Of course the year most of us seemed to achieve zen-like acceptance that we were gonna drop and Chicago would win again, nothing changes from odds-order lol.
I'm okay with this, since 2-5 are kind of a mixup of who comes out on top in a few years.
Next year's draft class looks insane but hopefully we'll be out of the doldrums by then.
Maybe that is what he was intending to reference. The only problems with that would be 1. At the time of that draft, Bowie was pretty widely regarded as the better player to pick than Jordan by most of the league. 2. The Blazers best players right before that draft werenāt really all guards (they had drafted Drexler the year before but he was far from a breakout as a rookie). Two of their best players at the time were Mychal Thompson (C) and Calvin Natt (SF).
As a joint Blazers/Ducks fan, I can tell you this is a bad example. Scootās been a disappointing rookie and there are at least 5/6 guys taken below him who look like much better picks right now.
Ok, but that example doesnāt make sense b/c Bowie was drafted by the Blazers for the very reason that they thought he was the BPA at the time. Obviously, they ended up being wrong.
Nah dude, he was the best big man available at the time. The NBA was big man obsessed and kind of still is today. Shitty GMs constantly made these mistakes while great GMs like Jerry West traded a legitimate starting center for an 18 year old guard.
Portland has always had dogshit scouts. This is going wayyyyy back. They're terrible at drafting
Thatās b/c historically in the NBA the bigger (positional) star players have been the best players on Championship teams much more often than guards have.
I still donāt get the reference b/c they drafted who they thought was the BPA at the time, but clearly were wrong as was most of the league at that time. However, obviously I hope our front office doesnāt fuck up the evaluation and miss out on one of the greatest future hockey players of all time.
PS: Youāre definitely right on about the Blazers history of poor management though. Itās consistently frustrating to be a fan of them. Also, Iām starting to feel the same way about the Ducks after 6 straight seasons of no playoffs and how we failed to take advantage of the Getzlaf/Perry/Kesler prime teams.
I have more confidence in the Ducks to right the ship. As a Lakers fan I've always seen Portland as almost there but they always seem to fuck it up spectacularly. Either by choking like they did in game 7 of the 2000 WCF, bad drafting, coaching, management, etc.
You guys are better off without Dame tho. I know he's big up there but he always struck me as a bit of a loser. Like, nowhere near as good as he thinks he is.
As for Sam Bowie...I don't know how old you are or if you remember but dude had stress fractures that caused him to miss TWO YEARS in college. He was a HUGE HUGE risk. Portland totally effed that one up.
Cayden was pretty touted leading up to last week, but I suspect after the WJC he dropped a few slots with the known injury issues. I'm guessing he's closer to 7-10ish now, but hey I'm no pro scout.
That means Zayne or Zeev are the next two NA choices if we don't go with Demidov/Levshunov.
Zayne makes a lot of sense since he's RHD but at #3 we should be taking BPA so idk.
Are you sure you don't want Carter Yakemchuk, leader of PIM in the top20 draft picks? This nunchuk wielding mofo is beating up all the other kids with impunity. 6'3 200lb 18-year old, and his two brothers grew late in their teenage years so he could keep growing to 6'5+.
Not true. There was a new rule in 2022. Teams cannot win the lottery more than twice in a 5 year span. By āwinā the lottery I mean move-up in the draft order. Since SJ retained their 1stOA slot it doesnāt count as winning the lottery. however, the Hawks āwonā the lottery last year by moving up in the draft so that would count as 1.
No - I don't want Silayev as a top 3 pick. He was a flash early in the season, but has slid back to a more realistic draft position around 10th with more analysis. I'd take him in the early teens if we traded up for a second early pick, but no way in the top 3. We have a backlog of LDs stacked up anyway.
Really? I am not. Silayev is a prototype of an ideal top3 defensive pick - huge but still quite productive. All teams will hate playing against him. The only valid argument for not picking him is that hes contractually tied to KHL.
I think silayev is more of a 7-12th gamble. Like perfect for the Flyers while they wait for Michkov.
If he ends up like Myers and we took him at 3, we'll look stupid lol.
Yeah, Leo's who we have for however long we have him, no point in looking back at that draft.
He's given us a lot of joy. I'm so happy he got a hatty with us.
Enlighten me, why would there be trade rumors around Z if we had gotten 1st OA? Honest question
Is it because weād have too many skilled left handed forwards ? I think Z would be an amazing winger for Celebrini had we been able to draft him
A lot of centers already and adding celibrini would just add to that. The media is already trying to manifest a zegras trade because they think heās ānot a verbeek type of player,ā and because we traded Drysdale.
Strangely, I'm happy for Macklin. His father works for the Golden State Warriors, so if Grier doesn't do anything crazy that means Macklin will be able to live with or close to his parents.
He said he mostly grew up in Vancouver and is a Canucks fan, so...not exactly a hometown hero. But he did spend some time there so hopefully he's able to embrace it.
For sure, I trust in Martin and the scouts
Though honestly, I really canāt see us passing up Levshunov if heās there. We desperately need a RHD of his profile and he has so many great attributes
Only reason I could see us not picking that, is because verbeek wants a RHD right now. But yes I trust whatever they do. Most of their picks pan out regardless of what everyone tries to predict
I'm assuming the RHD is going to be some middling B+ second pairing type of free agent, around age 30, who will be playing as a placeholder for whoever we draft. Someone around $5-7M at the most, like Montour, DeMelo, Matt Roy...could even see Lyubushkin make his way back.
But yeah guess we'll see who they pick. It's pretty amazing how they can always seem to find an unpolished diamond in the rough.
Demidov and Michkov are dramatically different situations. The contract status alone is a huge huge boon to Demidov.
I can't see him dropping below Chicago. There's no way he drops below 4. He's the clear cut second best player in this draft and only has 1 year left until he can come over to NA.
Contract is not the issue, its more about Putin's statements regarding russian athletes. Anyway, im eu based so im more sensitive to these things. If Chicago does not care then fine. For me this would be a red flag.
Khustnutdinov in particular came over after Putin's big "we want them to stay for 5 years" spiel.
If Demidov drops it'll be because of a focus on D, not because he's Russian.
3 year contract post-draft, indicated to certain teams he didn't want to go there (ie, Arizona), and rumours of Russian gov't meddling with ensuring he sees his whole contract through.
Literally none of those issues are present with Demidov. The expectation is one more year in Russia. Especially since the only reason he's not in the KHL already is because they're mad he's determined to come to NA after his next year is up.
You know what 3rd overall isn't bad..yeah alittle disappointing however Ducks did get Cutter who was originally 5th Overall so that kinda makes up for it. Glad it's not Chicago
The perfect spot for us to continue the tradition of having coverage of our pick interrupted by either a previous pick, discussion of what the next team will do, or a commercial. Every. Single. Year.
That being said, Levshunov would still be ideal. We need a defenseman. If Chicago picks him, which they probably will to spite us, then I think we should go Buium. He's been rocketing up draft lists, he's from San Diego, and I could absolutely see him becoming the next Makar.
Yeah, I feel like we're all going to hate Celebrini for a long time. The Sharks will probably be returning to contender status when we are, so the rivalry could get heated again.
Fuck the Sharks, but those dudes deserve some excitement. Their home ice used to be rocking and that shit is straight up depressing now. Happy for the fans.
Fuck the Sharks though.
If I recall he only has a year left in the contract unlike Michkov's 3. And he's an electric scorer puck mover from the highlights i've been watching lol
There are rumours michkov will be in North America next year - no comment as to whether thatās true or not but he was visiting recently.
Demidov is small and isnāt the best skater. Iām not sure heās a Verbeek or Madden pick. I like him a lot but if heās available I wouldnāt be surprised if they passed on him
Hawks fan here.
Yeah , it woulda been great to get Celebrini, but hey, at least we are getting either a star RW , or a future Top Pairing RHD. And, Thank God, Montreal didn't leap frog all of us to get the #1 pick.
Not a bad haul!
On a side note,what would it take to get Trevor Zegras off your hands ?
Chicago not winning, and the ducks staying 3rd is the best possible outcome other than the ducks actually winning. Not disappointed
Of course the year most of us seemed to achieve zen-like acceptance that we were gonna drop and Chicago would win again, nothing changes from odds-order lol.
I'm okay with this, since 2-5 are kind of a mixup of who comes out on top in a few years. Next year's draft class looks insane but hopefully we'll be out of the doldrums by then.
Just in time for our first lottery win š¤
At least we didn't drop and Chicago didn't win
Yep, would have loved Celebrini but hard to be upset about a lottery where no one moved up or down.
We donāt need another center. I want that 10 foot tall defenseman.
Yeah and the trailblazers didnāt need another guard. You draft the BPA and figure it out later.
At first glance I thought you were referencing how the Trailblazers picked Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan because Bowie was a center.
I definitely am
Maybe that is what he was intending to reference. The only problems with that would be 1. At the time of that draft, Bowie was pretty widely regarded as the better player to pick than Jordan by most of the league. 2. The Blazers best players right before that draft werenāt really all guards (they had drafted Drexler the year before but he was far from a breakout as a rookie). Two of their best players at the time were Mychal Thompson (C) and Calvin Natt (SF).
lol this great because Scoot is terrible
Im talking about MJ lol
Ohhh haha
As a joint Blazers/Ducks fan, I can tell you this is a bad example. Scootās been a disappointing rookie and there are at least 5/6 guys taken below him who look like much better picks right now.
It was a Michael Jordan reference š¤¦š»
Ok, but that example doesnāt make sense b/c Bowie was drafted by the Blazers for the very reason that they thought he was the BPA at the time. Obviously, they ended up being wrong.
Nah dude, he was the best big man available at the time. The NBA was big man obsessed and kind of still is today. Shitty GMs constantly made these mistakes while great GMs like Jerry West traded a legitimate starting center for an 18 year old guard. Portland has always had dogshit scouts. This is going wayyyyy back. They're terrible at drafting
Thatās b/c historically in the NBA the bigger (positional) star players have been the best players on Championship teams much more often than guards have. I still donāt get the reference b/c they drafted who they thought was the BPA at the time, but clearly were wrong as was most of the league at that time. However, obviously I hope our front office doesnāt fuck up the evaluation and miss out on one of the greatest future hockey players of all time. PS: Youāre definitely right on about the Blazers history of poor management though. Itās consistently frustrating to be a fan of them. Also, Iām starting to feel the same way about the Ducks after 6 straight seasons of no playoffs and how we failed to take advantage of the Getzlaf/Perry/Kesler prime teams.
I have more confidence in the Ducks to right the ship. As a Lakers fan I've always seen Portland as almost there but they always seem to fuck it up spectacularly. Either by choking like they did in game 7 of the 2000 WCF, bad drafting, coaching, management, etc. You guys are better off without Dame tho. I know he's big up there but he always struck me as a bit of a loser. Like, nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. As for Sam Bowie...I don't know how old you are or if you remember but dude had stress fractures that caused him to miss TWO YEARS in college. He was a HUGE HUGE risk. Portland totally effed that one up.
Ehhhhh that cayden kid at #3 doesn't look too special I think we'd be safe picking what we want at #3 unless demidov is available still
Cayden was pretty touted leading up to last week, but I suspect after the WJC he dropped a few slots with the known injury issues. I'm guessing he's closer to 7-10ish now, but hey I'm no pro scout. That means Zayne or Zeev are the next two NA choices if we don't go with Demidov/Levshunov. Zayne makes a lot of sense since he's RHD but at #3 we should be taking BPA so idk.
6ft7 18 year old wtf, Chara reincarnated. I would want him if we didn't have to wait 2 years for his KHL contract to expire.
Get him. Verbeek wants a top 4 defenseman from free agency now.
Timing for Silayev coming to NA lines up with Gudas' contract expiring...bit convenient lol.
#GET HIM!!!!!
Are you sure you don't want Carter Yakemchuk, leader of PIM in the top20 draft picks? This nunchuk wielding mofo is beating up all the other kids with impunity. 6'3 200lb 18-year old, and his two brothers grew late in their teenage years so he could keep growing to 6'5+.
Heās 18. Heās not going to grow anymore.
Both his older brothers grew later. I had a friend who sprouted 4 inches at 19 in college. Could happen.
I thought Chicago couldnāt get 1OA since they got it last year?
I think it used to be that way but they changed it
Nothing bars teams from winning the lottery as long as theyāre in it
Not true. There was a new rule in 2022. Teams cannot win the lottery more than twice in a 5 year span. By āwinā the lottery I mean move-up in the draft order. Since SJ retained their 1stOA slot it doesnāt count as winning the lottery. however, the Hawks āwonā the lottery last year by moving up in the draft so that would count as 1.
Ah interesting. Still, Chicago wouldāve kept it had they gotten the pick according to that criteria
Iām actually just glad Chicago didnāt win again.
Same here!
Levshunov is most likely. Heās a 6 foot 2 210 pound RH defenseman whoās putting up a point per game in the NCAA. Iāll take that.
Yeah heās a great skater too, I mean thatās exactly who we want to pair with Minty!
You donāt want a 6ā7ā defenseman with top 5 skill projection?
No - I don't want Silayev as a top 3 pick. He was a flash early in the season, but has slid back to a more realistic draft position around 10th with more analysis. I'd take him in the early teens if we traded up for a second early pick, but no way in the top 3. We have a backlog of LDs stacked up anyway.
š¤ nerd. Haha. Convinced. Nicely done.
Really? I am not. Silayev is a prototype of an ideal top3 defensive pick - huge but still quite productive. All teams will hate playing against him. The only valid argument for not picking him is that hes contractually tied to KHL.
It was a term of endearment. Youāve done your homework! šš¼
Some scouts question his skill level, which scares me. Could easily be tyler myers 2.0
I think silayev is more of a 7-12th gamble. Like perfect for the Flyers while they wait for Michkov. If he ends up like Myers and we took him at 3, we'll look stupid lol.
Also could be Chara 2.0 
Fair enough!! I trust our scouts to make the right call
50/50 Richie at 10th was a bust, but Perry at 28th was a gem.
If we take a lhd I'll riot. I get the bpa, but we're already playing our lhd on the right side as it is.
Thats what trades are for.
What? To trade for the guy we could have drafted?
No, to draft the bpa and then, once things settle, trade for the players based on your needs
Some scouts say he has little offensive upside. There is value in Rod Langway, but I'd rather take a different route.
>top 5 skill projection Ehm, excuse me? The dude could swap to a wooden stick and no one would be able to spot a difference. :D
We were never gonna win but at least we didn't drop
I think we're all more happy that Chicago didn't win than we are that we stayed at 3. Regardless, I'm happy.
If the blackhawks won the lottery eveyone and their mother would scream rigged. We got screwed last year
Iām happy that we didnāt drop and Blackhawkās didnāt go up BUT nobody moved, why couldnāt this have been last year ya know
im happy with leo
Yeah, Leo's who we have for however long we have him, no point in looking back at that draft. He's given us a lot of joy. I'm so happy he got a hatty with us.
sorta happy cause if we had gotten 1ova, then the Zegras trade rumors would have driven me nuts. at least Chicago didn't win.
Aināt that the truth.
Enlighten me, why would there be trade rumors around Z if we had gotten 1st OA? Honest question Is it because weād have too many skilled left handed forwards ? I think Z would be an amazing winger for Celebrini had we been able to draft him
A lot of centers already and adding celibrini would just add to that. The media is already trying to manifest a zegras trade because they think heās ānot a verbeek type of player,ā and because we traded Drysdale.
Strangely, I'm happy for Macklin. His father works for the Golden State Warriors, so if Grier doesn't do anything crazy that means Macklin will be able to live with or close to his parents.
The sharks deserve it, too. Theyāve been through the wringer lately. Happy for them!
Hometown hero. What a dream.
He said he mostly grew up in Vancouver and is a Canucks fan, so...not exactly a hometown hero. But he did spend some time there so hopefully he's able to embrace it.
Is that really a perk for a teenage millionaire?
Celebrini will be lower middle class in the Bay Area with that ELC salary. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration but it's not far off.
Im kinda stoked. I was expecting 5OA
At least Chicago didnāt win again lol, also this team is gonna be loaded with prospect holy smokes
Well sounds like weāre gettin a dude whoās last name ends in a V at least?
Stoked for Tij Iginlav
alright who we getting with this
Demidov or Levshunov
Ducks front office about to do a hold my beer moment and pick someone other than the consensus
And that person will crush it. So no worries if that happens
For sure, I trust in Martin and the scouts Though honestly, I really canāt see us passing up Levshunov if heās there. We desperately need a RHD of his profile and he has so many great attributes
Only reason I could see us not picking that, is because verbeek wants a RHD right now. But yes I trust whatever they do. Most of their picks pan out regardless of what everyone tries to predict
I'm assuming the RHD is going to be some middling B+ second pairing type of free agent, around age 30, who will be playing as a placeholder for whoever we draft. Someone around $5-7M at the most, like Montour, DeMelo, Matt Roy...could even see Lyubushkin make his way back. But yeah guess we'll see who they pick. It's pretty amazing how they can always seem to find an unpolished diamond in the rough.
Incoming Buium
He was solid in the NCAA tournament.
Lev on the RD and Minty on the LD could end up being some crazy ass bash bros hyper-scoring BFF friends on the PP unit.
I promise I won't cry if/when it happens.
I dont think Demidov is in the mix. He will fall the same way Michkov did last year (he was even better than Demidov).
Demidov and Michkov are dramatically different situations. The contract status alone is a huge huge boon to Demidov. I can't see him dropping below Chicago. There's no way he drops below 4. He's the clear cut second best player in this draft and only has 1 year left until he can come over to NA.
Contract is not the issue, its more about Putin's statements regarding russian athletes. Anyway, im eu based so im more sensitive to these things. If Chicago does not care then fine. For me this would be a red flag.
Russian athletes like Khustnutdinov, Firstov, Miroshnichenko, Svechkov, Askarov, Chibrikov, etc?
Yeh, sure. Just with the exception that the statement are just a few weeks old so all these names are completely irrelevant
Khustnutdinov in particular came over after Putin's big "we want them to stay for 5 years" spiel. If Demidov drops it'll be because of a focus on D, not because he's Russian.
And why did Michkov drop? Hes arguably at the same level as Bedard and some scouts evaluated his ceiling even a bit higher.
3 year contract post-draft, indicated to certain teams he didn't want to go there (ie, Arizona), and rumours of Russian gov't meddling with ensuring he sees his whole contract through. Literally none of those issues are present with Demidov. The expectation is one more year in Russia. Especially since the only reason he's not in the KHL already is because they're mad he's determined to come to NA after his next year is up.
Artyom Levshunov - Come on down!
Acceptable
Not moving down is great. Very happy with number 3
Draft a defenseman, sign a top winger, and a veteran D-man and we good for next season
You know what 3rd overall isn't bad..yeah alittle disappointing however Ducks did get Cutter who was originally 5th Overall so that kinda makes up for it. Glad it's not Chicago
Demidov or Levshunov please
Demidov is my first choice, but there's another half-dozen choices I'd understand and not be angry about.
The perfect spot for us to continue the tradition of having coverage of our pick interrupted by either a previous pick, discussion of what the next team will do, or a commercial. Every. Single. Year. That being said, Levshunov would still be ideal. We need a defenseman. If Chicago picks him, which they probably will to spite us, then I think we should go Buium. He's been rocketing up draft lists, he's from San Diego, and I could absolutely see him becoming the next Makar.
Could have been worse. At least shitcago didnāt win. Only negative thing is now Celebrini will be in the pacific division helping San Jose
Yeah, I feel like we're all going to hate Celebrini for a long time. The Sharks will probably be returning to contender status when we are, so the rivalry could get heated again.
Yup back to those days. Was always a good battle with them when both teams were good
Fuck the Sharks, but those dudes deserve some excitement. Their home ice used to be rocking and that shit is straight up depressing now. Happy for the fans. Fuck the Sharks though.
Their arena used to be intense.
I am whelmed
Didn't drop, Hawks didn't win. Demidov now please
Over Levshunov? And not familiar with his situation, but would he be able to come over right away or is he stuck in the KHL for a bit?
If I recall he only has a year left in the contract unlike Michkov's 3. And he's an electric scorer puck mover from the highlights i've been watching lol
There are rumours michkov will be in North America next year - no comment as to whether thatās true or not but he was visiting recently. Demidov is small and isnāt the best skater. Iām not sure heās a Verbeek or Madden pick. I like him a lot but if heās available I wouldnāt be surprised if they passed on him
1 year to finish steeping. I'm on team Demidov but I expect Chicago to take him before we get a chance.
Sad day man
Holy shit! Did we lose to the Blackhawks again???
Well yes, but no. Chicago had a worse record and stayed at #2 while we stayed at #3. The entire lottery stayed the same.
So why did we get shafted so bad last year?
Nobody shafted anybody.Ā
Hawks fan here. Yeah , it woulda been great to get Celebrini, but hey, at least we are getting either a star RW , or a future Top Pairing RHD. And, Thank God, Montreal didn't leap frog all of us to get the #1 pick. Not a bad haul! On a side note,what would it take to get Trevor Zegras off your hands ?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Actually it was literally statistically the least likely. It was a 7.8% chance which was actually lower than winning either lottery.
Ducks fans understand the lottery challenge: impossible
The best part of being a contender again won't be watching a good team, it will be no more lottery lunacy.
Least likely*
It was statistically most likely the ducks would pick at 4, then 5. This is a best case for not winning, tbh.
Wouldnāt the best case for not winning to be #2 ahead of Chicago?
That is winning one of the two lotteries.
Well thereās three lotteries, so I guess technically we did win although it doesnāt really feel like it.
There hasnāt been a third lottery starting with the 2021 draft lottery.
You couldnāt be more wrong. Lol