Putgolzin

Fun fact - all time Points-Per-Game in the NHL is topped by, of course, one Wayne Gretzky. However, not too far down the list at #8 and #9 are two Swedish players - the same two players who have until recently topped out the SHL in ppg for a U20 player. If Elias can sneak in between those two in the SHL, could you imagine if he also managed to do so in his NHL career? Or even came somewhat close?! Dare to dream...

I'll believe it's NOT rigged when we get Dahlin

I didn't read the article, but I guess it was written from the future?! I'm as hyped up about EP as the next guy but perhaps we should rein in our expectations a touch? I mean what if he's not even ppg next year? Do we ship him out?

I think he's looked just as awesome on many nights lately...you could feel the production trying to force it's way out, now it's finally happened for once!

Yeah, with Garrett the commentator was giving the award to Gretzky wheel by wheel as he scored his 4 goals edit: after a quick search (the internet remembers things more clearly than my mind) I guess it was Lanny McDonald speaking directly to Cheech on the ice

Oh please...Henrik currently sits 30th all time in assists. I think Pettersson is going to be a superstar for us, but there have been nights in not-too-distant history when Henriks passing felt magical like Gretzkys passing. He's literally one of the all time greats of history.

A degree? I’m all for education, but my degree never earned me league minimum.

While I agree with this (ie: longer leash), it's pretty apparent that Jake comes out snarling and then slowly takes his pace and intensity down ... I'd so much rather see him in the lineup than a guy like Gagner, but it might still be a couple or three years before Jake can train himself to play at peak intensity all the time. I can't think of other power forward examples of that except Bertuzzi, it took him years to consistently be the force he became...prior to that he would be great for a period and invisible for 5...I'd sure be happy if this tough love could generate the same type of force in Virtanen

And everyone else on that leaderboard list are proper vets too. Sure he needs to get stronger, but he's not playing against men like NCAA "men", these are 30 year old dudes.

That's pretty freaking spectacular. I think Nylander is an absolutely outstanding young player (duh). Elias is about 6 months older respectively...so perhaps there's a bit of a tempering to be done in the comparison, but wow, i'm pretty excited to see if Elias can make this translate into NHL play.

To be fair, the whole organization called out that same coach by firing him.

Recycle more?

Maybe if he could score more points

That's so freaking badass. Have we had a prospect with this much hype since Bure? Did the Sedins even have this much energy following them? Probably, but I don't remember. Seriosuly though, how could a 19 year old kid keep a straight head with thousands of people chanting your praises?

I would say Green-Pouliot looks to be working out better than the Willie-Vey connection. I wonder if he takes Stecher's spot on the right side? Or does Biega draw in more consistently if none of our LHD's are ideal on the right?

Depth expanding!

His 20th birthday is late December, that disqualifies him for World Juniors, right?

I don't mind the fact that he's scoring in clutch scenarios either

Without getting into the various sub-discussions that could be had from this post, I would agree that we're a good deal of the way through the dark years. I'm not saying that we're close, but we're not as far away as we were a year or two ago. I'm of the opinion that if Benning could have another year as good as his last year (Petersson, Goldobin, Dahlen, Lind, Gadjovich, etc...) that we will be most of the way through the darkest times.

On the first one maybe, the second looked like Pettersson Man it's nice having a glut of guys that are over-achieving rather than the previous years always making excuses why guys aren't quite cutting it...

since i always like to stretch things to their most optimistic outlook, i choose a different comparable...no question he definitely could look like Chris Higgins in three years time... or, because we're talking about how it looks like he's improving year over year...there is another guy named Granlund in this league that has continued to improve year over year

Be patient?!?! Bust.

Yeah, I figured that the years may have changed the way that was considered. Wellwood's was a little different too, he actually scored, but he didn't need to hot-dog it, he could have just buried it. This felt more like a good move, then a straight up hot-dog.

and a gary cheevers goalie mask?

I remember Wellwood once scoring on a between-the-legs dangle and Quinn lit him up. Maybe things have changed in those years, but I don't see an NHL coach being very happy with a move like that.