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Everything posted by Smashian Kassian
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2019 NHL Draft Lottery | April 9th, 5:00pm PT
Smashian Kassian replied to Roberts's topic in General Hockey Discussion
I think Chicago jumping us & getting #3 is the worst part. 3 Stanley Cups this decade & now another draft lotto win. -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
This is where I'm at too. Could still change for me, but Boldy does alot of things well & I think he could have 30+ g 60+ pt upside playing with a good center. While bringing size, compete & a 200ft game. Travis talks about wanting guys we can "win with", Boldy could fit right in. As far as being a puckhandler. He seems good at retrieving pucks & battling. He's good handling the puck but I've never got the sense he's selfish or needs to have the puck all the time, or anything like that. -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Mmmmmmmmmm.... Boldy or Soderstrom. Maybe the "safer" picks but I do really like both of them. We could use a good top 6 fwd with Boldy's size, or a good T4D. Caufield has the best upside though. -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Kirby Dach scored again to open the scoring in game 3. Too bad he's out of our reach. I'm thinking Soderstrom or Boldy @ #10. -
2019 NHL Draft Lottery | April 9th, 5:00pm PT
Smashian Kassian replied to Roberts's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Expected outcome & still extremely disappointing. The Rangers are a worthy winner, but other 2 are kinda BS. -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
3 Stanley cups in a decade & they win the lottery. Such BS -
First, your arguing about nothing. And second, your analogy would make more sense if u immediately gave the apples away. I said trading all but one 2nd rnd pick away in 3 drafts is going to have a negative impact on your prospect depth. Right now its not surprising we are lacking a 2nd wave of prospects pushing with the picks that were previously traded away in an attempt to make the playoffs.
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I still think some of the decisions they made early on are really hurting us now. When u trade 4 of 5 2nd round picks in 3 years your going to be missing out on some prospects. Part of not having depth is rebuilding, but we could still have had more than we do. Not having more depth in secondary prospects coming is concerning. But thats a byproduct of trading picks & allowing a guy like Tanev to die on the vine valuewise b/c your trying to make the playoffs. They are really going to have to pull a rabbit or 2 out of the hat to suppliment this core, or Benning wont be here if they miss 2 more years.
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2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Seider is an interesting guy too. I like him but I think Soderstrom has more upside. Still see Seider as a top 20 guy though. If we are going to swing for the fences then Kaliyev should be in the discussion. He's the definition of boom/bust in this draft (i guess Caufield too). Its just where we are picking this year. At 10 odds are the homerun potential guys are gone unless u wanna take a chance on Kaliyev or Caufield. -
2019 NHL Draft Lottery | April 9th, 5:00pm PT
Smashian Kassian replied to Roberts's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Ran the simulator 10 times. Canucks stayed at 9 or fell to 10 every time. :/ Simulator means nothing but I'm expecting 10th overall. No chance we win & I'd assume a team jumps up. -
Didn't hear the interview, but I assume Ferraro is talking about all the draft picks they traded early on trying to remain competitive. Which as I said in another thread, has absolutely contributed to not having a next wave of prospects behind the core 4 that are now ready to push, IMO. I guess it depends what you think of Gaudette. I think he's an NHL player moving forward, so him aside, I'd say McEwen & Brisebois are the only ones that really pushed from Utica this year. And Brisebois was in large part to injuries. And I don't know who they'll have next year aside from Juolevi. I guess we'll see what these UFA college D we just signed can do next year. I did like Rafferty in his few games.
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There's definitely a gap now in our prospect pool with Quinn Hughes & our other 1st rounders up in the NHL. There are promising prospects coming, I like Woo & Madden as much as everyone else but they are still a few years away. Its a big problem for a rebuilding team that we don't have a wave ready to push behind the core 4 right now, but I think there's different reasons for that. A big part of it is the guys we do have not taking the steps we hoped. Alot of disappointment coming from Utica this year, unfortunately. Injuries have something to do with that for sure (Juolevi, Chatfield) but its also young guys having tough years adjusting (Lind, Gadjovich) & a few guys leaving the team (Palmu, Dahlen). Brisebois & McEwen are bright spots this season, but we need more & I think everyone including the organization was expecting to have more. I think another big part of it is the draft picks we've traded, in other words not having as many guys as we could've Your not going to hit on all your picks, you will have guys that get to the AHL & don't go any further than that. But having made only 1 of 4 2nd round picks from '14-'16 drafts isn't helpful, nevermind the other mid/late round picks we've moved. Thats absolutely contributed to not having the next wave of guys ready to push. In fairness they did get Dahlen in a trade who was a '16 2nd rounder, but that didn't end up working which is a blow. And finally we do have some guys in College or overseas, but most teams do so its not a great excuse. Rathbone & Lockwood are guys going forward that could be starting their pro careers, but they are going back. That's unfortunate but hopefully we can sign them at some point. And hopefully Tryamkin comes back soon, he'd be a big addition right away.
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Alot of injury talk. Don't know what they expect with guys like Tanev & Sutter. Can't depend on them. Baertschi now too. I know it was a factor again overall for alot of players, but when it comes to those guys I don't know how you can expect injuries to not be a factor. He does know there's alot of work to be done. I'm excited for that & I'm expecting a big summer. There's alot of hope & potential with our young players. They were also very conservative in giving any kind of expectations for next year or going forward, which was good, but this team needs to atleast get closer next year. 2 years for this team to get back into the playoffs or Jim's time could be up. Before people come at me with 'you don't see the big picture' or 'need 3-5 years to be a contender', its already been 5 years. I think everyone knew when JB took over that the old core was done & the team needed to be rebuilt. You could even say the writing was on the wall after the 2013 playoffs. Obviously it wasn't going to happen overnight but they didn't exactly dive face first into this rebuild at the beginning. They've done a great job assembling this next core. Jim Benning will be credited as the builder of this team for a long time whether he's here or not. But they've also had their misses & mistakes. The pressure is mounting now for them to pull a few aces out of their sleeves to get this team to the next level. Part of it is young players improving but you have to make some key additions too. I think playoffs next year could be a possibility if they can have a homerun offseason, but it won't be easy.
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2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
There we go, totally forgot. I just remember that he had already scored over 100 points in his D-1 year, so I didn't think I even needed to pay big attention to production in his draft year. Lol -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Good & heavy shot yes. Nothing there about deadly accuracy. I've watched a few Halifax games & the prospects game too. Plus whatever highlights are out there & I haven't seen deadly accuracy. His shot has the velocity to power through or past goalies in the junior but not the same accuracy Mantha had. And I disagree about Mantha. He had a wicked shot. Maybe its not elite in the NHL compared to the absolute top guys (Ovie, Tarasenko, exc) but in junior it was elite. He scored 50 goals in his draft year & played on a Val D'or team that actually finished with 26 less points than Halifax this year. Arthur Kaliyev is more like Mantha IMO. In fact he might be the first CHL player since Mantha to score 50 in his draft year. Unless I'm forgetting about someone. -
2019 NHL Draft Lottery | April 9th, 5:00pm PT
Smashian Kassian replied to Roberts's topic in General Hockey Discussion
My guess is Edmonton gets 1st overall because they are long overdue for a DL win. Last year I was expecting worst case scenario (worse than we picked) & I was still disappointed. This year I'm just expecting to be disappointed. -
What? They avoided the R word like the plague those first few years. Benning can say "draft and develop" has been the plan the entire time, but when they started out trading a boatload of picks & acquiring next to none it seems to go against that plan. JB himself said at the start they could 'turn it around quickly' then as the team started to bottom out they said they knew it would take time all along. 4 years in a row now without playoffs, that original "quickly" message really hasnt held up.
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2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
No wasnt off the board, but Juolevi was in the next tier of players. Tkachuk was across the board a top 5 guy, whereas Juolevi was ranked from 6-12 by different scouting services. We picked right at the end of that tier & instead dipped into the tier below for a positional pick. I bring that up because 1) I see other ppl bringing the Juolevi pick up regarding taking a D at 9-10, and 2) I dont see it as a situation like that where a D neccesarily isnt in the tier of players where we pick. If Boldy or Krebs or Zegras project as a 2nd line FWD, or maybe borderline 1st line. And Soderstrom projects as a good #3D or maybe #2D. Is that really a reach? -
2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver, BC
Smashian Kassian replied to Qwags's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Soderstrom's rankings on most recent draft lists: #11 on B.Mckenzie - TSN (Apr 4th) #11 on Future Considerations (Mar 5th) #12 on HockeyProspect.com (Feb 28th) #13 on ISS (April 3rd) #10 on McKeen's. (According to elite prospects, not sure if thats most recent) Worth nothing McKenzie has Broberg #10 & HP has Seider #11. So there are D considered around that #10 spot. Its not exactly a Juolevi situation.