Spencer_12
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Posts posted by Spencer_12
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21 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:
Chicago is building a big defense. They'll take Silayev. They don't care about LHD-RHD, they just want Big D. So I'm 99.9% certain Levshunov will be available #3. Chicago is probably begging Bettman to let them lose next years lottery to they can get Bedard's cousin in 2026.
Silayev is interesting. Unless one of the other defensemen in the draft take big leaps in their overall game then he’s probably the only one who has the possibility of being a true #1 defenseman. That’ll depend on how much offense he can bring to the NHL. If it happens that’s a home run pick for Chicago. If it doesn’t, then he’s probably the next Erik Gudbranson and the pick could look bad if Levshunov or another forward picked after him hits.
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2 minutes ago, tommer-1 said:
4 of those 7 have him at #3, and I would bet there is no other single player (Levshunov?) close to being ranked #2 in 5 of those other 7.
Silayev is ranked #1 in NHL Central Scouting for international skaters (Demidov at #2), and look where he is ranked by those same "experts":
Anton Silayev - Stats, Contract, Salary & More (eliteprospects.com)
The point is that there’s no consensus #2 overall player. If half are saying yes and half are saying no then by definition there can’t be a consensus. If a strong majority have him in the top 3 (which they do), then he is a consensus top 3 pick. I think “close to” is a bit silly anyway when it comes to the draft - especially this draft - since unless you have 2 players a level above everyone else there’s no telling what the team picking #2 overall will do.
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3 minutes ago, tommer-1 said:
He's pretty close to that.
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/619202/ivan-demidov
10 places at #2 and 7 places where he isn’t #2. That’s not including The Athletic where both of their prospect guys have someone else at #2. That’s not close to a consensus.
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Nice to not drop in the draft. I suppose it all depends on what Chicago does. It seems most fans are speculating Demidov/Levshunov with more people on the Demidov side. I don’t know. Demidov isn’t the consensus #2 right now, and I personally wonder what I might think of him if I was able to watch full games of his. He has that unknown super skilled Russian quality about him without potentially having the shine somewhat removed from actually watching him play.
I’m basically with everyone else that if Levshunov is at #3 the Ducks will take him. If Chicago takes him then good luck predicting who we take.
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46 minutes ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
I’m not saying that helenius is in the tier of Leo or fantilli. Fantilli did not have a particularly good world junior tournament in his draft year. He was playing in a bottom-6 role but then had a much better showing at the world championships. That’s what will be interesting to see with Helenius. He wouldn’t be my pick but I definitely see him as a forward verbeek would be looking at in the 4/5 spot. Iginla also to an extent. I just don’t know if he values a forward over a RHD or silayev
Iginla is interesting. I saw Canada in the semifinal and finals, and was watching him in particular. He was pretty good in the semifinal against Sweden. I had watched the US game beforehand so I was comparing him and Eiserman, and Iginla was a more complete version of him. He was better 5 on 5, stronger on the forecheck, and better at carrying the puck into the offensive zone. He showed off a hell of a shot on his goal too. In the final against the US he didn’t do much until he got on the 5 min PP in the 3rd, but at least he was forechecking and getting to the net. He played a small part in 2 goals for Canada doing that.
Between Helenius, Iginla and Eiserman I was most impressed with Iginla in the tournament. I can see Iginla being a competent NHL winger with potential to score a decent amount of goals, especially if he’s got a good playmaker on his line. I think he’s got a lot more to show if I’m going to believe in him becoming a 30+ goal scorer with some play driving ability though.
And that’s kind of how this draft is going for me. Outside of Celebrini I see potential in players, but also their downsides have stood out. I’ve seen full games from Levshunov, Helenius, Iginla, Parekh and Eiserman, and none of them have really wowed me at the level of a top 5 pick. I think I saw Levshunov play 3 times, and he’s the closest to that level, but even in the games I saw I wanted more from him, especially for a #2 overall pick. It seems like it’s just that kind of draft even at the top. I’m just holding out hope that whoever the Ducks pick at wherever they pick they end up taking the right guy.
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1 hour ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
Tournaments are always interesting because they are a limited sample size. Carlsson and Fantilli didn’t dominate their respective international junior tournaments. Hell, Cronin even said he was a little anxious about Carlsson because he didn’t dominate the rookie faceoff tournament by any means. Finland seems like it hasn’t matched the development of young players as well as the USA, Canada and Sweden in recent years.
Given prior draft history, I full expect to be drafting 4th, Leshunov will be off the board and I’ll just be one giant shrug emoji about guessing who Verbeek will take
I don’t think Carlsson and Fantilli are good comparisons. Production isn’t the only thing I’m looking for, and while Carlsson and Fantilli weren’t lighting up the scoresheet at the U20’s you absolutely could see how their game would translate to the NHL. There were instances where they would have a shift that made you see how they were going to have a good chance to be impact players at that level. This was especially true at the Worlds with Carlsson. I went into that tournament full on the Fantilli train, and after watching every Sweden and Canada game I was 50/50 on them. That’s how impressive Carlsson was even without dominating the tournament.
That’s what I didn’t see out of Helenius. I saw some good things, some instances where I saw him do things that NHL players do in the same situation. I also saw him completely disappear at times, and never have a shift that made me think, “wow, this guy could be a star.” It was just 2 games though, so maybe he shows more at the Worlds, but one thing is it’s not like scouts are saying he’s got high-impact ability. They are saying the opposite, and so those two games stand out even more because they affirm what the scouts have been saying.
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33 minutes ago, Sexlaf15 said:
These tournaments are huge for draft stock though. So I wouldn’t be shocked if taking a really bad penalties that loses your team the gold medal game sticks in the minds of scouts
I think the impact is greater if the scouts in question already view him a certain way and then that play just reaffirms their beliefs. In the same way, if another scout really liked the player they would put less stock in that play and instead focus on the whole. At this stage of the game scouts have already seen these players a bunch of times so they aren’t going into the tournament without preconceived ideas.
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19 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:
Yeah. After giving Canada a 5 minute PP in Gold Medal game, I'm sure his stock probably plummeted. That was just plain dumb.
I wouldn’t consider that blunder a character concern, but watching it live my initial thought was that it would be nice if it scares off some teams so he falls to Edmonton’s pick. That’s not realistic though; no team is making decisions based off one play in one game. What could be realistic is teams ahead of Edmonton’s pick already have concerns about him and have guys they like just as much so that causes him to fall. Either way, I watched 5 US games in the tournament and he was one of the best players for them so I’d put more weight onto that than a bad finish for him.
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I share similar concerns about Helenius as Sexlaf after watching him play a couple games at the U18’s. He was pretty invisible 5 on 5 in the quarterfinal against Sweden, and while I was more impressed at times in the game against the US he still wasn’t as dominant as I would expect from someone already playing pro hockey against men. That’s the biggest knock on him that I’ve read and Sexlaf mentioned, that he’s not dynamic and probably doesn’t have the high ceiling you’d want out of a pick that high. I don’t know if the level of the Finnish elite league is at a low point right now, but considering his production in that league this season he should have looked a lot better at the U18’s. If he is destined to be our pick I certainly hope he looks better at the World’s.
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This was a rare case where every single series in both conferences went the way I was hoping it did. This can’t possibly continue so sorry to one or more of the Avs, Panthers, and Canucks (I don’t really have a preference between Canes/Rags).
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9 hours ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
Pretty crazy. McKenna is on track to be the next player that teams are gearing to tank for in 2026. Oh, and his cousin is some bender named Connor BedardI’m interested to see what James Hagens looks like around this time next year. He’s already #1 for 2025, but I wonder what his hype level will end up being. He just set the record for most points at the tournament beating Kucherov’s record.
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3 hours ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
really like zellweger getting this experience. More reps against pro competitionI’m definitely watching for Celebrini if we luck into the 1st overall pick.
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4 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:
When you say recent, how many years back are you going?
You mentioned Lindholm so if you make the cutoff 2012 you get: Lindholm, Theodore, Montour, and Pettersson as guys who are established quality players, and then you have LaCombe, Drysdale, Zellweger, Luneau, and Mintyukov that all look like they’ll be NHL players to varying degrees. Perhaps too soon for Luneau but he’s a great D prospect, and LaCombe is at the bottom of that group.
If you go back 2 more years you get Manson and Fowler. Some may argue that Fowler fell in the Ducks’ laps, but they still had to take him when 11 others thought he wasn’t good enough.
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6 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:
I don't know about defense being a specialty. Larson was a bust. I personally would have picked Trouba over Lindholm. Drysdale has developed into an injury prone player. The Ducks have picked better defense in the second round than they have with forwards.
I don’t think it’s debatable that the Ducks have had a lot of recent success drafting defensemen regardless of the round they picked them in, and regardless if they went on to have their best seasons elsewhere. They absolutely do a good job on the whole of identifying defensive talent.
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51 minutes ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
Yakemchuk has the size that Verbeek likes, he’s got offensive ability, especially in transition and is physical but his skating and lack of situational awareness scares me. I think he’d take him over parekh and is definitely in the conversation if Leshunov is off the board 😕. In that case, I’d try hard to trade back
If he’s the Ducks’ guy then I doubt he trades back. You never know how teams evaluate players compared to the public rankings, and all it takes is one to agree with the Ducks and snatch him up. I also don’t think it’s anything to worry about. The Ducks certainly know better than us, and defense has been their speciality.
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8 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:
Pronman also had Makar ranked 18th in his draft year while just about everyone else had him no lower than 7th. I'll take his rankings with a grain of salt. From what I've seen of Yakemchuk, he's the next John Klingberg.
He had Wyatt Johnston at #20, whereas McKenzie’s ratings - which I always remind people is based on scouts actually associated with NHL teams not McKenzie himself - had him at #40. Win some, lose some.
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6 hours ago, BombaysTripleDeke said:
I agree and the only thing I’d bet money on is that Leshunov is our pick if he’s on the board. After that, I’m not confident in predicting. Taking Silayev either puts an LHD on their off side or there’s a trade in the near future. Silayev definitely fits the Verbeek profile. Rather take him than Yakemchuk. If he got Leshunov then pulled off a trade up to get Sennecke then I’ll be floored with the draft.
For whatever it’s worth, Pronman of the Athletic has Yakemchuk at #3 right now. Not saying he’s my guy, but I’d be confident in any D the Ducks picked if that’s where they end up going considering the track record.
I don’t know that the Ducks would have to move up to draft Sennecke. His rankings are all over the place including a bunch of 2nd round grades. Right now, if the Ducks are going to trade up in the middle of the 1st round I’m taking Connelly. He’s really impressing me and he’s got everything Verbeek wants in a player. Doubt it happens because those kinds of trades are rare to begin with.
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US vs Finland U18’s:
As the game went on this basically came down to Eiserman vs. Helenius for me. Eiserman looked better in this game than he did against Latvia, but he still went through stretches of play where he wasn’t doing much. I’m starting to wonder about his hockey sense. I’ve read about how he gets tunnel vision and thinks shot all the time, but in this game there were times when he passed the puck when he should of shot and vice versa.
Enter Helenius. He’s described as having elite hockey sense, and that definitely showed itself. He had a slow start and end to the game, but looked solid in the 2nd period. He reminded me at times of a less dynamic and less consistent Leo Carlsson. Even during the small instances in the game it’s plays/positions that you’ve seen in the NHL. He looks to have an NHL brain. He needs to work on his shot, but his playmaking stood out. He setup his teammate for a wide open one-timer goal, and it was the kind of goal you see on the PP except this was 5 on 5. The biggest question I have with him is whether the Ducks think he can impact the game on the wing, because he’s not playing center here especially at his 5’10” size. I also expected him to be more dominant/consistent considering he’s playing in the Finnish pro league against men.
Other than that, Connelly had another good game. He’s the perfect Verbeek player; he’s fast with tons of skill, and he competes hard. He’s got a little edge to his game at times. Stiga also had a good game. He’s got a good shot and puts himself in great places to score.
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Trevor Connelly pulled off the Michigan for the US against Latvia today. He had two goals and two assist overall in the game, and was the best player on the ice. That’s back to back good games from him. If this is what he brings pretty consistently there’s no way he’s going to be available at Edmonton’s pick. Eiserman scored a PP goal but was mostly invisible. Not great from him.
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2 minutes ago, ike8228 said:
Do you think Eiserman has got NHL potential early on? Like could he make the club right out of the gate?
I don’t think so. I think it would be much better for him to go round out his game in college. Cutter Gauthier is what Eiserman would love to eventually become, and Gauthier spent two years in college.
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I watched the US U18 game today. Mainly to see how Eiserman looked, and to see if anyone else stood out. One player that stood out to me is Trevor Connelly. He’s got top 10 skill, but there’s some character concerns around him. Nothing as bad as some of the other players in previous drafts you may have heard about, but the Athletic did a whole story about him. He’s ranked in the middle of the 1st round, but he could be a great pick if he drops to wherever Edmonton’s pick ends up being. He’s from Tustin.
As for Eiserman, he was a bit better than I was expecting. I was expecting him to have a great shot with not much else, but he had some good moments 5 on 5. He made a couple of nice plays, and wasn’t lazy on defense either. There were times when he tried to do too much in the offensive zone, was selfish with the puck, and then took a bad shot when other players were open in better spots. That’s been a critique I’ve read a lot about him. He scored two goals on the PP showing off his shot.
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2 hours ago, Sexlaf15 said:
Eric Stephens put out a fantastic article on Zegras.
Zegras opened the season with a lesser grade of the same groin injury that kept Couture out pretty much all season. Pretty impressive his defense was as good as it was.
“That’s a bit of a grind to go through,” Zegras said. “For hockey players, your groins are obviously very important. And I don’t want to say breaking my ankle was a blessing in disguise, but it gave me time to fully recover on the groin front. I’d say now it’s probably the closest I’ve felt to 100 percent. I’d say it’s a pretty good feeling.“
Zegras identified this season as the most adversity he’s ever gone through. Kind of general hockey player quotes of “controlling what I can control” stuff.
he did have a interesting quote at the end of the article:
“Obviously, it’s very exciting,” he said. “All these guys are great hockey players. I feel like they’re all around that age, 20 to 24. Nineteen, some of them. If my role is to be a leader and help, try and work on that. If my role is to pass the puck to Leo and let him do his thing, that’s the role I’ll play.”
it’s pretty clear he’s getting pushed so hard to be a leader for this team. Maybe contradicts the idea that management doesn’t want him. article has an interesting tone, but I stand by that it’s clear the ducks should not trade him. He’s a vital piece to this team.
I think this quote is the most interesting:
“It was at the end of summer that Zegras estimates that he began to feel something wrong. Add in missing camp and most of the preseason as his camp and the Ducks slogged away toward a three-year bridge extension worth $17.25 million, and the injury worsened as he tried to play catch-up with his teammates.
“I started feeling some stuff,” he said. “Didn’t really know what it is. Kind of when I got back on the ice. Just skating. Might have ramped it up a little too quick or something. I didn’t take care of it like I should have and maybe been on top of it. Obviously coming back into training camp is a whole different animal. These guys are playing at a different pace than you skate in summer so that probably didn’t help too much.”
We all speculated that his lack of training camp caused the groin injury, but it seems he had it before training camp and wasn’t smart about it.
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8 minutes ago, HockeyIzCool said:
75 games played, and he hasn't even reached 20 goals yet.
He has 20 goals on the season.
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2024 Playoffs
in NHL Talk
Posted
Amazing to see Edmonton blow game 1. Here’s to 3 more.