Buds Board Keepers League

This was one of the worst drafts to produce NHL talent outside of the top 10 picks, but on almost every pick throughout the draft the leafs hit:

13. Jiri Tlusty
44. Nikolai Kulemin
99. James Reimer
111. Korbinian Holzer
161. Viktor Stalberg
166. Tyler Ruegsegger
180. Leo Komarov


The leafs hit on 6/7 of those players in one of the weakest NHL drafts in recent history (weak as in little NHL depth came from this draft - the top 5 is pretty incredible tho)

I was listening to some sports radio this morning and the guy hosting was talking about how the leaf scouts have caught a bad rep but have one of the highest success rates in the NHL (if you omit the Burke drafts - he was just awful)

I think a lot of people complaining about bad scoutng in general are the people expecting every NHLer to be a star. If you're drafting top 5-6 you expect stars from your first rounder but beyond that getting guys who are actually playing in the league is all you can expect if you're being realistic, being about to draft and develop your 2nd-3rd line guys allows you to trade depth for the rest of what you need or to sign a star in free agency.

Sensfanjosh wroteCOLONI think a lot of people complaining about bad scoutng in general are the people expecting every NHLer to be a star. If you're drafting top 5-6 you expect stars from your first rounder but beyond that getting guys who are actually playing in the league is all you can expect if you're being realistic, being about to draft and develop your 2nd-3rd line guys allows you to trade depth for the rest of what you need or to sign a star in free agency.

i agree with this statement, and you've heard this from a lot of GMs around the league during draft interviews. In the first round (maybe even first 2 rounds) you try to go 'big' after a guy who you project to be a inpact top 6 forward or top 4dman.

in the later rounds you would ideally like to pick up a stay at home bottom pairing dman + depth forwards - and maybe hit on a goalie prospect.

Yeah, in hearing stories of the Red Wings landing guys in the 6th and 7th round etc I always wonder about the praise- I mean, they no doubt deserve some for unearthing NHLers that late in the draft, but if they knew how good Datsyuk and Zetty were gonna be why did they wait until the late rounds to draft them and risk someone else snagging their top targets. This same reasoning applies to the discussion Shiv and I were having in his trade thread; I'm sure Shiv knew Stone and Gudas were gonna be studs, and was just toying with us by allowing them to fall so he could look like a genius years later.

Sensfanjosh wroteCOLONYeah, in hearing stories of the Red Wings landing guys in the 6th and 7th round etc I always wonder about the praise- I mean, they no doubt deserve some for unearthing NHLers that late in the draft, but if they knew how good Datsyuk and Zetty were gonna be why did they wait until the late rounds to draft them and risk someone else snagging their top targets. This same reasoning applies to the discussion Shiv and I were having in his trade thread; I'm sure Shiv knew Stone and Gudas were gonna be studs, and was just toying with us by allowing them to fall so he could look like a genius years later.

i've often thought the same thing about the wings. If they truly knew how good zetts or dats would have been would they have taken the chance and let them fall so far in the draft? i highly doubt it.

on the flip side, you have to give them credit for finding those guys. I'm not sure how many other teams had actually scouted Zetts and Dats in their draft year.

Sensfanjosh wroteCOLONYeah, in hearing stories of the Red Wings landing guys in the 6th and 7th round etc I always wonder about the praise- I mean, they no doubt deserve some for unearthing NHLers that late in the draft, but if they knew how good Datsyuk and Zetty were gonna be why did they wait until the late rounds to draft them and risk someone else snagging their top targets. This same reasoning applies to the discussion Shiv and I were having in his trade thread; I'm sure Shiv knew Stone and Gudas were gonna be studs, and was just toying with us by allowing them to fall so he could look like a genius years later.

I did it, taking severson in the 7th

Sometimes you let players you think no one else has on their radar fall so you can get 2 good players rather than one. Also, Detroit has good drafting, but their development seems to be top notch too.

So you pick Martin Lapointe early in order to get Datsyuk late? Not sure if those were in the same draft year but those are the sorts of guys the wings in particular were picking.

Better than getting datsyuk early and no one late.

Obviously they didn't know dats was going to be one of the best 2 way players of our generation, but outside of the first few picks of any draft nothing is a sure thing. May as well hedge ones chances to get multiple talented players. I think it's hard to argue against detroits late draftigs, as they seem to consistently pull top talent out of those rounds.

But again, if you believe Dats is a solid player why would you risk not getting him at the expense of drafting someone like Lapointe unless you believe Lapointe is the better player. I don't think you're looking for a quantity of prospects so much as quality, and none of us are there in the room so we can't really know, it just makes me a bit hesitant to call the Red Wings draft gods or something for getting guys late...

has anyone got a list of detriots late round steals over the past 10-15 years other than Dats + Zetts

would be interesting to see who all made that list.

here's a good link to my questions:

http://thehockeywriters.com/late-draft- ... s-success/

well their 2nd rounders on-wards seem to far exceed what other teams get from similar draft locations:


30-60: Jurco, Ouellet, Sproul, Jarnkrok, Tatar, Matthias, Abdelkader, Howard, Hudler, Fleischmann, Kopecky -> all between 2011-2000 years.


61+: Marchenko, Pulkkinen, Mrazek, Nestrasil, Anderssibm Helm, Franzen, Quincey, Filppula, Ericsson -> and of course the always talked about Z & Dats + Holmstrom.

But further back they've always been making good use, Federov was a 4th rounder, Lidstrom a 3rd, Konstantinov, 1000x GP vet Dallas Drake.


Odly, what they don't appear to be as good at, are the first 30 picks. Larkin & Mantha look great, but we don't know yet. Sheahan, McCollum, Smith, Kindl, aren't exactly home runs, so you need to go all the way back to 2000 for a real success from their first round pick (Mind you they don't tend to have very many).

IMO Development system >>> drafting.

Nick wroteCOLONOdly, what they don't appear to be as good at, are the first 30 picks. Larkin & Mantha look great, but we don't know yet. Sheahan, McCollum, Smith, Kindl, aren't exactly home runs, so you need to go all the way back to 2000 for a real success from their first round pick (Mind you they don't tend to have very many).

They probably spend such little time scouting the top guys knowing they most likely won't have a top pick anyway.

Robin Hood wroteCOLONIMO Development system >>> drafting.

I think they are equally important imo.

So this is the kind of useless shit u guys talkin about while I'm on vacation