And that may be why Gillis & Co focus in on those overagers - they are largely ignored by other teams! And this is especially the case when kids like Mallet do not at all stand out in their draft years. He may catch up in his development, and/or his TOI circumstances change (as Mallet's did), and, voila, he puts together a good season, apparently out of nowhere. Will his game translate to the pros? Who knows? But I'd rather listen to someone's opinion on the matter who has thoroughly scouted him.Fred wrote:Maybe Mallet can do all of the above ....but there's a big difference doing that in a league filled with 16 year olds and a league filled with 20-30 year olds. That has to be one of the reason most teams don't take older picks, tough to judge themFarhan Lalji wrote:Just for the record, I think Gillis did extremely well at this draft, and I think that both Gaunce and Mallete will be strong players for us in the not-so-distant future. Gaunce seems like one of those 'character' guys with a decent skillset and hockey sense. I've heard that his skating isn't all that great, but neither were the twins'. Mallete is a reasonably skilled guy and knows how to throw em'. The guy also hits. I like this kid.
Looks like Gillis has really made a priority to get bigger and badder with his draft picks over the past 2 seasons. He has my support.
I don't know if this is a new drafting strategy for GMMG or not. Too early to tell. But I would guess that the reason they did not pick a European this time (first time in years!), is because, now, so much attention and scouting is focused there by most teams. So, finding a "hidden" gem like Edler is going to be much more difficult! Probably the same situation with the WHL.
Gillis did say that one of the advantages of drafting an overager was that they would be able to assess his development and put him into the pros sooner than young 18 year olds. Makes sense. Similar with the college-bound kids. They will be in good programs longer to aid their development into potential pros and the Canucks will have plenty of time to assess them. All this is trying to get ahead of the pack. We'll see if it was successful in a few years. Of course, if the team is consistently drafting in the later picks, you've got to come up with something that might give you an edge, because you're not likely to be able to grab a recognized top talent. All due to continued success! Crazy, eh?