Chip McCleary: Kekalainen at the Draft: 2007-2008 The 3rd part in the series.

BTW, yes - I know I mentioned posting an article yesterday and didn't. Apparently, when I hit "send" it didn't take like I thought it did - and I didn't notice it until this morning when I hit the computer and saw the page still up. So, my fault for not double-checking.

The first draft i dont think could be graded A. No doubt you guys got some good players, but there was more potential i think. The reason you guys come out on to is you ignore the people taken before hand (essentially giving yourself the "first overall pick" of the rest of the draft class) and you had a large amount of first and 2nd round picks. Still a good draft but by no means amazing.

BTW, yes - I know I mentioned posting an article yesterday and didn't. Apparently, when I hit "send" it didn't take like I thought it did - and I didn't notice it until this morning when I hit the computer and saw the page still up. So, my fault for not double-checking.
- Chip McCleary

We might get grumpy at nothing for long periods, but I think in general when something unexpected comes up one night you don't need to worry about the complaining you got previously. Glad the page was still up, rather than you losing anything you spent time on.

Good overview of the drafts, pretty much agree with you on it.

The first draft i dont think could be graded A. No doubt you guys got some good players, but there was more potential i think. The reason you guys come out on to is you ignore the people taken before hand (essentially giving yourself the "first overall pick" of the rest of the draft class) and you had a large amount of first and 2nd round picks. Still a good draft but by no means amazing.
- pbrsimps

It's tough to fairly grade drafts. Yes, basically giving yourself the top overall pick isn't exactly fair, because teams ahead of you are short a pick... but neither is judging Jarmo against people who had an advantage of drafting earlier. Especially for these two years, where only 3 & 8 picks respectively weren't considered, I think those are fair draft grades.

BTW, yes - I know I mentioned posting an article yesterday and didn't. Apparently, when I hit "send" it didn't take like I thought it did - and I didn't notice it until this morning when I hit the computer and saw the page still up. So, my fault for not double-checking.
- Chip McCleary

No big deal, just having a little fun.

I am surprised that you didn't start bashing Jake Allen.

The post game blogs are the really interesting ones to read, especially with the Blues.

Thanks for putting together these draft analyses. I've never seen draft picks analyzed by the picks as a whole and their contributions at the NHL level, or players rated relative to others drafted near them. It's a very interesting read.

Did you do all of this research yourself, or is there a compendium of pro stats by draft order database out there somewhere? It would be interesting to see how other teams have fared.

I think Kekalainen will make a pitch for his boy Lars Eller. He is comming into his own this season. It think the Habs will want to see Dubinsky play a few games before making a trade. It will probably be closer to deadline day.

These are really good write ups.

I think Kekalainen will make a pitch for his boy Lars Eller.
- Champ

Eller,Kaberle and our first for Dubinsky, Boll and New York's first?

Eller,Kaberle and our first for Dubinsky, Boll and New York's first?
- bulletbill

Kaberle... as much as I want him gone he ruins the trade for CBJ. Swap him for Weber who still has a lot of untapped potential

The first draft i dont think could be graded A. No doubt you guys got some good players, but there was more potential i think. The reason you guys come out on to is you ignore the people taken before hand (essentially giving yourself the "first overall pick" of the rest of the draft class) and you had a large amount of first and 2nd round picks. Still a good draft but by no means amazing.
- pbrsimps

Valid points, especially since the Blues had 10 picks that year and so there's more chances to hit. That said, the Blues are the only team to get 6 guys out of that draft to the NHL so far, and their 60% conversion rate is topped in that draft only by Edmonton (5/6), Minnesota (4/5) and San Jose (5/8). What makes that even more impressive is that there's a decent chance that all 6 of those guys have a semi-regular shift in the NHL (log 100 or more NHL games); Peluso is going to be the longshot in that group, but he's got the potential to grind it out for a few years - and there's still the possibility that Hjalmarsson comes over and makes it 7.

Getting 6 guys to the NHL in a draft? That's good. Getting 6 guys to be semi-regulars (100+ games) out of a draft? Toronto potentially has that with its '06 draft class; before that, the last draft class to have 6 guys log 100+ NHL games was the Ottawa class of 2001 (Spezza, Gleason, Emery, Schubert, Laich, Bochenski) ... also taken by JK. Before that, it was the 1999 Islanders (who had 3 top-10 picks with Connolly, Pyatt and Mezei) and before that, it was 1991 when the Canadiens and Islanders did it.

Could I compare the Blues draft class to everyone? Yes, and I do that - but if the Blues only had picks at say 47, 91, 103, 118 and 155, it wouldn't be fair to judge those picks by including the first 46 guys who Kekalainen never had a shot to take (even if he tried to move up and was rebuffed). I think it makes sense to look at it from both levels - with and without the guys taken above the first available pick.

Kaberle... as much as I want him gone he ruins the trade for CBJ. Swap him for Weber who still has a lot of untapped potential
- Jaciems

More for salary reasons, Dubinsky makes like 3 mill more than Eller does...