buddha

going back through those drafts there are not a ton of hits for anyone. but most of the hits are first round guys and top of the draft guys. that's why zadina (and to a lesser extent rasmussen) hurt so bad. those guys need to be stars, not third line pluggers, you can find those types anywhere. kasper and edvinsson have to hit. if they do, its going to push the rebuild along quickly. but they still need a pure goal scorer because kasper's stats dont look like that's his forte, i think he looks like larkin or zetterburg (not that he will be them), but more of a mentally tough player who is hard to play against with speed than a goal machine. yzerman seems to like to draft captains and young players who have performed well against men. and big defenseman. for all this talk, this is why they need to tank now! lol. they need a top pick like nobody's business this year.

the draft is a real crap shoot. and zadina's numbers pre-draft were better than i had remembered them, so you were right about that.

when they were 19 years old in the ahl, veleno scored 11 in 54 games and zadina scored 16 in 59. that's not a huge difference. the book on veleno has always been that he peaked physically early, that's why he fell in the draft. perhaps zadina did the same thing considering he went from dominating the u-18s to being pretty good in the u20s, to being a 3rd liner for the national team AND a complete bust for the red wings.

but he's not a pure sniper. he's terrible at shooting. kubalik is a much better sniper. and vrana is much better than both of them. by a fairly wide margin.

if the lions draft an olineman in the first three rounds, nelson is probably on the practice squad.

everyone scores in the q. that would be barely top 10 this year. 16 in the ahl as a 19 year old is ok i guess. both those numbers are similar to joe veleno (42 in the q and 11 in the ahl in less games) who was the last pick in round one. what else? for the SIXTH pick in the draft?

there are other olineman who profile as tackle/guard hybrids who you can pick up in rounds 2 or 3. the lions are in a position where they dont have to draft any position and can go a lot of different ways. if skoronski is the highest player on their board, then take him.

he was drafted on the back of one international tournament when he played very well. he hasnt played at the level since, not in international, not in the ahl, and definitely not in the nhl. hindsight is 20/20 but he was obviously overdrafted and just isnt that good. he doesnt seem particularly big, he isnt that physical, and - most of all - he shoots the puck either wide or right at the goalie. he's just not that good and at this point, i dont think he ever will be. his contract isnt bad so you can keep him around and hope he gets healthy and lucky, but the odds of him sticking in the league in two years (or even next year) really arent that high. he's a 4th liner on the wings now and they have almost no really good scoring forwards. what happens if they trade for one and kasper/mazur show promise? zadina is out of here.

well ok. youre right. if every offensive lineman on the team gets injured, the lions are probably in trouble.

one thing about casey, he is a great coach if youre tanking.

if decker gets hurt you move sewell to left tackle and vatai to right tackle.

that is my disappointment as well, but i havent given up that we have "lightning in a bottle" in kasper or even mazur. but in the long run, they have to get a top line finisher either in this draft or the next plus a top free agent. theyre just not talented enough as a team. you see it every time they run up against a young, talented team. they get crushed.

that would be the thinking. otoh, the lions have one of the best left tackles in the league playing right tackle right now. skoronski at left tackle and young at qb would both be historically physically outside the parameters for their positions.

so we can move to detroit and pay an extra $1 million per year in taxes for the privilege to do so? sign us up! lol. get outta here.

jones is ok for a stop gap, i guess. what are we spending all that cap space on?🤔

no.

im confusing hanas with mazur. i think mazur has a good chance to be very good.

its WAY too early to make those projections. i dont know why people are down on hanas, he's shown a lot, imo and looks like he can be a bertuzzi type rush the net offensive player. johannson and especially wallinder look like very good prospects. soderblom getting ANY nhl run as a 6th round pick is an absolute steal. getting the calder trophy winner in draft one and the 3rd place finisher in draft two and youre complaining? kasper is coming over here as an 18 year old. edvinsson showed serious chops in the little time he was here. they have built a bevy of defensive prospects. come on. what they dont have is elite finishing. that's hard to come by. its why we were in for horvat and its why we'll be in for nylander if he goes on the market or pedersson or any other elite offensive winger. its what we thought we had in vrana before that happened. the criticism of yzerman is spending on glue pieces this offseason, particularly chairot, he has been a bust just as almost everyone predicted it would be. also, he has been unable to find a solution in goal. other than that, i dont have much to fault him for. he robbed the canucks blind for hronek. he got good value for an injured bertuzzi. he signed larkin to a decent deal. he has a future norris-level defenseman. he stole walman and fabbri from the blues. this team had almost nothing except larkin, hronek, bert, and maybe rasmussen when he got here: that's one a/b level center, a #3-4 defenseman, a poor skating pest plugger, and a project winger with height. and the minors were empty! they were the worst team in modern nhl history. and they have had negative 100 lottery luck. it is not easy to build a team from that. again, the one criticism is spending too early. but they have two #1 picks this year and (likely) two number one picks next year and a few seconds as well. they have ammunition to find their brayden point or david pasternak. have some patience. how many top 2 or 3 picks has buffalo had and theyre STILL not a playoff team? or ottawa? detroit will get there, but they are still digging out of a decade of poor drafting and development. that takes time.

he plays for the blues. he was the one hope they had as an elite finisher on that team. this might have been a different season with a healthy bert and vrana.

not a good win, but always good to see the cindy and the penguins lose.

well....i did mention slater... the shorter the arms the easier it is to get into your chest. but not im an oline guru, what do i know?

selfishly, i would love to see him with the big club, but i cant see that happening. he's only 18. then again, when steve yzerman was 18 he played 80 games and scored 39 goals...

lots of people grade him as the top tackle on the board, but im not sure nfl scouts see him as that. i was listening to something the other day that said no one in the league at tackle has arms that short, and only three tackles were close. one is a decent player and the other two are bench filler. it would be unprecedented to have someone with arms that short play tackle in the nfl. that said, they also brought up that hutch's arms are extraordinarily short for a de and he seems to be doing fine. precedents are broken all the time. they said similar stuff about rashawn slater and he's been great.

i wonder if they would bring him right to detroit? seems rather bold.

mazur and wallinder in GR next year. kasper too? i figure bedard will make the team out of camp...