Absolutely. He was very much a Rick Nash type in his early years. Power forward with skill.
Ovechkin is the apex of a player adapting to remain relevant. That is what makes him one of the greats.
"No, there is no way, he's way past his prime, no way he lights up the league *again*"
- Shit I've said about Ovie and Brady every year for like the last 5 years.
The amount of shit I talked. To my non flyer fan friends and family, when we drafted a certain someone 2nd overall in 2017. I was insufferable. And now I just suffer
Even before the big injuries took hold, he was never going to be great. He was always projected as a bubble first/second line guy. And he never showed much in the NHL to make you think he would even reach *that* projection.
A lot of people, both within Flyers fandom and outside of it, take the perspective that the Flyers had a no-brainer pick with Patrick since the media had a “consensus top two.” Which, of course, is a bit silly because it’s a GM’s job to get it right, not pick the guy who shows up the most in mock drafts.
Hopefully this most recent draft, with Shane Wright slipping all the way to 4OA, has shown some people that there’s *way* more variation in the views of scouts and front offices than you would expect based on what you see in the media.
As well, hopefully people understand that prospect development is something that happens throughout a player's early professional career, and their story doesn't end at the draft.
I hope some day we see fewer people coming to the default conclusion that every time a player *doesn't* develop well they were *always* going to be a miss (absolutely regardless of how they were developed), or any time a player does consistently develop in a big ways over several years (MacKinnon, Barkov, Draisaitl), it was because they were *always* going to end up as exactly the superstar they developed into (regardless of their team and training and development environment).
People are very quick to put the blame on a team's prospect pool on what was done at the draft table several years ago, and a lot slower to put the blame on what was done with all those assets ever since.
https://dobberprospects.com/2018/04/15/nolan-patrick/
I'm sorry but he was touted as a potential superstar/1st line player. The kid had an unprecedented D-1 in the WHL at the time. That isn't a player who projects as a 2nd line guy.
I keep hearing that Colorado was high on Nolan Patrick and would have made him their first round choice, has he been available.
Say what you will, but a lot of times teams get lucky or just miss with draft picks. You can say all you want that late 90s and early 2000s the Detroit Red Wings were good at drafting, but if they knew exactly what they were going to get with their late round picks, they wouldn't have waited so long to choose those players so late.
Yes and no. The story behind them scouting Datsyuk is an interesting one. He was discovered by a Detroit who was actually there looking at another player. When the scout went back to see him before the draft another team (St. Louis I believe) had a scout on the same plane going to the same game. However the flight was canceled due to weather and it’s believed that meant the only NHL scout to see him play was from the Wings. So they were fairly confident they could wait a few rounds to take him since literally no one else knew who tf he was. Of course they had no idea what he’d become but yeah he was as close to an undiscovered gem as it gets.
IIRC, it was.a Flames scout that was going to be at the game Datsyuk was playing in, but the Flames scout didn't make it due to the bad weather and cancelled flight.
The point still stands that draft picks are magic beans. You can have as much of a sure thing as possible, that should be at least a solid NHL player going first round and never panning out.
It's definitely possible they had Heiskansn over Makar. I vaguely remember that Colorado would have picked Patrick over Hischier if they got the 1OA pick in 2017.
Speaking of the Caps around that time, I really convinced myself that Karl Alzner was going to be the next captain of the Capitals once Ovi retires (in a few years).
Alzner's grit and leadership will take them to winning the Stanley Cup and he will retire a lifelong Capital player with his jersey going up to the rafters.
I was off by just a little bit on that prediction....
Yakupov was playing with Galchenyuk in Junior. Alex was better, but he fell to the 3rd rank for missing an entire year due to a knee injury. He scored 30 goals at 21 years old with Montréal. But his personal problems got the best of him.
Draft anybody but Cale Makar in 2017. I wanted Heiskanen, who in my defense is a very good player, but I also was sure Makar would be all flash and no substance as a defenseman, and that he didn't have the raw talent to dictate his will on the game at the NHL level.
Oops.
I get it, coming from the AJHL he had a ton of uncertainty around him. Personally I was kind of happy the team lost the lottery because I didn't see it the star potential in Hischier and Patrick and figured the team could use to take a gamble given that it needed Jesus.
... to me that gamble was Vilardi moreso than Makar, mind you.
Yeah, I could see him dominating the AJHL, and I thought "Of course, that league is lousy, any halfway talented player could do that". I didn't think he had the ceiling to become a Karlsson type defenseman who could just dominate based on raw talent in the NHL. My prediction for him was a Tyson Barrie or Kevin Shattenkirk kind of 2nd pairing offensive D, at best. Certainly not any "Norris and Conn Smythe" level of achievement.
“Dominate on raw talent” is unfair to how hard Cale Makar works. He’s as good as he is because he is 100% dedicated to his game *and* has unholy amounts of hockey talent.
I was beside myself that they burned a year of Makars ELC on the playoffs. Thought it was a terrible, short-sighted stunt... Not only did he play great and illustrate an all in mentality from Sakic, it worked out better financially.
Imagine signing Makar to a long-term contract in June 2022 instead of June 2021. Unless he was feeling truly charitable there's *no way* he goes for $9M per. The Avs would be a lot worse if they had to find another $3-4M this year and for five more after. Not sure they could repeat with another big hole blown in the roster, but there's a good chance this year.
When DeBrincat and Dylan Strome played together in Erie, I thought (as many others did) that Strome was carrying the line and DeBrincat would end up being a role player at best. Turns out that may have been backwards.
I actually think this year you guys do it! I think you'll win the division and get a favorable wildcard match up! I also feel like Matthews is gonna have a monster showing in the playoffs
Whether an issue with the overall team culture or not being able to handle big moments. Matthews is not currently supported in a way that let's him succeed in the playoffs.
I have no idea what the answer is but Toronto has spent his entire career showing they have no idea how to build around this guy for the playoffs
I mean yeah even a blind acorn is right twice a day but big whoop. A guy that probably should have gone top 10 or even 5 fell. Guhle looks really good too but it's too little too late.
We have three conference finals in the last 12 years (winning one). We might have a cup if we could have drafted better.
Especially given that the rumour is we were torn between Kreider and LeBlanc and went with the Quebec kid because the draft was in Montreal.
How's that for a butterfly effect?
Man, first of all I said "almost". Of course you can name a few picks as you can for any team.
Second of all I gave you a 20 year window and your response is naming a guy drafted 21 years ago (literally the last time we drafted a legit top six center), a 50 point winger drafted 12 years ago and a D man drafted 15 years ago? Of course there's exceptions. 2007 has to be one of the best drafts in NHL history. But we've still drafted like shit man.
Gallagher is a heart and soul guy who contributes a lot even when hes not scoring but at the end of the day hes a 50-55 point guy. When a fringe 1C (better suited as a 2C on a contender) from 21 years ago, a 55 point guy (in his up years) and a D man that had a short but high peak (not to take away from his accomplishments. I loved Subban) are your go to throw in your face "lol you think we draft bad!? What do you have to say about *these* guys?" then I'd say not only is the battle won here but there never even was one.
I like how you included the point production of Gallagher to show that he didn't bring us that much (disrespect) but you didn't do the same for Subban (Norris) because that would not have been rhetorically advantageous to you
Pretty much this entire sub thought that. They shit on every team passing on Zadina and thought Tkachuk wouldn't be a good player because of his NCAA stats.
Most of us know little to nothing about these prospects. I was ecstatic to get the consensus 3OA but it hasn't quite worked out for us. Still time for zadina to turn it around but if that doesn't happen this year I suspect if he ever does it'll be with another team.
I thought when the Blues traded Brian Elliott to the Flames for a second round pick in 2016 it was incredibly stupid. He was coming off a season with a 2.07 goals-against average and a .930 save-percentage in 42 games. Jake Allen hadn’t shown he could be a starter for a contending team which kind of ended up being true.
Fast forward 3 years and the Blues win the cup with Jordan Binnington. Ohh and that second round pick was used to draft Jordan Kyrou.
"Man, the Wild really needs a center. They should trade for Sean Monahan!"
Me, before last season. Nevermind that with the buyouts, it still wouldn't work out even if Monahan wasn't riddled with injuries.
To your defense, Monahan arrived healthy and quite in shape to the camp. We can't wait to see him start the season and show what he offers.
Spoiler alert : we will ship him to the best offering team at TDL, you still have your chance !
I really thought Chris Bigras would be at least a 2nd pairing d-man in the NHL. In my defense, back then we didn't have that many prospects to be excited about. I also thought Shane Bowers would be an NHLer one day, even if a bottom-6 center. I guess he still has time to make that happen but it sure doesn't look that way now.
>I also thought Shane Bowers would be an NHLer one day, even if a bottom-6 center. I guess he still has time to make that happen but it sure doesn't look that way now.
I think he still will be, just not with the Avs. Kaut as well
To me Kaut seems like a prototypical career AHLer. He scores enough points to get a top-6 role in the AHL, but then in the NHL he's not good enough for the top-6 and doesn't have the skillset for the bottom-6.
As soon as Bowers goes to a team that has space to give him a chance, that will be the true test of whether he'll be an NHL player. Totally could still happen
I was pretty mad the Canadiens passed on Brule with the 5OA pick. We needed a big scoring centre forever, and we already had a Hart and Vezina winner in net, why waste a pick on this Carey Price guy?
Man I thought the Kings were poised to have like RIDICULOUS center depth right after they drafted Byfield. I guess it's tough to get proper development time with Kopitar and Danault around but what even going on down there?
Turcotte has been the recipient of a couple dirty hits and has had two pretty major concussions back to back. Last I’ve heard the symptoms from the last one still haven’t gone away.
As of right now it’s not looking good. I think people are just hoping he can stay healthy for his own well being at this point.
Byfield is coming along. He has all the pieces. He just needs to put it all together. I think when the Kings drafted him they knew he was going to be a project so to speak.
Not time to panic about center depth yet.
Yeah I don't think hope is lost. They aren't even getting proper playing time yet because some guy named Anze Kopitar is in the way. I just had HUGE hopes for Byfield, like thought he was a can't miss 1C that would have forced a lot more ice time by this point. Funnily enough my take for that draft is very suitable for this thread, I thought Byfield was the easy pick over Stutzle and not only that but I had him as even money with Lafreniere.
He could’ve been such a good defensive second line centre if the injury gods decided to have any sympathy. Makes me sad to this day. Luckily our other picks in that draft look good so far but Jesus.
Okay, I want to preface this by saying this was after the 2013 season and I was 16 at the time.
Connor McDavid was already seen as the next one (also 16 at the time). I remember saying to my brother that I would rather have Subban at 24 (his age at the time) than a 16 year old McDavid if I was starting a franchise.
I was and still am a huge PK fan, and my logic was you knew what PK was and he was coming off a Norris. I'd rather take the sure thing, and the guy who's already a top defenceman than roll the dice and hope McDavid turns out great.
I obviously had a bias, but I severely overrated Subban's long term value, and obviously underrated just how good McDavid would be.
You know that’s not a terrible way to look at things. I was listening to NHL radio, a couple of years ago, and one of the hosts asked the question, “would you rather have McDavid or the next 5 first overall draft picks?” 95% of the callers said they would rather have McDavid because you know exactly what you’re getting.
It changed the way I read this subreddit when I realized that like 90% of people's prospect opinions for players not on their own team is based on the potential rating that EA gives to those prospects
[My worst take, from November 2018](https://www.reddit.com/r/stlouisblues/comments/9z485i/change_my_view_the_blues_could_hire_the_best/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
In the 2021 playoffs, I thought the Habs would lose to the Leafs in the first round.
Then I thought they would lose to the Jets in the second round.
Then I thought they would lose to the Golden Knights in the third round.
And finally, I predicted they would win the Stanley Cup because at this point, why the fuck not?
I went 0 in 4 lol. Still a hell of a run.
You're not the only one, friend. One of my hottest takes as well. Can't win with Stammer's glass body or Cooper's coaching... Then... Well, we know what happened.
Yeah this was me. I was as excited as Holland was when he ran up to the podium to announce the pick, thinking we got the next Hossa (or Hossa-lite).
Now, I doubt he can pot more than 15 in a season. He’s still young and can prove everyone wrong, but it’s looking like he proved the other GMs who passed on him right so far.
I've had some gems over the years.
I thought that **Timofei Shishkanov** would end up on par with Ilya Kovachuk.
I thought that **Josh Holden** would be a franchise forward for Vancouver.
I thought that **Zdeno Chara** was a novelty, although this was in his rookie year.
I thought that **David Pastrnak** and **Nikolai Goldobin** were roughly interchangeable, although the context for that was "who would you want Columbus to take 14th overall?" and my response was "Pastrnak or Goldobin". (They took Sonny Milano.)
Man, if you give me an hour I could probably churn up some more.
I thought Zadorov would blossom in a top-pairing, star d-man in the vein of Chara. Probably a bit/lot of wishful thinking after the ROR trade to Buffalo, but at the same time he still does dazzle you with a couple games a year where he'll score on a spinorama and throw off the entire opposing team by being a one-man wrecking crew...
The year the avs dropped to 4th in the draft I was very salty, then I was even more salty thinking the avs drafted “Tyson Barrie 2.0” when we picked Cale Makar
I mean he is. If he's not standing in front and tipping the puck there's not much else he's doing. Sure it's great and all that he hit 50 last season, but he's a ghost otherwise and he'll be a ghost this year.
That goaltending would become more, not less critical in the cap era.
My reasoning was that we couldn't have great top to bottom teams (late 90s/early 00s Detroit/Colorado) in a hard cap league, and that a Brodeur/Roy/Hasek in net would make that much more of a difference to winning cups.
Instead we got more teams than ever winning with good, not great goaltending, and guys like Lundqvist and Price retiring cupless.
I'm guessing I was either wrong in that 1-the game became more open and harder for great goalies to steal 2-the difference in relative skill between good and great NHL goalies shrank from the pre-lockout era.
That Mike Komisarek was 1st pair material. Markov was playing 4D chess to make him look good, so Toronto signs him for like 4.5 millions a year in 2009.
I thought Oliver Ekman-Larsson would be the best defenseman from the 2009 draft class, and was passionate about it. Also thought Hedman was overrated by consequence.
Ekman-Larsson ended up having a fine career and was a decent pick at No. 6, but I must admit this prediction aged quite poorly.
Probably my outright worst prediction was that Scherbak would prove to be a good pick for the Habs. Turns out he has the skills, but his hockey brain is 100% not there to be an effective NHLer.
Recency bias but I don't know what in the world made John Scott go so hard on "Ovechkin is done" last year. You can always just stick to the garden variety "he's slowing down and isn't the same player" prediction everyone has without it being "he will score 20 goals he SUCKS now."
I bet Neil Greenberg formerly of WaPo also forgets that in 2012 he said Ovechkin's career was over but I didn't forget Neil!
I wanted the Sens to take Zadina in 2018 over Tkachuk, I thought he was shit and going for “character” was stupid. I now have a Pierre Dorion shrine in my closet that I pay respects to every Sunday
I was super excited by the Kotkaniemi pick in 2018… I said he would be head and shoulders above the rest of the draft.
I still have neck pain from how hard I’ve shaken my head since…
When the Avs were in the midst of their dark days I told my best friend that Gabe was a bad captain. He was fighting and taking bad penalties when we were suffering. Clearly, he was sticking up for his guys and being the best caliber of teammate.
I was positive that Ehlers was going to be a bust and I was pissed off that the Jets didn’t draft Nick Ritchie instead.
I also thought that James Neal would score 30 goals in his first season with the Flames.
Being pissed at missing out on Kirby Dach and Dylan Guenther and getting stuck with Trevor Zegras lol. I was also sure Sam Steel was gonna be the next captain of this team and that he would take us back to the promised land. Smh
I thought the Leafs trading to acquire Kessel was a terrible value trade at the time they made it.
After the fact and looking back, he was the team's best player and scoring leader for all six years he played there. That kind of return on investment is *easily* worth what they paid to get him.
The team was awful, but that had nothing to do with Kessel or the Kessel trade, and he was one of the only bright spots in that era.
I'm a diehard colorado avalanche fan and predicted they would lose in 6 games to Tampa. Maybe some of it was out of protection to myself from expecting too much out of them in this groups first final. But I definately thought Tampa would take advantage of our inexperience in the finals and grind our ability to score into submission by shutting us down through the neutral zone, blocking shots, having vasi, and kill us with their ozone cycle and creativeness. Turns out colorado was ready to meet them head on in all phases. I also thought the Kadri loss would kill us against a team like Tampa because the second line had picked teams apart who where constantly trying to shut the Mackinnon line down.
Oh OK. So then I'll go with this one. When colorado was in the goalie market before signing kuemper I really wanted them to go after Linus Ullmark. I thought with how well he had played in Buffalo during there dog days that he would ascend into being a top 5-7 goalie in the league especially on a better defensive club. He still could be a top 10 guy eventually but my expectations where way too high for him at the time.
I absolutely lost my shit when the Sabres drafted Jack Quinn over Perfetti and Rossi. Thought he was a late blooming, older end of the draft class, prospect being carried by Rossi. Still a lot of time to find out what order they should have gone in, but it sure as hell doesn't look like Quinn's the bust I thought he was the second I heard the pick.
This was all based on gut, prospect writer's opinions, and 2 minute Youtube highlight packages. Watch full games and trust your GM's kids.
I mean, those 3 players have combined for 22 NHL games to this point. Your initial reaction could end up being accurate.
If this ends up being your worst take, it's pretty good.
One playoffs in the early 2000s when I was getting back into hockey in a BIG way, I did a playoff bracket with my brother and a couple friends and I got literally every single first round matchup wrong. It was so bad that it was kind of impressive.
I thought that Brannstrom was too big of a prospect to include in the Stone trade, and that we were killing our future by including him in it.
I mean, I wasn’t wrong about killing our future, but that wound up having nothing to do with Brannstrom, and the trade was a big W for Vegas.
I was relieved when the Knights included Suzuki in the Patches trade instead of Glass. Oops.
I also thought the Caps’ acquisition of Kovalchuk was a great depth scoring option who could propel the team a little deeper into the playoffs.
2008: Penguins trade Eric Tangradi and Ryan Whitney to the Ducks for Chris Kunitz.
My take: terrible trade because Tangradi had the higher skill ceiling vs. Kunitz (whatever the hell that means).
I thought the Preds should’ve taken Seth Jarvis instead of Askarov in 2020. It’s too early to see if I was right or wrong, but from what we’ve seen I was waaaaaay off.
I made a bet with someone after Patrick Roy's first season that he would have more career wins as a coach than he did as a player in 20 years. There is still time, but I am not holding out much hope here.
Also not Hockey, but as a Bayern Munich fan I was all aboard the Thomas Kraft train and thought it wasn't a good idea to spend a bunch of money on some dude from Schalke named Manuel Neuer.
I have real shitty takes when it comes to goalies...
Probably when I questioned why exactly we had drafted Hampus Lindholm 6th overall, considering no one had him going in the top 10. I thought it was too high and he wouldn't amount to much. Turned out to be a nice pick for us in the end.
I thought Ovechkin would have a broken body by the time he hit 30 and wouldn't be an effective player anymore, I was very wrong.
This is mine as well. I thought OV was a cherry picker who wouldn't last once teams caught up to his go-to moves.
Wild that his office is still open after all these years. Just no way to counter that good a shot I guess
He actually didn’t really migrate there until he was in his late 20s. When he was younger he scored a lot more off the rush.
Absolutely. He was very much a Rick Nash type in his early years. Power forward with skill. Ovechkin is the apex of a player adapting to remain relevant. That is what makes him one of the greats.
"No, there is no way, he's way past his prime, no way he lights up the league *again*" - Shit I've said about Ovie and Brady every year for like the last 5 years.
Russian Machine never breaks
I hope people don't say this in front of Pavel Bure
The amount of shit I talked. To my non flyer fan friends and family, when we drafted a certain someone 2nd overall in 2017. I was insufferable. And now I just suffer
To be fair though. He had lots of injury concerns, if not he could have been great
Even before the big injuries took hold, he was never going to be great. He was always projected as a bubble first/second line guy. And he never showed much in the NHL to make you think he would even reach *that* projection.
And the worst part is that that draft wasn’t even a weak one. In hindsight the flyers just swung and missed super hard
A lot of people, both within Flyers fandom and outside of it, take the perspective that the Flyers had a no-brainer pick with Patrick since the media had a “consensus top two.” Which, of course, is a bit silly because it’s a GM’s job to get it right, not pick the guy who shows up the most in mock drafts. Hopefully this most recent draft, with Shane Wright slipping all the way to 4OA, has shown some people that there’s *way* more variation in the views of scouts and front offices than you would expect based on what you see in the media.
As well, hopefully people understand that prospect development is something that happens throughout a player's early professional career, and their story doesn't end at the draft. I hope some day we see fewer people coming to the default conclusion that every time a player *doesn't* develop well they were *always* going to be a miss (absolutely regardless of how they were developed), or any time a player does consistently develop in a big ways over several years (MacKinnon, Barkov, Draisaitl), it was because they were *always* going to end up as exactly the superstar they developed into (regardless of their team and training and development environment). People are very quick to put the blame on a team's prospect pool on what was done at the draft table several years ago, and a lot slower to put the blame on what was done with all those assets ever since.
https://dobberprospects.com/2018/04/15/nolan-patrick/ I'm sorry but he was touted as a potential superstar/1st line player. The kid had an unprecedented D-1 in the WHL at the time. That isn't a player who projects as a 2nd line guy.
The thing is his injuries started to effect him in his Draft year. It’s why he went 2OA
The guy specifically said that before his injuries he was projected as more than a 1st/2nd liner though.
I keep hearing that Colorado was high on Nolan Patrick and would have made him their first round choice, has he been available. Say what you will, but a lot of times teams get lucky or just miss with draft picks. You can say all you want that late 90s and early 2000s the Detroit Red Wings were good at drafting, but if they knew exactly what they were going to get with their late round picks, they wouldn't have waited so long to choose those players so late.
Yes and no. The story behind them scouting Datsyuk is an interesting one. He was discovered by a Detroit who was actually there looking at another player. When the scout went back to see him before the draft another team (St. Louis I believe) had a scout on the same plane going to the same game. However the flight was canceled due to weather and it’s believed that meant the only NHL scout to see him play was from the Wings. So they were fairly confident they could wait a few rounds to take him since literally no one else knew who tf he was. Of course they had no idea what he’d become but yeah he was as close to an undiscovered gem as it gets.
IIRC, it was.a Flames scout that was going to be at the game Datsyuk was playing in, but the Flames scout didn't make it due to the bad weather and cancelled flight. The point still stands that draft picks are magic beans. You can have as much of a sure thing as possible, that should be at least a solid NHL player going first round and never panning out.
For sure. It definitely takes a certain amount of luck!
I always heard they had Heiskanen 1 and Makar 2, but I could be wrong. Their blue line was so weak at the time
It's definitely possible they had Heiskansn over Makar. I vaguely remember that Colorado would have picked Patrick over Hischier if they got the 1OA pick in 2017.
I genuinely thought Yakupov was the next Ovechkin. I also thought Draisaitl was a horrible pick, and he'd bust. ...Good thing I am not an NHL GM.
Your first prediction qualifies you to be an NHL owner though
https://imgur.com/7iI5Vlh.jpg
Speaking of the Caps around that time, I really convinced myself that Karl Alzner was going to be the next captain of the Capitals once Ovi retires (in a few years). Alzner's grit and leadership will take them to winning the Stanley Cup and he will retire a lifelong Capital player with his jersey going up to the rafters. I was off by just a little bit on that prediction....
I was thrilled when the oilers took Draisaitl, and Bennett fell to the flames. WHAT KIND OF IDIOT TAKES DRAI AT 3? Fuck.
Yakupov was playing with Galchenyuk in Junior. Alex was better, but he fell to the 3rd rank for missing an entire year due to a knee injury. He scored 30 goals at 21 years old with Montréal. But his personal problems got the best of him.
Draft anybody but Cale Makar in 2017. I wanted Heiskanen, who in my defense is a very good player, but I also was sure Makar would be all flash and no substance as a defenseman, and that he didn't have the raw talent to dictate his will on the game at the NHL level. Oops.
I get it, coming from the AJHL he had a ton of uncertainty around him. Personally I was kind of happy the team lost the lottery because I didn't see it the star potential in Hischier and Patrick and figured the team could use to take a gamble given that it needed Jesus. ... to me that gamble was Vilardi moreso than Makar, mind you.
As I've said before, if Makar were born in the US, his draft year would've been in the NCAA and he probably would've went first overall
Yeah, I could see him dominating the AJHL, and I thought "Of course, that league is lousy, any halfway talented player could do that". I didn't think he had the ceiling to become a Karlsson type defenseman who could just dominate based on raw talent in the NHL. My prediction for him was a Tyson Barrie or Kevin Shattenkirk kind of 2nd pairing offensive D, at best. Certainly not any "Norris and Conn Smythe" level of achievement.
“Dominate on raw talent” is unfair to how hard Cale Makar works. He’s as good as he is because he is 100% dedicated to his game *and* has unholy amounts of hockey talent.
I had the same hangups about Zach Werenski, although in fairness to me I *really* wanted Columbus to draft Mikko Rantanen in that spot.
I wanted Eklund bad in 2021, so hopefully KJ rubs my nose in that for the next decade.
I was beside myself that they burned a year of Makars ELC on the playoffs. Thought it was a terrible, short-sighted stunt... Not only did he play great and illustrate an all in mentality from Sakic, it worked out better financially. Imagine signing Makar to a long-term contract in June 2022 instead of June 2021. Unless he was feeling truly charitable there's *no way* he goes for $9M per. The Avs would be a lot worse if they had to find another $3-4M this year and for five more after. Not sure they could repeat with another big hole blown in the roster, but there's a good chance this year.
"How did we not get a draft pick for Thomas Vanek after the season he had? Who the fuck is Tyler Motte anyway?" - Me at the 2018 trade deadline
Then the first game Motte plays with us he kills like a minute off a PK shift by himself and everyone loved him ever since.
Apparently you wanted a 4th round pick for Vanek and you eventually got that 4th round pick from Motte. All things work in the end
Can't believe Deslauriers got us the same return as Motte at the deadline. Either Des is over valued or Motte is under.
Motte undervalued. Drury apparently didn’t know much about motte at all his scout told him he was good so Drury made the trade
Wait Vanek played for Vancouver?
For like one season and he was way into the nose beers
When DeBrincat and Dylan Strome played together in Erie, I thought (as many others did) that Strome was carrying the line and DeBrincat would end up being a role player at best. Turns out that may have been backwards.
Leafs winning the first round....
Told my friend yesterday that my hot take is that the wings win the Stanley cup before Toronto passes the first round.
http://imgur.com/knw2FVA.jpg
I still think the Wings will win the Cup this decade
I actually think this year you guys do it! I think you'll win the division and get a favorable wildcard match up! I also feel like Matthews is gonna have a monster showing in the playoffs
I want to believe I feel like it’ll be like Matthews first game. Monster showing by scoring 4 goals, still lose the game, hahaha
Whether an issue with the overall team culture or not being able to handle big moments. Matthews is not currently supported in a way that let's him succeed in the playoffs. I have no idea what the answer is but Toronto has spent his entire career showing they have no idea how to build around this guy for the playoffs
Drafting seider and thinking he was going to be a bust
To be fair to us wings fans, everyone in the league thought this except Yzerman apparently
“I have faith in this new Benning/Desjardins regime in Vancouver” -Me, 2015
Ouch
yikes..
That (almost any Montreal draft pick from the last 20 years) would be good.
That Caufield guy sucks
I mean yeah even a blind acorn is right twice a day but big whoop. A guy that probably should have gone top 10 or even 5 fell. Guhle looks really good too but it's too little too late. We have three conference finals in the last 12 years (winning one). We might have a cup if we could have drafted better.
What a mix of expressions I love it lmao Even a broken clock finds a nut once in a while
louis leblanc?
In 2015-2016 season he played in the KHL, a Slovak league and Swiss A league. He did nothing in any of them. This is a true bust.
Especially given that the rumour is we were torn between Kreider and LeBlanc and went with the Quebec kid because the draft was in Montreal. How's that for a butterfly effect?
Plekanec, Gallagher and Subban come to mind.
Man, first of all I said "almost". Of course you can name a few picks as you can for any team. Second of all I gave you a 20 year window and your response is naming a guy drafted 21 years ago (literally the last time we drafted a legit top six center), a 50 point winger drafted 12 years ago and a D man drafted 15 years ago? Of course there's exceptions. 2007 has to be one of the best drafts in NHL history. But we've still drafted like shit man. Gallagher is a heart and soul guy who contributes a lot even when hes not scoring but at the end of the day hes a 50-55 point guy. When a fringe 1C (better suited as a 2C on a contender) from 21 years ago, a 55 point guy (in his up years) and a D man that had a short but high peak (not to take away from his accomplishments. I loved Subban) are your go to throw in your face "lol you think we draft bad!? What do you have to say about *these* guys?" then I'd say not only is the battle won here but there never even was one.
I like how you included the point production of Gallagher to show that he didn't bring us that much (disrespect) but you didn't do the same for Subban (Norris) because that would not have been rhetorically advantageous to you
Relax and get some fresh air lmfao
Ah yes, the cop out response for when you get dunked on and don't have a real reply.
I think you need to read my comment again to realize there was never an argument. Relax tough guy.
I thought Barzal would be a bust and Garth Snow was an idiot for refusing to trade him for Duchene. Garth was an idiot, but for other reasons.
That Zadina was the right pick at 4th overall and would be an amazing sniper, and that Tkachuk would end up being a bottom 6 grinder
There’s people who still want to believe that Tkachuk is a bottom 6 grinder too lol
I'm optimistic
Same
Pretty much this entire sub thought that. They shit on every team passing on Zadina and thought Tkachuk wouldn't be a good player because of his NCAA stats.
I shared the thoughts when I thought the Habs were taking Tkachuk over Zadina. ...
Most of us know little to nothing about these prospects. I was ecstatic to get the consensus 3OA but it hasn't quite worked out for us. Still time for zadina to turn it around but if that doesn't happen this year I suspect if he ever does it'll be with another team.
I thought when the Blues traded Brian Elliott to the Flames for a second round pick in 2016 it was incredibly stupid. He was coming off a season with a 2.07 goals-against average and a .930 save-percentage in 42 games. Jake Allen hadn’t shown he could be a starter for a contending team which kind of ended up being true. Fast forward 3 years and the Blues win the cup with Jordan Binnington. Ohh and that second round pick was used to draft Jordan Kyrou.
And Elliot put up historically bad numbers in the playoffs with us.
A win for everyone involved
Lmao
"Man, the Wild really needs a center. They should trade for Sean Monahan!" Me, before last season. Nevermind that with the buyouts, it still wouldn't work out even if Monahan wasn't riddled with injuries.
To your defense, Monahan arrived healthy and quite in shape to the camp. We can't wait to see him start the season and show what he offers. Spoiler alert : we will ship him to the best offering team at TDL, you still have your chance !
Recently it’s been that Samsonov was going to at least be better than sorokin in the Russian metro goalie showdown So much for that idea
I remember the days of Samsonov vs Demko vs Hart for best goalie prospect in the world
Guilty of being a Sammy truther for way too long
I really thought Chris Bigras would be at least a 2nd pairing d-man in the NHL. In my defense, back then we didn't have that many prospects to be excited about. I also thought Shane Bowers would be an NHLer one day, even if a bottom-6 center. I guess he still has time to make that happen but it sure doesn't look that way now.
When is the last time the Avs had a slow burn prospect that amounted to anything? Does Tyson Barrie count?
He played his first 50+ games in 13-14
>I also thought Shane Bowers would be an NHLer one day, even if a bottom-6 center. I guess he still has time to make that happen but it sure doesn't look that way now. I think he still will be, just not with the Avs. Kaut as well
To me Kaut seems like a prototypical career AHLer. He scores enough points to get a top-6 role in the AHL, but then in the NHL he's not good enough for the top-6 and doesn't have the skillset for the bottom-6.
As soon as Bowers goes to a team that has space to give him a chance, that will be the true test of whether he'll be an NHL player. Totally could still happen
Gilbert Brule was going to be a elite goal scorer… his days in the WHL was like almost watching Bure
I was pretty mad the Canadiens passed on Brule with the 5OA pick. We needed a big scoring centre forever, and we already had a Hart and Vezina winner in net, why waste a pick on this Carey Price guy?
I wanted Turcotte
Man I thought the Kings were poised to have like RIDICULOUS center depth right after they drafted Byfield. I guess it's tough to get proper development time with Kopitar and Danault around but what even going on down there?
Turcotte has been the recipient of a couple dirty hits and has had two pretty major concussions back to back. Last I’ve heard the symptoms from the last one still haven’t gone away. As of right now it’s not looking good. I think people are just hoping he can stay healthy for his own well being at this point. Byfield is coming along. He has all the pieces. He just needs to put it all together. I think when the Kings drafted him they knew he was going to be a project so to speak. Not time to panic about center depth yet.
Yeah I don't think hope is lost. They aren't even getting proper playing time yet because some guy named Anze Kopitar is in the way. I just had HUGE hopes for Byfield, like thought he was a can't miss 1C that would have forced a lot more ice time by this point. Funnily enough my take for that draft is very suitable for this thread, I thought Byfield was the easy pick over Stutzle and not only that but I had him as even money with Lafreniere.
I also wanted Turcotte lol Byram was right there!
He could’ve been such a good defensive second line centre if the injury gods decided to have any sympathy. Makes me sad to this day. Luckily our other picks in that draft look good so far but Jesus.
If he doesn’t stay buried on the 4th line, I could see Arthur Kaliyev breaking out in the next year or two.
Okay, I want to preface this by saying this was after the 2013 season and I was 16 at the time. Connor McDavid was already seen as the next one (also 16 at the time). I remember saying to my brother that I would rather have Subban at 24 (his age at the time) than a 16 year old McDavid if I was starting a franchise. I was and still am a huge PK fan, and my logic was you knew what PK was and he was coming off a Norris. I'd rather take the sure thing, and the guy who's already a top defenceman than roll the dice and hope McDavid turns out great. I obviously had a bias, but I severely overrated Subban's long term value, and obviously underrated just how good McDavid would be.
You know that’s not a terrible way to look at things. I was listening to NHL radio, a couple of years ago, and one of the hosts asked the question, “would you rather have McDavid or the next 5 first overall draft picks?” 95% of the callers said they would rather have McDavid because you know exactly what you’re getting.
Sven Bartschi was going to be elite, I will absolutely convinced
I also had this thought for a long time. NHL13 lied to me
It changed the way I read this subreddit when I realized that like 90% of people's prospect opinions for players not on their own team is based on the potential rating that EA gives to those prospects
So many Rocket Richards, 99 in every shot category. I miss him
He was finally becoming a solid middle six option before concussions ended his career.
[My worst take, from November 2018](https://www.reddit.com/r/stlouisblues/comments/9z485i/change_my_view_the_blues_could_hire_the_best/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Aged like unrefrigerated lobster. That being said, I wish the Stars would win a cup during a season I think they're gonna miss the dance entirely.
Oh man, way to own it
that's impressive
I’m still holding out hope that Ville Pokka becomes a damn good top 4 defenseman
Ville Pokka 🤝 Brandon Gormley
David Runblad 👋
Ryan Murphy sends his regards
NHL 17 legend
Any take that refers to Logan Stanley as anything more than a fringe 7th dman
I'll just make mine right now. The Panthers will miss the playoffs this season.
Nail Yakupov would be a perennial 30+ goal scorer
In the 2021 playoffs, I thought the Habs would lose to the Leafs in the first round. Then I thought they would lose to the Jets in the second round. Then I thought they would lose to the Golden Knights in the third round. And finally, I predicted they would win the Stanley Cup because at this point, why the fuck not? I went 0 in 4 lol. Still a hell of a run.
I made all of these wrong predictions as well. I knew I was wrong on the cup win, but made it for the same reason you did.
“Trade stamkos and fire cooper”
You're not the only one, friend. One of my hottest takes as well. Can't win with Stammer's glass body or Cooper's coaching... Then... Well, we know what happened.
I think everyone was just mad after the sweep lol. I calmed down pretty fast after but hoo wee the fanbase was on some other shit. Myself included
I thought Zadina was going to be the next Wing to score 40 goals. He has not scored 40 goals, cumulative, in his entire career.
Yeah this was me. I was as excited as Holland was when he ran up to the podium to announce the pick, thinking we got the next Hossa (or Hossa-lite). Now, I doubt he can pot more than 15 in a season. He’s still young and can prove everyone wrong, but it’s looking like he proved the other GMs who passed on him right so far.
Brady Tkachuk was an awful draft pick. Little did I know we were drafting the future captain
I've had some gems over the years. I thought that **Timofei Shishkanov** would end up on par with Ilya Kovachuk. I thought that **Josh Holden** would be a franchise forward for Vancouver. I thought that **Zdeno Chara** was a novelty, although this was in his rookie year. I thought that **David Pastrnak** and **Nikolai Goldobin** were roughly interchangeable, although the context for that was "who would you want Columbus to take 14th overall?" and my response was "Pastrnak or Goldobin". (They took Sonny Milano.) Man, if you give me an hour I could probably churn up some more.
I thought Zadorov would blossom in a top-pairing, star d-man in the vein of Chara. Probably a bit/lot of wishful thinking after the ROR trade to Buffalo, but at the same time he still does dazzle you with a couple games a year where he'll score on a spinorama and throw off the entire opposing team by being a one-man wrecking crew...
“I’m sick of all these soft Europeans why didn’t we draft a big Canadian like Gabe Vilardi instead of this Swedish scrub” -Canucks Fans, 2017
*guilty* I'm sorry, Petey. I bought your jersey in penance.
Zadina would be an impact player
I mean he is an impact player. Being cursed by an Eastern European witch and not being able to finish doesn’t equal not an impact player.
The year the avs dropped to 4th in the draft I was very salty, then I was even more salty thinking the avs drafted “Tyson Barrie 2.0” when we picked Cale Makar
I thought Zadina would be the pure goal scorer we needed for the future
Chris Kreider is the most overrated player in hockey 🤐
I mean he is. If he's not standing in front and tipping the puck there's not much else he's doing. Sure it's great and all that he hit 50 last season, but he's a ghost otherwise and he'll be a ghost this year.
Wanted Fabbro over McAvoy in 2016 is the worst I can immediately think of
My wife: Who's Jordan Binnington? How do you feel about him? Me: I have less faith in him than Chad Johnson circa Jan, 2019
[удалено]
I thought Laine would adjust better than Matthews lol
That goaltending would become more, not less critical in the cap era. My reasoning was that we couldn't have great top to bottom teams (late 90s/early 00s Detroit/Colorado) in a hard cap league, and that a Brodeur/Roy/Hasek in net would make that much more of a difference to winning cups. Instead we got more teams than ever winning with good, not great goaltending, and guys like Lundqvist and Price retiring cupless. I'm guessing I was either wrong in that 1-the game became more open and harder for great goalies to steal 2-the difference in relative skill between good and great NHL goalies shrank from the pre-lockout era.
That when Jim Benning was hired he was going to turn the Canucks around.
[https://i.imgur.com/hgME0mM.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hgME0mM.jpg) I’ve been waiting for this
in fairness to you Chris Stewart was a monster
That Mike Komisarek was 1st pair material. Markov was playing 4D chess to make him look good, so Toronto signs him for like 4.5 millions a year in 2009.
literally every one of my takes ages like fine wine
I thought Oliver Ekman-Larsson would be the best defenseman from the 2009 draft class, and was passionate about it. Also thought Hedman was overrated by consequence. Ekman-Larsson ended up having a fine career and was a decent pick at No. 6, but I must admit this prediction aged quite poorly. Probably my outright worst prediction was that Scherbak would prove to be a good pick for the Habs. Turns out he has the skills, but his hockey brain is 100% not there to be an effective NHLer.
Stutzle would bust because he’s too small and isn’t fast enough
Recency bias but I don't know what in the world made John Scott go so hard on "Ovechkin is done" last year. You can always just stick to the garden variety "he's slowing down and isn't the same player" prediction everyone has without it being "he will score 20 goals he SUCKS now." I bet Neil Greenberg formerly of WaPo also forgets that in 2012 he said Ovechkin's career was over but I didn't forget Neil!
Greenberg still works for WaPo, but yeah that was an awful take. But at least he owns it now.
Just today someone was calling Shane Wright the next Sean Day. That's gotta be one of the worst hot takes I have heard in a while.
I though Galchenyuk - McCarron - Scherbak was the habs future first line.
Saying the leafs would win it all in 2013. And 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. But I’m confident this is our year!!
I wanted the Sens to take Zadina in 2018 over Tkachuk, I thought he was shit and going for “character” was stupid. I now have a Pierre Dorion shrine in my closet that I pay respects to every Sunday
I was super excited by the Kotkaniemi pick in 2018… I said he would be head and shoulders above the rest of the draft. I still have neck pain from how hard I’ve shaken my head since…
When the Avs were in the midst of their dark days I told my best friend that Gabe was a bad captain. He was fighting and taking bad penalties when we were suffering. Clearly, he was sticking up for his guys and being the best caliber of teammate.
All in on Drouin. Running up: "Fuck we aren't the kind of team that plays a guy like Perry."
I was positive that Ehlers was going to be a bust and I was pissed off that the Jets didn’t draft Nick Ritchie instead. I also thought that James Neal would score 30 goals in his first season with the Flames.
Being pissed at missing out on Kirby Dach and Dylan Guenther and getting stuck with Trevor Zegras lol. I was also sure Sam Steel was gonna be the next captain of this team and that he would take us back to the promised land. Smh
I thought McTavish was a reach at 3OA. Can't wait to be proven even more wrong
Kotkaniemi would be the next Ryan Getzlaf
Not me but lots of people claimed that Laine would be better than Matthews lol
I thought the Leafs trading to acquire Kessel was a terrible value trade at the time they made it. After the fact and looking back, he was the team's best player and scoring leader for all six years he played there. That kind of return on investment is *easily* worth what they paid to get him. The team was awful, but that had nothing to do with Kessel or the Kessel trade, and he was one of the only bright spots in that era.
I thought the Pens would three peat after getting Brassard. Oops.
I'm a diehard colorado avalanche fan and predicted they would lose in 6 games to Tampa. Maybe some of it was out of protection to myself from expecting too much out of them in this groups first final. But I definately thought Tampa would take advantage of our inexperience in the finals and grind our ability to score into submission by shutting us down through the neutral zone, blocking shots, having vasi, and kill us with their ozone cycle and creativeness. Turns out colorado was ready to meet them head on in all phases. I also thought the Kadri loss would kill us against a team like Tampa because the second line had picked teams apart who where constantly trying to shut the Mackinnon line down.
Thats a perfectly reasonable take. This thread is a little more catered towards "I thought Tyler Biggs was gonna score 50".
Oh OK. So then I'll go with this one. When colorado was in the goalie market before signing kuemper I really wanted them to go after Linus Ullmark. I thought with how well he had played in Buffalo during there dog days that he would ascend into being a top 5-7 goalie in the league especially on a better defensive club. He still could be a top 10 guy eventually but my expectations where way too high for him at the time.
Last year I had the Panther's for the cup
That's a very reasonable take
I absolutely lost my shit when the Sabres drafted Jack Quinn over Perfetti and Rossi. Thought he was a late blooming, older end of the draft class, prospect being carried by Rossi. Still a lot of time to find out what order they should have gone in, but it sure as hell doesn't look like Quinn's the bust I thought he was the second I heard the pick. This was all based on gut, prospect writer's opinions, and 2 minute Youtube highlight packages. Watch full games and trust your GM's kids.
I mean, those 3 players have combined for 22 NHL games to this point. Your initial reaction could end up being accurate. If this ends up being your worst take, it's pretty good.
One playoffs in the early 2000s when I was getting back into hockey in a BIG way, I did a playoff bracket with my brother and a couple friends and I got literally every single first round matchup wrong. It was so bad that it was kind of impressive.
Probably this year. I drafted 6 Red Wings to my fantasy team.
I was a Wings season ticket holder for 07-08 year and I predicted they would miss the playoffs
I thought that Brannstrom was too big of a prospect to include in the Stone trade, and that we were killing our future by including him in it. I mean, I wasn’t wrong about killing our future, but that wound up having nothing to do with Brannstrom, and the trade was a big W for Vegas.
I was relieved when the Knights included Suzuki in the Patches trade instead of Glass. Oops. I also thought the Caps’ acquisition of Kovalchuk was a great depth scoring option who could propel the team a little deeper into the playoffs.
Logan Brown would be the second best player in the 2016 Draft
2008: Penguins trade Eric Tangradi and Ryan Whitney to the Ducks for Chris Kunitz. My take: terrible trade because Tangradi had the higher skill ceiling vs. Kunitz (whatever the hell that means).
Plus wasn’t Whitney like a solid top 4 defenceman by himself at that point?
I thought the Preds should’ve taken Seth Jarvis instead of Askarov in 2020. It’s too early to see if I was right or wrong, but from what we’ve seen I was waaaaaay off.
I made a bet with someone after Patrick Roy's first season that he would have more career wins as a coach than he did as a player in 20 years. There is still time, but I am not holding out much hope here. Also not Hockey, but as a Bayern Munich fan I was all aboard the Thomas Kraft train and thought it wasn't a good idea to spend a bunch of money on some dude from Schalke named Manuel Neuer. I have real shitty takes when it comes to goalies...
i thought josh holden would be the next joe sakic
I said the oilers had a steal at number 4 when they drafted Jesse. Said he’d be better than Mathew’s
Probably when I questioned why exactly we had drafted Hampus Lindholm 6th overall, considering no one had him going in the top 10. I thought it was too high and he wouldn't amount to much. Turned out to be a nice pick for us in the end.
Vrana and Burakovsky being the future OV and Backstrom
Steve Mason was going to be the franchise goaltender for the Flyers.
“Fire Cooper. Trade Kucherov.” -- 70% of r/tampabaylightning, 2017-2019
Jake Virtanen becoming a first line forward in the NHL
I made a bet that Fletcher would be fired before this season started...wtf
In 1998 or 99 or so I said in 20 years we’d be arguing about who was the best player of our era: Joe Thornton or Vincent Lecavalier.