Value wise, seems legit. From an Avs perspective though, I think they are dead set on the player of most significance being a dman. Whether that's the top prospect or the roster player. They are already stacked up front, especially with Patrick probably coming on board next year.

They want a dman back in the Duchene deal because they desperately need one.

Yeah, they obviously want defense, but teams like MTL/BOS/CAR seem to be backing off a bit from giving up Sergachev/Carlo/McAvoy/Slavin/Hanifin. Those are the pieces that the Avs want, and they're not just going to settle for a mediocre D-man (i.e. Juulsen/Beaulieu/Zboril/Bean) in return for Dutch. So from what I've heard, Sakic is now turning to somewhat promising young D-men, a blue chip forward prospect, and a first.

And as much as I'd love Nolan Patrick/Nico Hischier to be the pick this year, we have a 49.8% chance of picking 4th, so they can't count on picking up a great player in the draft. We could just as likely end up with Mittelstadt or Tippett, who are both good players, but they're not on the same level as Patrick/Hischier.

True. Wait until teams get a little more desperate though. There's no rush to make the trade this year. The draft is where the value might be met for Duchene.

the fact that you mention those other prospects as garbage makes me question how much you actually follow prospects or do you base you opinions off everyone on this site. Julssen is far from a slouch. Same with Bean...

Yeah, unless the Avs get an offer that blows them away, he'll probably be moved at the draft.



Second tier then. Mediocre may have been a bit strong. Say what you will, but neither of them has top-2 written all over them. I've seen that everywhere, not just on this site. And in any case, pairing them with a 1st is not enough for Duchene. There's trade precedent there.

The problem is fans like overvalue their own prospects as well go on TSN and hear Craig Button say this guy is a top prospect and this guy is a top prospect, so they naturally repeat it. Button has to sell his brand so he over hypes and rates players to make us keep coming back for more. Its like at the draft how every guy in the first round, Bobby Mac and Pierre Mcguire says is a great player that will be a superstar one day. Sorry half of them aren't impactful in any way in their careers. Truth is some 5th round picks are better then 1st rounders and some undrafted players may end up being stars while top prospects wont be. No one knows. Prospects are just that, prospects. There are a handful that are virtually sure things which no would doubt at all but I don't think anyone is talking abut those guys.

As for Bean and Juulsen, I think its fair to not call them "top prospects". I don't think they are either. Are they still really good prospects? Of course!

As for the "upper echelon guys", For example why is Brandon Carlo so highly thought of? Its not like his stats are that great. He's been surprisingly good for a 20 yo but is he a lock for the top pairing playing 25 mins a night and scoring 50 pts? I don't think so, we're projecting that he continues his growth based of the sample we have of him now but It won't necessarily be exponential growth. As for being able to play as a young player already, plenty of guys have done that already and haven't gone on to be superstars so we can't get too ahead of ourselves either. Bogosian, Del Zotto, Schenn all had promising starts to their career's as 19 yo's.......Unfortunately they don't hold the same value anymore. Anyhow Im not crapping on Carlo here, I like the kid, just pointing out how pointless saying one guy is more "top prospect" then another is, unless its painstakingly obvious. Ekblad was pretty darn close to a sure thing as you can get.


At the end of the day Juulsen may end up being the highest value of player in a couple years of all the guys mentioned above and there really isn't anything you can say to disprove me wrong. They are mostly all prospects still with untapped potential. Until they've reached a certain age and experience, its isn't all that relative what I or you or anyone thinks. We're all gambling on a hunch really. That same hunch told me Jarred Tinordi was going to be the next Chris Pronger.....