Quoting: Hockyluv21
I actually see the top 10 as extremely crapshoot-y as well. For example, I have Lysell and Robertsson in my personal top ten, but a lot of scouts, including Pronman, have them going either in the late-first or early-2nd.
Quoting: Hockyluv21
You're moving 19 spots down in a crapshoot-y draft, not dealing a first away. This may be the best possible draft to have a late 1st round pick because the scouting is so all-over-the-place this year. And you're clearing huge amounts of long-term cap.
19 spots down isn’t the best move tho.
SJS biggest positional need is:
Goaltending
Defensive D
A New Center threat
Scoring Player (a definite shooter)
Depth (tho that’s not really positional)
Where imo, Wallstedt SHOULD and likely will be available from picks 5-12 which it isn’t likely falls 19 spots to CAR pick.
Additionally all the players within the general top 15 are (IMO) are all potential big time players. Crapshoot doesn’t mean bad; it just means uncertainty. And I certainly expect a worse gamble in those late picks than taking good bets at 7 in:
Wallstedt
Guenther
Sillinger
Eklund
Johnson
Clarke
Lysell
Etc.
The Sharks best option would be selecting Wallstedt 9/10 imo and as I said the Karlsson move you’ve suggested does not actually do anything positive. Barrie is more likely to put up 50 points on EDM then he is to put up 30 point on SJS (as he failed to lead the Leafs). Yea long term cap relief is cool, but the gain from those moves is negligible and likely just cycle repeats of now having Barrie on a iffy contract, with Karlsson’s retention with Gardiner losing his spot to Knyzhov because I’m confident Knyzhov is better (and he plays LD mainly). We gain a couple mil in relief with Barrie costing 6.2 + 2.5 Karlsson retention. So not a big clearing of cap at all actually.