Draft Rant
Ok, so I've had a few spiced rum and cokes tonight, and it has intesified my anger somewhat...
But there are a couple things about the Draft that really cheesed me off.
1. Cherepanov was picked 17th overall by the Rangers and Jagr probably had something to do with it. Cherepanov made it no secret that Jagr is his favorite player. Glenn Sather must have wet his pants when the Russian was still available that late and he got his hands on him. Cherepanov should have gone in the top 5 in my opinion. The GM's go on record on camera saying that they pick the best player available but that means that some of the 12 GM's lied.
Is Russia's refusal to sign the transfer agreement a real achille's heel in this year's draft? Was Malkin's situation a deterrence for Russian players to be selected at early stages? Probably. But GM's covered it up by saying that Cherepanov's play was inconsistent. Hey, I'm sure that could be said a lot about the previous 16 picks. It's bullshit.
2. Using the Ducks' Cup-winning team as a template for drafting is stupid. Sure, I have nothing against having a strong amount of North American talent on a roster. But the size issue? Size was a big factor in Round 1 of the Entry Draft and it is no secret that GM's are looking at Anaheim's size as a big reason for their Cup-winning success and letting that influence their decision. But I am not agreeing with that concept. The Ducks' size played a role in their success. But it really isn't the be all end all of how to build a team. Were the Hurricanes bigger than the Oilers in 2006? NO!
Were the Lightning bigger than the Flames in 2004? Fuck no!
The theory of size for Cup success has huge holes in it. It is not consistent in history. The Sens did not lose to the Ducks because they were smaller. They lost because they lacked the desire as a team to win it.
And if I hear one more dickhead mention the Ducks' being the bigger team, I am going to put my foot through my fucking television!
God dammit, pick the BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE and stop being stupid. I swear some of these GM's work on a popularity contest sometimes.
Bless Sather's heart. The jackass got a steal for his 17th pick and believe me: when Cherepanov plays in the NHL for the New York Rangers, nobody is going to be talking about size anymore. They are going to be praising Sather for stealing such a talented player THAT LATE IN THE DRAFT.
Alright, I'm going to bed.
T Tags: NHL Draft Size Fuckheads Stupid+GM's
Labels: Draft
6 Comments:
With the draft, I think what we saw is the natural tendancy from teams to consider, "Well, this strategy worked for this club (i.e. size for the Ducks, speed and skill for the Lightning), therefore that's the way to go. So we'll just copy them."
I wonder how many teams employed defense first when the Devils won their cup? Anchored on the blue line by Scott Stevens and a goalie in Brodeur, we must have a winner.
I do agree with you though as I think having a balance is key to success - I think you need big guys that can hit, skate, shoot, and score and there is room for the pure skill players that are not as large, as long as they can take a hit and they use their speed and skill to avoid going down when hit.
My $.02...probably not worth that much.
Actually, I agree with you 100%
Now that I've had some time to think about it, I'm pretty ticked off by JFJ pissing away the first round pick for Toskala and Bell now. They could had that russian dude! or Esposito! Cripes.
Let's face it, JFJ has no plan. It's all stopgap measures and sabotage from Tannenbaum and his cronies. DAMMIT!
Balsille needs to buy the leafs but they would be priced way too high.. *rage*
What you think is sabotage he thinks is brilliant!
At some point, a team is going to win again with speed. Speed kills.
I've been watching some old videos of 80's hockey with the Soviet Union and Canada...and the speed and skating is incredible. If a team could be put together that could skate and pass such as those of the 80's, they'd kill the trap with speed.
But, alas...watch a Jr game today and you see no speed...only size and bulk. Players with skills are so thin, it's sick. You wonder why goaltenders are so good with the butterfly today...because NOBODY can lift the puck high on a quick shot anymore.
Gutsy move by the 'Hawks to take Kane...no size...but speed and skill. Coupled with Toews and Ruutu...hmmmm...tasty.
BTW...I can't comment as much as I like, as Blogger is blocked in Chiner. I can read, but I can't comment. So...I have to wait until I am at work to fire away on posts that are a week old. Heh.
Well, it's always good to have you here, GZ.
I does take a lot of speed to break the trap indeed.
As far as your goalie comment though...put the same padding on Giguere as say, Glen Hanlon used to wear and Jiggy would be a sucky!
If the Sens played as a cohesive unit in the Finals and won, the GM's would have drafted smaller speedy guys.
And that is the basis of my rant. Next year a faster, smaller team than Anaheim could win the Cup and the drafting trend would change again. It's like a leaf in the wind with these guys.
A great example of super sized teams not having success is the Flyers. They still have that mentality after all these years. They get to the Finals in '97 (?) and the smaller quicker Detroit team absolutely kills them.
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