2022 NHL Draft Rankings

[Brawndo]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

Forget Lambert we need to start talking about Joakim Kemell. 5'11" 176lb RW

 

Will he fall to 32? 

 

[sabresparaavida]

2 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Will he fall to 32? 

 

There’s also the Florida pick. Honestly though, there’s a lot of quality rd that will likely be around the middle of the first round as well. If we could grab a good center with our pick (Shane Wright please🤞), then a good rd prospect to add to the pipeline, I think it would set us up to easily focus on wings for most of the rest of the draft.

[Flashsabre]

28 minutes ago, sabresparaavida said:

There’s also the Florida pick. Honestly though, there’s a lot of quality rd that will likely be around the middle of the first round as well. If we could grab a good center with our pick (Shane Wright please🤞), then a good rd prospect to add to the pipeline, I think it would set us up to easily focus on wings for most of the rest of the draft.

I think they have enough young wings. I would like 3 to 4 centres in this draft. Not saying no to wings but a couple high end young centres would do wonders for the prospect group.

[sabresparaavida]

22 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

I think they have enough young wings. I would like 3 to 4 centres in this draft. Not saying no to wings but a couple high end young centres would do wonders for the prospect group.

If we pick up a center that projects out to first line, then I am not worried about center. One of Mittelstadt or Cozens should pan out for 2C at least. The other could play 3C or on the wing, 3C is easily replaceable in FA. Right now on the wing with reasonable top 6 potential we have: Quinn, JJP, Kisakov, Poltapov, and Rosen. Currently on the team are Oloffson, Asplund, and Thompson, but I would prefer them to be 3rd liners if they are still around unless there is marked improvement. I don’t want to rely on 4 out of the 5 prospects panning out to be good top 6 wingers. I think we still need some talent added. 
 

I will say that the draft also will depend on the Eichel return, whether it’s more picks or prospects that fill holes in the pipeline. Regardless, I would like 1 Goalie drafted, and no left defensemen.

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, sabresparaavida said:

If we pick up a center that projects out to first line, then I am not worried about center. One of Mittelstadt or Cozens should pan out for 2C at least. The other could play 3C or on the wing, 3C is easily replaceable in FA. Right now on the wing with reasonable top 6 potential we have: Quinn, JJP, Kisakov, Poltapov, and Rosen. Currently on the team are Oloffson, Asplund, and Thompson, but I would prefer them to be 3rd liners if they are still around unless there is marked improvement. I don’t want to rely on 4 out of the 5 prospects panning out to be good top 6 wingers. I think we still need some talent added. 
 

I will say that the draft also will depend on the Eichel return, whether it’s more picks or prospects that fill holes in the pipeline. Regardless, I would like 1 Goalie drafted, and no left defensemen.

If the Sabres management after 16 years of having center depth issues follows your plan of not picking centers because we have Wright and Cozens, they should be fired into the sun. 

If a center is there, take them. Wingers are easy to find and easy to convert centers into. This team should be constantly worried about centers. 

The only thing this team doesn't need is left handed defenders and that only applies to the 2022 draft. 

Edited October 15, 2021 by LGR4GM

[LGR4GM]

Currently 10 centers I would consider in the first round and 4 right hand defenders. 

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

Currently 10 centers I would consider in the first round and 4 right hand defenders. 

That's 10 centres with legit 1C upside?

[dudacek]

27 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Currently 10 centers I would consider in the first round and 4 right hand defenders. 

pfft. Why stick with conventional strategy when you can get ahead of the curve?

Just let the best wingers drop to you and move them into the middle.

Rosen, Quinn, Tage…

[Brawndo]

They are most likely drafting between 5-10, so they should be all set to grab a Center 

[WildCard]

8 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

They are most likely drafting between 5-10, so they should be all set to grab a Center 

The question just comes down to how good is that Center. We have a ton of question marks going into the future...Eichel's return, 2022 draft pick, Cozens, Power, Mitts, Quinn...a lot of these could work out, a lot of them couldn't. It's a very uneasy time period right now.

[Thorner]

19 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

They are most likely drafting between 5-10, so they should be all set to grab a Center 

I'd say most likely between 1-10, myself. 

[Crusader1969]

18 minutes ago, WildCard said:

The question just comes down to how good is that Center. We have a ton of question marks going into the future...Eichel's return, 2022 draft pick, Cozens, Power, Mitts, Quinn...a lot of these could work out, a lot of them couldn't. It's a very uneasy time period right now.

Why limit yourself to a Centre? Take the best available....well maybe not a LHD.

Plus, you will probably get a deal for Eichel that will include a center

Myself, I think the odds on favorite right now is Vegas and that deal should include Krebs. 

[Thorner]

8 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

Why limit yourself to a Centre? Take the best available....well maybe not a LHD.

Plus, you will probably get a deal for Eichel that will include a center

Myself, I think the odds on favorite right now is Vegas and that deal should include Krebs. 

If we do want the blue chip C prospect in the system, it's gonna have to be from the Jack deal or the first round, I'd imagine. Not many other realistic avenues for adding it. 

[Crusader1969]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

If we do want the blue chip C prospect in the system, it's gonna have to be from the Jack deal or the first round, I'd imagine. Not many other realistic avenues for adding it. 

100% they do and will.. maybe even 2.

[Brawndo]

28 minutes ago, WildCard said:

The question just comes down to how good is that Center. We have a ton of question marks going into the future...Eichel's return, 2022 draft pick, Cozens, Power, Mitts, Quinn...a lot of these could work out, a lot of them couldn't. It's a very uneasy time period right now.

Savioe, McGroarty, Geekie Slafkovsky and Cooley in addition to Wright project to Top 6 Centers and the next two classes have quite a bit of talent 

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

100% they do and will.. maybe even 2.

It'd probably have to be with our first, I'd imagine, considering where Florida's will likely be.

[Weave]

49 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Savioe, McGroarty, Geekie Slafkovsky and Cooley in addition to Wright project to Top 6 Centers and the next two classes have quite a bit of talent 

With the exception of Wright, none of those will be good 1C options.  Just look at those names. Lousy hockey names.  You aren’t getting a 1C with names like that.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Weave

[Crusader1969]

55 minutes ago, Thorny said:

It'd probably have to be with our first, I'd imagine, considering where Florida's will likely be.

yes,  i meant 1 with their pick and 1 with the Eichel trade.

[Thorner]

Who are the centres projected ~ pick 10 and do they have a reasonably likely for a prospect 1C ceiling?

[Crusader1969]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Who are the centres projected ~ pick 10 and do they have a reasonably likely for a prospect 1C ceiling?

Logan Cooley or Conner Geekie?
I wouldn’t think anyone picked around there has any more 1st line centre potential  than what Cozens or Mitts has.  
 

[Thorner]

14 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

Logan Cooley or Conner Geekie?
I wouldn’t think anyone picked around there has any more 1st line centre potential  than what Cozens or Mitts has.  
 

So unless we are in the Wright/Savoie running I suppose it's more likely we look to get 1C (and 2C) filled by way of assembling a group of good 2Cs, or at least players that project to that level as their most likely result, and look to make up the difference through depth/ability at our 3rd C position. 

Or they go another draft. 

[dudacek]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

So unless we are in the Wright/Savoie running I suppose it's more likely we look to get 1C (and 2C) filled by way of assembling a group of good 2Cs, or at least players that project to that level as their most likely result, and look to make up the difference through depth/ability at our 3rd C position. 

Or they go another draft. 

I’m not disagreeing with the idea we need to add more centre skill to the pipeline. I just don’t think it’s as crucial that we get one high in the draft as you seem to.

None of Brayden Point, Ryan O’Reilly, Anze Kopitar, Nick Suzuki, Patrice Bergeron William Karlsson, Derek Stepan Joe Pavelski and Adam Henrique were drafted in the top 10. All were 1Cs on Stanley Cup finals teams in the past 10 years.

Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Jonathan Huberdeau, Ryan Strome, Mika Zibanejad, Mark Schiefele, Sean Couturier, Alex Galchenyuk, Barkov, Lindholm, Monahan, Horvat, Reinhart, Draisaitl, Bennett, Conor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Dylan Strome, Zacha, Mathews, Hischier, Patrick, Petterson, Glass, Anderson, Mittelstadt, Kotkaniemi, Hayton…

That’s a long list of top 10 picks, including some fantastic players, who have yet to come close to leading their teams to the promised land.

Yes, Crosby and Malkin types improve the odds. But they seemingly aren’t must-haves,or guarantees.

Edited October 24, 2021 by dudacek

[Thorner]

That's true, my point more so was that they need another high-end C in the system - it doesn't have to come from the top 10 of the draft - it's just where it comes from most likely, looking at past results. Of course there are plenty of examples of it coming from other spots. It's kinda like the "the president's trophy winning team doesn't win the cup, look at the odds/past results!" argument - it's still a higher mark than any other one standings spot. It's just, "the field" will always win out in large sample sizes. 

Tons of interesting context with all the players you mentioned, each would need their own conversation to break down exactly what happen/has happened. Guys like Point generally go up high, that he fell was a mistake - diamonds in the rough can be found, but they are still more likely found up top. He also plays with a first overall C on his team who's been a pretty big component for them over the years. 

Kopitar plays on a team also with basically a top 10 (11OA) C in Carter, who was a big part of things. Of course, we have guys who could be "our Carter", namely Cozens - just a little less likely IMO the drafting team can find a true 1st line C from later in the draft as a strategy, to account for that Kopitar. In the end it's most likely we don't find that all-star C later in the draft, but that's why my point was about it potentially being viable to go the "3/4 strong 2Cs" route.

Long ago we hoped to acquire that true 1C potential in the Eichel deal - doesn't seem likely. Most then pointed towards the top of next year's draft - still in play, but was always a question mark, maybe more so now. In the end, looking at the players/teams you alluded to - depth of roster was always the biggest thing I think. Of course I want them to find a way to add that 1C. But with strong team building, I'd say it's more likely/viable for Adams to build a strong team around no TRUE 1C, if the depth is strong, than it is we find that true 1C where it's pretty uncommon to find one. If they don't feel they have that blue chipper in the system they have no choice but to go the depth route, anyways. If someone emerges from that somewhat unexpectedly, all the better. 

[Thorner]

Also, don't read the above ^, it's rambling and poorly worded. Don't have it today

[Digger]

Consider that Matt Barzal was drafted 16th overall in the 2015 draft.  A player like him would look great centering a line for the Sabres so while I would love another premier center prospect with Eichel's skill we may be okay with getting another center with skills just a step below elite.