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Tank Nation UNITE!!!

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Nik the Trik said:
TML fan said:
So, if the Leafs had done it to get a player like, say, Ryan Getzlaf, nobody would really look at it as a bad trade. In the case of Biggs one could look at it as more of a failure of the scouting department to recognize talent (or lack thereof). I guess the counter argument is that statistically you're not likely to get a really good player in that spot, but I still think an argument can be made that if you're really sure about a player at a higher spot, then it's worth the gamble.

No, I think the counter argument would more be that I wouldn't care if it were Brian Burke or Ken Holland or Sam Pollock's ghost I don't think anyone is ever really going to be sure about a player drafted at #22. I don't think anyone in the history of the league has a real track record of being able to definitively look at prospects like that and separate the wheat from the chaff with any sort of reliability. When it comes to picks in the 20's and 30's, I don't think a GM should get married to any one player to that extent.

Burke was trying to hit a home run with the Biggs pick.  Too bad he was swinging with a golf club!
 
TML fan said:
Nik the Trik said:
TML fan said:
What was the Biggs deal?

Picks #30 and #39 for #22,

No good? Doesn't seem that bad to me.

Using this handy draft pick value chart we can see what those picks were worth individually:

http://statsportsconsulting.com/main/wp-content/uploads/Schuckers_NHL_Draftchart.pdf

Basically, that came from a study where somebody analysed the performance of all the draft picks from a large span of time and attempted to give each pick a numerical value. That way you could look at the picks almost as currency. It's obviously not an exact science, but according to that study the 30th overall pick has a value of 265, and the 39th overall pick has a value of 209. Combined that gives 474. The 22nd overall pick was given a value of 324. So from that we definitely overpaid. Those two picks should have been able to "buy" us the 13th/14th overall pick.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
TML fan said:
Nik the Trik said:
TML fan said:
What was the Biggs deal?

Picks #30 and #39 for #22,

No good? Doesn't seem that bad to me.

Using this handy draft pick value chart we can see what those picks were worth individually:

http://statsportsconsulting.com/main/wp-content/uploads/Schuckers_NHL_Draftchart.pdf

Basically, that came from a study where somebody analysed the performance of all the draft picks from a large span of time and attempted to give each pick a numerical value. That way you could look at the picks almost as currency. It's obviously not an exact science, but according to that study the 30th overall pick has a value of 265, and the 39th overall pick has a value of 209. Combined that gives 474. The 22nd overall pick was given a value of 324. So from that we definitely overpaid. Those two picks should have been able to "buy" us the 13th/14th overall pick.

Good luck with that!  :-\
 
Nik the Trik said:
TML fan said:
So, if the Leafs had done it to get a player like, say, Ryan Getzlaf, nobody would really look at it as a bad trade. In the case of Biggs one could look at it as more of a failure of the scouting department to recognize talent (or lack thereof). I guess the counter argument is that statistically you're not likely to get a really good player in that spot, but I still think an argument can be made that if you're really sure about a player at a higher spot, then it's worth the gamble.

No, I think the counter argument would more be that I wouldn't care if it were Brian Burke or Ken Holland or Sam Pollock's ghost I don't think anyone is ever really going to be sure about a player drafted at #22. I don't think anyone in the history of the league has a real track record of being able to definitively look at prospects like that and separate the wheat from the chaff with any sort of reliability. When it comes to picks in the 20's and 30's, I don't think a GM should get married to any one player to that extent.

Ok yeah I see what you're saying.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Or, in other words, there's virtually no difference between the historical odds of drafting a good player regardless of where Nashville's pick falls.
I just look at the Leafs being one pick away from Mantha when they took Gauthier. Of course, they don't have the Wings scouting/drafting record.
 
Nik the Trik said:
TML fan said:
No good? Doesn't seem that bad to me.

I think in terms of how likely you are to draft good players at those respective spots it's essentially trading fifteen dollars for ten dollars. Not the worst thing in the world, no, but still not a deal that the math supports.
That' some funky math you got going on...
 
Nik the Trik said:
RedLeaf said:
Who was still available at #30 and #39?

A bunch of players better than Tyler Biggs for starters.
That's easy to say in hindsight. It's the way things panned out. The scouts were ranking Biggs around that spot at the time. Some scouts were comparing him to Milan Lucic (comparisons are always dangerous). Burke was looking to make the Leafs bigger and stronger at the time and he was probably looking for what he thought was quality over quantity. You can't say the Kurvers deal was just a fluke of the draft and then say the Biggs deal was just the opposite. You win some, you lose some, that's just a fact. Hopefully, if you good and somewhat lucky, you're win more than you lose.
 
slapshot said:
That's easy to say in hindsight. It's the way things panned out. The scouts were ranking Biggs around that spot at the time. Some scouts were comparing him to Milan Lucic (comparisons are always dangerous). Burke was looking to make the Leafs bigger and stronger at the time and he was probably looking for what he thought was quality over quantity. You can't say the Kurvers deal was just a fluke of the draft and then say the Biggs deal was just the opposite. You win some, you lose some, that's just a fact. Hopefully, if you good and somewhat lucky, you're win more than you lose.

There were scouts that had Biggs slotted as a 3rd round type talent. That should have been a pretty big red flag to anyone considering taking him in the 1st round. Regardless, Biggs was never seen as a significantly better talent than what would have been available to the Leafs with their other picks. Once you get into that part of the draft rankings, the difference between players for large swathes is negligible at best. There was no need to trade up to get him. He may have been available to them later, and, if not, a similarly talented player with size would have been.
 
bustaheims said:
slapshot said:
That's easy to say in hindsight. It's the way things panned out. The scouts were ranking Biggs around that spot at the time. Some scouts were comparing him to Milan Lucic (comparisons are always dangerous). Burke was looking to make the Leafs bigger and stronger at the time and he was probably looking for what he thought was quality over quantity. You can't say the Kurvers deal was just a fluke of the draft and then say the Biggs deal was just the opposite. You win some, you lose some, that's just a fact. Hopefully, if you good and somewhat lucky, you're win more than you lose.

There were scouts that had Biggs slotted as a 3rd round type talent. That should have been a pretty big red flag to anyone considering taking him in the 1st round. Regardless, Biggs was never seen as a significantly better talent than what would have been available to the Leafs with their other picks. Once you get into that part of the draft rankings, the difference between players for large swathes is negligible at best. There was no need to trade up to get him. He may have been available to them later, and, if not, a similarly talented player with size would have been.
I don't know who the scouts were that you speak of labeling him for 3rd round? I read a bunch of scouting assessments that year and don't recall that, not to say there wasn't any. However, here is the Central Scouting report for that year http://www.nhl.com/ice/draftprospectbrowse.htm?cat=1&year=2011
Like I say, it's easy to say this in hindsight, but if Biggs had panned out, people wouldn't be so harsh on the trade. If you want to target bad move up trades, what about Luke Schenn?
 
slapshot said:
You can't say the Kurvers deal was just a fluke of the draft and then say the Biggs deal was just the opposite.

I didn't say the Kurvers deal was a fluke of the draft, whatever it is you think that means, I said that it was defensible independent of how the draft turned out. Likewise, the deal to draft Biggs was bad regardless of how it turned out. Biggs was not seen as some sort of can't miss prospect, he wasn't someone expected to go in the top 10 who unexpectedly dropped. There were lots of equivalent prospects available and all the Biggs deal did is sacrifice getting two of them for one. That's not hindsight, the deal was bad on principle as the chart CtB linked to shows.
 
Nik the Trik said:
slapshot said:
You can't say the Kurvers deal was just a fluke of the draft and then say the Biggs deal was just the opposite.

I didn't say the Kurvers deal was a fluke of the draft, whatever it is you think that means, I said that it was defensible independent of how the draft turned out. Likewise, the deal to draft Biggs was bad regardless of how it turned out. Biggs was not seen as some sort of can't miss prospect, he wasn't someone expected to go in the top 10 who unexpectedly dropped. There were lots of equivalent prospects available and all the Biggs deal did is sacrifice getting two of them for one. That's not hindsight, the deal was bad on principle as the chart CtB linked to shows.

If a team is sold on a guy for whatever reason, they try things like that. It's a gamble granted. Is it bad to gamble, you could argue that, but that's what they pay scouts for to see if a given player is worth it? Apparently they thought he was. It hasn't worked out. If he had turned into something special, people would be saying what a great deal.
 
slapshot said:
If a team is sold on a guy for whatever reason, they try things like that.

Right and what I'm saying is that they shouldn't and it's a bad decision that the numbers don't support. Just saying "it's a gamble" doesn't actually mean anything. There's doubling down on 11 and doubling down on 17. Both are gambles but one has a higher probability of success than the other.

My criticism is independent of hindsight, your defense of it is entirely hindsight-dependent.
 
slapshot said:
I don't know who the scouts were that you speak of labeling him for 3rd round? I read a bunch of scouting assessments that year and don't recall that, not to say there wasn't any. However, here is the Central Scouting report for that year http://www.nhl.com/ice/draftprospectbrowse.htm?cat=1&year=2011
Like I say, it's easy to say this in hindsight, but if Biggs had panned out, people wouldn't be so harsh on the trade. If you want to target bad move up trades, what about Luke Schenn?

http://www.hockeyprospectus.com/puck/article.php?articleid=955

Biggs comes in at 78 on this list, which would put him right in the middle of the 3rd round. I remember there being others than had him well outside the 1st round (or, at least, far enough to make trading up to pick him seem asinine). It was a minority opinion, but it was still enough that it should have been a red flag.

As for Schenn, that also turned to be a bad deal in hindsight, but, in that case, there was a consensus that he was a top 10 talent, if not top 5. There were some questions about his foot speed and such, but the game hadn't quite evolved into what we see now and those concerns were minimized. If Schenn was in the draft this year, he'd probably in a similar position to Biggs - with most scouts calling him a late first, but a vocal minority calling him out as a mid-round pick.
 
Nik the Trik said:
slapshot said:
If a team is sold on a guy for whatever reason, they try things like that.

Right and what I'm saying is that they shouldn't and it's a bad decision that the numbers don't support. Just saying "it's a gamble" doesn't actually mean anything. There's doubling down on 11 and doubling down on 17. Both are gambles but one has a higher probability of success than the other.

My criticism is independent of hindsight, your defense of it is entirely hindsight-dependent.

You can spin it anyway you like
 
slapshot said:
Nik the Trik said:
slapshot said:
If a team is sold on a guy for whatever reason, they try things like that.

Right and what I'm saying is that they shouldn't and it's a bad decision that the numbers don't support. Just saying "it's a gamble" doesn't actually mean anything. There's doubling down on 11 and doubling down on 17. Both are gambles but one has a higher probability of success than the other.

My criticism is independent of hindsight, your defense of it is entirely hindsight-dependent.

You can spin it anyway you like

He's not really spinning it.  The math pretty much speaks for itself.  Nik isn't criticizing the deal as being a horrible deal, which it is, but he is criticizing the decision to make the deal.

I wanted to respond to the original post.  If you want to look at it from a stand point of how to defend the deal, then the Biggs deal is really indefensible.  Why make the deal?  There isn't really a reason to do the deal.  Your throwing away draft picks in an almost grandstanding way as if to say "Hey everyone, look what we know", and then it backfired horribly.  There is no need to do that when you are in the position the Leafs are in.  To add insult to injury, you had to make a deal just to recoup a pick in the first round because you have already burned three high end picks on an enigmatic right winger.

If you want to look at impact that those deals had on the Leafs future, then that is a slightly different story.  Impact wise, the Rask deal or the Kessel deal probably had a higher negative impact on the Leafs future success than the trading up to get Biggs scenario.  But that wasn't what Nik was saying.
 
jonasTSN1050: Leafs take with 27 of 102 possible points over their final 51 games. That's a 44-point pace over an 82-game season.
 
bustaheims said:
jonasTSN1050: Leafs take with 27 of 102 possible points over their final 51 games. That's a 44-point pace over an 82-game season.

Pretty sad record!  None of the core players deserve the money they made this season.  None at all EARNED their keep!
 
bustaheims said:
jonasTSN1050: Leafs take with 27 of 102 possible points over their final 51 games. That's a 44-point pace over an 82-game season.

The way I see it, 27+44 = 9.5. 

On a side note, the Leafs had an unbelievably bad season.  What's harder to believe is that they were able to sustain such poor results over such a long stretch.  You'd think even just by virtue of a little luck they would have won more games than that.

On another side note, Monday is going to be kinda fun!
 
LuncheonMeat said:
bustaheims said:
jonasTSN1050: Leafs take with 27 of 102 possible points over their final 51 games. That's a 44-point pace over an 82-game season.

The way I see it, 27+44 = 9.5. 

On a side note, the Leafs had an unbelievably bad season.  What's harder to believe is that they were able to sustain such poor results over such a long stretch.  You'd think even just by virtue of a little luck they would have won more games than that.

On another side note, Monday is going to be kinda fun!

Apparently, the fun started a day early!
 
Auston Matthews just broke a NTDP (US under-18 team) scoring record previously held by Patrick Kane. He also beat Eichel's best season by about 20 points. I know there are more lottery rules involved, but next years tank is going to be interesting.
 
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