Larkin done for the season

Drafting goaltending is voodoo, Skip. Results with drafting a goalie in the top-15 is a total crapshoot. Only two have been take in the top-15 in the last decade. I'd stay away from drafting a goalie if I was Stevey Y.

Do you think they sign and hold onto Vrana, or deal him?

Everybody says that, Jeff. That's how teams lose out on guys like Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek. Sometimes you have to take a chance. If you look at the 1st round picks of most teams every year they're not even racking up All-Stars with their picks. That along with the lack of a season's worth of data on a lot of Candian Juniors because of Covid it's a good year to take a flyer at somebody in net who has a lot of promise. Yzerman, in part, built his team in Tampa around Andrei Vasilevski. Maybe Wallstedt can be that guy for us. That said if we get lucky and win the draft lottery then, yes, we take a skater, I agree.

For the sake of argument, Brodeur was taken 20th overall, Patrick Roy was drafted in the third round, and The Dominator was selected in the TENTH round, which of course no longer exists. You're not necessarily missing out on elite netminders if you don't draft them as a priority.

Vasilevskiy was taken 19th overall. Generally goalies don't go in the first round unless there's a whole train's worth of hype surrounding them. Spencer Knight and Jaroslav Askarov are prime examples of guys with a ton of expectations behind them.

For the most part you should always draft the best player available no matter what the position. Mind you, beyond the top nine or ten picks there really isn't a consensus on who's the best so that's not a hard and fast rule, but IMO prioritizing the drafting of a goalie is what leads to situations like the Dallas Stars taking Jack Campbell, who turned out to be a really good backup but just another giant whiff under Joe Nieuwendyk's disastrous tenure as GM there.

If you got good scouts you can still get good goalies in lower rounds, and really, getting them there is advantageous because a lot of times, if you're drafting a kid in NCAA or Europe, you hold his rights for years, and with goalies they likely need to stew a lot longer than most other players.

I'm guessing Stevie Y's got a plan--if ANY GM has one, it's that guy.

Personally I think the league still overvalues goaltending WAY too much. Yes, it's a complete and total disaster if you get it wrong. But more often than not teams overpay (looking at you, Calgary) when there are all kinds of more economical options available. You only have to fill two (nowadays even before COVID it's more like three) goalie slots on your roster. At any given time there are TONS of netminders available around the world. Too often teams keep going back to the same well, I'd like to see a team break with tradition and try out some Euro free agents, etc. The Avs found a capable backup that way--unfortunately injuries ended up taking that particular advantage away.

Hasek was taken in the 10th, but back then there was far fewer teams. He was taken at 199. In 2020 there may have only been 7 rounds, but there was 217 picks. Starting next year, 1 more pick per round. If Bettman has his way, there will be 6 rounds of 40 picks, with teams in Puerto Rico, Death Valley, Hawaii, and other places where metal melts, let alone ice.

All of those places you mention are better hockey locations than Glendale, Arizona.

For the sake of argument, Brodeur was taken 20th overall, Patrick Roy was drafted in the third round, and The Dominator was selected in the TENTH round, which of course no longer exists. You're not necessarily missing out on elite netminders if you don't draft them as a priority.

Vasilevskiy was taken 19th overall. Generally goalies don't go in the first round unless there's a whole train's worth of hype surrounding them. Spencer Knight and Jaroslav Askarov are prime examples of guys with a ton of expectations behind them.

For the most part you should always draft the best player available no matter what the position. Mind you, beyond the top nine or ten picks there really isn't a consensus on who's the best so that's not a hard and fast rule, but IMO prioritizing the drafting of a goalie is what leads to situations like the Dallas Stars taking Jack Campbell, who turned out to be a really good backup but just another giant whiff under Joe Nieuwendyk's disastrous tenure as GM there.

If you got good scouts you can still get good goalies in lower rounds, and really, getting them there is advantageous because a lot of times, if you're drafting a kid in NCAA or Europe, you hold his rights for years, and with goalies they likely need to stew a lot longer than most other players.

I'm guessing Stevie Y's got a plan--if ANY GM has one, it's that guy.

Personally I think the league still overvalues goaltending WAY too much. Yes, it's a complete and total disaster if you get it wrong. But more often than not teams overpay (looking at you, Calgary) when there are all kinds of more economical options available. You only have to fill two (nowadays even before COVID it's more like three) goalie slots on your roster. At any given time there are TONS of netminders available around the world. Too often teams keep going back to the same well, I'd like to see a team break with tradition and try out some Euro free agents, etc. The Avs found a capable backup that way--unfortunately injuries ended up taking that particular advantage away.

Would you please shrink that photo down for me Tom?

Well, I don't have access right this instant to anything that'll shrink it down, but I edited my previous post so that you can see the original photos on Twitter. That way it's not screwing up this thread displaying anymore.

Oh, and going back to the original discussion, yeah, I suppose if you can get him, or Cossa (the other one I've heard about) then get him, but it all depends on where the Wings land in terms of the lottery.

Here's a mock draft that, presently, has Detroit taking your boy Wallstedt 6th overall.

http://www.mynhldraft.com/NHL-Mock-Draft/