I think Buffalo and San Jose wound up doing great with that 1st round swap after all is said and done. Hope everyone from that thread is coming away happy, I would be
This year, I'm trying to track who I think is going to be a bust and who's going to be a steal. Built a spreadsheet and everything. Should be interesting to look back on it in a few years and see how it plays out.
I like the trade. Trading the 2025 28-32 overall pick for the 32 overall this year is a smart way to get quality prospects into our system faster. Our team is going to improve on paper next year, and the Oilers scouting staff were very high on O'Reilly, and had him a lot higher than 32 on their own list. 6'1" R-shot C is exactly the player our pool is lacking. Nice trade, nice pick.
Every year some fans just latch onto the first thing they see. I remember when Cowan was drafted, shit is hilarious now seeing the season he just had. People were mad mad.
I doubt Sam or his fam give a shit, he just got drafted to NHL, but I find it kinda disrespectful that people just get up and start leaving as soon as the 32nd pick is announced.
They need to just do the draft in the Sphere every year, forget about all this getting rid of in person drafts nonsense and do this every year, it looks amazing visually on TV and it probably looks insane IRL, must make the experience all the more surreal and memorable for the guys getting drafted.
They NHL is moving away from this format for next year I believe. Will be more like NBA. Teams don't travel to the event and stay home in their our places.
For the longest time the draft was always held in Montreal, and it was a non-event. I think held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel if my memory serve, with little to no live press coverage.
I would be open to having it permanently at the sphere, but I think the reason they decided to make it an event, and have it go from city to city, was to help create hype for the sport across the league, especially in the smaller markets, by giving them something to get excited about. Same deal with the all-stars game (which was especially true before salary-cap created parity).
It would be cool if each city had a comparable venue, quite frankly, as I think that reasoning is still sound, unfortunately.
I was low-key annoyed by that. I also don't think the host city was thanked enough. 1 or 2 did, but not enough. I think in particular the Sharks, with the first pick, had a certain measure of responsability in this regard and should have been the ones to take their time up there and dispense with the formalities on behalf of the league. I think it's an important part of hockey culture. Gentlemen in the streets, savages on the ice sheets.
I also appreciated teams that made an effort in showmanship for their pick. This is likely one of the top 5 days of each player's life, and doing a bit extra is welcome and warranted. Players, their families, and fans can all appreciate. Forcing teams to have guests, especially in the later selections of round 1 would have made for better TV as well. MTL and PHY nailed it. Wish more teams tried something, especially in such a spectacular venue.
Some kind of video sequences that took better advantage of the venue's amazing screen would have been appreciated. They had, literally, years to prepare for this specific draft as it was part of the Vegas welcome package to the league, and although the graphics were great in many instances, I feel they could have been a bit more dynamic. Felt like a Powerpoint+ more than anything.
Sooo trading a future first for a pick when you're in win now mode? I think that first would have been better used at the trade deadline next year but I'm not a GM. Then again neither is Ken Holland
That's kinda hilarious no lie. I feel like it wasn't even intentional, the first few forgot so nobody started the usual chain of congratulating the winner.
Oh I am super excited for the coming year. It was an amazing run and the sting of defeat is giving way to pride and optimism. But tonight...
Tonight I'm not sure that I like the idea of trading away next year's draft pick. I felt it would serve better for a trade deal in the coming weeks. And I'm not terribly excited about the player we picked up for it.
The kid can develop, the draft pick isn't necessarily next year's, and neither year will see us being very high in the draft anyways.
This draft was way more entertaining than last years draft, so many trades and surprise picks. It's such a shame they are changing the way they'll do the draft with the prospects in the building etc, i'll miss this.
I'm a bit hazy on the details but i think this is the last time they'll have the prospects at the draft, i think all teams basically stay in their own rink and do their picks from there. I think the idea was that this way the home fans can sit in the rink and watch on the jumbotron and celebrate together and this is cheaper for the organisations cause they dont need to book hotels and flights for so many people. But i think its a bit meh tbh, i like watching the prospects get picked, i like the happy tears, i like the shocked faces etc.
I know right. Expecting to be a late first rounder next couple years but highly unlikely you're getting a lower pick. Odds are Philly will get a higher pick. Silly move by Edmonton.
Because they spend an hour and a half (32 picks x 3 minutes) twiddling their thumbs, and that doesn’t even count each team walking up to announce their pick, Bettman greeting each team group as they come up, each GM introducing who will announce the selection, that person walking up, the actual announcement of the selection, the pick shaking hands, the pick walking up, the pick putting on the jersey and shaking more hands, they all pose for photos, and then finally walking off the stage over and over for every single round.
I’m going to make a very obscure reference here but, Craig Berube in a suit reminds me of Norm Macdonald in Hitlers Dog doing the “Who’s gonna feed them hogs” joke. Tell me no?
I think Buffalo and San Jose wound up doing great with that 1st round swap after all is said and done. Hope everyone from that thread is coming away happy, I would be