Thomas Drance

Whereas Malhotra is sort of

period of time as a standout offensive driver you know that's like a five month period of time as opposed to a guy like Stenberg who's done a year after here since he was 15 at various levels playing up usually against men including you know being a first line winger and better than point per game at the world championships like I really really struggle to wrap my head around leaving that upside on the board

I guess my concern would be if it's Pavel Zaka, like if you end up with a Pavel Zaka, you know, it's one thing if you get a Jordan Stahl level 2ABs to...

you know, is still dominating matchups at 37.

That's another thing, right?

And wins a cup, by the way, for the team that drafted him.

It's another if you get a guy like Zaka who, you know, took him six years to become a 50-point, 2-point C, and by that point, or 2AC, 2-line C, and by that point, you'd already traded him for nothing.

You know, like you'd already traded him for mid-assets, right?

I would just worry that if the floor looks more like that, that scares me.

Yeah.

Is there any doubt in your mind, not in terms of how you'd break it down, but in terms of what you're hearing around the business?

Like, if a defenseman goes one, is it going to be Chase Reed?

Or are there teams that might have different types of opinions on how they stack up those gentlemen?

And potentially, let's focus our teams that might stack them up differently on San Jose in particular.

In terms of what you're hearing about trade activity in the lead-up to the draft, it's been a long time since a team traded down out of the top five, and yet it's impossible to ignore the dynamics of this class that if you were a team that was in the top five that maybe had a slightly off consensus order, say you're really high on Bjork or you're really high on Rudolph,

that the dynamic might change a little bit this year versus most years.

I'm just curious.

Do you think there's a higher probability than in most of the years past that we see some activity even as high as the top five picks?

Best of luck with the next 10 days, my guy.

We'll be thinking of you.