Hell yeah, I'm super excited for Fantilli to join the team.
I thought it was a pipe dream to think Fantilli would be available at #3, he seems to be exactly what the Jackets need.
Don't know much about the other selections but neat to see Fantilli's teammate Brindley get picked
EPL: Chelsea MLS: Columbus Crew
Thanks for creating this, hopefully we can get a community scraped together by season's start.
Did you make a post on the CBJ subreddit?
I think that would be disastrous for the future. Say CBJ traded the #3 pick for Lindholm as rumored - he turns 30 in 18 months and will likely start to drop off, giving Columbus maybe two seasons to be competitive with a #1 C, Laine, and Johnny, as well as removing a #1 C prospect. Given the sad state of the defense and goaltending last season, I don't think winning a Cup in the next two seasons is realistic, as it takes a while for the defense to develop.
IMO it's a much better plan to stay put, draft a likely #1 C with the third pick, and develop. Even if Johnny drops off and Laine leaves, there's Marchenko, KJ, and Jenner that can play top six wing, as well as potential in Dumais, Chinakhov, etc.
I'll try to find it, but on the CBJ subreddit somebody did a comparison of the Sedin twins, Backstrom, Pettersson, and maybe Lindholm, comparing draft+1 seasons in North America vs remaining in the SHL.
It seemed like Swedish players that remained in the SHL had careers on par or better than those that came straight to NA, so I'm ambivalent on what he does next season. The people that evaluate prospects seem to think he's ready to start in the NHL so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
11 offensive lineman seems absurdly high and 4 corner backs absurdly low. I'm sure it will switch to 10 and 5 respectively once Stokes is activated, but that still seems like a risk for the pass defense unit.
Also kinda surprised by 6 OLBs, that's higher than usual isn't it?