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Hoo boy. This is one snakebitten slot. Something about the mid-to-high teens must give people trouble (ask Kaner?), because I see a lot of whiffs on Best Players Available while teams picking around 20-25 take chances and win big. Look at all these:

- the Predators taking a goalie they'll never need with Rinne signed for seven more years, passing on Jordan Freaking Eberle
- Chris Stewart over Claude Giroux
- Predators again, Ryan Parent is out of the league while Tuukka Rask is set to be the guy in Boston for years
- Eric Fehr over Getzlaf, Kesler, and Richards in the greatest draft of all time

(Aside: the Predators, for being a big rah-rah-draft-develop organization, are quietly kinda shitty at it. All they really do is churn out acceptable system-ready androids out of the middle rounds; it's been years since they've actually drafted and developed a bona fide prospect.)

I know you can point to getting pantsed in every draft slot, but I haven't yet looked at the many #46s of the past or anything, so I am only concerned with 18 and how much it...kinda blows. I would postulate that it's a bleak patch because all the can't-misses are gone by that point, so you're taking chances, but as a team with a middling record you're probably not matriculating players into the Winning Environments that teams picking in the late twenties are. Of course, this year's #27 will go to a bare-bones operation that doesn't even know where it's going to be in a month, so no guarantees on that front.

I wonder if perhaps it might be worth trading down with the Rangers or something. Bowman loves drafting in bulk, after all.

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Trading down simply because of a "cursed pick" is profoundly stupid unless there's an undeniable package offered.

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Hawks traded down from 30 to 35+58 two years ago (and then failed to sign pick #35 last week, oops). I wouldn't call that "undeniable," just a small slide down in exchange for another pick. I don't think it's profoundly stupid at all. It wouldn't be because the pick is "cursed" so much as the middle of the first round appears to be a treacherous place to draft.

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That's fine. If they want to trade down because this year's draft has a soggy middle, then trade down - it's justifiable.

But trading down based on history is stupid, was more to my point.

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Teuvo Teravainen, left wing from Finland. Consensus is a good pick at 18, but he's a little guy...5'11", 165...

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Not a mult.

Considering he was a 1 on some boards and a top 5 on others, great selection.

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So is this guy Patrick Kane 2.0?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

No. This guy is 18. And I think there's like a 1.5 year window in age before it's considered statutory.

I would bet my mortgage he wasn't #1 on anyone's board. The announcers said some teams had him top 5, but we'll never know if that's true.


Would've much rather had that Wilson kid who went to Washington a couple picks earlier, they compared him to Milan Lucic which is exactly what we need up front.

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Another guy that won't be strong enough to play in the corners.

NOT what the Hawks need right now.

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Meh. We have a bunch of WIN BOARD BATTLES types ahead of him in the pipeline. We were actually due for another finesse player. It's not like he was joining the team this year.

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By pretty much all accounts, it was a great pick at the spot. Hockey prospects are almost impossible to predict. The amount of levels/divisions/organizations in this country/internationally make stats/level of competition comparisons extremely difficult. Lots just dependent on in person scouting and eye tests

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Team Cutler.

He dropped due to teams drafting for defensive and center need... I wouldn't get upset over this pick out of size alone, it's hard to hit what you can't catch.

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants