st or 2nd... idk if we will need any draft floor moves. 

[Thorner]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

No. I was mad last night. If Beniers is gone you can't draft a center in the first. 

We're going to draft 1st or 2nd... idk if we will need any draft floor moves. 

So we've gone from no consensus to a certain consensus there are no centers worth taking aside from one guy?

I'm glad the rankings are this definitive this far out 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

55 minutes ago, Thorny said:

The draft is apparently totally "non consensus" yet tiers and ranks are being formed so solidly that "best player available" can be touted as if that would get us any more accurate value than factoring in positional need, and attempting to use the most likely way to get a good centre we are ever going to get to try and get that good centre. Good teams are built through the middle and we are weak at centre and do have more wing prospects in the system. 

Go ahead and draft a winger or a dman i guess but then you have to go ahead and use a more difficult route and go get the centre help you need through trade. You can't just go year after year after year without adequately addressing the position and act like you have a chance of winning by stocking up with talented players at wing. You have to address centre one way or another. We have by far the weakest C pipeline in the league if Cozens is considered an NHLer now. Again, we are sitting at the "everything at C will be fine if everything works out in the best way possible" stage, like we frequently find ourselves in with this org.

Drafting back to back right wingers with high 1st picks is not sound strategy IMO, you can't just look at BPA in a vacuum every year. You can't just ignore the space and investment you've allotted to Quinn this past draft, I think that should weigh on where else you seek to address when there are so many areas of need organizationally. 

I know we've drafted Cs in the past that didn't pan out, but same goes for any position - it shouldn't stop you from continually trying to address the most important position on your team. Particularly when the system is in fact weakest at C. 

Just my view 

There are talent tiers in any draft. The issue in this draft is that tier one has 4 players that are very evenly matched making it hard to say "oh this guy is the best". This is also the case in tier 2 which has about 10 players that we could shuffle around. You talk about RW but the only RW we have is Quinn. JJ I suppose could be rw but really we just have 2 legit wing prospects so adding a 3rd is fine. It is better than adding your 5th LHD prospect but again if we draft 3rd maybe that is what the board says to take. Personally I think Beniers, Eklund, and Guenther would rank above the defenders for me but I would need more of Guenther before making that determination. Power may be big but I don't see elite there. Hughes is good but is he really that good? Clarke is good but can he skate in the NHL level and be as effective. 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Thorny said:

So we've gone from no consensus to a certain consensus there are no centers worth taking aside from one guy?

There's literally no other centers at the top of the draft. Kent is a winger or was all last year. The rest of the forwards in the top 10-15 are all wingers with the exception of where Sillinger might go. 

[Curt]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

So we've gone from no consensus to a certain consensus there are no centers worth taking aside from one guy?

Matt Beniers is the only C that I would draft in the top 3.

[Thorner]

Just now, Curt said:

Matt Beniers is the only C that I would draft in the top 3.

I guess it's just a really poor draft for us to land on then if we don't end up with Beniers.

All the more reason I'll stand firm on my "trade it" view 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Thorny said:

I'm glad the rankings are this definitive this far out 

You keep saying this and it makes me think you are trying to use hypberbole but I don't think the rankings are definitive. I certainly don't considering mine haven't even been done. I only have a preliminary top 10 currently. The Rankings aren't definitive until the draft is done and we see where players were definitively ranked. Rankings should just be looked to as a general guide. The rankings don't have a definitive top player but they are starting to develop tiers. This happens every year but is late this year because the WHL just got going again and the OHL still has not started. 

[Curt]

Just now, Thorny said:

I guess it's just a really poor draft for us to land on then if we don't end up with Beniers.

All the more reason I'll stand firm on my "trade it" view 

I’ll stand firm on my “draft Beniers” view.

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Thorny said:

I guess it's just a really poor draft for us to land on then if we don't end up with Beniers.

All the more reason I'll stand firm on my "trade it" view 

You can trade it but it is a hard trade to make. 

It is a down year for the draft but that doesn't mean we can't find good players. 

[Thorner]

Just now, LGR4GM said:

You keep saying this and it makes me think you are trying to use hypberbole but I don't think the rankings are definitive. I certainly don't considering mine haven't even been done. I only have a preliminary top 10 currently. The Rankings aren't definitive until the draft is done and we see where players were definitively ranked. Rankings should just be looked to as a general guide. The rankings don't have a definitive top player but they are starting to develop tiers. This happens every year but is late this year because the WHL just got going again and the OHL still has not started. 

I guess I wasn't aware that there were literally no centres in the top 10-15 range except for one guy this year. I knew the draft was weak I didn't know the extent I suppose. 

[LGR4GM]

There are other good players besides Beniers in this draft. 

[Thorner]

Just now, Curt said:

I’ll stand firm on my “draft Beniers” view.

Seems a statistically unlikely thing to happen. How many years in the past several have we got the guy we all said we wanted going in?

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

There are other good players besides Beniers in this draft. 

Right but again I'm looking for a centre at the top of the draft. Only 1 worth drafting in the top 10-15 is quite unusual 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Thorny said:

I guess I wasn't aware that there were literally no centres in the top 10-15 range except for one guy this year. I knew the draft was weak I didn't know the extent I suppose. 

Autu Raty would be the only other top 10 center unless Sillinger makes the jump to there. This is the defense draft. You might see 5 defenders go in the top 10. 

If you consider Kent Johnson a winger then he would be your other top 10 center. 

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

Seems a statistically unlikely thing to happen. How many years in the past several have we got the guy we all said we wanted going in?

Right but again I'm looking for a centre at the top of the draft. Only 1 worth drafting in the top 10-15 is quite unusual 

This is a weird draft even before COVID

Cole Sillinger, 6' center in the USHL this season.

https://thehockeywriters.com/cole-sillinger-2021-nhl-draft-prospect-profile/

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Autu Raty would be the only other top 10 center unless Sillinger makes the jump to there. This is the defense draft. You might see 5 defenders go in the top 10. 

If you consider Kent Johnson a winger then he would be your other top 10 center. 

This is a weird draft even before COVID

Interesting.  A lot of it amounts to me kinda regretting the fact we took Jack Quinn last year, in hindsight 

well, at the time, too 

considering the C talent available then, and the wing talent available here 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Thorny

[Curt]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

Seems a statistically unlikely thing to happen. How many years in the past several have we got the guy we all said we wanted going in?

I think it’s much more statistically likely that Buffalo drafts Beniers 1-3, than it is that they trade the pick.

[LGR4GM]

Sillinger

 

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, Curt said:

I think it’s much more statistically likely that Buffalo drafts Beniers 1-3, than it is that they trade the pick.

Of course. 

I meant it  might be more likely we are able to trade the pick for a really good player, than it is we both end up selecting Beniers, and he also turn out better than that player, and also so much better that it was worth the added timeline 

the decision to trade it is assumed in the hypothetical 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Thorny

[Buffalonill]

18 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

There's literally no oth⁸er centers at the top of the draft. Kent is a winger or was all last year. The rest of the forwards in the top 10-15 are all wingers with the exception of where Sillinger might go. 

aatu Raty is the best center in the draft 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Buffalonill

[LGR4GM]

Sillinger does not skate nearly as well as Beniers

2 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:

aatu Raty is the best center in the draft 

I'd put him behind Beniers. 5 years from he might end up being the best. 

[LGR4GM]

I need more looks at Raty. 

[Buffalonill]

5 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Sillinger does not skate nearly as well as Beniers

I'd put him behind Beniers. 5 years from he might end up being the best. 

He already is the best center I would take him first overall and never look back he will be Kopitar