Commandant

Sorry, misinterpretation.

We'll see. I think Dumba will be great, but I disagree that he is NHL ready this fall. I think he's the kind of kid who has huge upside, but a team needs to be patient with. Just my feeling though.

McGuire was on TSN 1050 this morning, and he sounded like a guy who just received crushing news. He was very subdued and depressed. Of course he told the host that he had spoken to Geoff Molson just 20 minutes before his segment and that he just learned he wasn't getting the job.

3.33 million dollars to Geoff Molson.

I'm hearing that Rick Dudley may be brought in as an AGM, or similar role here. Good friends with Bergevin apparently. They are also going to need a cap guy. And a coach.

I think its gonna take Bergevin sitting down and looking at every option carefully before he makes this decision.

Just heard Pierre McGuire on TSN Radio Toronto. He confirmed the story, said he just got off the phone with Geoff Molson and Bergevin is the guy.

#27 is Vasilevski, the Russian goalie. http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/05/02/nhl-draft-prospect-profile-27-andrei-vasilevski/

http://lastwordonspo...e-5-matt-dumba/ This is the worst thing I said about Dumba, after an article full of good things. "More size and strength will also help him to contain the bigger forwards he'll face in the pros. He could also use some more time learning at the junior level, as his defensive positioning and decision making could stand to be improved. As a July birthdate, Dumba is one of the younger players eligible in the draft. For example he is 10 months younger than Ryan Murray who is our number 3 prospect. For this reason we do believe that Dumba has the time to gain the bulk and defensive skills he will need to transition to the NHL. He's definitely got some maturing to do, both physically, and in polishing his game. We do however think it is very likely he will play another season in the WHL next year, as we don't think he will be NHL ready in time for 2012-13. That said, we do think he's got a ton of potential to be a very good defenceman down the road.

Agreed there is a big difference between Filatov and say Datsyuk. You have to judge each player individually on their own personality and not where they were born.

I didn't really sour on him... I have him at the top of this draft. There isn't much to differentiate between pick 2 and pick 8 here.

I don't expect a #3 overall pick to spend a single day in the AHL. Grigorenko would have two years of CHL eligibility left before he can go to the AHL, even if he doesn't make the team next year, he should be NHL ready for 2013-14.... and even if he's not, he'd have to fail to make the team in 3 straight training camps before he's sent to the AHL. If he can't make the team in 3 years, he shouldn't have been a top 3 pick to begin with.

Murray has more offensive potential than you think... As I said he had more points in the 2011 U18, than Dumba got in the 2012 that everyone is going crazy over. His WHL stats are a lot lower, but the forwards on that Everett team absolutely suck.

AK46 and Radulov suspende for breaking team rules. And people said AK wasn't a headcase.

I wouldn't move Dumba ahead of Murray. As good as Dumbas 2012 touney was, and it was great; Murrays 2011 tourney was better.

Ranks are done jointly. We vote on ranks and assemble. I had my rank Yak Gally Grigs Murray Forsberg Dumba We also assemble notes jointly and then I write the article.

And without the numbers, you have the problem of not creating enough of a gap in supply and demand to be able to charge the high prices that the northern teams charge. Hence lower revenues, and tougher to make things work.

A Personal Favorite today. Ulf Samuelsson's kid. Hope he falls to the second so we grab him and troll Cam Neely and the Bruins. Plus he's just the type of big and mean forward we need. http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/05/01/nhl-draft-prospect-profile-26-henrik-samuelsson/

With Nill and Brisson out of the running, Bergevin was my third favourite guy.

You are right that the giveaways/recovery thing is something that can't work in the pros where he wont have the huge speed advantage he has in junior. As for defending though, I think he can defend. I find him generally to be pretty good defending against the rush, and shutting people down in his end of the ice. More than good enough to have a future at the position.

Yeah there will always be some who turn out for every draft. The truth really is that people won't truly no if this is a weak draft or a strong one until about 5 years from now. One of the signals though that it might be a weak draft is the total lack of Canadian Forwards in the draft class. I'm at pick 25 and I've previewed exactly 1 Canadian forward. Thats a really strange year.

I think the injury thing doesn't really hurt a Rielly or a Galchenyuk who are right at the top of the class. but it can really hurt a Koekkoek, or someone in that range, especially if its devastating, and the player gets limited viewings and doesn't return during the season. Remember too that when Scouts talk about good or bad draft classes, they are generally talking about the depth of the draft, and the quality of prospect they find at 25, 55, 85, etc... than they are talking about the quality of the first 5 picks.

I really, really liked the Bills draft too. The only spot that seems a question mark to me is the WR one. I dont know much about T.J. Graham but the analysts on the NFL network were not impressed, and called him a reach. I hope not, but thats the one that scares me now. But again I don't know shit about most of these guys.

Yes, I know... I always mess those two cities up. As for his defence. I don't think its that bad. I think fundamentally he does a lot of good things and has good tools. The issue is he's prone to one mind-numbingly dumb turnover per game, if he can get those out of his system he'll be fine. Not quite Subban level where he's top pair shutdown D, but he can be the 2nd best D on a team or 3rd best.

I talked about the two issues, way back at the beginning of these prospect profiles a month ago. My thoughts on how deep the draft was originally perceived to be, and how deep it is now perceived to be, and why the opinions have changed. http://lastwordonsports.com/2012/03/19/nhl-draft-2012-the-year-of-the-injury/