Plum

What's your point? I'm not saying you need to be that type of player to be a NHL player or anything.

He can stick handle at top speed, that's fine. But he doesn't have that good of hands, he's a straight-line player like Bob McKenzie said. Physical, skate well, shoots the puck hard. He has a great simple game, he doesn't have a lot of finesse to his game or creativity like Bob mentioned. There's nothing wrong with that, Lucic doesn't have good hands either. Plenty of players don't, even Getzlaf isn't much of a good stick handler. Yeah, I said that in a page back that he's a hard player to contain and creates space for other players with his big body.

That's nice but plenty of players can do that in junior. He's not a fast stickhandler or a slick player.

Ehlers and Nylander are putting up a lot of points and obviously it's going to concern some of us but here's my take. The junior game is suited for Ehlers, he feeds off open ice and weak defence. He'll skate around the whole zone and he's much more skilled than anyone else. Virtanen isn't a skilled player, his hands aren't that good but he plays a simple, hard-nosed game. In the NHL, the defences are strong and the coaches don't give stars up any space. Crosby doesn't have any space, stick a guy on him for his whole shift just so you won't get scored on. Tarasenko and Voracek broke out because coaches weren't focused on them and these players took advantage of opposing players not all over them. We'd all be going 110% when we're playing against Crosby, not so much if you're playing against Tarasenko. That's an example of NHL not giving star players any space while Ehlers has plenty much space in junior. Even if Virtanen doesn't produce it doesn't bother me because he's a heavy player that does so much else. He's a heavy player and so hard to contain with great speed, a heavy shot and strength. Everybody knows what tools he possesses. Virtanen is a complimentary winger in the top 6, creates space and does the dirty work. Crosby is great with guys like Kunitz/Hornqvist/Perron. Just like in the Olympics when he was with Bergeron/Iginla/Kunitz. Somebody has to do the dirty work and it'll be Virtanen for us while possessing a shot and speed. Medicine Hat has 92 points and Calgary has 93, both have 1 game remaining so for Calgary it's either Kootney/Red Deer.

Hansen makes Horvat look slow. I wonder if Hansen is the best linemate for Horvat, yeah they have been good but I think with guys like Kassian, Matthias and Richardson is where Horvat would look at his best because of the boardplay.

I watched him with the Oil Kings during the Memorial Cup and quite a bit of games during his career watching junior hockey/prospects in my spare time. He's a pretty solid player, he isn't an offensive defenceman but he's a pretty good skater, good first pass and makes the right decisions with the puck. He keeps a good positioning defensively when the teams are coming off the rush, doesn't give the player much space to get around him. He reminds me a bit of Sbisa but I haven't seen him make some dumb decisions like Sbisa has done this season. Smooth skater with great agility but good overall speed and acceleration, moves the puck well with crisp passes, hits well and uses his good skating ability to his advantage defensively with gap control. He doesn't really excel in anything but he's kind of like a good at everything, not great in anything. Some teams have those players but you can develop this guy to maybe like a Jake Muzzin where he's pretty good offensively even though he's not a PPQB but defensively he's pretty reliable and physical but isn't a guy like Regehr.

Assuming he's staying in college another year then he'll be coming into the AHL/ECHL the same time McNally, Tryamkin are. We'll already have Cederholm, McEneny, Subban, Pedan there. Quite a logjam and you'll need some vets in Utica like Huskins/Biega.

Glad to hear he's doing well. Very intriguing skill-set. I like the direction our team is going in with skill in our system but also some toughness. I hope we just utilize him carefully if we call him up because he's been bounced around a lot in his pro career. I think playing him with someone like Vey/Bonino and then Vrbata on the wing on the same line might become a really good 2nd/3rd line depending on how our other players play. He'd probably fit well with McCann and Virtanen who love to shoot, Baertschi, a really fast, skilled playmaker should do well on that line.

Kiko Alonso from Oregon. Wonder why Chip Kelly got him.

Take your time with Jake. He has plenty of things to learn, he has great raw tools with speed, skill and the shot but learning to make right decisions with the puck, knowing what to do in certain situations. I think he'll learn alot in the AHL, Travis Green sounds like a smart guy so I think Virtanen will learn from a different perspective than junior coaches.

Haha wow, I said Nichushkin>Horvat on the first page of the thread.. got +10.

Horvat is looking better than Lazar right now, I expected both looking good around the same time but Lazar hasn't gotten comfortable with the NHL yet. Maybe the big difference between these two players.

I just feel really good about Hutton's game, I'm not sure what would hold him back from playing in the NHL. He probably lacks in the stick handling department or flashyness but he has good skating ability like McDonagh, can make a good, hard first pass, he has a good gap between himself and the player with the puck keeping him to the outside but if the players tries to beat him wide he can get physical on him. He's listed as 6'3 and 200 pounds on the Maine website but with more playing time (NCAA doesn't play as many games as a league like the CHL) I think he'll become a better, more mature player. He's only played 98 NCAA games, that's like a OHL season and a little bit more. I don't think Hutton is that mean but he'd do whatever it'd take to get the puck. Crosscheck the guy pretty good if he's trying to protect the puck or if he had shutdown duties he'd be hard on him like McDonagh on Crosby during the playoffs. Haha I don't think he'll be as good as them but I think he plays a similar playing style.

I thought he was good, I know he can be better though. He's a good skater, controls the PP and has poise with the puck. He makes smart decisions, it's hard to go end to end because Notre Dame did a good job clogging it up. I think with more skilled teammates he would flourish but Maine doesn't have alot of skill upfront. Hutton keeps good gap defensively, uses his stick well and plays pretty physical. Reminds me of Duncan Keith a little bit or Ryan McDonagh.

Horvat has those Crosby like legs that can help him protect the puck, I'd just like to see him lay the body a little bit more or try and get more aggressive in puck battles. I know Horvat isn't much of a hitter (he isn't soft) but in those puck battles he needs to battle hard against the vets.

Yeah I bet Horvat was winning puck battles fairly easy in the OHL, now he's in the NHL where it is alot harder. Might be a little scared to get too physical because he's just 19.

I still think he gets beat in puck battles quite easily, maybe I want him to be more aggressive or get more physical. I think hitting the gym more often would help, he barely gets time I bet with so many quick games.

He's looking good right now but I can't wait to see him next season with a season under his belt, more strength added.

Strome has put up 11 points in 5 games at the U17s, 143 points in 60 games in the GTMMHL and he was 4th in scoring (1 point behind leader) at the Ivan Hlinka for Canada. He produced over PPG even when McDavid was out. Marner is leading the OHL in scoring, no one is inflating his scoring and Barzal has only played 2 games since coming back. I agree that I would like them to draft a defenceman though.

Not my vid. He looks so dominant out there, his speed and skill is already hard to contain but the players know Virtanen hits hard and plays aggressively so I think when he has the puck, opponents are so intimidated that they back off. Sometimes it looks like the players he hit are overreacting like the WWE but they're not, wow. Reminds me of Eichel on a few plays, quick speed and that toe-drag to slow the game down then fire a laser.

Virtanen had a good night, Bean is a really good OFD, skates well and has a good first pass, key player on the PP. I I think Calgary might be a top team in the WHL next year, they'll have veteran talent in Fazleev, Lang, Virtanen, Karnaukhov, Sanheim, Thomas and young talent in Bean, Malenstyn. I think a couple trades to help out for high-end 1st line talent along with Virtanen is something to help them win the WHL. He's probably a 1st rounder. The defence won't be as strong as 2015 but it'll be strong especially from the WHL side.