Blogging about everything St. Louis Blues

Thought of the Day: 05-25-09 May 26, 2009

Just got home from seeing Night at the Museum 2 (good movie by the way) and watched the 2008 Draft Special on NHL Network.

They did spend some time going over the Blues and their #4 pick. Some interesting things seemed to have come up at the draft that I am not sure were talked about much.

The #2 and #4 Pick:
It sounded like Larry Pleau wasn’t sure that LA was going to draft Doughty. Sounded like they were very interested in him, with good reason after his solid rookie campaign.

Anaheim and the #28 Pick:
Anaheim dealt their #28 pick to Phoenix to pick up #35 and #39.
Based on what they showed with Burke mic’d up…
Blues offered #33 and #87
NYI offered #36 and #60
NJD offered #55 and #57
PHO offered #35 and #39

At #28 Phoenix drafted Viktor Tikhonov.

Detroit and the #30 pick:
Detroit took several offers for the 30th pick.  The Devils offered a similar set of picks and the Blues offered the same, #33 and #87. Ken Holland (mic’d up) said they could add the 65th to it and maybe give the Blues back a 4th or 5th rounder. Holland sounded like he would deal, if their player wasn’t there, which ended up being Thomas McCollum.

#33 turned in to Phil McRae, #87 turned in to Ian Schultz, and #65 turned in to Jori Lehtera.

Assuming these deals had gone down…would the Blues have taken Tikhanov or McCollum at #28? Would they have taken McCollum at 30 and passed on Jake Allen at #34 to hope for McRae instead? Are Tikhanov and McCollumn better than Allen, McRae, Schutlz, and Lehtera?

McCollum is ranked #4 in the Red Wings system by Hockeys Future and rated an 8.0D and Tikhanov is rated an 8.0C and #1 in the Coyotes system. Allen and McRae are rated 7.5C and 7.0C, ranked 6 and 7 in the Blues system. There is not a large difference. Add in a large guy like Schultz and an offensive upside guy Lehtra, I think the Blues did better not making the deals.

While it would have been nice to keep adding 1st Rounders to the coffers, Allen and McRae taken early in the 2nd are pretty comparable to the late 1st Round guys.  So not being able to trade up a few picks wasn’t the end of the world. Keep in mind that the Blues could have offered #33 and #34 to move up to get Tikhanov or McCollum and had a better offer than Phoenix.

With the Blues possibly trading down this year, look for similar scenarios. The Blues may not land a Pronger on draft day, they could add 3-4 additional 2nd to 4th round picks by dealing down. The Islanders have three 2nd round picks this summer, keep an eye open for that.