krutovsdonut

that's quite the draft pick haul.

hopefully nicely, but this type of offence talk talk does worry me with juolevi. you see ryan johnson talking about him as an offensive / power play guy but that's a recent spin. he was drafted as a top pair 2 way guy with transition skills not as a pp guy. i do have a sneaking suspicion this may be part of the canucks trying to pump his tires up to move him in a trade. that would explain the top pp minutes he was handed in utica.

no, for a dman. josh morrissey and thomas chabot are recent examples of mid 1st round dman picks who spent time in the ahl in their d+3 seasons and turned out just fine. morrissey spent two years in junior after the draft then went to the ahl d+3 and got into a single nhl game chabot also spent two years in junior after the draft. he did get into a single nhl game d+2 then went back to junior. for d+3 he played 13 games in the ahl and was called up and stuck. so, right now, juolevi with 18 games played is 5 ahl games behind chabot and tracking the same as morrissey. arguably he is ahead of morrissey since he played last year in a pro league instead of junior. incidentally, chabot was -10 in his 13 ahl d+3 games. morrissey was -9 in 57 ahl games his d+3 ahl season. and juolevi so far is out-ppg-ing both of them in the ahl. so, on paper at least, he's as good a prospect as either of those guys. with juolevi i think the glass half empty perspective tends to overlook that he still is a very decent prospect even if you discount the possibility he may still live up to his draft pick.

i share your hope.

schaller is more evidence of how important a fit to the system and situation can be for a second tier player. boston fans adored the guy and predicted we'd love him and he had upside. i have yet to see a hint of what they adored. a good analogy is hansen. we adored him. he was our speedy adaptable swiss army knife. i thought he had upside for san jose when traded and certainly he was can't miss to find a slot. san jose fans never saw his game. which brings up leivo. a lot of toronto fans adore him and think he has upside...

juolevi is a weird polarizing case. he's following a physical development pace more typical for a mid 1st or later pick, yet still showing tantalizing signs of living up to his draft position. he's certainly not a bust, but bust against expectations is a real possibility. i still cannot tell if he is more like hickey or lidstrom as two opposite extremes. i feel like there is potentially a step he can take that will lead to a shocking positive transformation in his game. otoh, the folks who would vote hickey certainly have a point at this point. he was drafted as a peer of patrick laine and puljujarvi for his skill in feeding them the puck. three years later he is not the only member of that triumverate whose ceiling is now in doubt.

ivy league schools have high admission standards so that graph is comparing apples and oranges and not very helpful. it is mostly showing you that smart hardworking people earn more money. a meaningful graph would be to compare median incomes of people with similar hs grades and testing results who went to ivy league schools or did not.

yep, either gaudette (logical) or they may try and unload another contract through waivers. pouliot comes to mind.

with leivo added onto the roster, the door is now open for that to happen if beagle looks good on his return.

this tweet suggests to me benning is presently not allowed to add an nhl contract until he loses one. the minute leipsic is gone, he makes a deal for leivo. my guess is that ownership is not happy about buried contracts.

they may have wanted leipsic gone. same reason they waited an extra day to send archie down so he had to clear waivers. the logical explanation in both cases is they wanted this player to be picked up by another team corrado style because management has seen enough.

tough day for utica. leipsic doesn't make it past waivers and now carcone is gone.

gus adams was an undrafted winger who played a power game. i agree it's not a perfect comparison but it seemed closer than our other undrafted winger made good.

it's looking like a long season. the way jasek, lind, dahlen and palmu have been owned in the ahl is sobering. being absolutely scorched early is not an unfamiliar story for second tier prospects trying to jump to minor pro, and is not exactly determinative long term, but it is definitely an indicator that we are in next year mode for fresh forward legs. i do not discount mcewen, but he is still more likely to be an archibald than a greg adams.

green seems to be distancing himself from his utica guys a bit. boucher gets 5 minutes his first game up, archie gets 5 minutes when he gets in then some reason they keep him up for 31 days instead of sending him down a day earlier so that he has to clear waivers, gaunce gets 5 minutes a game, and biega can't get a start during the losing streak. it's not like he has markedly better options.

schaller has been a day late and a dollar short all season. skille was the same age as schaller is now when we had him and i think had more game..

he is close to getting it done at an nhl level so i still think he might get over the hump, but i do think an ahl return would be better for him. it will be interesting to see what he does when he gets to the ahl after this experience. could be fun to watch.

if we have landed a player where there is a legit question whether we would trade him for a consensus 1oa generational dman then i think we can call it a good season now regardless of the answer to that question or what else happens this season.

he's never in his nhl career been placed in a position to succeed so i am not going to judge him on the mental side. he may well be able to bear down on a strong defensive team and learn to let go a little more with the help of more positive experiences. you just don't judge a goalie too harshly because he can't maintain focus and carry a bad team when he has never really known anything else. to me the issue is he is a positional goalie who i think has weaknesses that would be exposed during a playoff series where the opposition is absolutely dialled in and focussed on beating him. i will say though that he has gotten better every year, and that i thought the same about kirk mclean until he went on that run. if i was another good team with a goalie hole, i'd take a chance on markstrom.

that makes sense given he bolted the first time he was sent there. i am sure it burns his britches that his friend pettersson is thriving in the nhl. but you would also assume the guy is getting excellent advice from his family on what the ahl is for and how best to get out of there. from that i deduce that he either isn't listening or else is finding he is not ready. either way suggests he has to stay there, and not be promoted until he gets into a groove.

pouliot's rover offensive game does not translate to the nhl. he does not have a good enough shot to keep defenders honest and be effective on the point. he can't quite think the game fast enough, and he is not fast enough to compensate for his mistakes. he will never be what he was drafted to be, but with enough patience and some experience he could find an nhl game as a mobile mid-4 dman. it's a longshot but it is a shot. what is left of his potential is a reasonably mobile dman with enough size to hold his ground if he uses it and a decent pass and the ability to play with possession and roam when he has room. if he plays with those tools but within himself he can be an nhl regular. the way he played the first half of last year showed that to be possible. his improved physical engagement this year shows progress, in spit of all the other issues. for the time being, it is worthwhile to give him a roster spot to gain experience and see if he clicks. the clock is ticking and it will run out when juolevi and hughes are ready, but for now he is a better use of a roster spot than a confirmed 6/7 guy like mdz or beiga, whose development curve has definitely ended and who has to play desperate every game just to be on the roster. that is most probably where pouliot ends up but it is not yet certain.

first time poster here. it seems to me that josh morrissey is a good example of a dman who took longer like juolevi has so far. d+3 he was in the ahl and he is really clicking now averaging 23 minutes a night early in the season. i wouldn't trade him now for lindholm, who went 5oa in the same draft and made the nhl at 18. hoping that juolevi plays out the same way. while guys like morrissey and chabot weren't drafted as high, i don't really see that as a basis of distinction for the fact their nhl debut was delayed and they turned out fine. the logic of saying juolevi is not doing well for where he was drafted requires that you compare him to manchild dmen who may have been drafted early and debuted earlier but also have lower ceilings. anyway, it's maybe wishful thinking but that is what i think.