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Ray_Cathode

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Everything posted by Ray_Cathode

  1. I would add Salo to that list... when healthy. It was not just his offensive acumen that he was valued for, he was a superb defender with a massive career +/-. He was commonly deployed by the Canucks as the guy to match up against the opposition’s best forwards. As for the future, Dallas’s young Finnish defender looks very promising.
  2. Yeah, I was half joking just to make the point. And you are right, we do need some size, especially if we are trading off 6’3” guys like Sutter and Beagle, for guys like Hawrilyuk and Michaelis in those primarily defensive roles. If they turn out to be the second coming of Motte, then yahoo! But there is the chance of becoming a team easily pushed around, unless we can find some 5’11 guys like Ripken and Scottie Walker.
  3. He makes me think of a poor man’s Smyl, Burrows, or Johnson - great knowledge of what it takes, with a genuine love of the game, and a guy both confident, yet humble enough to be a successful communicator. You may be right, he might be the kind of guy who could be of great value to an organization. Good point.
  4. Lots of marginal forwards made passable coaches because they had to be near perfect at the game’s fundamentals to get any ice time at all. Can’t think of many marginal Ds that made great coaches, except for Pat Quinn
  5. And he is doing that while being pretty physical. And he has better hands than I remembered from his Calgary days, he is actually quite slick with the puck and sees the ice quite well. He is about the same size as Bieksa, at 6’ 205, wonder if he can scrap like Bieksa?
  6. The problems for Hughes are getting the puck, and defending against anybody they weighs more than a Tim Horton’s coffee. And, when he reduces the chances he takes on offence, his point production evaporates. Rathbone is pretty good at getting the puck because, at least so far in the AHL, he shows great anticipation - stepping up on guys and stripping them of the puck. Sure wish Utica could shake off the Covid blues and get back to playing hockey.
  7. Jeez, if big is what matters we better sneak Tryamkin out of Russia ASAP. He has all the big a team could need.
  8. Yep. this was the year that we had a number of players ready to transition - as in a few games in the NHL to see what we have - Rathbone, Woo, DiPietro, Rafferty, Lind, Jasek, even Lockwood as a fourth line energy guy. I feel badly for Rafferty, here he is, stuck on the taxi squad - got in one game, had a bad, nervous giveaway, then made a great breakout pass that resulted in a goal. Green must really hate him - keeping him up on the taxi, but getting no chance to play, and not sent down to work on his game. He is not injured, but has only played one game - ridiculous. If Green is not prepared to use him, has no confidence in him, Green should talk to Benning about sending him to Utica.
  9. Clearly he is tall and heavy for his size... obvious beneficiary of drinking heavy water and eating tall orders.
  10. If Hughes keeps racking up the big minus in his +/-, he might be the guy getting the 13 seconds.
  11. I would. The guy just can’t stay healthy and is a diminishing resource. Better to bring in your, cheap guys and bring them along. If we don’t do that we won’t be able to afford to re-sign Pettersson, Boeser, Hughes, Miller, and so on.
  12. His start in Europe is not unlike that of Jasek.
  13. Thanks, I am pretty obtuse when it comes to detecting sarcasm. Mostly I assume a person is being serious and has good reasons for their comment, and not just stupid ignorance - clearly not always a great assumption. My insensitivity to such stuff strikes again.
  14. That’s a joke, you’re saying errors don’t happen in the NHL? Virtually every goal arises out of a cluster of errors - even in the NHL. Good players, in any league, are the one’s that make you pay for your mistakes - strangely enough, exactly what Podkolzin did.
  15. The reason opinions are worth so little, is the law of supply and demand, and everybody has an opinion... lots of them, in fact.
  16. In the narrower NHL rink, Tryamkin should be much more effective than in the more spacious Olympic standard rink. When he first went back to the KHL he was regarded both for his offence and defence, and did well offensively with 9g 16 a 25 pts in 51 games. That is like a forty point NHL pace in a regular season. Ownership and management changed and his role changed with it to an entirely defensive role. I think we should look to him to play a more balanced role - considering Green’s apparent desire to invoke the D in the O, that should work well for Nikita. His physical stature should also be a major benefit for the future health of Hughes.
  17. Foot speed issues are fading as Gadjovich matures: hi first pro year, he struggled, he second year by halfway through, h3 was okay. This year it has not been a problem - at the AHL level. By next year, the way he is developing, who knows?
  18. I believe that John Stevens is a Utica signing, not a Vancouver property. See capfriendly.com. He is not on the Canucks payroll.
  19. Huh, I don’t see all this depth on the wing, I don’t consider a Roussel or Eriksson winger depth and Person may be too expensive fo4 us to retain. With Miller looking more effective in the middle than on the wing, it gives great depth at centre if Pettersson also stays in the middle. There is quite the drop-off on right wing after Boeser - Virtanen, Gaudette (if he is deployed as a winger), and then what? MacEwen and Bailey don’t appear to thrill Green. Next up is Lind, who is being redeployed as a centre, and Lockwood. Do we see Hawrilyuk as a regular player on a contender? As for left wing, there is Hoglander, Motte, and Pearson is likely gone, Roussel and Eriksson don’t belong on a decent team, and maybe we have Vesey. Podkolzin is coming and should take a LW spot. Looking at Utica, the only LW is Gadjovich, I don’t count Baertschi. In the future we may have McDonough and Kunz. Among the Europeans, there is nobody in the top league who is particularly thrilling other tan Podkolzin. Karlsson is not even in the top league, Costmar has not been thrilling at the top level in his league, and Zlodeyev is hurt so we don’t know what we have.
  20. Yeah, I have to credit Gadjovich for working on all the things he needed to work on. He has good habits. He is scoring now the way he did in junior and from the same places on the ice. He ain’t purty, but he is pretty effective in his own zone, is ordinary in the center zone, and deadly in the offensive zone. We have another kid coming that plays like Gadjovich - Kunz - but he should arrive a couple of years later. I hope Cull gives Gadjovich a chance to kill penalties - that is a skill that really helps bottom six forwards.
  21. That is funny. Or we could bring up Gadjovich to the NHL right now, but that might screw up the development of a good young prospect. The big problem for Gadjovich is the most fundamental one; can he skate at an NHL level? That is not a problem for Virtanen, whose play of late has been good. Nest season, we may be in a situation where we have to replace a couple of left wingers. Podkolzin will most likely be one of them - I hope Gadjovich continues to have the kind of year where he could be the other. If not then, when Roussel’s contract runs out following next year, he will have another shot - though he will likely be competing with McDonough and possibly Kunz at that time.
  22. Now that is just nonsense. At Gadj’s current age, Virtanen was scoring 15 g and 25 pts in the NHL. I really like Gadjovich, but he has never played in any league higher than the AHL.
  23. Sautner most likely got the call up because he is already in Canada, playing in Winnipeg, not Utica.
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