Buds Board Keepers League

...and so does Luke, congrats!

Winnipeg moves to #1 and the Dallas pick slides to #2.

This is unreal.

fuck off

Crazy 3 #1 picks...

Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle, Yakupov. Sam Gagner is surely gone now.

fuck. off. edmonton. Reward shitty management more please.

hey, at least i get to see another young star play here in Edmonton

If they keep finishing last, is it really a reward?

IMO Yakupov is the best of the first overall picks too... fortunately ive always sort of cheered for EDM even though they are division rivals, must be my deep-rooted hate for the Flames. Who else thinks the oilers should finally take some steps to turn it around? New coaches, new gm, find some affordable D options, trade gagner, hemsky, horcoff and smyth maybe to add more role players and D.

meh .. lord knows they arent going to be able to afford keeping those players.

thom54 wroteCOLONfuck. off. edmonton. Reward shitty management more please.

this is why I hate Chicago and Pittsburgh with a passion ... Edmonton will soon be on that list

where the fuck is my #1 overall pick?

Amazed. What riches they have. They need a better coach and management team to mold those players. Agree that they wont be able to afford them soon enough.

Tony wroteCOLON

thom54 wroteCOLONfuck. off. edmonton. Reward shitty management more please.

this is why I hate Chicago and Pittsburgh with a passion ... Edmonton will soon be on that list

Why?... because they rebuilt their team?... and actually got success out of it unlike the Leafs? Malkin Crosby Fleury and Staal total up to 26.4 Million dollars and they've kept them for a while now. I highly doubt EDM will have problems keeping their assets coming years even with new contract extension. The oil country is a tough, shitty but a supportive and well-off hockey market, they'll be alright.

gooker wroteCOLON

Tony wroteCOLON

thom54 wroteCOLONfuck. off. edmonton. Reward shitty management more please.

this is why I hate Chicago and Pittsburgh with a passion ... Edmonton will soon be on that list

Why?... because they rebuilt their team?... and actually got success out of it unlike the Leafs? Malkin Crosby Fleury and Staal total up to 26.4 Million dollars and they've kept them for a while now. I highly doubt EDM will have problems keeping their assets coming years even with new contract extension. The oil country is a tough, shitty but a supportive and well-off hockey market, they'll be alright.

There's a difference between rebuilding, and coming dead last every year.

is that not what Pitt, Chi and now EDM all did? NYI, ALT and CBJ pretty close as well....

It's the easy way out. Teams who try to win every year have a much harder time trying to stay competitive than teams who say "fuck it" and tank for a few years just to win the fucking cup a few years later. Fuck you Chicago and Pittsburgh. Even though I hate Detroit as a rival, there's no other organization I respect at this moment more than them.

Except, I just don't think it's that "easy" of a way out really... coming in dead last isn't easy just to be able to do it without looking like they're not playing competitively. Lottery pick system exists primarily because of the very reason imo, and as a result, you can't just automatically be handed 1st overalls every time you finish 30th in the standings. With all those factors coming into play, it's just how I see it, but whatevvvvvvs

Lol Pittsburgh and Chicago where close to bankruptcy with their teams and getting zero fan support. They got lucky and had the right picks in the right years or Pittsburgh and maybe even Chicago wouldn't be in this league. I dont see how that is a reason to hate on them. I also dont think coming bottom 5 every year is the easy way out, it's hard on players, management and fans to consistently lose. I think sometime, its good management to do a proper rebuild.

Proper rebuild = 5+ years in bottom 5 of the draft?

Consistent good decision making with a focus on the long-term goals, IMO is a proper rebuild. Using all available information at the time of the signing/draft/trade is all that can be asked; never focusing too much on the deal in front of you, as it's easy to justify a decision in isolation -> but the trend over weeks, days, years is much more important.

I hear lots of speculation that different organizations make (or break) prospects, I personally put much more credit on the player himself. Rushed, held back, timed perfectly -> how can it be said for certain w/o a control; the human error component is way too big - potential confounding variables and unknowns are gigantic.

Personally I've liked what Burke has done, and continues to do. Would I un-do the Kessel trade? Absolutely. The Connolly signing, 100%. But at the time, both appeared to be very well thought out decisions.