I dunno. I've never been as high on McIlrath as many ppl here have been. I think, at best, he'll end up being a 3rd pairing defenseman who provides grit. Horrendous value for the #10 pick or whatever he was selected at.

Thats just my 2 cents.

I agree 100%. I am not sold on his ability to defend, let alone anything more.

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"Here we can see the agression of american people. They love fighting and guns. when they wont win they try to kill us all." -HalfOfFame

It's funny how everyone remembers the one time when they called for the drafting of someone who panned out, but nobody remembers this whole forum yelling to draft Kirill Petrov or Jared Staal in the second round, and being upset when we took Stepan instead.

Let's not whine every time our team doesn't take the player who turns out to be the best one. Despite the fact that our average draft position in the first round was 16.7, we did extremely well. Our picks and undrafted signees can fill a whole NHL squad.

If we had the same average as other teams, we would've drafted only 7 NHLers between 2004 and 2009. Instead, we drafted 13 NHLers, with a couple others still having a shot to make it.

This is kind of OT, but we have some of the best drafting in the league. Even ignoring Hank, we've gotten so many gems in the middle/late rounds

Not to mention that we have a desperate shortage of RDs like McIlrath while Erixon would've been our 4th LD.

Many left-handed defensemen can play the right side and many teams don't have an equal number of left and right-handed defensemen. I seriously doubt this was a big concern for the Rangers in their decision to trade Erixon.

If McIlrath pans out the way he should and can play regular NHL minutes (15 minutes or more per game) it would give the Rangers something they don't currently have--a big strong physical defenseman who can hit and fight. He might also make the Rangers less susceptible to going out and signing guys like Orr or Booggard. Though he plays a different position a comparable might be Milan Lucic. Someone who can not only add a real physical edge to the team but can really play as well. To me that is more valuable to the Rangers (maybe not so much for other NHL teams--depending on which) than what Erixon projects to be.

I would say all of those guys will push for a spot. St. Croix, Bourque and McColgan may shine at times as well.

Kolarik is the wild card for me.

i didn't mean that no one in hartford had a future, it was about next september so you can almost certainly rule out st croix and mccolgan, and mcilrath if he doesn't come back soon...if we are talking 2-3 years than i'd agree more with you

i didn't mean that no one in hartford had a future, it was about next september so you can almost certainly rule out st croix and mccolgan, and mcilrath if he doesn't come back soon...if we are talking 2-3 years than i'd agree more with you

People thought Sanguinetti would make the team over MDZ because he needed more time. People thought Stepan would need time in the AHL.

All I meant was that those players could view for a spot. It all depends on their off-season.

I wouldn't rule McIlrath out for next season. He looked good in pre-season last year. At least he was good enough to be brought to Europe.

Regarding Erixon & so on.
An interesting footnote.
The Nash trade was actually this in terms of actual asset management:

Vladimir Malakhov (a free agent that signed with NYR in 2000 - that later became NYRs 2006 2nd round, 60th overall pick in Brandon Dubinsky)

Artem Anisimov (NYRs 2006 2nd round, 54th overall pick)

NYRs 2nd round pick in 2011 (That was used for acquiring Tim Erixon from Calgary - that then chose Markus Granlund 45th overall)

Bobby Sanguinetti a 1st round pick in 2006 - #21 overall (that was traded to Carolina and later used for acquiring Tim Erixon from Calgary - that then chose Tyler Wotherspoon 2011 in the 2nd round, #57 overall)

Regarding Erixon & so on.
An interesting footnote.
The Nash trade was actually this in terms of actual asset management:

Vladimir Malakhov (a free agent that signed with NYR in 2000 - that later became NYRs 2006 2nd round, 60th overall pick in Brandon Dubinsky)

Artem Anisimov (NYRs 2006 2nd round, 54th overall pick)

NYRs 2nd round pick in 2011 (That was used for acquiring Tim Erixon from Calgary - that then chose Markus Granlund 45th overall)

Bobby Sanguinetti a 1st round pick in 2006 - #21 overall (that was traded to Carolina and later used for acquiring Tim Erixon from Calgary - that then chose Tyler Wotherspoon 2011 in the 2nd round, #57 overall)

comparing trades like this make no sense to me...but fyi we didn't get dubinsky thru the malakhov trade. that pick was used to move up to get staal.

we traded barnaby for a pick, that pick was traded down for 2 picks, then 1 of those picks was traded down for 2 picks and we took dubi with one of those picks.

Correct. Messed up on that one.
I was just illustrating the complexity of player action and trades in general and kind of looking at it as if one cannot judge the result of a trade until much later. Not really comparing. And we did get some good years out of Dubinsky & Anisimov already.
Maybe Fast grows into a lethal 2nd liner and we hit the jackpot with the 3rd round CBJ pick (assuming there is no season) next year...

We have a bunch of 3rd rounders and can easily move up if there's someone on Gordie's radar.

You have 1st round picks, and you have 1st round picks. If you're not drafting in the top-3/5, odds of hitting a high-end player is pretty slim. So complain about not having a 1st rounder if you'd like. Truth is it's not going to break us.

We have a bunch of 3rd rounders and can easily move up if there's someone on Gordie's radar.

You have 1st round picks, and you have 1st round picks. If you're not drafting in the top-3/5, odds of hitting a high-end player is pretty slim. So complain about not having a 1st rounder if you'd like. Truth is it's not going to break us.

unless there is no season and it becomes a top 3 pick at which point we'll all kill ourselves LOL