LifetimeBillsFan
06-25-2006, 09:06 AM
I know that most people don't know too much about some of these guys and that it usually takes awhile before those that do develop are ready to show their stuff in the NHL, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about the players that the Sabres selected in this draft.
While I don't know nearly as much about hockey as football, here are mine, for what they are worth:
I find it interesting that the Sabres' # 1 pick, Dennis Persson, is the son of former Islander D, Stefan Persson, who was a pretty solid player in his day. I wonder if that may have had some influence on their selection of his son, who seemed to be considered a bit of a reach by the people at TSN, Fox, ESPN and according to the CSS rankings. Given the problems that NHL teams have had with signing some of the young Russian players, I wonder if the Sabres felt that they had a better chance of signing a Swede like Persson than one of the Russian defensemen that the services had rated higher.
It seems to me that the Sabres did very well with the goalie that they selected in the second round. CSS had him rated the top goalie coming out of Europe and, while Swedish goalies have a rather uneven history in the NHL, top-flight young European goalies have done well around the league in recent years. To get him several picks after the young Russian goalie that CSS had rated behind him in their rankings seems like a good value pick for the Sabres.
Indeed, depending on what service's rankings you look at, it would appear that the Sabres got pretty good value with their picks, except for their 4th rounder. The rankings that I saw had the goalie Enroth rated in the upper 20s and low 30s (he went to the Sabres 46th) and Webber at 34th (taken 58th) and their fifth round pick (147th) rated 140th, while one service had their last pick, Ben Breault (207th) ranked 103rd, although he was not even ranked in another. Overall, though, the Sabres seemed to do very well with these picks.
Is anyone else as puzzled by the Sabres 4th round pick of Felix Shutz as I am? I could not find him on any of the service's rankings. According to the blurb about him on the Sabres' website, he made the Quebec Junior League's all-rookie team, but apparently that didn't impress CSS or the other ranking services much. The only thing that I could think might have prompted the Sabres to take him so high was that he is very young and played before last season in Germany--maybe Jochen Hecht knows him or his coach and tipped them off to him being a kid with a lot of potential. Anyone have any other thoughts about this pick?
Obviously, it will take a few years before we know if any of these young players will become good NHL players, but it looks to me like the Sabres did a pretty good job with their draft--especially with their second- and later round picks. Those are the picks that IMHO can make the difference, if they develop into good NHL players, between a team treading water and one that can challenge for a Stanley Cup.
What are your thoughts?
While I don't know nearly as much about hockey as football, here are mine, for what they are worth:
I find it interesting that the Sabres' # 1 pick, Dennis Persson, is the son of former Islander D, Stefan Persson, who was a pretty solid player in his day. I wonder if that may have had some influence on their selection of his son, who seemed to be considered a bit of a reach by the people at TSN, Fox, ESPN and according to the CSS rankings. Given the problems that NHL teams have had with signing some of the young Russian players, I wonder if the Sabres felt that they had a better chance of signing a Swede like Persson than one of the Russian defensemen that the services had rated higher.
It seems to me that the Sabres did very well with the goalie that they selected in the second round. CSS had him rated the top goalie coming out of Europe and, while Swedish goalies have a rather uneven history in the NHL, top-flight young European goalies have done well around the league in recent years. To get him several picks after the young Russian goalie that CSS had rated behind him in their rankings seems like a good value pick for the Sabres.
Indeed, depending on what service's rankings you look at, it would appear that the Sabres got pretty good value with their picks, except for their 4th rounder. The rankings that I saw had the goalie Enroth rated in the upper 20s and low 30s (he went to the Sabres 46th) and Webber at 34th (taken 58th) and their fifth round pick (147th) rated 140th, while one service had their last pick, Ben Breault (207th) ranked 103rd, although he was not even ranked in another. Overall, though, the Sabres seemed to do very well with these picks.
Is anyone else as puzzled by the Sabres 4th round pick of Felix Shutz as I am? I could not find him on any of the service's rankings. According to the blurb about him on the Sabres' website, he made the Quebec Junior League's all-rookie team, but apparently that didn't impress CSS or the other ranking services much. The only thing that I could think might have prompted the Sabres to take him so high was that he is very young and played before last season in Germany--maybe Jochen Hecht knows him or his coach and tipped them off to him being a kid with a lot of potential. Anyone have any other thoughts about this pick?
Obviously, it will take a few years before we know if any of these young players will become good NHL players, but it looks to me like the Sabres did a pretty good job with their draft--especially with their second- and later round picks. Those are the picks that IMHO can make the difference, if they develop into good NHL players, between a team treading water and one that can challenge for a Stanley Cup.
What are your thoughts?