After banging my head against the wall every game watching Petry and Ghost defend, I'm becoming less and less hesitant to package our 1st and grab Rasmus Andersson.

... But with Calgary's ownership meddling in management's business, I'm not sure that's possible at a fair price.

Perron is the reason we have a goal in this game .

Cool? If I've gotta pick between Fischer at $1.5M or Perron at $3.5M I'm taking Fischer. They're gonna need the cap for Seider/Raymond, hopefully Kane, and to fix RHD.

We don't have the assets that we would be willing to part with for Andersson unfortunately. He would likely be very expensive to acquire. Probably need to draft a player to fill that spot. Too bad we traded down with LA when they took Faber. He would be perfect lol. Why do you draft for Detroit if we somehow get 5-10 or after 10 and later? My first choice is Catton but I doubt he's available for us. I wouldn't hate grabbing Jiricek, I don't know how I feel about Yakemchuk or Parekh. I prefer stronger defensive games in defensemen. I don't mind Greentree either.

I don't think it's out of the question if they're committing to a significant rebuild/retool.

But this is the same team that sold Hanifin/Tanev/Lindholm and then ownership says "Nope we're keeping our 34 year old goalie to go on a playoff run!"

Exactly. Their ownership group, which is also one of the biggest problems with this team, has a desire to make a certain amount of profit every year. They are happy being a fringe team if it makes profits. I get the business side of things but they should see the writing on the wall and commit to a bit more of a rebuild.

Disclaimer to skip to the end if you don't wanna read the whole thought process behind it lol...

I assume you meant who do you draft? The odds of us drafting 5-9 are so low I don't think it's worth even looking at. It'd take either 5-6 teams below us ALL going on runs while we essentially collect no points or us being 15th or 16th and winning the lottery. Honestly, we probably have a better chance picking 3rd - 6th off a lotto win than we do 7th - 9th.

I like the idea of Jiricek due to the bloodlines, but realistically, is he any closer to the NHL than ASP? Probably not.

I think the last two years we had an obvious need at center. Who knows if we picked Kasper/Danielson based on need or based on believing they were the BPA, but now we've addressed center and I don't see a glaring need. (RHD, obviously, but again, I don't think Jiricek is any closer to the NHL than ASP)

With that in mind, it really comes down to BPA, and I think we all know that Yzerman loves complete players with high compete levels, and is allergic to players with questionable skating. So to me, in the 10-16 range, I think you're looking at Chernyshov or Brandsegg-Nygard.

I should add... I don't know that he's an Yzerman guy, but being right in our pick range, it's hard not to look at Tij Iginla and think that'd be a good pick if he could be even half of what his Dad was.

Which kinda brings us full circle with Calgary... If we're picking after them, with their ownership being too involved in management, I can see them directing management to pick Tij. He'd sell jerseys with that fan base before even playing a game.

I'm also pretty high on Chernyshov as well. Wasn't thinking about him when I wrote my last post. I don't know much about Nygard

I don't know much about any of them honestly. I was lulled into a false sense of hope that we could look forward to the season rather than the draft lol.

But both are decent sized wingers with high ratings in compete level. Screams Yzerman/Draper players.

Plus, if there's one thing we honestly lack both in the NHL and the pipeline, it's bigger wingers. Mazur is our closest thing to a winger with some edge, and he's not big by any means.

I'm not against Tij but I feel that same way you do about Calgary taking him.

Agreed on that. Although we have a decent pipeline, I don't think we have done that great of a job drafting. Can't predict the future though.

I think we've done fine drafting since 2020. It just takes time to see the results.

I'd like Roy as well but I don't think he signs for under $6M and I think just about every team will be interested in him and someone could end up over paying him.

Probably. Which is why I think we're either gonna have to trade or throw Chiarot over as the 2RD.

I would argue that 6M is a bit of an overpay already but I don't doubt what you are saying.

You're probably right but I still think someone at least offers him $6M. Let's just hope he values playing in his home town pretty high.