Tuesday Links: Tarasenko's Carrot Cake in Winnipeg Edition

…slowly and painstakingly, but we’re getting somewhere.

it doenst matter WHAT the issue is does it? IF there is an issue, and it isnt getting fixed, then you bloddy draft around it., how about that for adding soemthing

No, you don’t “bloddy draft around it.”

You fix it.

If you don’t fix the issue, or if you “draft around it,” then you’re unacceptably limiting your potential prospect pool.

If there’s a source of talent that is potentially available to you, and you do not take steps to ensure that you are as much able as every other club to take advantage of that talent source, then you are not doing your job and should be replaced with someone who will take those steps.

If that means firing Jarmo Kekalainen, then you fire Jarmo Kekalainen. If that means firing Larry Pleau, then you fire Larry Pleau. if that means firing John Davidson, then you fire John Davidson.

If, however, the issue can be addressed by relocating your affiliate to a city that has a more attractive public image, and/or has a more modern venue with the bells and whistles that the fans — and the media — want, then you owe it to the future of your organization to investigate doing just that.

The point here is not to advocate for moving the Rivermen to Kansas City… although that may well be a solution, or at least the beginnings of one.

The point is that the Blues need to figure out why their European prospects don’t want to pay dues in their minor league organization, and they need to do whatever is necessary to correct that situation.

how about adding something other than circling the wagon over ever hint of blues draft fail anyone ever posts?

In case your reading comprehension skills have completely failed you, let me remind you that I started this discussion in order to try and identify why the Blues’ drafting had failed where Europeans are concerned.

“Drafting around” that issue is avoiding it, or “circling the wagons,” if you will.

I am willing to address head-on the possibility that the Blues have failed in their drafting of Europeans; what I am not willing to do, is to write off ten years of European draft failures to bad luck or “Blues draft fail” without understanding why the failure occurred.

Saying “move the fuck on and draft around it” is not going to provide anyone with an understanding of why the Blues have had so much trouble convincing European prospects to play in their minor-league system.

Jonas Junland came over and gave the AHL a shot. He left because he felt he was too far down the depth chart and wouldn’t get an NHL chance. Ditto for Nikolai Lemtyugov. That could be issue No. 1: The Blues are seen as an organization that doesn’t give Euros a shot.

I can understand where that perception comes from… but, honestly, how many teams bring Europeans straight to the NHL, other than high picks like Ovechkin or Malkin?

Detroit has been perhaps the most Euro-oriented team in the league over the last decade or so, and of all the Euros they’ve drafted, only Zetterberg, Franzen and Datsyuk came straight to the NHL (each two or three years after being drafted) without an AHL adjustment.

Tomas Holmstrom (257th overall) came over two years after being drafted, and spent a brief adjustment period in the AHL before getting called up for keeps. Valtteri Filppula (95th overall) spent a year in Grand Rapids before he got a shot. Niklas Kronwall (29th overall) spent two seasons in the AHL before he got his shot. Jakub Kindl (19th overall), Jonathan Ericsson (295th overall) and Jiri Hudler (58th overall) each spent three years in the AHL before they got NHL shots

It would have been easy for these guys to all say “we’re not going to get a shot” and come home… especially since they were all trying to crack the lineup of a contender. Of all those Euros, only Zetterberg and Datsyuk are legitimate “stars.” The rest of those players are supporting-cast players; they’re Detroit’s versions of guys like Lehtera, Junland, Lemtyugov, etc.

How do the Blues get a reputation as a team that won’t give Euros a shot, when Detroit puts the majority of their Euro picks in the AHL for anywhere from one to three seasons before they get a sniff of the NHL?

Pekka Rinne, who might be the best goalie in the NHL right now, spent three years paying his dues in Milwaukee at a time when Nashville was playing the hell out of flashes-in-the-pan Chris Mason and Dan Ellis, as well as Tomas Vokoun — who also paid his minor-league dues, starting out in the ECHL for a year, then spending two years in the AHL before getting a shot at full-time NHL duty.

And the aforementioned Loui Eriksson (who was a high second-round pick, 33rd overall, and not a first-rounder as I said elsewhere) played a full season in the AHL and part of a second for Doug Armstrong in Dallas before becoming a 30-goal man in the NHL.

All I’m asking is, if these other teams can get their European prospects — both high and low picks — to pay their dues in the AHL first, why can’t the Blues do the same with theirs?

In my opinion, the Euro problem has a lot to do with the simple fact that the Blues haven’t drafted many first-round Euros. Rather than playing in the, North American B league and MAYBE getting a shot at the NHL, a lot of guys would rather stay and star for their home team.

The Blues have drafted a European in the first round in four of the last five drafts, and in five of the last seven. Marek Schwartz got two years in Peoria, and didn’t pan out; he was sent to Alaska before he got fed up and went back home. Patrik Berglund, crafted 25th overall in 2006, is really the only success story to be found among the Blues’ first-round Euro picks to date, and his story is still being written. I believe that Lars Eller (13th overall in 2007) will be a successful NHL’er eventually as well, but he still has some growing to do.

Rundblad may be the top prospect in hockey right now, and he was traded for the pick that the Blues used for Tarasenko. Both of those players still need some development time before they become impact NHL’ers.

And, as shown above, other first-round picks (Kronwall and Kindl) have been willing to put in their AHL time. Schwarz did two years, to be fair, and Eller did a year in the AHL as well… but Schwarz hauled ass after those two years, at a time when the Blues really needed a goalie to develop and take the reins, and does anyone believe that Eller would have been content to spend three years in the AHL before getting a real shot at full-time NHL duty with the Blues?

If the issue is as simple as “the Blues are drafting the wrong guys, guys with no character,” then it is what it is. I have a hard time, however, believing that every Euro drafted by the Blues in the last ten drafts, other than Patrik Berglund, is a gutless, selfish shit who would rather be a big fish in a little pond than punch the clock in the minors for a couple of years and work towards a spot with the 600 best hockey players in the world.