You are the Blues GM on draft day 2026

[a smell of green grass]

2018 NHL Draft
1.) Dahlin
2.) Svechnikov
3.) Kotkaniemi
4.) Brady Tkachuk
5.) Hayton
6.) whiff
7.) Quinn Hughes
8.) whiff
9.) whiff
10.) Bouchard
11.) whiff
12.) Dobson
13.) whiff
14.) Farabee
15.) whiff
16.) whiff
17-21.) whiffs

Anybody notice where the whiffs are happening? What does 2018 tell you about Armstrong's preference to draft around 15 every year?

[BleedingBleu]

2018 NHL Draft
1.) Dahlin
2.) Svechnikov
3.) Kotkaniemi
4.) Brady Tkachuk
5.) Hayton
6.) whiff
7.) Quinn Hughes
8.) whiff
9.) whiff
10.) Bouchard
11.) whiff
12.) Dobson
13.) whiff
14.) Farabee
15.) whiff
16.) whiff
17-21.) whiffs

Anybody notice where the whiffs are happening? What does 2018 tell you about Armstrong's preference to draft around 15 every year?

Yet, 12 of the Top 20 Leaders in Points were drafted outside of the Top 10…

[roadkillIL]

BleedingB with the smackdown!!!!

[BleedingBleu]

All I’ve heard is how weak this Center Class is when it comes to premium talent, how the Cap will be going up, how team friendly Thomas’ deal is, and how loaded the Center class was the year before. This tells me we are ripe for nabbing someone else’s Center that they’ve done all the work and investment in developing later on.

No one questions Bjorks’ skill and IQ, but they do question his size and his ability to stay at Center. Lawrence was highly touted until he wasn’t. Then he had a little late season boost on a college team that went from NCAA runner-ups the prior year to .500 win%. I get he’s young, and I am enticed by him, but I’m ready to see some muscle return to the top ranks.

I really like the idea of Belchetz to be our Top-6 True Power FWD like a Brady Tkachuk or Tom Wilson that we’ve not had since the days of Backes.

This team has been labeled soft for far too long and I love a player who’s going to be a disrupter in the offensive zone. Just stick a big, mean, immovable donkey in front of the goal to pester the goaltender, push around D-Men of all sizes and cleanup the slop in front of the net while collecting 30 G/30 A and +200 hits a year and 18:00 ATOI.

Also, I’m very ok with drafting/developing a Centerman late in this first Round, and/or letting someone else develop them and collecting one of those in their Prime (O’Reilly, Schenn). Lots of intriguing Centers around that Late First Round Pick that gives me pause and willingness to roll w/a Thomas/Dvorsky middle for years to come.

Give Robert and/or Dalibor a brute that will preserve their careers and put up 60 points while wrecking the Divisional foe’s rosters before facing them in the First & Second Rounds

I’d absolutely love to have Belchetz if I thought he reasonably compared to B.Tkachuk or Wilson. I see guys like Michael Rasmussen or Anthony Mantha being better comps.

Mantha is in the Buchnevich territory when it comes to hits. The comps I’ve seen had been closer to Tkachuk & Juraj Slafkovský on the high end, but each espouse his defensive game, physical play, and willingness to duke it out in defense of his teammates when the opposition got a little too aggressive… the last two points factoring in his high PIM.

I can see why you applied Rasmussen in there. Former Top 10 with a physical approach to the game and some time on PP2. Maybe the wings can give us him and we’ll draft one of the other guys?

1- We already have Rasmussen. His name is Jack Finley. We just need to get him away from the offensive blackhole known as Alex Toropchenko.

2- I know it still seems like he's young-ish but Rasmussen is 27 years old already. At this point, he is what he is; a 4th line center that gets net front duty on the PP(AKA Sunny). Not the worst player in the league, but not somebody we should have any interest in.

Changing topic slightly; I'm not particularly wild about the Mantha comparison. It discounts Belchetz's defensive game and undersells his physicality. Mantha is flat out soft. He wants to be a finesse winger(Eric Daze syndrome). He doesn't like to engage physically and actively avoids the defensive game. Blechetz may not have a Tkachuk type psycho streak, but he's got a a physical game in him.

As far as Belchetz comparison's; I can't argue the JVR one that I saw on hfboards(pre-foot injury JVR in any case) outside of the defensive game(Belchetz is already better defensively than JVR ever was). I'd say Timo Meier is more accurate, but I wouldn't argue it too strongly.

I saw a couple of comps about Reemer and meant to add his name to the list, but completely blanked when I was attempting to throw names out there. Still in that 30/30 wheelhouse Power FWD mood, but would hope for more hits in the +170 range

The Timo Meier one is a new one for me. I certainly wouldn’t hate it. Honestly, it makes a lot of sense and I’m surprised the NJ Devils Advocates blog didn’t bring that up.

Give me a younger, taller Timo Meier at 11 and I’m sending Belchetz souvenir theme night ideas to the Blues suggestion box for +21 and older Belch-etz Beer Steins

[JoshInFenton]

If i am the blues on draft day, i am looking more at people who want to give up strong players that aren't above the age of 31 for some draft capital to fill their rebuild.

I'd probably try to package out some of my depth in the defensive pool to acquire a RHD or upgrade from the current lineup. Teams seem to be very against moving around much in the draft, a preference seems more to the overall trade in or trade out in the earlier two rounds.

Ristolainen or Nimec both are intriguing options for different reasons. Forwards there are also probably 7-8 that seem like good plays for various roster spots.

We are also in an ok spot to move back if people want to give us much higher value seeding for our picks if it's Colorado's pick specifically. A team that is drafting top 10 that might draft in the 1st round of the playoffs or out of the playoffs would be a smart choice.

[clemonsonroots]

would take bjorck, but would be pretty happy if any of these 3 or daxon rudolph dropped to 11