Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images
I can confirm that both Lawson Crouse and Mikko Rantanen interviewed with the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks during last weeks NHL Draft combine in Buffalo, NY.
I fully expect both players to be drafted in the top-10 later this month, so for either team to acquire either player a trade would need to happen.
Now before you go flying off the handle and dreaming up what it will take to land a top-10 pick, meetings like this are fairly common practice during the combine. In fact, both players interviewed with more than 20 teams each throughout the week, so they are on a lot of team’s radar right now.
So right now you’re asking why on earth they would meet with players that are currently out of their reach. Well there are a couple of reasons for that.
Reason one, you never know what will come your way when you’re at the draft table. Say a team makes you an offer or a player falls like Hunter Shinkaruk a few years ago, you’ll want to have some Intel on that player. And that is why you meet with them at the NHL combine.
And reason two, meeting them before the draft is one of the only chances to meet the players before talking to them can be considered tampering – and you don’t want to get caught doing that. These meeting also lay a steadier foundation for future trades should a team decide to move a young player down the road.
A perfect example of this is the Sven Baertschi trade. This just speculation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if both the Vancouver brass and Benning while he was still in Boston talked to Baertschi before the 2011 NHL Draft. If they didn’t do it when they had the chance, maybe they don’t offer up a second round pick this year for him.
But anyways, back to Crouse and Rantanen, and is it realistic to think either will end up out west.
To land either I believe that you need to get to the No. 6 pick to have your pick of the two. I also think that the New Jersey Devils are the only team in the six-to-nine area that will entertain an offer to move their pick.
My rational is New Jersey needs to add young players more than any other team in the NHL. Add to that, Hextall came from the Kings and will prefer to build from within, the Blue Jackets want a defenceman and I don’t think Calgary or Vancouver will move a good enough one to get that pick, and the Sharks want to draft where they are.
After those teams, I think the Avalanche will take a defenceman and Panthers’ pick might be in play to move down, but that price will likely be steep as I feel Crouse and Rantanen are perfect fits in Florida.
In Vancouver’s case, I would say highly doubtful they can get from 23-to-six. They don’t have the picks and Benning has gone on record as saying he won’t move his young players. I would say seeing either Crouse or Rantanen in the blue and green is about a one per cent chance, so don’t get too excited by the interview.
Calgary on the other hand is a different story. I can see the Devils dropping to No. 15 for the right offer, but that offer would have to include a pair of second round picks – which funny enough, Calgary has three. So say 15, 45 and 52 for No. 6?
This move would make a lot of sense for both teams. Calgary needs a big bodied player that can play top-6 minutes and both Crouse and Rantanen fit that need. Add in that these two are borderline ready to play in the NHL next season and it seems like a good fit with all the young forwards Calgary has.
On New Jersey’s side, this draft has shelves, which are broken down as so: Two elite players, 10-12 real good players and 10-12 good players. That means if a player falls out of that second group the Devils could get them at No. 15 and have a player that is close to as good as the player they would have taken at No. 6 – and they would have two additional picks to stock the cupboards with.
So with all that in mind, watch on draft day and see if a deal between New Jersey and Calgary gets done. All the parts are there for both parties, now we just have to wait and see if it gets done.
And if you’re wondering, Crouse is who I would take if I was the Flames. He just has a little more “truculence”.
Thanks for reading
Ian
I fully expect both players to be drafted in the top-10 later this month, so for either team to acquire either player a trade would need to happen.
Now before you go flying off the handle and dreaming up what it will take to land a top-10 pick, meetings like this are fairly common practice during the combine. In fact, both players interviewed with more than 20 teams each throughout the week, so they are on a lot of team’s radar right now.
So right now you’re asking why on earth they would meet with players that are currently out of their reach. Well there are a couple of reasons for that.
Reason one, you never know what will come your way when you’re at the draft table. Say a team makes you an offer or a player falls like Hunter Shinkaruk a few years ago, you’ll want to have some Intel on that player. And that is why you meet with them at the NHL combine.
And reason two, meeting them before the draft is one of the only chances to meet the players before talking to them can be considered tampering – and you don’t want to get caught doing that. These meeting also lay a steadier foundation for future trades should a team decide to move a young player down the road.
A perfect example of this is the Sven Baertschi trade. This just speculation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if both the Vancouver brass and Benning while he was still in Boston talked to Baertschi before the 2011 NHL Draft. If they didn’t do it when they had the chance, maybe they don’t offer up a second round pick this year for him.
But anyways, back to Crouse and Rantanen, and is it realistic to think either will end up out west.
To land either I believe that you need to get to the No. 6 pick to have your pick of the two. I also think that the New Jersey Devils are the only team in the six-to-nine area that will entertain an offer to move their pick.
My rational is New Jersey needs to add young players more than any other team in the NHL. Add to that, Hextall came from the Kings and will prefer to build from within, the Blue Jackets want a defenceman and I don’t think Calgary or Vancouver will move a good enough one to get that pick, and the Sharks want to draft where they are.
After those teams, I think the Avalanche will take a defenceman and Panthers’ pick might be in play to move down, but that price will likely be steep as I feel Crouse and Rantanen are perfect fits in Florida.
In Vancouver’s case, I would say highly doubtful they can get from 23-to-six. They don’t have the picks and Benning has gone on record as saying he won’t move his young players. I would say seeing either Crouse or Rantanen in the blue and green is about a one per cent chance, so don’t get too excited by the interview.
Calgary on the other hand is a different story. I can see the Devils dropping to No. 15 for the right offer, but that offer would have to include a pair of second round picks – which funny enough, Calgary has three. So say 15, 45 and 52 for No. 6?
This move would make a lot of sense for both teams. Calgary needs a big bodied player that can play top-6 minutes and both Crouse and Rantanen fit that need. Add in that these two are borderline ready to play in the NHL next season and it seems like a good fit with all the young forwards Calgary has.
On New Jersey’s side, this draft has shelves, which are broken down as so: Two elite players, 10-12 real good players and 10-12 good players. That means if a player falls out of that second group the Devils could get them at No. 15 and have a player that is close to as good as the player they would have taken at No. 6 – and they would have two additional picks to stock the cupboards with.
So with all that in mind, watch on draft day and see if a deal between New Jersey and Calgary gets done. All the parts are there for both parties, now we just have to wait and see if it gets done.
And if you’re wondering, Crouse is who I would take if I was the Flames. He just has a little more “truculence”.
Thanks for reading
Ian