The draft is a crapshoot. We don't know what Kravtsov would've done if he played in juniors. Let's wait to see both players play before grading this draft.
After the first round, and especially the top-10, sure. The guys taken really early, though, are more often locks than not.
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"Everyone says you should be a good loser. If you’re a good loser, you’re a loser."
- John Tortorella
"Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence."
- Christopher Hitchens
Orrrrrr the players picked from 1 though 7 were amazing prospects that are supposed to be can't miss and pretty much picked where they should have been picked?
I'm not going to shit on the pick anymore. Obviously some people here have resources that give better outlooks than what is available via the typical Google search (not me).. Apparently this kid has more potential than what we have read. I guess it's more about the name recognition, and how much it was discussed on here about Wahlstrom hopefully falling to the Rangers.
We'll just have to wait and see.
By next season do you mean in 3 months?
And even with that, we have no idea when he will be here
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To be NHL players? It's deeper than that. The top half of the draft is all but guaranteed to net you an NHL player.
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"Everyone says you should be a good loser. If you’re a good loser, you’re a loser."
- John Tortorella
"Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence."
- Christopher Hitchens
We are talking about becoming more than just a standard NHL player, I thought that was understood
Fair enough.
"Everyone says you should be a good loser. If you’re a good loser, you’re a loser."
- John Tortorella
"Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence."
- Christopher Hitchens
The argument was that Wahlstrom would be available to the organisation sooner and that picking a Russian is a risk because you don’t know how long it might take to get him over here. That is incorrect, as Kravtsov has only one year left on his contract and Wahlstrom will spend at least one year in college.
They are currently debating whether Kravtsov should come over straight away or play out his final year in Russia, so worst case scenario is he joins next summer, which is the best case scenario for Wahlstrom.
Whether he makes the roster or goes to Hartford remains to be seen, but bashing the pick based on when the two players would be available to the organisation is simply wrong.
But they weren't. Not even close. The first 2 picks stuck to the script, after that it was all over the shop. There wasn't single guy alive that had
3. Kotkaniemi
4. Tkachuk
5. Hayton
6. Zadina
7. Hughes
8. Boqvist
The fact that Dobson, Bouchard and Wahlstrom would all be available at 9 was a complete shock to literally everyone. I think it just goes to show that the draft rarely plays out the way the scouts and analysts expect it to. Every scout sees different things. Every organization puts more value into a certain attribute, position or mental characteristic than others. After Dahlin and Svechnikov there were a bunch of guys who were rated between 3 and 10 in various order depending on the scout. Kravtsov was, with a few exceptions, at the lower end of the spectrum. But I think you're right that name recognition is a factor. It is for the scouts as well. Everybody knows the rankings has a certain bias against Russians. And why wouldn't they be? They watch the NA skaters loads of times in the flesh. Virtually every single draft has a Russian kid picked late that turns out to be dynamite. That's just the way it is. I'm not saying this is necessarily a factor with Kravtsov, but I think it's absolutely clear Bobrov knows that player a hell of a lot better than the likes of McKenzie, Pronman etc.
I can't say with any confidence they made the right pick. Maybe Wahlstrom, Dobson and Bouchard will go on to light up the NHL and the Rangers will look silly once again. Like you said, we'll just have to wait and see.