[2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC]

1 hour ago, Rollieo Del Fuego said:

Honka's production is way above heiskanen levels now...you must have missed were we started talking about him and this graph;

 

I was basing it off of his point per game but I guess that works too

[2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC]

3 hours ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

Honka is interesting in that way. He played an impressive amount of games in Liiga this past year (his draft -1 year) especially considering he's not only a defenseman, but a smaller one at that. I'll have to dig deeper into him when I have more time, but here's some highlights in the mean time:

 

 

Judging from the video above he doesn't seem to have the same skating ability as Hughes although still very good. Definitely had a productive year in Liiga but he is one of the older players in the draft if I am not mistaken. He will have to up his production to Heiskanen levels in his draft year in order to be considered in top 5 in my opinion. I've also heard his defense needs a lot of work, probably in the same vein as Boqvist. My guess is he will continue to be rated anywhere between 5-10 all season long and maybe falling just outside top 10 after the draft when all is said and done. 

[2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC]

1 hour ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

 

He looks a lot like Svechnikov out there; a big and powerful frame that he uses to lean on defenders a lot. He doesn't look quite as quick or refined as Svechnikov though, but an intriguing prospect nevertheless. 

 

He's also in Button's top 5 right now: 

 

 

No matter how good he is I have a hard time seeing him getting drafted in the top 5. He is a winger that plays in a junior league in russia. He would have to have a season that absolutely blows the doors off...more so than a player like Filip Zadina who fell to 6th. With the number of centres projected in the top 10 I have a feeling it will be similar to this year in that highly skilled wingers will make a case for top 5 but fall out of the top 5 in favor of those centres.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

I know we shouldn't set expectations but what are everyone's expectations for him to achieve next year in the NCAA? What would you consider above expectations or below?

 

Adam Fox had 28 points in 29 games last season (2nd NCAA year)

Zach Werenski had 36 points in 36 games (2nd NCAA year)

Hughes had 29 points in 37 games (1st NCAA year)

 

I'm putting expectations of him having a minimum of point per game so 37 points in 37 games. Anything above 40 points I would consider that blowing my expectations out of the water. I would be pretty disappointed if he only had 34 points. I'm also hoping he works on his shot this summer and can improve dramatically on his goal totals. Hoping for about 8-10 goals

 

 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

4 hours ago, N7Nucks said:

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. 

Yup that's what I was trying to get at. Thx!

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

1 hour ago, messier's_elbow said:

He definitely reminds me of Housley. It’s nice to see we could have 3 Calder finalists in a row. If Hughes can tone down the defensive giveaways a bit,  we could have the best defender in club history on our hands. 

To be honest it's not a very high bar to achieve.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

3 hours ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

Virtanen needs to be at this camp.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

1 hour ago, Alflives said:

OJ is a better player, because he’s more skilled and has a way higher hockey Q than those other two.  I think OJ appears to be a better skater, because of his elite skill, and hockey sense.  None of these are even close to Hughes, of course. Sergachev can't play D, and Chyrchrun only had 20 points in a season so far. Juolevi will be so much better than these two bums.

Hmmm....there is not enough homerism from you Alf. No worries, I got your back. FTFY.

[Nikita Tryamkin | D]

KHL is probably better than the AHL. I think they only award primary assists if I'm not mistaken. 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

3 hours ago, Alflives said:

Dahlin was playing on larger ice against lesser competition.  Quinn is already the better, and more dynamic player.  Dahlin will play for the Sabres this season, but honestly he should be on their farm team learning the NA game.  

Come on Alf you have no idea what your talking about. Dahlin played against men in arguably one of the best leagues outside of the NHL. Basically by your own admission then, Pettersson is not that great because he scored 56 points against a bunch of pansies... and I know you would never say that. Also for defencemen I'd argue that they have an easier time transitioning to the NHL because there's less places for a forward to move, making it easier to take your man.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

6 hours ago, HomeBrew said:

I think more than one player can define a generation. Even when Gretzky played there was still Lemieux. And as much as people consider Crosby a generational player, I would consider a player like Ovi one as well. 

 

just my 2centz.

I think generational can be used to describe an entire line give or take. 2 D and 3 forwards but obviously this doesn't have to be set in stone. I would put Lindros and bure in there too. They were unique in their skill set for what they did and are HOFers

[Nikita Tryamkin | D]

On 7/26/2018 at 11:44 PM, cripplereh said:

you might be the only one

 

tram when he comes back after this year will be a top 4 D man which we need!

I don't think it's any coincidence that the year he went back to the KHL his team jumped from 21st in standings to 7th overall. Avtomobilist has always been a pretty mediocre team and this is their highest placing since entering the KHL back in 2010. They made a goal differential jump from -26 the previous year to  +28 this year for a total of 54. He is too good for the KHL.

[Jett Woo | D]

11 minutes ago, theo5789 said:

Tryamkin would be interesting, but he seems to like to join the rush at times as well (sometimes leading the rush too). I think we need a true stay at home dman for a guy like Hughes and I'm picturing Gudbranson if he can stay healthy. He would kind of be like the Methot to Karlsson. I also think Woo might look good with Juolevi as well that would make for a great shutdown dman pair that can put up points as well.

I personally like the Tryamkin suggestion as well. You don't really need a true stay at home defenseman with Hughes cause they are both fairly fast and with Tryamkin's reach can nullify a lot of 2 on 1 chances. Plus Tryamkin's shot will only get better for a guy of his size and we need a point man that can shoot the puck since it's unlikely Hughes will ever be that guy. He will also make up for the size discrepancy in case they ever need to clear the crease. I am not overly concerned that Tryamkin likes to join the rush because both of their escapability is extremely high (Hughes with his skating and Tryamkin with his reach). In the event that Tryamkin turns the puck over, I think Hughes can reverse and catch his man. If Hughes turns the puck over, Tryamkin would most likely be hanging back.

 

Hughes- Tryamkin

Juolevi-Woo

Hutton-Stecher (Or any of the other upcoming defenceman making their way up)

 

 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

10 hours ago, RogersTowell said:

If Hughes really was "NHL ready" this year, it would be an incredible achievement.  Compare this to a really good defenceman in the league who's about the same size - Ryan Ellis.  Ellis put up really good numbers for Canada in the WJC at both the U18 and U20 level.  He was a dominant offensive d-man in Junior.  Still it took him three years post draft to even play half an NHL season and five years to become full time.  With a January birthday, Ellis had an advantage in WJC qualification years so don't try to compare those to each other straight off.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that patience is going to be a virtue here (and with pretty much every prospect).  Ellis was a terrific young undersized defenceman and it took several years to break in to the NHL.  If it only takes Hughes until next year it's a huge win.

TBH if Hughes turns out like Ellis I would be pretty disappointed. His max point total in a season is 38 points. For a player that had the gaudy point totals in junior I would've thought he'd do a better job translating that into NHL numbers, especially in the new NHL.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

52 minutes ago, tas said:

The wording of the question implied "other than the top 2," was there anyone else who, if they had dropped to them at 7, would have made the decision difficult. the answer was there were 2 guys, and then benning started talking about the difficulty of trading for centers and the need to draft and develop them yourself (without another question being asked first).

 

the 2 centers drafted ahead of hughes were kotkaniemi and hayton.

I rewatched that clip and realized something else. Actually he didn't really infer that he had 2 centres in front of Hughes. He inferred that he realizes that Hughes dropped because "other" teams need to draft your own centre ice men (hence why Arizona and Montreal had to reach to select Hayton and Kotkaniemi). 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

43 minutes ago, Eastcoast meets Westcoast said:

So proof or just pulling stuff ot if thin air. 

 

Poll question... Would anyone on the CDC trade Hughes of Hayton??  

 

Especially when considering team need. 

 

Anyone?   Bueller... Bueller...

I know which quote he is referring to. It was based on a quote where Benning implied that they had the same players just in different orders. Personally I wouldn't make the trade and I don't think anyone on this forum would have said so either. I personally was focusing on Dobson myself but I wasn't really focused too much on Hughes as I had expected him to be gone. Either way I'm cheering for both Hughes and Dobson to do well. Never really liked Bouchard and of course with him going to the oilers it's just one more reason I hope he busts.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

Watching the shift-by-shift video of him against Team Canada you can definitely see that Hughes still needs a lot of work in the D-zone. There was one goal where he was completely at fault because he drifted away from his player in front of the net for an easy tap-in. There was no reason for that to happen at all as he should've been covering his man. He was obviously looking to breakout too soon.The other two goals he was on I don't believe were his fault at all. One was basically a goal the goalie absolutely must have had. The third goal he almost had his man tied up but once again the goalie had to have that.

 

In one case, Hughes lets his man blow by him through the neutral zone on the rush. Could've easily been a breakaway. In another instance he was being pressured by a fore-checker, and with multiple safe tape-to-tape options he chooses the most dangerous option of going through the fore-checkers stick and ends up turning over the puck. Obviously nothing to complain about with his offensive game but definitely needs to clean it up in his own end.

 

Also with the whole thing about drafting Jack Hughes. It would obviously be a dream to have this happen but I'm not too hopeful. The great thing about this upcoming draft is that it seems to be very heavy in good centres. Based on their stats they all seem like they could easily go in the top 15. I'm not sure how they compare defensively but this could be a very deep draft. 

 

 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

3 hours ago, tas said:

it was heavily implied when benning was asked if there were other players he had ranked higher. 

Are you talking about the quote where he was asked if there were other players that fell outside of 1 and 2 if the decision would've been harder? If so Benning said that he had one maybe two guys he would've ranked higher. Not sure if that is Hayton but my guess was it would've been Tkachuk and Kotkaniemi. I suppose there's a chance but to say it was heavily implied is reaching. My guess as to how his draft rankings would've fallen would be

1. Dahlin

2. Svechnikov

3. Tkachuk/Kotkaniemi

4.Tkachuk/Kotkaniemi

5. Hughes

6. Zadina

7. Hayton? 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

With Hughes 1 G and 5 A and 6 points in 4 games that leads his team in scoring while playing in one fewer game than most of his teammates. Jack Hughes with 1 goal 2 assists in 5 games. Brady Tkachuk with only 2 assists in 4 games played. Also leads the team with 24 penalty minutes, 3 min more than B. Tkachuk with 21 min. 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

1 hour ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

I think there were multiple teams that valued Hayton more than the armchair scouts like ourselves. His numbers don't blow you off the page, but he was playing on a stacked Greyhounds team. A lot of people who saw him in person loved his game. 

 

And Goldobin is a playmaker.

I know that Arizona gets a lot of flack for drafting Hayton where they did but I do believe he will be a very good player for them down the road. His numbers don't particularly stand out but he is a late birthday and I would think that next year he would probably put up 80-90 points. Would I have drafted him at 5? Probably not, he would've been closer to #10 in my rankings.

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

38 minutes ago, DrJockitch said:

Brilliant, unique players absolutely.  Made some jaw dropping passes and were pioneers in some ways, they really brought the slap pass into the forefront in the league.

I never thought of them as terribly exciting players though.  Part of the reason I think they never really got as popular around the league as they should have been.

 

I think part of the reason too is that fans place more emphasis on individual efforts such as dangling through one or two players to get to the net or crashing the net to create a scoring chance. The twins were wizards with the pass and go and created scoring chances out of thin air but rarely would you see a buildup of anticipation from one of those exciting dangles other players can do.

[Jonah Gadjovich | LW]

1 hour ago, ilduce39 said:

How often does a player actually have his development stalled due to too much time in the AHL or whatever.  

 

Can that even happen? 

 

I know I’ve seen a few times where an overripe prospect gets moved because there’s a quality vet in place.. but has a real stud ever been lost because of that?

 

I think the whole “the vets are in the way” narrative is plain fear mongering.  If a kid is playing well enough they’ll be on the team sooner than later.

My guess and it is only a guess is that players who have been passed too many times every year eventually see the writing on the wall and eventually stop trying as hard to impress but you would have to be a bubble player for that to happen. I'm sure there were plenty of small guys who never made it to the big show but had they been given an actual chance they would've done well for themselves. However if a team doesn't want a small skilled guy on the team you would have to absolutely blow the doors off to get any consideration. 

[Quinn Hughes | #43 | D]

1 hour ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I don't think we should be putting him in to sell the team. Not to say its not best for his development, it might be, right now I'm leaning to the safe side (Michigan) but maybe signing end ups being the better way. I'm not sure yet, we'll find out, but I don't agree that we should put him in to sell tickets if he's not 100% ready. 

Exactly. I am not against having him in the opening lineup but it has to be for the right reasons. He will have to have plum offensive situations, weak line match-ups to start and probably limited icetime to get his feet wet. Once he shows he can progress further than that you can move him up your lineup and in more situations.

[Tyler Madden | C]

31 minutes ago, Odd. said:

 

Kinda reminds me of Shinkaruk, his skating style, speed, and his very accurate shot. And he cellys real hard like Shinky. Shinkaruk was my favourite player when he was with us and if he progresses well like Shinkaruk did with us, he could be an intriguing player for sure.

I'm not even sure I see the Shinkaruk comparable. It's been a while but I recall Shinkaruk was a perimeter player. In Madden I see a player that goes into the tough areas which is made even more impressive by the fact that he is so lightweight. Also seems to have a tremendous amount of skill around the net. It's interesting that he had such a low point total but I can definitely see the upside, similar to how Gaudette made huge strides in his D+1 and D+2. 

[2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC]

Would have to guess it's only for season ticket holders and be really expensive as they have to quarter of the lower bowl for family and friends of draftees? Just my opinion.