NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[StCapps]

Wondering if Lou will actually go off the board tonight, might they pick a goalie? Keith Petruzzelli? He's a Lou type prospect, giant sized, puck handling, plays like Carey Price. At 17th, there's no sure bets, might go for the long term prospect with high upside, best goalie available.

He's almost 6'6", 190lbs, lanky like Matt Murray, Joe Woll is a decent goaltending prospect, but he doesn't project to a franchise 1G, whereas Petruzzelli has all the ingredients to be a pontential superstar.

Keith Petruzzelli has high upside sure, but I still think Jake Oettinger is the best goalie available, he's the most developed right now, has a way higher floor and maybe slightly lower ceiling than Petruzzelli. 6'4" 205, is damn solid frame for a goalie in any era.

Those have got to be the two guys you are considering if you decide to go goalie in the first round anyway.

[Smitty-48]

Wondering if Lou will actually go off the board tonight, might they pick a goalie? Keith Petruzzelli? He's a Lou type prospect, giant sized, puck handling, plays like Carey Price. At 17th, there's no sure bets, might go for the long term prospect with high upside, best goalie available.

He's almost 6'6", 190lbs, lanky like Matt Murray, Joe Woll is a decent goaltending prospect, but he doesn't project to a franchise 1G, whereas Petruzzelli has all the ingredients to be a pontential superstar.

Keith Petruzzelli has high upside sure, but I still think Jake Oettinger is the best goalie available, he's the most developed right now, has a way higher floor and maybe slightly lower ceiling than Petruzzelli. Those have got to be the two guys you are considering if you decide to go goalie in the first round anyway.

I think Petruzzelli is the best player available in terms of upside; draft for skill. Oettinger is definitely closer, but I don't think he projects to be the next Carey Price, bear in mind, the Leafs don't need a goalie for four years, but in four years, I'm thinking Petruzelli could be the next superstar goalie, whereas looking at what could be available at 17 in this draft, I'm not seeing any superstar potential there. Petruzzelli would be a long term pick, but that's kind of how the Leafs braintrust operates these days, and Petruzzelli is definitely a Lou type player, Lou likes to build from the net out, and even though the Leafs need D, they also need G, and there doesn't look to be any D superstar potential at 17, but there might be a G superstar, so take the superstar potential over just a decent D prospect.

[StCapps]

Well Petruzelli does have the highest upside, but he doesn't have the skill yet, very raw prospect, even for a goalie. If he develops that skill down the road, especially in that frame, and he can overcome the size slowing him down, he could be an elite number one for sure. He could be a bust too, that's the thing with goalies projected to go in the second round or later. Hell even first round goalies are far from safe, that's why they usually don't get drafted in the first round, or if they do they tend to go late in the first, for the most part.

[Smitty-48]

Just blue skying, but at 17th, it might as well be the 2nd round by then, the difference between 17th and 34th is nothing, after the top five it's usually a crapshoot, after the top ten it's definitely a crapshoot, and there's not going to be any Makar's or Heiskanens at 17th, so they may just go off the board.

But, you know, they're building from the draft, and Lou likes to build from the net out, and it's not a deep draft so there's no obvious F/D to take at 17th, and in terms of "defensive help" for the team now, there's nothing at 17th that is going to be arriving anytime soon, and they don't really need forwards unless somebody like Kailer Yamamoto or Nick Suzuki is still kicking around be then, if somebody drops, Cam Fowler/Jack Chychrun style, fine, but after Makar and Heiskanen, the D thins out pretty fast. Is Cal Foote or Nick Hague really going to be better than Max Gildon? Not necessarily and they could probably get Gildon at 59th.

Seems like the Leafs braintrust kind of takes turns, Nylander was Shanahan's pick, Marner was Hunter's, Matthews was Babcock's, and now it might be Lou's turn, and I could see him going net out, for the post Freddie Andersen era.

Sure, Leaf fans might groan "who the fuck is Petruzzelli?!", but I don't think he's gonna be around at 59th, and five years from now they could be all "OMFG Petruzzelli, Lou's a fuckin' genius!" You have to draft a goalie sometime, and this draft isn't stocked with superstars, but Petruzzelli has that kind of build to him, and because he's lean, Matt Murray style, I don't see his size being an issue, he's quite athletic for 6'6".

[StCapps]

Artemi Panarin for Brandon Saad.

Blackhawks feeling that salary cap crunch knowing they can't afford to re-sign Panarin soon, too bad they gave both Toews and Kane 10.5 million, now they can't afford depth and have to trade it away for players they already traded away.

[StCapps]

Niklas Hjalmarsson for Connor Murphy and Laurent Dauphin too.
Blackhawks fire sale commencing. Shit just got interesting.

I'd like to formally thank Pekka Rinne, for driving Stan Bowman insane.

[StCapps]

Raanta and Stepan for the 7th pick in the 2017 Draft.

[Smitty-48]

Artemi Panarin for Brandon Saad.

Blackhawks feeling that salary cap crunch knowing they can't afford to re-sign Panarin soon, too bad they gave both Toews and Kane 10.5 million, now they can't afford depth and have to trade it away for players they already traded away.

I'm not going to laugh, because the Leafs could have these sorts of problems soon. Plus Toews and Kane were both asking $12 million so they actually took hometown discounts.

[Smitty-48]

Niklas Hjalmarsson for Connor Murphy and Laurent Dauphin too.
Blackhawks fire sale commencing. Shit just got interesting.

I'd like to formally thank Pekka Rinne, for driving Stan Bowman insane.

Why? Connor Murphy is only 24, 6"4" 215lbs, on a cap friendly $3.8 million signed through 2022. He's probably gonna turn into a star on the Blackhawks and end up being a steal.

[StCapps]

I'm not going to laugh, because the Leafs could have these sorts of problems soon. Plus Toews and Kane were both asking $12 million so they actually took hometown discounts.

Well the Blackawks should have asked that they take a bigger cut, a la Crosby. Do they want to keep winning, or do they want to get paid? It's their choice and they choose to get paid instead of going the Crosby route, but if they took $8.75 million each, that would save the Blackhawks $3.5 million in cap space. With that extra cap space they could have resigned someone like Panarin down the road, instead of being forced to trade him because they can't afford him when that happens, but that's the way she goes.