Hedman

Done with this team. Cya.

Agree. Boeser might be ready to turn pro, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things in his game that he won't be able to work on there, like getting quicker for an example. Some guys from UND will obviously be gone next year, guys like Caggiula, Stecher and Schmaltz most likely. Boeser is going to get a lot of responsibility next year, and i think that could be good for him to be able to grow even more as a player. Will be interesting to see him and Tyson Jost together next year, worthy replacement for Schmaltz without a doubt.

If he can get a little faster there's no reason IMO to believe that he can't be a 1st line player in this league. Great hands, great shot, obviously has a nose for goals and overall just a great player. Definitely not a bad skater right now, but would love to see him get a little quicker. Will be interesting to see him next year with Tyson Jost if Schmaltz decides to go pro with the Blackhawks.

Not gonna happen, after all, he was drafted by Benning himself, it's "his guy" and he's doing well so far. I'm a little scared though heading into the trade deadline, especially since it seems like he will ACTUALLY try to make the playoffs as long as the "possibility" (what possibility lol) is there. You literally have no idea what Benning is going to do, and when a trade occurs, you often find yourself feeling very confused and very disappointed. The fact that this move looks like one that could lead to at least another trade, really scares me.

No matter how the trade pans out (obviously fearing and even expecting the worst), i will NEVER understand why Shinkaruk was given merely ONE game in the NHL since Shinkaruk IS one of the best goalscorers in the AHL, and we are currently the 3rd WORST team in Goals For in the entire league. It's absolutely mind boggling. It's true that Baertschi and Shinkaruk are 2 fairly similiar players, but it honestly shouldn't make Shinkaruk expandable since we actually have few prospects with legit top6 scoring potential like Shinkaruk has. Outside of Boeser, Shinkaruk was probably the only one. I also don't think that our top6 "is set" going forward, it's not like our top6 is stacked with overwhelmingly offensive talent. Sedins contracts will be up in 2 years, Hansen happens to have career year this year, Vrbata will most likely be gone in the off-season, and Baertschi is basically making his 1st strides as a pro player. Virtanen is cracking the 2nd line because he brings more of a physical presence to that line, not really because he has been offensively talented enough.

My thoughts exactly. I was a little worried first when i heard that he got injured, especially considering the hip-surgery he had last year. An "upper body injury" shouldn't be able to jeopardize his long-term career. Hopefully he'll be back soon.

Maybe not in this draft considering the depth of the 2nd round after the picks Boston etc made. But in some circumstances 2 early 3rds for an early 2nd could have got it done IMO, if we're trading with the right team.

Him being a captain is obviously not a bad thing, i'm just getting the feeling that our management overvalue this fact. While i didn't want a guy with attitude problems, like Pilon, i think attitude is overrated at this state of their careers. Brisebrois being a captain of his junior team isn't going to get him to the NHL, unless he's got the skill to make it. If you're a big defenseman, it's obviously important that you're a good skater. But you're also not going to make it on your skating alone. I'm just feeling that his upside isn't that high, but i'd love to see him prove me wrong. I also think that it's important for guys to play major roles for their teams in junior. Speaking of guys like McCann and Cassels, they both played for better teams, and better organizations. I think being part of a "winning" organization in junior is just as important as playing big minutes. There's a reason why the London Knights have produced so many great NHL-players, they're always competing. Cassels played on the 3rd line in the 2012-13 season, but since Boone Jenner "graduated" after that season, he was bound to play on the 2nd line the next year, which was a great opportunity for him. McCann will have a great team next year as well. It's all about if you think it's worth it or not. Personally, i think our prospect pool lacks quality, not quantity. This is a quantity pick for me. Not bad, not great. Getting one of the defensemen in the 2nd round would have been huge for us, considering how deep the 2nd round was going into day 2. You could only speculate what the price would have been, but i doubt it would have been more than 3rd+3rd/4th for early/late 2nd rounder. Other teams had the balls to make some moves for picks (the sh*tty return for Lack doesn't count here), we didn't.

Him being a captain for his junior team doesn't say too much tbh, at least not for me. Because again, he's playing on the worst team in the QMJHL, so i doubt there's a lot of guys who's qualified to be captain. Him being a captain (and a defenseman) might also be one of the reasons why our management are sold on this pick, which is something i really don't like. We know that they like their "attitude guys", we know that they love their "big guys that can skate". We also know that not a lot of QMJHL defenseman have made the NHL over the years. Not that i'm totally against drafting defensemen from the QMJHL, this year, i liked Zboril, J.Roy and Chabot, while Meloche could've been a solid 2nd round pick. Just don't think that Brisebrois is the type of guy you take with an early 3rd round pick, a low reward type of player. To me, it feels like management got desperate to pick a defenseman just for the sake of picking a defenseman, because they've been talking for months about getting more depth on defense, and they didn't pick a defenseman until the 3rd round, which should be seen as a failure. The chance of you getting a legit top4 defenseman in the 3rd round is pretty low. And as has already been mentioned, it's mindboggling that we didn't try to trade up when guys like Dunn and Kylington were picked in a span of just 10 picks.

I agree. His numbers in the QMJHL are underwhelming, which for me is concerning since the QMJHL is by far the weakest of the 3 CHL leagues. Not really good at anything. People will bring up that he played for the worst team in the QMJHL which made him "look bad", but that's honestly not going to help his development either. And his +/- wasn't exactly good at the WJC-18 either. I don't see much more than bottom pairing potential. Not to mention this is basically the guy we traded Eddie Lack for.

Really don't like this pick.

Seems like Schmaltz has been signed by the Blues: https://twitter.com/StLouisBlues/status/604039835897044992 Edit: His brother, Nick Schmaltz (Chicago 2014 20th overall pick) is committed to North Dakota though.

Even though Boeser wasn't a guy i really wanted, im completely fine with this pick, especially after watching Boston and Dallas picks, to name a few teams. The chance of your team picking the guy you personally want is pretty slim. I'm glad we didn't draft Carlo, or even Bittner. Kinda surprised we ended up with Boeser, but not disappointed at all, this coming from someone who has been questioning Bennings "draft philosophy" lately. I think prospects going the NCAA route tends to get underrated.

Demko isn't eligible for WJC.

You're not going to get a lot for a 25 year old AHL goaltender, even if they've had a great season overall, maybe a 3rd round pick, which is pretty much nothing. I'd rather see us trading either Lack or Miller, and give Markstrom a chance as a back-up. I wouldn't look too much into 1 bad performance either.