Final Thoughts On Round One And Who's Left?

Although I was initially very shocked/disappointed/disheartened that the Canes passed on Fowler and Gormley, I quickly came to my senses that Skinner and his goal scoring ability may very well be what the dynamo that the Canes need in the long run.

As people have been demanding for a while, Skinner may very well turn out to be the other 1st line talent that we need to accompany Staal. Even if he only makes the 2nd line, itll at least take some of the pressure off Staal.

Its obviously disappointing that the other teams were not interested in JR’s offers in order to get Fowler/Gormley but as Bob lists, there are still plenty of good D left for us to get in the next rounds. Here’s hoping for Merrill!

I, for one, am very excited for who we might pick next and to see how quickly we will be saying these players play for the big team =D

Eleven teams passed on Fowler and Gormley before either was selected. Will be very interesting to see why that happened.

I’m car-bound almost all day so please keep the tweets coming, most appreciated!

I’m definitely not disappointed with the Skinner pick, like everybody else I was hoping they’d pick up Fowler or Gormley, but instead JR and Co. addressed another important need, secondary scoring. Nobody on the squad outside of Staal can be expected to contribute 30 goals year in and year out, and seeing as how 30-40 goal scorers aren’t cheap to come by in free agency/trade market, the best way to get one on the cheap is through the draft.

Surprised but excited about Skinner, just wasn’t sure if I should get attached to him. And I did also find it interesting that Fowler and Gormley did not go as high as they did …I really don’t doubt JR too much. If we knew 1/2 of what he did we would be getting paid the big bucks – I would just love to know the reason! Oh well we will see what happens today

Wondering why no one compares him to Patrick Kane? Size, scoring flair… I like the Parise comparisons, but I think or Parise as a bigger guy.

After letting the Skinner pick settle overnight, its not that bad of a pick. It was surprising, like a lot of picks last night. I just think we really missed out on a special defenseman and two fell right to us.

I think Anaheim had a great night getting arguably 2 top 15 prospects at #12 and #29.

Skinner, in the end, will become a scoring machine for us….and that is definitely what we needed. Very, very happy w/this pick.

The opportunities still remaining are excellent:

On defense -

Merrill
Faulk
Petrovic
Alt
Johns

Offensively, lot’s of raw, but high end potential:

Kabanov
Pitlick
Toffoli
Rensfeldt
Pulkkinen
Straka
Ross
Culek
McKegg
Donskoi

I mean that’s a lot of moderately known talent….we’ve got a warm spot in the proverbial driver’s seat. I’d go big w/ the likes of Petrovic and Rensfeldt. I love McKegg (goal scorer) and then there’s wildcards like Weal, Knight, and Gardiner still there. With that mix of talent still left and 5 picks for the Canes we really can’t go too wrong…heck, think about Pulkkinen….he’s a natural scorer as well. Caniacs, we are in good shape going into the 2nd round!!!

was " shocked’ that the Canes took a player like Skinner…and after a decent nights rest…JR was looking at the long term here…and like with other canes draft picks…if he doesn’t work out…they can always jettison him…but i think he will have a good and sucessful future with the canes…

Anyone know what time Rnd 2 starts and if there’s a vid feed?

Good stuff on Skinner Bob. I don’t know about you but everyone I was with at the draft was surprised at the picks all night long.

Continued tweets today, but certainly not as many. I won’t be tweeting the remaining billion picks, but if anything interesting happens I’ll be sure to put it out there.

The more I read about Skinner, the more I like the pick. Plus, after hearing that JR tried several times to get either Fowler or Gormley instead of just sitting there and doing nothing, which is what is seemed from the view of my recliner. I guess when those two players fell, JR probably felt they were still in the mix to get them, so what the hell. Let’s roll the dice on it. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way, but I’m happy they gave it a shot.

 I’m excited about the potential for Skinner though. Hopefully he’ll be able to make an impact sooner rather than later. 70 goals is hard to overlook.

By the way, was there anything to the rumor the Canes were trying to get Versteeg?

Plus, after hearing that JR tried several times to get either Fowler or Gormley instead of just sitting there and doing nothing, which is what is seemed from the view of my recliner.

…I can’t complain with his efforts.

Late last night, I entered “Skinner” in the search field for Twitter and went back in Time to the moment when the selection was announced.

The explosion in the Twitter universe for the next few minutes took pages and pages, but was highly entertaining.

Then came the waves of second thoughts. Then the analysis began to emerge, along with the links to videos, interviews, and scouting reports.

Fascinating. And, in particular, I happened to run across this tweet from Steve Simmons, lead sports columnist for the Toronto Sun:

Great pick by Carolina. Talking to Seguin’s dad, he thinks Skinner will be best player in draft right after Tyler and Taylor

For background, Skinner and Seguin skated together as peewee players, so Seguin’s dad would indeed “know him when” and has no doubt followed his career to date.

All signs point to us landing a winner, in my book. The more I have seen and read about this kid, the better and better I like his acquisition.

As JR always says, we acquire character.

pulkikinen could be a steal if we draft him in the 3rd, only issue is his injury history and questions about his attitude/work ethic

scratch that we chose another defenseman……pulkkinen there in the 4th??? hopefully

but doubtful….florida has 2 of the first three and wouldn’t be surprised to take him, having an awesome draft and creating a future nightmare for us