Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:11 am
Dave's a mess wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2023 9:31 am
Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2023 9:01 am
The Blues had a dry spell after the Robert Thomas pick so they definitely need to recover from it prospect wise. Their next top picks in the following three drafts were Bokk who luckily the Blues traded while he still had some value, which is all gone at this point. Alexandrov who seems to be a 12/13th forward guy and Neighbours who you mentioned might have a top peak of middle 6 forward.
Yeah they did well to pull the chute quick enough to get something out of Bokk. Neighbours isn't going to be a star, but if you look at that draft, it's not as if the Blues missed on a bunch of studs that went right after him. That was the weird Covid draft year, so they did well to get a guy that appears to be a useful NHL player with a reasonable career in front of him.
Yeah, the covid draft was really a crapshoot. If Neighbours can be a middle 6 guy and Leo Loof turns into an NHL player it's not a bad draft. Sometimes you need to fill the roster out with just some dudes.
It feels like modern fan loses sight of that, everyone is a "stud" or a "bust", at least in a lot of my interactions with younger fans. Sometimes a team drafts some guys who elevated themselves to the highest level of the sport to become guys who can fill out an NHL roster for a decent length of time. Like if Tucker can learn the defensive side of hockey and become the next Bortuzzo? Especially as a later pick? That's sick.
On Neighbours, its worth noting that just because this team in particular has gotten a ton of skill out of the 20+ slot late in the first round over the last 15 or so years doesn't mean it's a given the player taken there will exceed the average value from that slot. As seems common around here, I like Jake for what he is and can be.
Or he "comes into his body" or whatever Tage did and surprises us all.