kipwinger

Well he's insinuated that the Maples Leafs aren't deep enough to overcome injuries to Jake Gardiner and (rookie) Travis Dermott even though Morgan Reilly is having a Norris caliber season and Dubas traded for Jake Muzzin at the deadline. Speaking of Muzzin, despite already being a top pairing defenseman on a Stanley Cup winning team Uncle Mike is currently playing him less than Nikita Zaitsev and Ron Hainsey. But don't think his idiotic usage extends only to defensemen. Zach Hyman is getting more icetime than all of William Nylander, Patrick Marleau, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, and Nazim Kadri even though all of them are significantly more productive forwards by most objective measures. Then there's the more general stuff like his constant line juggling and giving guys icetime because they work hard despite their skill level (I call this the Dan Cleary treatment). Also, I'm not sure that I'd call Tampa the gold standard. They've been stacked for a number of years now and can't get over the hump. At some point you're supposed to win with your superstar team. I'm genuinely not sure they'll beat Washington this year. To me they're still too little and don't score enough in the trenches. They should have traded for Wayne Simmonds or Brian Boyle or someone. They remind me of the 95 Wings.

I'll wade into the middle of this debate only to say that with AA corsi matters a whole lot less because of his breakaway ability. Corsi is a function of shots on goal, and it's a good measure of possession and a good predictor of success for most players (generally speaking). In one very important respect AA isn't like most players. He gets lots of breakaways. If you get two or three shots on goal a game, and your line is badly out shot, but you get two breakaways and bury them your possession metrics will suck, but you'll be super valuable in a limited role (kinda like Michael Grabner). AA's value isn't in driving possession. AA's value is in being able to generate offense when your team DOESN'T HAVE possession.

It's no secret that I think Mike Babcock absolutely sucks, but beyond that, one would have to think that maybe he's out of touch with modern hockey if he can't win with that roster? I mean, isn't his hallmark that he wins big games when his team is heads and tails better than their competition?

Here's a fun thought, Babcock and Dubas are feuding (surprise surprise). If Mike gets fired, how many people want him back?

I'm actually pretty happy with this. I've liked how good the kids have developed, how fast we play, and how competitive we are each night. I'd love to see what Blash will do with a decent roster.

Missed the game tonight, was Athanasiou still at center? Saw him listed as a wing for tonight's game in one of the recaps I read.

The difference for me is that I don't think Hughes is a Matthews like prospect. You do. I think it's more likely that he's a Clayton Keller type than an Auston Matthews type.

For those with subscriptions to the Athletic, Max Bultman just dropped a profile on Joe Veleno. Not much by way of hockey, but if you're into the human interest part of fandom then you may like it. https://theathletic.com/863082/2019/03/19/in-drummondville-the-red-wings-future-is-in-a-playoff-push/

I'd take it a few steps further. Because this is an unusually deep draft in the top ten picks, I'd make the trade and then consider trading back again for more picks. Also, I'd trade the first overall pick for the 3rd overall and 10th overall pretty much every year sight unseen. And if you look at the recent track record of drafts you'd almost always be better off for it. Yeah you'd miss McDavid and Matthews, but look at the list of guys you'd have your pick of. You'd have a WAY better team after like 5 years.

I'd take the trade. Zegras and Byram together puts us closer to Cup contention than Hughes alone. That would be a HUGE draft for us.

I was hoping they'd sign Pearson. I don't expect he'll be anything more than a depth center, but he does have good size and apparently he loved to hit and grind so maybe he could end up being our next Luke Glendening. I'll be really curious to see how he does with the Griffs.

Let's compile a list, because I'm genuinely interested in how many "High-end, right shot" forwards have been in the league over the last 10 years. I'll start. Ovechkin Stamkos Laine Seguin ...

Missed this one. Zadina looked good eh?

Kivenmaki with another assist today. The little fella's on fire.

Sportsnet has Kakko in their top spot according to their most recent draft rankings. https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/juniors/sportsnets-2019-nhl-draft-prospect-rankings-march/

Yeah, but you weren't complaining about the handedness of those two guys when they were drafted. It's only because he hasn't acquired any righties since then that you care. I mean, you could say the same thing about Larkin or Mantha right? But you liked those guys more on draft day so they seem to get more of a pass for being lefties.

I should clarify, I when I say "elite" in this case I'm talking about elite offensive production. I don't see any of the rest being able to dominate games offensively in the way that I think Championship caliber teams need. There are a few other guys I think have high-end two ways games but who aren't likely to dominate their peers offensively (Dylan Larkin types).

I'm sure the next time Holland has to choose between two Zadina-esque prospects, both of whom he's equally capable of landing he'll do so. I'm just not going to hold my breath waiting for that scenario. You take the best talent you can get, Holland has certainly do so. It's not like he's turning away high-end right handed forwards.

That depends on whether or not we hit on a game changer this year with our top pick. If a couple teams jump us in the race to the bottom, and we get bad lottery luck, and end up drafting 6-8 overall, I think we're a good but not great team going forward. Because I don't see us being this bad again next year. If we draft one of Hughes/Kakko/Zegras I think we've got that kind of upside. I realize I'm an outlier here, but I think Zegras has elite level upside, I don't see that from anybody else not named Hughes or Kakko.

I actually think Kuffner will end up being better than Hirose. I've never heard of this kid before but he's got better college numbers than Zach Hyman had, and comparable stats to Jimmy Vesey. Both those guys are pretty productive depth wingers. Hirose seems too little and slow to be good in the NHL. Clearly skilled though. He's like the Joe Hicketts of forwards.

Yeah true, but if you leave those guys out you've really got nobody.

A third of the guys on this list aren't even prospects. Probably a third of this list is still developing and we have no idea how good they'll be...but could end up being very good. 25 percent are probably have middle six six/middle pair upside, but not high end. Another 25 percent of this list are depth guys. And we're about to have four of the top sixty picks in this year's draft. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be a damning indictment of our prospect pool? For the purposes of debate I'd consider someone a prospect if they would still qualify as a rookie next year. I'd sort your list as follows: Guys who aren't prospects at all: Larkin, AA, Mantha, Bert, Rasmussen, Bowey, and De La Rose Prospects with high-end NHL upside: Hronek, Cholowski, Zadina, Veleno Prospects with mid-level NHL upside: McIsaac, Lindstrom, Berggren Prospects with NHL replacement level upside: Ehn, Sulak I'd add these guys to your list: Prospects with high-end NHL upside: Filip Larsson Prospects with mid-level NHL upside: Jesper Eliasson, Otto Kivenmaki, Prospects with NHL replacement level upside: Chase Pearson, Alex Regula, Ryan Kuffner, Ville Sarijaarvi

Is it just me, or is our prospect pool stacked? And we're about to add our highest first round pick in years and like 3 second rounders. I'm feeling pretty good at the moment.

Would be cool if Kuffner turned out to be a Zach Hyman type. I could get on board with a dude like that on our 4th line.

Poor Sedins. They dragged more wingers to 30 goals seasons than anyone not named Joe Thornton. Burrows. Samuelsson. Old man Vrbata.