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Everything posted by Phat Fingers
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One more year for Woo. Not a bad thing to marinate our young d men. Only Hughes has a legit shot to go amateur to NHL. But OJ and Woo can really round out a young d corps as long as we keep a few guys around like Guddy
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OJ is on track. He always was. D+1 he takes on a much tougher role with the knights and maintains his scoring. D+2 He goes back to Finland, becomes the 2nd best rookie defenseman in Ligia history. Only to play in the same year as the best rookie defenseman in Ligia history. As a skinny, skilled cerebral player, OJ's hurdle was always physical. That's why he is in the AHL in his d+3 year. His injuries have been minor, his progress has been steady. For reference, he is 20 years old and by no means a finished product. That's normal. Expecting a defenseman to make the NHL as a 20 year old is rare. For once the club is doing the right thing and taking time with a key prospect and they are getting flamed for it. The same guys were flaming the same club for rushing Virtannen and McCann
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Not even worth a minus. We have much better trolls on this board. Go back to to the HF boards or wherever you came from. Obvious troll is trolling.
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Green knows our young guys very well. MacEwan could be the fan favourite player in the same mood as Dorsett. We need a guy like that and Archie doesn’t seem to be able to make the grade.
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If OJ can develop into a physical defender, well that would be awesome. Hope your right.
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The IQ is the there, OJ is a a smart player who thinks the game. That’s where the disinterested comments come from. He is thoughtful, and reserved. I don't see OJ ever playing as physical as Hammer, more like Tanev on defence.
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Stetcher shows up every game. He has earned his minutes. Sounds like Green is trying to get Pouliot going. He keeps getting reps. Green does know Pouliot better than anyone in the organization. Don’t know how many more chances Pouliot gets before Green moves on. OJ lost a good chunk of off season training. His skating has never been an issue prior, dont see it as a long term issue. A solid season of games followed by a good off season, he makes the team next year and doesn’t look back. The IQ and Skills are there, just needs to get stronger and he should be fine. Good news.
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Things in Utica haven’t gone the way I had hoped this early season. Losing Demko and also dealing with the Canucks losing a quarter of their starting line up to injury in the first twenty games has been disappointing.3 This is hitting the rookies in Utica and is a baptism of fire. Better in the AHL than the NHL for all players not named Pettersson (Honerable mention to Gaudette). Getting bodies back back into the lineup will be a tonic for the whole system. Having two 6 game road trips in the first twenty has only made things a little harder. Dahlen, Lind, OJ, Gaudette and Gads have a steep learning curve and need to learn to fall down before learning to run at the Pro level. If things can’t be smoothed out on the injury front to allow Gaudette and a few vets to be sent back down, I Hope JB opens up the trade front to bring in some ringers for Utica. We could really use a few good vets to help the team along. IMO I would rather, atm, boost Utica over the big club to keep the development pipeline working. Getting our younger players NHL ready has to be the main goal. That means making Utica as strong as possible, so Dahlen has a good setup guy for one. Our Goaltending is a mess atm. Nielsson coming back will be like a finger in a dam. Hopefully he can maintain his season start. Markstom has proven that he isn’t any more than an NHL tandem guy. A healthy Demko may have already passed Markstrom if he was available. Moving out a tender to bring in an AHL upgrade might be a solid move. Cull has a lot of work to do in NY state. He looked decent as a coach last season. Wonder if that was mainly due to Demko?
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The posters who have been down on OJ are the posters that have been down on him since he was drafted. Anyone who hasn’t cemented their opinion on a player the day he was drafted is getting excited about OJ. 13 pt’s! Nearly a PPG pace near the first quarter mark by a rookie Canucks d man! Anyone down on OJ is never going to like him, even if he wins a Norris one year
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Never really got to know Dal Colle as a prospect. Just remembered really wanting Leo to fall to 6.
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My fault, what I see is the club is getting OJ to focus on offence, because they already expect his defence to translate. I have no no concerns about his defence, but this production is great.
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Great post! I would like to add a thought to the development of OJ. Reading the tea leaves here, this club expects a lot from OJ. That he is being used as an Offensive defenceman is excellent while being expected to be effective defensively. 11pts in 14 games. If he can maintain that for a season, plus minus be damned, it bodes very well for this franchise. To me is sounds like the management knows that OJ will be a defensively sound NHL d man, but they see untapped offensive abilities and want OJ to focus on that part of his game. For the naysayers on this pick. He is putting up great rookie numbers in Utica. His development curve has trended steadily upwards. Not as fast as others but IMO his top end trajectory is still within reach. If his offence can be developed to this level and carried over to the NHL, is anyone really worried that he won’t adjust to the defensive side of the game in time? We need offensive minded puck movers any way we can get them.
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Hughes is well proportioned. He isn’t a pinner, just average build for a guy his height. Could he do better with 10 pounds of muscle? I don’t think it will hurt him, but he isn’t a pinner. He isn’t that far off Stechers build. Fantastic skills and will be very hard to defend. He works to his strengths on the defensive side. Think EP40 but as a defender. Blocking lanes, stripping picks and using his brain and skill to defend vs braun and size. So his stature isn’t the liabilty many make it out to be.
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I see a team breakdown. Either it was OJ’s guy and the other player was supposed to let OJ pick up the guy going around the net, or OJ blew his position in front of the net by chasing the puck. Young players adjusting to new systems and players. This will happen. No biggie.
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Where’s the Kleenex and naked pics of miss piggy?
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I am getting the popcorn, this should be entertaining.
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We are not going to be in on Jack... besides JB needs to draft a RHD with a big shot
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K’Andre Miller is a really good late 1st round player. He was underrated and is showing it. He, Wilde and Woo were my hope with our second. Glad for Woo!! Hughes is a ppg player atm, Michigan has been off and on, while Hughes has been inconsistent. Okay, early days, but a ppg defender in the NCAA is a let down? From what I have read Hughes is working hard off ice, building strength and working on his shot. That type of off ice training takes a lot of energy away from guys, it pays off later, but with other young D+1 players who need to work on building strength, they don’t seem to have the same jump for a while. It’s for a reason, I am speculating, but Hughes has talked about his goals this year. To get ready for the NHL.
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Woo is ready after one to two years in the AHL. That’s 2.5 to 3.5 years IMO. He will be a full time player in a year after that. He has the right type of game to make it.
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Sid, In the defence of the CDC, it doesn’t take much for things to go off the rails. It is like a bad game of telephone. I would be hesitant to ever place solitary blame on structured collective madness so I think you are blameless for where ever the collective thought train goes.
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Glad for Gaunce. I thought he was playing the body more on the forecheck. He has more to offer than many on this board realize. Would love to see him play aggressively on the wing. He can be an affect LW. Would much rather have Gaunce on the nucks roster as he can take faceoffs and kill penalties and send Eriksson down to the minors. Eriksson has played himself off this roster IMO. It might be a needed wake up call or a way to convince him to go back to Sweden. His contract NMC was only two years, his NTC is now in affect and that does not prevent being waived.
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Depleted line up makes for odd match ups. Schaller has gotten some looks, but lacks finish. Granlund and Virtannen with Horvat would be a good line. Schaller with Gaudette and Eriksson as a left over maybe?
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Robb Zepp channeling his inner Dr Zeuss!
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I think that I would be on a boatload of antidepressants. EP40 is a talent that I have never seen in a Canucks uniform at this age or ever. Makar may be an amazing NHL defender. But I take Elias over him everyday. Lets say say that we had Makar, then opted for a forward this last draft. So would you prefer Makar and say Wahlstrom vs Hughes and Pettersson?
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The bi polar reaction to OJ has been there since the second JB said his name at the draft. He is an AHL rookie, 20 years old and progressing. The only negative is his current - in the +\- stats. That’s a miss leading metric, but not without some indication that he is a promissing rookie AHL d man that still needs to improve his defensive play. The team in Utica has been without Demko, filling in for the parent team already and I don’t know how much the forwards backcheck on the lines OJ is deployed with. Added to that, what’s his quality of competition. In other words, is it OJ and some deficiency he needs to improve on, or a team issue. Let the ad nauseum debate continue. Or jist read Zepps posts above and enjoy OJ’s progress...