RogersTowell

Don't get your panties all in a bunch because the guy didn't jump straight to the NHL. Mattias Ohlund, one of the best D men this franchise has known, took until his D+4 year to break in to the NHL and had worse offensive numbers in the SEL in his three years there than Juolevi has in Liiga in his first year as a pro. You can look at stats all you want but they aren't completely predictive. Until this year, Morgan Rielly's numbers weren't that great in the NHL. Worrying that Juolevi might be a bust because he sat a couple of games is silly, but it seems that's what happens on CDC. The sky is always falling, probably because we get so hyped up on our draft picks when they are shiny new toys. Juolevi had some very good numbers to start the year and his usage has changed lately for one reason or another. Maybe it's to work on parts of his game to make him a better player when he gets here. Maybe it's because the line chemistry on the team requires it right now due to injuries to others. Maybe he was feeling run down a bit. I'm quite confident that there's a solid chance that Juolevi will be a core D-man for this club in the future barring anything unusual happening. The kid has poise and skills. He's not a one way player and takes care of his defensive responsibilities. He'd make a good top pairing D-man along with a partner with top end offensive skills. Look what's happened to Hutton this year. His offense has dried up a lot, but his defense has been better. He's not quite the liability he once was. This is a deliberate move by Green to fill in the gaps in Hutton's game, and this is D+6. I don't expect Hutton to be a complete player for a couple of years. Stecher's in the same boat but I think he's going to start producing again as this season progresses. Is Dylan Strome a washout because he can't crack Arizona's line up in his D+3 year? As a forward he should be able to do that easier than a D. I think not. It's a team doing the right thing and developing the players the right way - the same way Winnipeg has been developing.

edit: wrong thread

Nice to see Virtanen get Green's confidence to be on the ice late in the third so he could pot the 5-2 goal tonight.

I love how his physical play and finishing his check resulted in a power play. You can contribute in many ways in this game. One of them is to make players think twice before driving your net. He answered the bell after delivering a nice clean hit.

Well, aren't you just Mr. Happy. What I think I hear you saying is that the Canucks should have gone full Coilers or full Laffs and stank for a decade or more until they finally got lucky and got a franchise player in the draft. What I think you are missing is that they are doing things better than both these teams did in a lot of ways. They are trying to win every year without emptying the prospect cupboard. Eriksson so far looks like a bit of a bust, but you are dead wrong on Sutter. He's an excellent shut down center with some decent offensive upside. He's like a more productive Malholtra while being better on d at the same time. Not as good on FO. Gagner was a gamble, but could show his worth at the trade deadline. I like how you only mention the bad here regarding contracts.. What about Vanek? What about hiring Green? At least you mention some positives with drafting. I agree with you about Horvat to a certain extent, but he can fill in 1C if nobody else fits. The only thing making this forum cranky right now is the insane injury problems experienced again this year. If there's one thing that needs to be looked at this is it. Why are the Canucks taking so many injuries? I'm still optimistic that we'll get a good pick this year as long as we don't get too healthy and go on a tear. Don't forget about Gaudette, Lockwood, Lind, Dahlen, Demko and many more waiting in the wings.

Let's put it this way. He's almost guaranteed to break the U20 scoring record for the SHL and is currently on track to be near the all time scoring record for the league set by Hakan Loob back in the early '80s (although there were only 36 games played per season back then, so he's not likely to match Loob's sensational 2ppg from that season)

You can be excused for not following Dahlen's progress. He's currently back in the league he was in last year and has 1.27ppg as opposed to 0.98ppg last year. Decent improvement for a guy recovering from mono. We'll have to see how he does after Christmas when he likely moves up to the SHL. He's still no lock for making the NHL, but he's moving in the right direction. I'd like to see him in Utica next season as long as it isn't still log jammed in a way that doesn't allow a lot of game time, but he has a shot at making the Canucks if he works hard. There'll be a couple of spots available next season. Virtanen and Boeser made the line up this season. I think Pettersson and one other will make it next season. It could be Dahlen, Goldobin or Gaudette.

He's got dirty dangles, sick shots and incredible vision for making plays. He reminds me a bit of a young Wayne Gretzky - although I think the calibre of defence and opposition in general is higher now and he's more like a Gretzky light. I don't really like making the comparison but he has the vision, playmaking skills and hands to make the comparison valid to some extent, not to mention the slight frame.

Today's performance should tie Pettersson for first in the SHL at 23 points in 18 games. In the SHL there is only one player under 20 in the top 50 in scoring. It's hard to know which season of Forsberg's to compare with Pettersson as he was 18 for the entire 91-92 season and 19 for the entire 92-93 season while Pettersson was 18 at the start of this season and turned 19 last week. He's starting to look like he might match Forsberg's 92-93 season, however, which would be a tremendous accomplishment, although hard to predict what the NHL holds for Pettersson being such a different style. I loved that diving play for the puck to break up the play in his own zone and give his team mates a 2 on 1. His highlights are always worthy of watching.

He loaded that shot up very nicely for such a slim dude. I expect that he's remarkably wiry.

If it is a top 10 pick, I'd be willing to trade some real assets to acquire it. Outside the top ten, I think you need to be conservative with what you are willing to pay. This is a strong draft in the top 10 or so picks, after that it becomes more of a normal draft.

It gets better. Linden Vey is the current scoring leader in the KHL as of Nov. 18th (same team as Dawes). It's a real gud league.

Steenbergen, Heponiemi and Gawdin are all playing for the raiders and are 1, 2 and 5 in league scoring. When you get a lot of talent on one team/line, average players can seem much better on the stat sheet, just like playing on a line with McDavid in Junior can make you look much better than you really are (*cough* Dane Fox). Need to add advanced stats and eye test for further evaluation. Lind is the only Kelowna Rocket in the top 25 of WHL scoring so far this season and is driving the offence for that team.

For me, this is at least as important as any stats that are put up. We have a hard time seeing the role being played since we don't have access to watch all the games, but the time on ice and top line pairing are for me the big news, especially after not getting a lot of games early in the season.

I'd like to see him up a league - either SHL or AHL. Too bad we have Utica with so many career AHLers.

He sure is. He's owning that starting role with Utica. Shouldn't be too many seasons before we see him up with the Canucks. There are going to be a fair number of impact players making the Canucks around the same time in a year or three.

Jonah is having a nice start to the OHL season. Not quite as big an impact on the score sheet as Lind in the dub, but it bodes well in a year or two when these guys are ready along with Pettersson.

It is one of the indicators but of course it is not the entire picture. If it's been beaten to death, why bother responding?

Essentially all you are saying here is that you don't agree with his statement without supplying a reason. This whole debate seems to be devolving into veiled ad-hominem attacks and meta-discussion. Why not reply instead with your take on Virtanen's progress (or lack thereof if that's your position) instead? For what it's worth I think Virtanen is making a decent bid to make the NHL team. We'll see as the pre-season progresses and more vets are pumped into the games just how ready he is. Green is well aware of where Jake is at and what he needs to do to improve. The teams he's been playing against to date have been a mix of AHL and NHL and he's performed quite well at both ends of the ice. Development can happen in both the NHL and the AHL. He might get less game time in the NHL, but he'd have a higher level of competition. Because of the type of player he is he can play bottom six minutes. Anyone he displaces from an NHL spot is no big loss if they are picked up off waivers as there are plenty more where that came from. There's no reason to get our knickers in a knot about a Megna or Chaput being claimed. Guys like that are put on waivers throughout the season. Nobody should get a spot just because they might get claimed off waivers. They need to earn it by being better players than anyone else competing for that spot.

Hard to say. At 25, Bieksa played his first season in the NHL - 6 points in 36 games. Last year, at 24-25, Gudbranson had 6 in 30. Bieksa's break out year was the next season with 42 points in 81 games. I still agree that they play a different style of game, but we won't know what we have with Gudbranson for a couple of years yet. He did have some solid point production in the OHL.

I agree regarding Rodin. One mediocre game can't determine a guys year. I think both of these guys could make an impact in the NHL this season. As of today, I'd give the advantage to Boeser, but there's a lot of time left for Rodin to change that. Hopefully he gets some ice time with guys who aren't plugs. Rodin is old enough to put in the bottom 6 if that's all that's available even if he's more suited to a top six role.

One good game you can kind of pass off. Two games and you are starting to think he might have something going for him. If he manages a third game in a row, I'd say "He's kicking the door down". Even if he has an off game next outing I'd say he's having a strong showing. The kid showed a lot of class after the Vegas game and said it doesn't matter how things went offensively for him if it didn't help the team win. He says all of the things a coach wants to hear from his players. He could have said "I think so far I've made a strong statement to the effect that I should make the starting NHL roster this season" but he didn't, he talked about team goals. The kid is a class act. A few more years and I think we'll see an A on his jersey.

Palmu currently 33rd in scoring in Finland (but same number of total points as 23rd - only 5 games played so far)

There are at least two very good reasons that this is going down the way it is. The first reason is as you and Sid stated - it's in Pettersson's interest to sign next year. The other reason is that he needs a development year in a strong league that has a lower rate of injuries than the NHL or AHL. If JB plays along with this idea, he gains loyalty from the Pettersson camp, which is what you want long term.

You've summed up a lot of what I saw in the prospects game, but I'd like to add that he not only had the vision and IQ, but, like Pettersson, he has the hands to make something really happen with that vision. He doesn't have the one on one moves of Pettersson, but he can sure play smart and dish off the puck to whoever is right out in front for a scoring chance. He must have generated between 1/3 and 1/2 of the offensive chances against Winnipeg.