I know a lot is being said about how deep the 08 draft is and how week the 07 draft was but where would you rank some of the more talented players form 07 like Kane, Turris, Cherepanov, Espo, Ganger against the class of 08? Would those players still be considered top tens if they were in this years group?
I think part of the reason this past year was considered so weak, was that a lot of the players hadn\'t come anywhere close to their potential yet, and that\'s a dangerous thing. Turris could be the real deal if he reaches it, and Kane is already showing glimpses of what he can do, but nobody was sure even 6 months ago. Really though, after that there weren\'t any huge picks. A lot of guys will become regular NHLers (Hickey, Van Riemsdyk, Esposito and Cherepanov)
The 08 draft will have a bunch of guys that will become NHL All stars, almost instantly, not just first/second line players. The list seems much longer too.
While 07 had a lot of franchise forwards in the top ten and no franchise blueliners, 08 is the opposite. Doughty and Pietrangelo are miles ahead of Alzner and Hickey even right now, whereas I don\'t think there\'s a Turris-type in the top five. The best you\'ll get is Stamkos, who compares a bit to Kane in that I think he could step in and be an NHLer in the fall of \'08.
So what makes this draft so special? Well, you have your Turris/Kane players (100+ guys) and your Gagners and Voraceks (stars that get 80-90). Whereas 2007 had two or maybe even three franchise forwards (JvR) and about the same star players, 2008 has, oh... a dozen 90-point forwards.
When you couple this with the sheer windfall of defensemen AND goalies, \'08 is a draft for the ages. I\'d wager there are (at least) 25 defensemen with top-four potential.
Now, how could \'09 possibly beat that? Try 15 or so potential franchise forwards, a couple generational defensemen, and two star goalies.
07 Class Vs 08 Class
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