kliq

I have a really close friend who is a Hawks fan. Before the season he said he didnt think the Hawks would even make the playoffs this year. As of today they are tied for the 8th spot. Their decline has started, Bowman gets bashed by Hawks fans now in a Holland/Wings sort of way.

It reminds me of when a pitcher joins the MLB for the first time and just kills it (think Dontrelle Willis), then once opposing teams have enough stats, tape, scouting etc. they figure him out and all of a sudden you see a rapid drop in production. The only way they don't get worse, is if guys that we dont think are elite, end up becoming elite. (ie. Karlsson and Marchessault).

I could easily see them falling back down to earth next year once they are figured out.

No, its 1mil paid out, caphit is still closer to 6mil or whatever it is.

I don’t mean they are similar players or have had similar accomplishments. I mean, he is the player like E that fans have chosen as their whipping boy.

I dont get why people are disputing anything here. For the kid to be good at the NHL level, ideally he needs to play well in the WHL, then if/when he goes to the AHL he needs to play well also. Nobody is saying that success at the WHL level guarantees success at the NHL level, but its a good first step. Can't we just leave it at that? All we can evaluate the kid by is his performance at the WHL level because that's where he is playing.

Back in the summer I was reading the Blackhawk boards. To Hawks fans, he is their version of E. What kind of player is he? I dont know anything about him.

Euro Twins is the one with the implants.

Thanks! Nice read. But I was wondering what the cutoff was between "prospect" and "MLB player". Like, if they play 1 game, are they no longer a "prospect". Just curious.

Interpretation, you want it to go back to how it was when you were growing up lol.

I think his fate has been sealed. Typically if they allow another player to wear the number (ie. Nyquist/14) then its not going up. Notice nobody has had 30 or 91 since those two left.

Didnt get a chance to see the game, did Mrazek look any good?

The biggest pet peeve I have when it comes to assessing if a player should have his jersey retired or not is the argument: "The bar is Howe, Lidstrom, Yzerman, are they at then level? If not, then no". This is such flawed logic, as it would be like saying a player should not be in the HOF unless they are at the level of Gretzky, Howe, or Orr. If that was the case we would only have a hand full of guys in the HOF. To me, the bar to get in begins at the floor, not the ceiling. So the question is, are those 4 at the at the level of Abel, Lindsay, Sawchuk, and Delvecchio. I believe 3 are, the other (Osgood) I am still on the fence.

I dont think they will. If they were the Pistons the entire grind line, Holmer, and Shanny would be up there. I think Z is a lock, Fedorov should be up there and I think he will sooner then later, I think Datsyuk will, and Osgood is such a tough one. IMO him getting in the HOF is a must, once that happens the discussion can begin.

Just read the post on the Tigers prospects. Good post man! Out of curiosity, what defines a player as a prospect? Jeimer Candelario was not on the list, but obviously he played 43 games. Is it 1 game, 5 games, 10 games? Just wondering.

See this I see a lot of good points in. My issue is when certain posters say that Mrazek is owed starts, or that Mrazek is "getting screwed". Playing him against bad teams to ideally up his trade value is not a bad idea at all.

To be fair I was talking about general perception. My take....Goalies I would put above Howard are (and this is off the top of my head not taking stats into consideration): Gibson, Rask, Crawford, Bobrovsky, Bishop, Quick, Dubnyk, Price, Rinne, Schnieder, Lundquist, Murray, Jones, Holtby. So I guess that puts him at 15 on my list. If Vasilevskiy & Hellebuyck keep it up, they will likely rise above him as well. I just need to see it for at least an entire season.

That was awesome!

I know you didn't ask me Cady, but I will give my two cents. There are essentially 62 goalies in the league (31 starters, 31 backups). I think most people would ranking Howard in the 15-25 range. So ya, I'd say he is above average.

F. Michael....just try to look at this from an unbiased standpoint. The kid is a 19 year old rookie in the WHL. 35 games into his career and he is already 8th in scoring among D. The WHL has 22 teams, 6 D roughly per team. That is 132 D-men in the league. How can 8 out of 132 be anything but a positive? The fact that this achievement garners a response from you of "Yeah - he's nothing special...Go figure" should alone show you that you have an extreme negative bias towards the team right now. Nobody is saying the kid is a guaranteed future Norris winner, and I think most here will admit this doesn't guarantee anything. But, what it does say is that he is doing exactly what he should be right now, and there is no reason for a negative response.

Nyquist wouldn't be a salary dump, he's to valuable. Trading him would only be if we got a good return.

Oh ok, that makes sense. Does he not get paid his 925K if he plays in the WHL?

Can you clarify the rule? I wasn't aware of this. I'm not trying to prove you wrong or anything, legitimately I thought that if you signed an entry level deal you were paid regardless of where you play and your team could put you wherever they want. Is it because he started the year in the WHL?

OK maybe I shouldnt have said "tearing up the league", thats fair. But his stat line was 22GP 16-15-31. 16 goals in 22 games (ie. 0.73 goals a game) is pretty impressive to me. I think that was good for top 10 in GPG in the league.

I actually think Nyquist could have a huge resurgence in Pittsburgh. If they slotted him on the second line and paired him with Malkin, we could easily see him hit his ceiling. I would offer Nyquist to Pit for their 2018 1st rounder. Here is the dream scenario: Pittsburgh some how dont make the playoffs, win the lottery and we essentially get Dahlin for Nyquist! AND we get the second pick as well and take Svechnikov. We go into next year with those two, Larkin, Mantha, and AA as our core. Surplus in Wing? Trade one for a potentially elite C or D. Ya Ya, I know, never going to happen, but please let me dream lol.