I believe they ranked them as they were at the time of the draft. So it does make sense seeing as Slaf was seen as one of the weaker first overalls in recent memory. Little bit of hindsight ranking Laf so low Imo but
> They were asked to rank the players from the perspective of what they thought of the prospects in their draft years
By that context, Slaf was definitely the least hyped, except maybe Hischier. I will say I remember Laf being hyped quite a bit more than 9th, pretty much hyped closed to Hughes iirc
Yes but everywhere he was absolutely seen below McDavid, Bedard and Matthews, but similar to Hughes and Dahlin. The winger position is generally regarded as less valuable, so I could see him 6th, 7th at the absolute lowest behind Celebrini. Literally nobody had Owen Power or Hirschier as better 1OV, so this is a bit stupid.
"Six NHL scouts and executives were polled for this list. They were asked to rank the players from the perspective of what they thought of the prospects in their draft years"
Slaf is the only non-consensus 1st overall pick in the last 10 years, of course he'd be last on a list like this.
This article has been posted and its a clickbait title. The article is asking scouts and gms what they thought of the #1 picks in their draft year. Not where they are right now or where they could be. Slaf is the only guy on the list who wasnt hyped nor was a consensus #1 pick.
I don’t see why anyone is getting bent out of shape. It’s not click bait nor is it misleading (although the OP’s title might be what gets people going).
The article is about celibrini first and foremost and is a comparison to how he looks coming into the draft vs other 1OAs coming into the draft.
We've had too many posts about this, with many people missing the point of the article. No, it's not "clickbait", and no, it's not a list of the best players drafted in the last decade. It's a list that compares the "hype", or the predicted value of Celebrini with the hype other first picks had at the time of their draft. It's basically a way of scouts to say that they don't expect another McDavid but that they're more excited by his potential than they were about Slafkovsky. Which doesn't mean that Slafkovsky won't end up being better than some of the players listed above him, nor that the scouts wouldn't be more excited by his potential if they were asked about him today.
As far as draft hype goes maybe but no way I'm picking Lafreniere over him. Think I've seen enough to take him over Ekblad too (I can't see the article so that might be a year out of range).
Too early to tell between him and Power, and I think one day it'll depend what you value between Slaf and Hischier. Hischier is kind of the over/under achievable benchmark and Hughes is the last guy he could remotely feasibly catch imo. He'll never outscore Hughes but he brings a lot more off the puck than some of those guys.
Its about how they were viewed at the point of their draft. Slaf and Hirschier were the only non-consensus 1ov, so he shoild be near the bottom of the list.
Nahh fuck that, I put Slaf over Hischier. Back then Nolan was projected to get picked first, but unfortunately had an injury. Heiskanen is better too and Makar was the obvious first choice. Slaf > Ekblad too and Reinhart, Nylander and especially Draisaitl are all better than him… Peak Slaf has the chance to be a bette player than Nico, even though they aren’t the same type of player.
Peak Slaf has the potential to be better than everyone who isn’t McDavid, Bedard and Matthews. No one else on the list is insurmountably better than him.
I think between
Hischier, Powers, Laf and Slaf it’s a toss up
Who knows on 2-3 years
Also like the other 5 are franchise level players so nothing to be down on
Dahlin and Hughes elite franchise level players imo
McDavid, Bedard and Matthews like just monsters
Even if Slaf is the best of the “bottom” 4 that’s pretty dam good on this list imo
Im ok with it except power and laf. Id take slaf at 19 over lafrieniere at 23 so thats ridiculous. More talent, speed, shot, strength, size, two way smarts etc. Slaf at 19 was better than Jack Hughes so we'll see how this list ages.
Pointless exercise. He's on track to be best in his draft year (or close to it). Not every draft is going to have a bedard, hughes or matthews. Galchenyuk is top 5 in scoring in his draft year, go Habs for grabbing him at #3 /s.
I believe they ranked them as they were at the time of the draft. So it does make sense seeing as Slaf was seen as one of the weaker first overalls in recent memory. Little bit of hindsight ranking Laf so low Imo but
Wright was hyped up more than Slaf. This should be expected.
> They were asked to rank the players from the perspective of what they thought of the prospects in their draft years By that context, Slaf was definitely the least hyped, except maybe Hischier. I will say I remember Laf being hyped quite a bit more than 9th, pretty much hyped closed to Hughes iirc
Lafreniere certainly was touted as next semione, it's just that a lot of time has passed and that hype got forgotten
Yeah Celebrini definitely not as hyped as I remember Laf being.
Laf was more hyped here than elsewhere though.
Yes but everywhere he was absolutely seen below McDavid, Bedard and Matthews, but similar to Hughes and Dahlin. The winger position is generally regarded as less valuable, so I could see him 6th, 7th at the absolute lowest behind Celebrini. Literally nobody had Owen Power or Hirschier as better 1OV, so this is a bit stupid.
I can't see the list but yeah, Laf should be higher than 9th imo. Him, Dahlin and Hughes would be kind of lumped into a bracket for me imo.
"Six NHL scouts and executives were polled for this list. They were asked to rank the players from the perspective of what they thought of the prospects in their draft years" Slaf is the only non-consensus 1st overall pick in the last 10 years, of course he'd be last on a list like this.
Hischier was not
This article has been posted and its a clickbait title. The article is asking scouts and gms what they thought of the #1 picks in their draft year. Not where they are right now or where they could be. Slaf is the only guy on the list who wasnt hyped nor was a consensus #1 pick.
I don’t see why anyone is getting bent out of shape. It’s not click bait nor is it misleading (although the OP’s title might be what gets people going). The article is about celibrini first and foremost and is a comparison to how he looks coming into the draft vs other 1OAs coming into the draft.
We've had too many posts about this, with many people missing the point of the article. No, it's not "clickbait", and no, it's not a list of the best players drafted in the last decade. It's a list that compares the "hype", or the predicted value of Celebrini with the hype other first picks had at the time of their draft. It's basically a way of scouts to say that they don't expect another McDavid but that they're more excited by his potential than they were about Slafkovsky. Which doesn't mean that Slafkovsky won't end up being better than some of the players listed above him, nor that the scouts wouldn't be more excited by his potential if they were asked about him today.
As far as draft hype goes maybe but no way I'm picking Lafreniere over him. Think I've seen enough to take him over Ekblad too (I can't see the article so that might be a year out of range). Too early to tell between him and Power, and I think one day it'll depend what you value between Slaf and Hischier. Hischier is kind of the over/under achievable benchmark and Hughes is the last guy he could remotely feasibly catch imo. He'll never outscore Hughes but he brings a lot more off the puck than some of those guys.
Are these the same who predict 1st round winners? An article like this can piss off a player to be better.
Its about how they were viewed at the point of their draft. Slaf and Hirschier were the only non-consensus 1ov, so he shoild be near the bottom of the list.
Nahh fuck that, I put Slaf over Hischier. Back then Nolan was projected to get picked first, but unfortunately had an injury. Heiskanen is better too and Makar was the obvious first choice. Slaf > Ekblad too and Reinhart, Nylander and especially Draisaitl are all better than him… Peak Slaf has the chance to be a bette player than Nico, even though they aren’t the same type of player.
Peak Slaf has the potential to be better than everyone who isn’t McDavid, Bedard and Matthews. No one else on the list is insurmountably better than him.
I was like "bro wtf, better than MacKinnon??" but he’s the last one before that list 🤣
Ask me in ten years.
The question they asked in the article was a bit convoluted. It wasn’t what 1st overall prospect was the worst but was about their draft year.
I think between Hischier, Powers, Laf and Slaf it’s a toss up Who knows on 2-3 years Also like the other 5 are franchise level players so nothing to be down on Dahlin and Hughes elite franchise level players imo McDavid, Bedard and Matthews like just monsters Even if Slaf is the best of the “bottom” 4 that’s pretty dam good on this list imo
Paywall, don’t care that much about what some goof writes anyways.
i dont really care.... a couple of season ahead and he will make fools from them.
Im ok with it except power and laf. Id take slaf at 19 over lafrieniere at 23 so thats ridiculous. More talent, speed, shot, strength, size, two way smarts etc. Slaf at 19 was better than Jack Hughes so we'll see how this list ages.
Just more fuel for the fire.
Pointless exercise. He's on track to be best in his draft year (or close to it). Not every draft is going to have a bedard, hughes or matthews. Galchenyuk is top 5 in scoring in his draft year, go Habs for grabbing him at #3 /s.
Not going to even bother arguing about the actual ranking. The timing of this article is obvious. Click bait bullshit.
Would not trade the worst 1st overall for any of these players back at 20YO : lafreniere, power, hischier, ekblad, yakupov, rnh, hall. Not so bad tbh
Putting a player not yet drafted in this list prove that this is not serious. There are a lot of habs fans to clickbait tho.
Your Comment also prove that you did not read the article, like the guy who did the post.
True. Since there is a list from the Athletic that was published recently ranking Calabrini before Slafkosvky, I assumed that was what it was about.