Into it. I mean, everything changes if we add another 1st or 2...Chesley becomes less of a reach in the 20's, and you can go in another direction earlier.

Yeah 16 is certainly high for Ryan Chesley. I think overall skill wise, Ty Nelson is the better prospect. But, you raise a good point that the Ducks could use a nice defensive defenseman behind Drysdale. Noah Warren is my #106 at the moment, but could be worth the third round pick? Big defensive defenseman that I think could be as good as a low-end second pair d-man. Could be worth a look. And you get to keep one of my favorite players in the draft in McGroarty.

Let's say the Ducks get back a 1st+ for Lindholm and end up in the 11-14 range. If he's there because of his injury, they should take Jiricek, no doubt. But if he's gone, I don't think a Defenseman would be the best pick. I'd pick one of Nazar, McGroarty or a potential faller like Yurov there. With the other 1st, let's say it's between 22 and 26, I'd absolutely love Chesley, as explained above. With the 2nd in the 40's I'd go BPA (which on my board would be Beck, Devine, Nyman, Gaucher). If the Ducks had a 3rd, they should absolutely take Warren there.

If we bang on the Jiricek drum long enough, it has to happen. I did it for Drysdale, I think I can do it for Jiricek (I can't. I know I can't. I know it won't happen. It's going to make me sad. I have the same vibe from him as I did with Lundell, who would have been my second choice if Zegras was gone).

Jiricek at 10 or something would be phenomenal. The defensive core would be close to complete. I wouldn't pick Chesley in the 20's then. There wouldn't be a real defensive Defenseman, but if you have a Top 4 consisting of Drysdale, Jiricek, Zellweger and Fowler/Thrun, that's not as important.

Yeah, I worry that we're going to be in no-man's land, fall ever so slightly short of the playoffs, and pick right around 16 OA, regardless of what is done.

I hope not. I obviously don't want the team to be bad, but I hope they finish in the 10-13 range. Wouldn't be good if they straight up suck from here on out, especially for the young players. As of now, they'd be 14th (P%); a bit worse would be "optimal".

BruinsFan35 You like to work, right?
I'll give you a list of prospects you can take a look on. Many of them are overagers, 19 goalies are also included.

1/3 or 1/2 of them will make my rankings. I have basically finished my list, but I'll probably wait a few more weeks, the details can change. For example, Julian Lutz has just begun with his season and Gavin Hayes is on a hot streak.

My list will be different, I will post a rankings with roughly 180 (maybe even less?) players I am willing to throw a flyer on and how many I am willing to spend on them. For example, I will have 20-25 players in 1st round. If in my opinion player is not worth 1st round pick, he will appear in 2nd. If he is not worth 2nd round pick, he will appear in 3rd and so on. GMs must think the same. Otherwise they would only trade down if they would need additional pick(s).
I don't think 224 players are worth at least 7th round pick. That's also GMs opinion. Otherwise on draft day nobody would be trading picks in the current draft for selections in the same round next season.

Now, here the guys are:

WHL: Grayden SIEPMANN, John BABCOCK, James STEFAN, Taylor GAUTHIER, Dylan ERNST, Ty YOUNG, Kolby HAY.

QMJHL: Francesco IASENZA, Emeric GAUDET, Ethan DOLLEMONT, Brayden SCHMITT, Maxime PELLERIN, Frederic BRUNET, William ROUSSEAU.

OJHL: Jack SPARKES.

OHL: Logan MORRISON, Matt MAGGIO, Riley PIERCEY, Nolan BURKE, Deni GOURE, Kyle JACKSON, Gavin WHITE, Kasper LARSEN, Chas SHARPE, Jacob LeBLANC, Roberto MANCINI, Joe RANGER, Pavel CAJAN, Jacob OSTER.

USHL: Davis BURNSIDE, Stephen HALLIDAY, Connor KURTH, German YAVASH, Garrett BROWN, Aiden DUBINSKY, Luke MITTLESTADT, Emmett CROTEAU.

NAHL: Luca Di PASQUO.

Russian leagues: Raul YAKUPOV, German TOLCHINSKY, Ivan GUSKOV, Yaroslav YAPPAROV, Grigori KUZMIN, Danil AIMURZIN, Vladimir ANDREYEV, Matvei AVEROCHKIN, Alexei YEGOROV (2 players with the same name, one 2002, one 2003. I am focused on 2003 one), Bogdan KROKHALYOV, Maxim AREFYEV, Stanislav BEREZHNOY, Ivan NOVOZHILOV, Maxim MAYOROV.

Other European leagues: Marcel MAHKOVEC, Luca HAUF, Milton OSCARSON, Ian BLOMQUIST, Daniel KRAL, Jakub TICHY, Nils WALLSTROM, Sisu HEIKKERI (on eliteprospects no data about his height and weight. Comparing to his teammates he should be 5ft11-6ft0).

Thanks. I actually have half- finished profiles on like 2/3 of those guys. Just have to finish them up. I also believe that I have published a full profile of Dylan Ernst, but I’ll double check. Challenge accepted lol

I'd love a tag in these moving forward! Excellent work.

I'm fine with chalking it up to not having the familiarity with the Oilers system or just deferring to BPA, but I don't think that the Oilers would look to take another two-way defender with offensive upside when Chesley offers a lot more of what they need. Not much for shutdown defenders in the system, especially behind Bouchard on the right side. Maybe Kemp? I don't know if Max Wanner becomes anything.