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Second Thoughts

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O.K., with a night to sleep on the Blues picks I've modified my reaction. I'll concede that we have done alright. I was a little worried that we were limiting ourselves on "upside" potential, but maybe Jarmo has gotten the balance right.

The picks:

#13 LARS ELLER, C/W, ranked #3 among Europeans (ESS).
#18 IAN COLE, D, ranked #81 in NA (CSS).
#26 DAVID PERRON, LW, ranked #10 in NA (CSS).
#39 SIMON HJALMARSSON, RW, ranked #6 in Europe (ESS).
#44 AARON PALUSHAJ, RW, ranked #101 in NA (CSS).
#85 BRETT SONNE, C/LW, ranked #94 in NA (CSS).
#96 CADE FAIRCHILD, D, ranked #189 in NA (CSS).
#100 TRAVIS ERSTAD, C/RW, ranked #97 in NA (CSS).
#160 ANTHONY PELUSO, D, ranked #183 in NA (CSS).
#190 TREVOR NILL, C, unranked by CSS.

So it looks like the Blues got some value, particularly with our European picks though it seems most NHL teams were not high on the European players this draft. I'll forgive the bit of a reach on Cole as there had been a run on those U.S. defensemen, and the Blues obviously wanted to go that direction all along.

One thing that is surprising is that with the 10 picks the Blues wound up with in this draft half of them went to select US born players! We picked three Canadians, one Swede and one Dane as well.

The 2010-11 season can't come quick enough!
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I pegged us to get eller at 9, perron at 24, and hjalmarsson at 26 so to get those 3 plus jackman v2.0 in cole I was thrilled. Eller would have been gone before 20 and the only reason he fell so far is because he is from Denmark and played in Sweden. Guys like Lowe and Burke are idiots that pass on Europeans just because they're not from NA. I've yet to see one knock on Eller besides maybe being a little too unselfish. Jarmo is the man and I have to give credit to JD and even Pleau for stepping aside and letting Jarmo run show on draft day.
August 12, 2007 at 12:10 AM
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