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NCAA Prospects Playoff Bound


Bacchus

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NCAA playoffs start up for our prospects on friday night as round 2 gets underway in the ECAC.

#7 Harvard @ #2 Clarkson (Paquet)

#6 Princeton @ #3 Dartmouth (Wyman)

AAU @ #1 Minnesota (Fischer)

Minnesota just smoked AAU at alaska two or three weeks ago, so it should be ugly as Minn is strong at home.

Clarkson is an offensive team vs Harvard being more defensive should be a good series.

Dartmouth has been good of late, and Wyman has been on a roll in the past few weeks.

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Paquet is the best prospect of the three in my books.

If your talking most physical then I agree, Paquet likes to take the body, although he's got to learn to be smarter when doing so, he's been kicked out of 4 games this year for hitting from behind. He's a big boy as is Wyman.

Fischer continues to get better with each game, he's starting to shoot the puck more and he's very smart in his own end. If you saw him and Paquet play a lot you would see who plays more mistake free and with better hockey sense.

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Huh? According to the NCAA Hockey site, the playoff selections don't even take place until March 18th.

http://www.ncaasports.com/icehockey/mens/schedules/

I think conference tournaments are going on right now, not the NCAA tournament. I'm not too familiar with how the tournament works in college hockey, though, so I might be wrong.

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Huh? According to the NCAA Hockey site, the playoff selections don't even take place until March 18th.

http://www.ncaasports.com/icehockey/mens/schedules/

I think conference tournaments are going on right now, not the NCAA tournament. I'm not too familiar with how the tournament works in college hockey, though, so I might be wrong.

Your mixing up the playoffs with the Frozen Four tournament which are two different things.

The playoffs have already started this past weekend, Clarkson and Dartmouth both had bye's for finishing in the top 4. Round 2 starts this weekend coming up. The following weekend will be the final 2 and then it's the ECAC Championships. The winner gets an autobid to the Frozen Four Tournament at the end of March.

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If your talking most physical then I agree, Paquet likes to take the body, although he's got to learn to be smarter when doing so, he's been kicked out of 4 games this year for hitting from behind. He's a big boy as is Wyman.

Fischer continues to get better with each game, he's starting to shoot the puck more and he's very smart in his own end. If you saw him and Paquet play a lot you would see who plays more mistake free and with better hockey sense.

Habs need a player like Paquet in their lineup. Preferably two or three of them.

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Habs need a player like Paquet in their lineup. Preferably two or three of them.

They need a guy like Fischer much more, the only defensemen that can move the puck well are Markov and Streit (not sure what to make of Gorges yet). We suck at the breakout, and lack puck moving defensemen, something that Fischer excells at. He moves the puck well and has good vision. The problem is that he's years away. Getting Emelin over here would be a big help, plus Carle will be in Hamilton next year. O'Byrne is also progressing nicely. In Hamilton someone from the media was saying they were more impressed with him in his rookie year then they were with Komisarek.

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Your mixing up the playoffs with the Frozen Four tournament which are two different things.

The playoffs have already started this past weekend, Clarkson and Dartmouth both had bye's for finishing in the top 4. Round 2 starts this weekend coming up. The following weekend will be the final 2 and then it's the ECAC Championships. The winner gets an autobid to the Frozen Four Tournament at the end of March.

So like I said, these are conference tournaments.

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So like I said, these are conference tournaments.

tournaments and playoffs are two different things. Trust me this is the playoffs in the ncaa, it's a best of 3 series for the first and 2nd round and then it goes to 1 game series until one team wins their conference championship. The Frozen Four, which is what the link you had, is a tournament.

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Hey Dann, what type of D-man do you realistically think Fischer could develop? A poor man's Brian Leetch or another Ron Hainsey type? Seems like the guy is a project and is still somewhat raw.

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Because they are Olympic size sheet. Fisher will be a combo player, he has great wheels and skating like Dandy, unlike Dandy he skates very well with the puck, passes very well and is very smart. He'll need to bulk up, he should be ready in a couple of years. Maybe a 2nd line PP and Pk guy depending on who he is paired with.

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I'd be shocked if O'Byrne made the NHL on a regular basis. He is two years older than Komisarek was as a rookie, but Mike had three times as many points and made both the AHL All Star and All Rookie teams in his first pro season. Plus Komo spent the last third of the year on the NHL roster.

Mathieu Carle is the player who is going to really surprise next season. He has had a horrible second half of this season, but Latendresse looked terrible last year in junior as well. I also think that Mathieu Biron has a lot of NHL games still left to play in his career. Just a question if those are in Montreal or elsewhere.

Philippe Paquet is Luc Bourdon with a brain. It's a pretty long limb to go out on saying that a 7th round pick will turn out to be a better player than a top 10 pick in the same draft, but I think that will turn out to be the case.

Edited by bobby
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I found an old Central Scouting list for the QMJHL entry draft of 2003. Crosby was #1, Latendresse #2 on the list. There were four defensemen playing AAA Midget considered worthy of a first round selection - Luc Bourdon, Mathieu Carle (listed at 5-11, 223 pounds :blink: ), J.P. Paquet, and Philippe Paquet. Bourdon was listed at 6-1, 180 at the time, Paquet, 6-1, 177. The first three guys went to the Q, Philippe opted to attend Salisbury Prep to keep his NCAA eligibility alive. But he was right there with Bourdon and Carle as a 15 year old prospect.

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Hey Dann, what type of D-man do you realistically think Fischer could develop? A poor man's Brian Leetch or another Ron Hainsey type? Seems like the guy is a project and is still somewhat raw.

Hard to say at this point since he's still so raw. If he can improve his offensive game then I think he could be a top pairing guy because he moves the puck so well and is very solid in his own end. He has been showing improvement in his offensive game but without much results so far. Next year he should move into the top 4 since Eric Johnson is expected to turn pro, so he should take over Johnson's spot. I do think his upside is very high but he's likely years away, so we'll have to see how he progresses/develops each year.

So like I said, these are conference tournaments.
a

No tournaments aren't usually a best of 3 series. It's the playoffs for each conference. The winners go on to the Frozen Four tournament, but so do some of the losers depending on the most complicated structure I've ever seen. How they pick the teams for the frozen four, aside from the top ranked teams is mind boggling.

I'd be shocked if O'Byrne made the NHL on a regular basis. He is two years older than Komisarek was as a rookie, but Mike had three times as many points and made both the AHL All Star and All Rookie teams in his first pro season. Plus Komo spent the last third of the year on the NHL roster.

Mathieu Carle is the player who is going to really surprise next season. He has had a horrible second half of this season, but Latendresse looked terrible last year in junior as well. I also think that Mathieu Biron has a lot of NHL games still left to play in his career. Just a question if those are in Montreal or elsewhere.

Philippe Paquet is Luc Bourdon with a brain. It's a pretty long limb to go out on saying that a 7th round pick will turn out to be a better player than a top 10 pick in the same draft, but I think that will turn out to be the case.

Perpare to be shocked. O'Byrne has been one of Hamilton's top defensemen this year. He's been very solid and while I can't say he will make the team full time, I can say that he will see time with the Habs, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a couple games next year if injuries hit the right side as I don't expect us to carry 8 defensemen again. The Hamilton broadcasters said they think O'Byrne has been the best rookie defensemen they have seen on the team and even made a point to say better then Komisarek. On top of that there was a report from an nhl scout from another team that said he was the most interesting player on the team and that he contacted his gm to tell him to find out if O'Byrne would be available for trade. We'll see what he does over the next 2-3 years, he's still got things to work on but he is having a very good year.

Carle it will be interesting to see how he does. He's also a very good puck mover and seems to have improved in his own end. I talked to someone that works for Bathurst about him since the scandal of sorts about his family demanding a trade. He said that this year Carle seems very focused on improving his conditioning and getting ready to turn pro. Said that he was really serious this year and worked hard to get things together. Biron has not been all that impressive to me, he's got a nice shot though and has helped the PP but the turnovers are frustrating. I don't know what the team has in store for him.

Paquet is not Bourdon with a brain, cause that's one of his problems. He like Komisarek and O'Byrne were just too physical, spending too much time in the box. Paquet really racks up the pims and it's that lack of thinking that gets him in trouble. He needs to cut down on the pims but instead he increased his totals. That said it will be interesting to see how he does over the next few years.

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More likely the habs scouts were looking at J.T. Wyman's linemate, T.J. Galiardi. Galiardi was passed over last year in the draft, but has really come on as a college freshman at Dartmouth. He has definitely been more productive that the habs's fourth round pick from the 2004 draft.

Maybe they will have better luck with a "T.J." than a "J.T.". Sure would have liked them to have drafted T.J. Hensick from Michigan though..:(

Hensick is going to win the Hobey this year.

Jack Johnson was a unaniamous First Team All CCHA, like Komisarek in his sophomore season.

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More likely the habs scouts were looking at J.T. Wyman's linemate, T.J. Galiardi. Galiardi was passed over last year in the draft, but has really come on as a college freshman at Dartmouth. He has definitely been more productive that the habs's fourth round pick from the 2004 draft.

Maybe they will have better luck with a "T.J." than a "J.T.". Sure would have liked them to have drafted T.J. Hensick from Michigan though..:(

Hensick is going to win the Hobey this year.

Jack Johnson was a unaniamous First Team All CCHA, like Komisarek in his sophomore season.

I'm sure they know Galiardi well enough by now. Hartwick has stepped up this year and we are short on D prospects. I just posted what was said by a player from Dartmouth that the Habs are interested in Hartwick. It's rare to hear a player say that in an interview, so it got my attention.

As for production, JT was moved to defense when half their D core got injured. Coach said he did such a good job that they wanted to keep him there even when some D started coming back. JT has really bulked up as well and he should continue since he just turned 21 last week.

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Wyman had a big game in the first match of the ECAC playoffs, picking up 2 goals and 3 points. I watched some of the live stream of the Clarkson/Harvard game, and was quite impressed with Philippe Paquet. He actually looks really smooth out there for a guy with his size and reputation. Almost scored a spectacular goal going to the front of the net. Hard to see the details on a computer screen but he tried a Evgeny Malkin move on the goalie and almost pulled it off. If he had succeeded with that effort it would have been the highlight of the game. No goonery from him, and he looked pretty cool with the puck in his own zone. Was on the ice for the last couple minutes of the game with Harvard down 2-0 and having pulled their goalie, so it seems his coach has some confidence in his defensive game.

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Wyman had a big game in the first match of the ECAC playoffs, picking up 2 goals and 3 points. I watched some of the live stream of the Clarkson/Harvard game, and was quite impressed with Philippe Paquet. He actually looks really smooth out there for a guy with his size and reputation. Almost scored a spectacular goal going to the front of the net. Hard to see the details on a computer screen but he tried a Evgeny Malkin move on the goalie and almost pulled it off. If he had succeeded with that effort it would have been the highlight of the game. No goonery from him, and he looked pretty cool with the puck in his own zone. Was on the ice for the last couple minutes of the game with Harvard down 2-0 and having pulled their goalie, so it seems his coach has some confidence in his defensive game.

I watched the 1st and he did play well.

Fischer's team had an easy win in a 6-2 blow out, so if all 3 teams repeat their success they can wrap up their series tomorrow night.

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Clarkson (Paquet), and Minnesota (Fischer) advance to the National Championship round by winning their respective Conference Championships. By all accounts, Paquet was superb in the Golden Knights come from behind victory. He is starting to open up offensively, after concentrating on defense for most of his first two NCAA seasons.

He should be a force next season. J.T. Wyman had a good playoff run, he may have been Dartmouth's best player in the post season, even though the team as a whole underperformed. Fischer continues to play a limited role, but he is getting lots of high pressure experience early in his career.

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Clarkson (Paquet), and Minnesota (Fischer) advance to the National Championship round by winning their respective Conference Championships. By all accounts, Paquet was superb in the Golden Knights come from behind victory. He is starting to open up offensively, after concentrating on defense for most of his first two NCAA seasons.

He should be a force next season. J.T. Wyman had a good playoff run, he may have been Dartmouth's best player in the post season, even though the team as a whole underperformed. Fischer continues to play a limited role, but he is getting lots of high pressure experience early in his career.

I was flipping back and forth from the Clarkson game and Minnesota game last night as well as the Habs. Paquet played well, although I missed his goal I'll tape the replay later on. Fischer was again solid, what a game both turned out to be. Blake Wheelers goal in OT was flat out sick, scoring while on the ice while diving to keep it from being called for icing, he took a one handed jab at the puck and it went over the shoulder of the goalie.

Wyman scored late in the game against Clarkson to tie it up which would have forced OT but Clarkson got one right back. His season is over but I agree he may have been Dartmouth's best player although I didn't see any of Dartmouth's post season games.

Both Clarkson and Minnesota should be #1 seeds for the FF tournament.

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