JeremyCuddles

I mean, Boeser is already getting 63% ozone starts. Give him more he’ll start losing ice time cause you’re not always gonna be in the ozone. It won’t hurt giving Sutter more ozone starts. I know he’s a lot of people’s whipping boy cause of the trade and Benning’s comment about being a foundational player. Sutter is a pretty much 35+ point player over a full season, while being stapled in his own zone practically all game. Boeser and Bo can handle themselves defensively, they shouldn’t need to be baby’d with deployment. And they are talented enough that with 50-60% ozone starts they’ll get their numbers. Lessening Sutter’s defensive responsibilities may help with his injury situations. He has played 20 games, 82 games, and 61 games in his 3 seasons here. Prior to that he hadn’t missed more than 2 games in a season since his sophomore year. Ideally his 5 on 5 deployment should be around 35-40%. Not 20%. If our top lines can’t handle 40% dzone starts we really should be looking to get better players. Only line that should be sheltered next season is whatever line has Pettersson for rookie reasons.

At 22% ozone starts I’m hoping Sutter’s deployment is at least a fair bit better. Poor guy probably got off the bench before his name was even called when he seen defensive faceoffs coming up. Lol

Hughes already did us a favor in our bid for 1st overall by opting for another year in College. Pettersson is anti team tank clearly by coming over and playing for us. That's not how you'll endear yourself to some of this fanbase.

I am thinking whatever line Pettersson is on (assuming he makes it) will get the bulk of the Sedins deployment. And Sutter will get some more offensive starts as well with the acquisition of Beagle. So overall I don't see Bo and Boeser's deployment being much better. Especially since Boeser was already getting 63% ozone starts.

Tryamkin would look real nice next to Victor Soderstrom, all I am saying.

Hughes is like 10 months older no? May seem insignificant but it's something. Boqvist turns 18 in 2 days. Hughes turns 19 in October. I am not one to make my end all be all judgement over one event either. More of a big picture guy. All I am saying is the sky is the limit for all these kids and I would not have been unhappy if Benning selected Boqvist or Bouchard or Dobson. It's okay to be super excited about Hughes without degrading other prospects.

A guy I am quietly excited about to see next season. There will be immense competition for the left d spot next season. I think guys like Tanev, Guddy, and Stecher have the right spots locked down. Chatfield can challenge for the extra righty depth spot but other than that we have no righties looking to break in. We have Edler, MDZ, Pouliot, Hutton, Juolevi on the left side. Brisebois could throw his hat in the ring as an extra body. Juolevi will likely start in Utica because of the surgery. Give him some time to get his legs under him a bit more. Says he should be ready for camp but obviously he is missing out on training and such as he recovers. Juolevi was never gonna be a flashy prospect. He was always a steady player, a somewhat "sure thing" pick or at least the closest you could get. Which at the time made sense to take, since we had 0 top D prospects. So may as well grab a Bo Horvat type D prospect. Bo isn't flashy, but he works hard and does all the little things right. That's kinda like Juolevi. He'll be top 4 in the NHL, just won't knock your socks off. That's what Hughes is for anyway

Neither did the Sedins, except the fact they were Swedes. If they were Canadian they'd have been held in much higher regard over their careers.

Boqvist's ceiling is incredibly high, just like Hughes. It's why I was so high on him personally. He's not tiny, but not big either. The more I learn about Hughes the more I like him too. Good character, smart, just as high a ceiling as Boqvist. I dunno. I was going to be a kid on Christmas no matter who we drafted in the top 10 at the draft. So many exciting names and players. I'd have to find reasons to not be happy with anyone that could have been selected in the top 10.

You saying you would have been unhappy if Benning selected Boqvist with our pick? I mean, having any of Dobson, Bouchard, Boqvist, or Hughes would have made me incredibly happy. There is a lot to like about all 4 guys, and of course downsides to all 4 guys.

From how I read it the "not hard to achieve" was being the best defender in our franchise history. So the comparison is to our best defenders in franchise history.

When a guy that was considered guaranteed top 3 in the draft all year drops to you at 6 you almost have to take him. But as a team that desperately needs d-men we are very fortunate that Benning didn't need to ask himself "Zadina or Hughes". Even though based on the draft video it looks like they wanted Detroit to take Zadina, or at least hoped they wouldn't take Hughes. So maybe Zadina wasn't rated over Hughes in managements eyes. Another question we'll never get a for sure answer to.

Pretty unanimously agreed that Bo is a stud. Jake is a bit more polarizing. A lot more to talk about in regards to Jake.

Pelech got demolished. Holy smokes.

There are 3 guys I'd take ahead of Hughes as it stands right now, at the time of draft I'd have Boqvist/Dobson right there with Hughes, other than the top 2 guys I would only really take Kotkaniemi ahead of Hughes. Hughes, like Boeser, I have learned a lot about post draft and I gotta say I really like him. He sounds like a good kid. He understands patience with his career. Good character. A lot like Boeser. Benning and the scouting staff really are fantastic so far.

Not gonna lie, the way the media is talking about Hughes has me a bit worried. They are usually never this positive about anything and they make him sound like the next Bobby Orr. I really hope the general fanbase is a bit more level headed with expectations, sounds dumb but still I hope. Media is up to something, it's the long con to blame Benning for Hughes not dropping 60+ points his rookie season or something. Or for not taking Dobson/Bouchard. I can feel it.

Yeah, but it was against the Sedins and I wouldn't say "a very long time". I vividly remember that game cause I knew as soon as I seen the race that people were gonna say "McDavid was tired". The Sedins in their prime were slow as hell. You can see the clock in the clip and it was literally like a minute of both teams coasting around. Sedins cause they are fossils and McDavid cause he knew he didn't need to exhaust much energy to defend them. BUT, he does play more minutes during the game and was on the ice for a minute prior to Virtanen jumping on so he definitely wasn't 100. Cold legs doesn't help foot races though, if we are gonna start throwing excuses around may as well throw one out there for Jake McDavid > Virtanen, but yeah that's good company to keep if you are Virtanen. McDavid is only the most electrifying player in the league in terms of being able to flat out fly.

Anytime he’s seen sitting down people question his conditioning. Guy cracks a smile he’s soft.

Not gonna lie, if we want a good PP he won't be on it. I don't think he'll ever develop enough of an arsenal to warrant being on the PP. His strengths are compete and solid two way play. Then again, nothing is impossible. 24 years old isn't old by any means. His shot is gonna need massive improvements to become a PP guy. There was a time that we hoped Tanev would develop his shot and become a top 2 stud. Never came to be. A 5/6 guy (that can play top 4 with a stud lefty) that can kill penalties isn't too bad for a player we didn't draft or trade for.

Not sure how you'd have Gaudette on the PP over Gagner, and think that with a straight face. Gagner is as one dimensional as it gets but if you think he isn't a superior offensive option to Gaudette right now I really don't know what to tell you. Gagner on a good team had 50 points, on our garbage team had 31. Gaudette had 0 points in 5 games and in none of those 5 games would I say he was a threat to score once. We don't need to throw Gaudette into every situation all at once, his best assets are his two way game. Give him the Bo treatment. Bo started on the 4th line, then worked his way up. Gaudette has done nothing in his career to deserve Powerplay looks before guys like Gagner, Eriksson, Baer or even Virtanen, nor is scoring the thing he is best at anyway.

According to dailyfaceoff he played wing, at least to end the season. Took about 500ish faceoffs though. So I imagine he split center duties with another guy on his line?

Not gonna lie, at first I thought that skeleton was holding something a little more explicit. Yikers.

Maybe he doesn’t know what a “Kamloops” is

All this Pettersson talk and I’m here like, how bout dat Hughes tho?

Yeah but the way players are deployed any way it's not even among righties and lefties. Our left D averaged more minutes if ice time per game than the righties. Our supposed top 4 Righties were averaging the same if not less than the lefties. Preferring players on their strong side is all fine and dandy but you do yourself a huge disservice by not at least entertaining the idea of having 2 lefties together or two righties together. Pouliot and MDZ killed penalties on the same pair quite regularly. As for College, I am 100% fine with him going anywhere the team/he thinks is best. My point was purely on the assumption he is NHL ready now.