What...Was...That.

[yave1964]

  Okay Yzermans first draft is in the books. Not sure what to think.

 

  I have zero problem with the first pick, Moritz Seider, a behemoth of a defender who is still growing, he was rated anywhere from the second to fourth best defender in the draft, a bit of a reach but definitely fills a need. I thought for certain that Forward Dylan Cozens was the pick there a forward who does nothing super but a lot well, I wanted D but felt Cozens was the best player in the draft at that point, drafted for need instead. Okay with it.

 

  From there on my eyebrows went up. We went Defense twice more in the second round, Tuomisto was a serious reach, most had him as a third rounder he went top of the second, Johansson kind of same thing, drafted way early according to most scouting services. I do like winger Mastrosimone who is projected as a bottom six winger who can score a bit but loves the physical game, Grewe in the third round fell to the Wings, most had him going 2nd round, scorer who loves to hit. 

 

 So three defenders in the first two rounds, makes sense it is what the organization needs desperately is an infusion of youth and talent on the back end. Steve isn't ruling out Seider making the opening day roster rather than returning to Manheim even. I felt there were better picks available than all three but the Wings went back to their roots dratting Euro talent over North American kids and lets face it, what we have been doing isn't working, something ahd to be done to fix the back end and Yzerman and company know hockey better than anyone of us ever will. I just felt we could have traded down a few spots and still added Seider, we could have gotten Tuomisto later in the third and went with a safer pick at the top of the second, and Johansson could have been there at 4 instead of late in the second. They may all pan out, drafting is so damn inexact but this draft left me scratching my head.Reading Wings boards I see a lot of fans feeling the same thing.

[SpikeDDS]

Yeah, I addressed the first pick in another thread. Post-first-round interview with Stevie showed that they tried to trade down, but couldn’t find anyone who would trade up a first not too far down the chain. Like you, I don’t have a problem with Seider.

 

And I don’t even have a general problem with the fact that we picked all D in the first 2 rounds. Again, our biggest need is Dmen. We are short on talent there. This helps that. OK.

 

it’s the “who” of their picks that makes one scratch his/her head. It’s almost like they ignored what anyone else thought of players and went with their own analysis on some of these.

 

But let’s remember a few things:

 

1. Stevie has proven that when it comes to evaluating talent, he and Verbeek don’t suck at it. They have reached before and it has paid off for the Bolts.

2. Only time will tell if their analysis is better or not. Even players who are considered “the best player available” turn out to be duds. 

3. There is absolutely something to be said for how a player “fits” your organization, and to be quite honest, that can trump talent level, especially after round 1, where talent level gaps are not usually as large.

4. We have ZERO idea what was said in interviews, and we haven’t actually watched these players in action. In other words, our analysis is at best third-hand, at worst speculation. 

5. By making these reaches, it does put Stevie et al in a position where if what they did works, they look like geniuses, but if they don’t, they look pretty bad. It’s almost an all-or-nothing deal. They now will get all the credit or all the blame. Going “safe”  spares you from some of that if you take what is generally considered the best talent available and it doesn’t work out.

4. Let’s face it: Stevie is gonna get a bit of a pass because he is Stevie.

5. Let’s also face it: Stevie is gonna get a bit of a pass because he is not Kenny Holland. If he is going to try something like this, now is the time.

6. No matter what else you think, #2 above will be the final judge.