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Old Devils Thread (Lock 'er up please)


beekay414

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Sorry for the posts run but I think the people that are on edge with where we are (namely you know who over on HF, Mr. Emotional Posting), don't realize how deep our pool is now and it's only going to get deeper with this draft. Sure, we don't have a TON of high end talent but that'll change if we get 3 1sts this draft. We've got 6 tiers of prospects that have NHL upside. I believe all three of Pronman, Wheeler and Masisak have us in the upper tiers of prospect pools as it is. They think we're going to shoot up the boards after this draft class. 

We are so much more better off now than we were when Shero came in that it's not even funny. Cannot wait to see what we can do under a real NHL coach.

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39 minutes ago, beekay414 said:

I think I disagree with him in a quite a few places, namely having Walsh tier 2 over Misyul and Okhotyuk.

So, I'm not a fan of Okhotyuk...I think his choppy, lumbering skating makes him unlikely to be better than a 3rd pairing, but I'd have Misyul and Bahl over Walsh. Honestly, I'm surprised that so many people aren't a little worried about Walsh. Last year was a pretty massive disappointment at Harvard...he didn't make any steps forward at all, and it's weird that nobody acknowledges that. 

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4 minutes ago, Forge said:

So, I'm not a fan of Okhotyuk...I think his choppy, lumbering skating makes him unlikely to be better than a 3rd pairing, but I'd have Misyul and Bahl over Walsh. Honestly, I'm surprised that so many people aren't a little worried about Walsh. Last year was a pretty massive disappointment at Harvard...he didn't make any steps forward at all, and it's weird that nobody acknowledges that. 

I don't think Okhotyuk is anything more than a 3rd liner either (right now) but I also have Walsh there right now too, so I've definitely showed the concern haha. If he stays at Harvard, he needs to take advantage of being their #1 dman and take another step. Otherwise, I'm fine with him not signing.

Edited by beekay414
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I guess, when it comes to Okhotyuk & Walsh compared to Vuko and McCarthy, I think it's the upside difference. Okhotyuk and Walsh, despite their struggles, have 2nd line upside if they clean things up, while Vuko and McCarthy are flat out 3rd liners no matter what happens.

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50 minutes ago, beekay414 said:

Masisak ranked our top 30 prospects for The Athletic in no specific order (ranked in tiers)

Tier 1
Ty Smith, D

Tier 1.5
Nolan Foote, F

Tier 2
Kevin Bahl, D
Janne Kuokkanen, F
Tyce Thompson, F
Reilly Walsh, D

Tier 3
Graeme Clarke, F
Nick Merkley, F
Daniil Misyul, D
Nikita Okhotyuk, D
Gilles Senn, G
Aarne Talvitie, F

Tier 4
Nathan Bastian, F
Patrick Moynihan, F
Akira Schmid, G
Marian Studenic, F
Michael Vukojevic, D
Fabian Zetterlund, F

Tier 5
Cole Brady, G
Arseny Gritsyuk, F
Mikhail Maltsev, F
Case McCarthy, D
Nikola Pasic, F
Colton White, D

Tier 6
Evan Cormier, G
Brandon Gignac, F
Josh Jacobs, D
Eetu Pakkila, F
Nate Schnarr, F
Yegor Sharangovich, F

It's kind of interesting. I don't know how Clarke is tier 3. His upside is RW2, 25-30 goal scorer. That puts him tier 2 for me right away because that kind of upside is somewhat rare. Kuokkanen meanwhile, is probably a middle six tweener that's better suited in your bottom six. Maybe I'm wrong there, he's been very productive in his minors career, so maybe he's just that dude who is productive, but his upside is definitely capped. 

Way too early for me to put Thompson that high as well. I love the season, obviously, and maybe he was a late bloomer, but sometimes that is kind of misleading (look at Schnarr). 

Also, did he not include Zaitsev at all? Or am I missing that? Because I'd have Zaitsev over a lot of these guys on D. McCarthy, White, Jacobs, probably even Vukojevic and Okhotyuk. 

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2 minutes ago, Forge said:

Also, did he not include Zaitsev at all? Or am I missing that? Because I'd have Zeitsev over a lot of these guys on D. McCarthy, White, Jacobs, probably even Vukojevic and Okhotyuk.

He did not include Zaitsev. I guess we've got a glut of dmen that are all basically interchangeable based on whoever is writing/arguing so I can see why he was left off. Though, I do agree with you that I'd have him over Jacobs, at least. 

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24 minutes ago, beekay414 said:

Sorry for the posts run but I think the people that are on edge with where we are (namely you know who over on HF, Mr. Emotional Posting), don't realize how deep our pool is now and it's only going to get deeper with this draft. Sure, we don't have a TON of high end talent but that'll change if we get 3 1sts this draft. We've got 6 tiers of prospects that have NHL upside. I believe all three of Pronman, Wheeler and Masisak have us in the upper tiers of prospect pools as it is. They think we're going to shoot up the boards after this draft class. 

We are so much more better off now than we were when Shero came in that it's not even funny. Cannot wait to see what we can do under a real NHL coach.

The pool is deeper now for sure, but yeah, we lack some top end talent. Honestly, I think people are slightly overstating Foote a bit. He's one of the few that has top 6 potential, but people are weirdly high on him given what is honestly a rather mediocre career so far. Devils fans on HF treat him as though he's an elite prospect, and I don't see that. I see great upside, but he was not an elite prospect at all. 

I'd love to just swing for the fences on this draft with upside. Screw the guys like Schneider who's a middle pairing guy. Just go for broke. Go for the Perrault's and Lapierre's and the like. 

I haven't seen Wheeler rate us since all the trades, but we were 17 on his rankings before acquiring Kuokkanen, Foote and two additional firsts, so I'd imagine that we are in his top half if not top 10 right now. 

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4 minutes ago, Forge said:

It's kind of interesting. I don't know how Clarke is tier 3. His upside is RW2, 25-30 goal scorer. That puts him tier 2 for me right away because that kind of upside is somewhat rare. Kuokkanen meanwhile, is probably a middle six tweener that's better suited in your bottom six. Maybe I'm wrong there, he's been very productive in his minors career, so maybe he's just that dude who is productive, but his upside is definitely capped. 

IRT Kuokkanen, he's pegging him in a potential top 6 role with the big club next year. Basically basing it off him improving his PPG at the AHL level each year and having nothing left to prove. I personally feel he's a top 9er with some emergency top 6 play but his skating is going to keep him from being a full time top 6 player.

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1 minute ago, Forge said:

I'd love to just swing for the fences on this draft with upside. Screw the guys like Schneider who's a middle pairing guy. Just go for broke. Go for the Perrault's and Lapierre's and the like. 

I'm with you here. I want to swing for the fences with every single pick. If it backfires, whatever. We already have depth. Go for broke with this class. 

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Just now, beekay414 said:

IRT Kuokkanen, he's pegging him in a potential top 6 role with the big club next year. Basically basing it off him improving his PPG at the AHL level each year and having nothing left to prove. I personally feel he's a top 9er with some emergency top 6 play but his skating is going to keep him from being a full time top 6 player.

Agree wholeheartedly. I really like him, but I think he's definitely a bit capped. I mean, lets be real, Carolina was willing to let him go for nothing, because that is absolutely the risk that they took when they traded for Sami (as the games played condition would suggest) lol. I hope we give him a shot at the big club next year, though there's a good chance that next season is his only year with the club. 

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As far as Foote is concerned, he's a top 6 winger, for sure, but he's not an elite prospect at all. He's just a great fit with our foundational pieces that people overrate him for it. His style can play with both Hughes and Nico so that makes him super valuable to us. He's also a goal scorer so that magnifies his value.

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1 minute ago, beekay414 said:

As far as Foote is concerned, he's a top 6 winger, for sure, but he's not an elite prospect at all. He's just a great fit with our foundational pieces that people overrate him for it. His style can play with both Hughes and Nico so that makes him super valuable to us. He's also a goal scorer so that magnifies his value.

Yeah, and I can't wait until he actually helps the power play. 

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1 minute ago, Forge said:

Yeah, and I can't wait until he actually helps the power play. 

I'm just so damn anxious to see how we look under Ruff. Ruff may be the perfect coach for Jack. I'm REALLY hoping we get that extended camp for that purpose. We may suck next year again but we should be fun to watch. 

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