Dogbyte

So, hope Ritchie burns and dies. Seems like rivalry is brewing.

Neal to the Predators.

After today we will have 5 new players in the line-up. Well on the team. Get excited, get, get excited !!!

Mackenzie knows what he's talking about.

C'mon Leafs please do something dumb and give us some entertainment.

#thereisalotofmoronsouttherewhohaven'twatchedhimplay

Nice, that was my pick.

ha ha, my thoughts exactly

What do the Flames do? 6th if Flames highest pick ever.

The Oil with quite a low first rounder this year.

His dad got drafted in the 12th round. lol

No it hasn't been like we've been waiting forever Gary. Carry on.

Yep, not much longer now.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't compare the strengths of the draft but you seem to be making a lot of assumptions here that have no basis. For instance: Where are you getting this idea that Shinkaruk would be a top 10 draft pick this year? How do you know no one else would take Reinhart number one except Vancouver? This is not public or widely known information. Like you said there is risk either way. All 3 players that we are talking about could either make it or not make it. As I stated before a lot depends on your/our scouting. If our own scouting staff has him ranked way above everyone else it's something to look at, otherwise why even spend time looking at players just pick a random player at your spot and be done with it? What I do know is I would trade the 6th and 24th pick in any draft year for the first overall as those forwards picked at the top of the draft almost always turn out to be great players compared to 50% for players drafted later in the first round. I do like Shinkaruk though and would hate to lose him to have him become something good. However, people already saying he's going to be a perennial 40 goal a year guy and the 6th pick is guaranteed to score 30 and be at least a 10 year second liner as well are putting the cart before the horse. Anyways like others have said I'm perfectly happy drafting 6th, and keeping Hunter and I hope it works out for the best. However, there is a good chance that the most commonly rated number one forward in this draft year will turn out to be one of the best players. That's why he's rated as the best forward, not to screw with Canuck fans.

I will admit the price is steep but I think we will have to give Tanev away for next to nothing anyway as our last GM messed up the defensive salary structure. There is no way we can sign him for the $3 plus per year he apparently wants. We have a NTC top 4 anyway. So if Tanev can add value to get us a high pick, as in the highest pick well that's a bonus because straight up I don't think he's worth that much as he isn't under contract.

Yeah but you are the one pretending that you know how all these guys are going to turn out where as I'm relying on statistics and probability. Shinkaruk would not go top 10 this year IMO. I guess we will see though. My reasoning is that Reinhart will be a great NHLer for years and years where as out of Ehlers, Nylander, Rictchie, Virtanen, and Kapanen 3 out of the 5 may not pan out or be mediocre. Now the one that does excel may be as good as Reinhart and Shinkaruk is a bonus or both he and the 6th pick might both fizzle out. I like Shinkaruk but I think several people here are over-rating him. He went 24th, a strong draft doesn't indicate a difference of 17 spots in the first round.

Yeah but the odds are pretty darn good in your favor. There are no guarantees in trades or picks but this team is in dire straits for a surefire elite player. It seems obvious that most scouts have Reinhart, and Ekblad as these players. Unless you've watched them each play 40-50 games it's kind of hard to comment on how good or how bad Reinhart will be but the numbers support him (well the top pick anyway). I get your point though we definitely overpay by a degree but that's how you get the top pick and the best player, and this is especially true at 6 where there a lot of options to be had. Some of them will probably bust since this is such a weak draft. That's also a reason to get the best pick possible. I guess it really comes down to how high they have their projected number one over what they might get at 6. It's a litte early to to judge Murray yet as he lost a year due to injury and Yakapov certainly has the talent but is not in the best situation.

I'll quote this guy as well because his blatant lack of understanding is the most annoying 1st two forwards in draft Ovechkin Malkin Crosby Ryan Stall Toews Kane Riemsdyk Stamkos Filitov Tavares Duchene Hall Seguin Nugest-Hopkins Landeskog Yakapov Galchenyuk McKinnon Barkov 19/20 Quality NHLer's all of which most sane people would trade for Shinkaruk. 1st two forwards past 23 Chucko Schremp Oshie Cogliano Bergland Foligno Tedenby Nemisz Backlund White Johanson Caron Hayes Howden Pumpel Danult Gaunce Samuelsson Shinkaruk McCarron 8/20 NHLers by my count and no one particularily special besides Oshie. Caron only played 30 some games. Howden played 16 last year if you want to count him. I would throw in any one of these guys in order to move up in that bracket. We need high end players that will be impact NHLers, and this is exactly what we'd be getting. To think that the top 2 fowards are anything but very special players in any draft year is just wrong. I'm taking the first overall pick vs the 6th pick and a 50% chance at the type of player you can pick up in free agency each year.

Wow, is that ever a horrible read on the situation.

Yeah he's weird. Well for any GM that actually wants to build a good club it's a totally good move. Unless of course you want to keep him around just because we're going to suck anyway. That's not a winning metality.

I'm glad that God paraders are not going to be part of this team in the future. Hamhuis is cool though.

So true, he was starting to excel there. However, Vrbata would be 10 times the player at pretty much the same price.

That was a horrible contract to give to a third line checker. Especially since we are paying him in retrospect.

We haven't had a second line for 6 years. Why start now? And Booth is not a second liner.

Well the reality is that if Benning and Linden want to actually accomplsh something in their new roles then it's the right move. If we are just going to suck, then yeah keep Booth.