beckham

Good writeup on Greg Stewart at www.gopetesgo.com. Two more points for Greg tonight as he has nearly managed to match his point total of a year ago already.

I thought this was the "prospects section of the main site". :?-

Fourth round pick J.T. Wyman played his first game last night for Dartmouth. An exhibition match. He is listed at 6-2, 204 pounds on the team site. Wyman was the third line RW behind a pair of fellow freshmen, David Jones and Nick Johnson. He won't score many points unless he can pass one or both of them on the depth chart. Jones and Johnson both have a couple seasons of Canadian Junior Tier II experience, so they have a big advantage on Wyman. Mikhail Grabovski has been a mild surprise in the RSL. 11 points in 18 games, he is scoring at a better rate than Perezhogin and is a bit younger and a bit bigger, to boot. Still, they are both pretty small by NHL standards, and would really have to put up some impressive numbers to be legitimate prospects. I'm baffled that they didn't draft Wes O'Neill who is off to a point a game start in the CCHA as an 18 year old. There is no rhyme or reason to the team's drafting and they seldom end up with the best player available with any of their picks.

Most of the first round draft picks from the 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, and 1999 draft will be playign in the AHL this season. Good chance to compare Hainsey, Komisarek, Higgins, Kostitsyn to the other guys drafted ahead and behind them in their respective draft years. Even 1997 top pick Jason Ward may end up there along with a few others from that draft.

Sanford looks like he could become another Francis Bouillon, Marc-Andre Bergeron type of player. Good stats, tough player, just a half foot (in height) from being a first round draft pick. The longest 6 inches in the world. From first rounder to free agent.

Talking to myself here. Chipchura and Stewart have come back to earth. Neither projects as a scorer. Both are playing for offensively challenged teams though. Have to give them a little grace for that. Not much scoring excitement from the summer's draft. The only legitimate prospects are Chipchura, Emelin, Wyman, and perhaps Stewart, but none figures to score a lot this season.

Well, it looks like Mike will collect a quick $100,000 while he rehabs his injury. At least. If he stays out a month and a half, he will probably earn more than any player playing the full year for the Bulldogs. Might not endear him to the team in the dressing room when he comes back. Lots of contradictory statements about his injury which remains worrisome. I hope it isn't something inside the joint of the hip.

Getting very worrisome. Is it some sort of congenital defect? It seems very strange that he would be bothered by an injury that occured about 8 months ago with all that time to rest and heal. I suppose from Komo's point of view, it makes a lot more sense to stay at home and collect an NHL salary than it does to play for an AHL salary, but he doesn't seem like the kind of person to take advantage of a situation like that.

Chipchura was ranked 1st in North America at the mid season ratings.

Just a few games into the season, but an early look at how the summer's draft acquisitions are doing so far - 1 Kyle Chipchura - Listed at 6-3, 205 pounds in rookie camp, which is up some from his listed draft size. Has scored 4 goals, 6 assists, for 10 points on a team that has only scored 19 goals this season. So, he has been in on over half his teams scoring. Point per game pace is 1.43, which would give him 103 points in a full WHL season. Nearly twice the rate he was scoring at last season. More productive than "offensive" CHL forwards such as Ladd, Picard, Radulov, Wolski, Bolland etc. Only Schremp who cherry picks on a high scoring OHL team has more points. 2 Alexei Emelin - Was very solid playing for the Russian U20 team at the Four Nations Tournament by all accounts and looks like a good bet to be part of their WJC team. Has seen some RSL action, but is playing mainly in the High League. With all of the NHL players in the RSL league this season, playing time is harder to come by for young players trying to break in. It looks like Emelin will be able to secure a full time role through injury or attrition before the year is done. 3 Greg Stewart - Listed at 6-3, 195, in the rookie camp, also up a tad from his draft listing. Showed good raw skills there to go with his size and a fiesty diposition. So far has 3 goals, 1 assist, in 8 games. Point per game average is .5, nearly triple his rate of last season. [Edited on 2004-12-29 by puck7x]

If they make a line of Bonk, Zednik, and Bulis it should be a very good two way line. That would leave Koivu and perhaps Kovalev to form an offensive combo with perhaps a rookie like Hossa or Higgins rounding it out. Or Nik Sundstrom. Then you have Ribeiro and Ryder with another newcomer if Sevigny or Perreault are not up to it. Finally Ward, Begin, Langdon, and any other grinders. As it looks, Hossa, Higgins and Plekanec should have a good shot at sticking along with Ron Hainsey.

Actually, I feel a little better, I read where Calgary would have taken Chipchura at #19 if he was still there. Not that Calgary's record with 1st round picks is much to write home about. All the Canadian teams except Ottawa seem to suck at the draft table.

Bonk had about the same number of points (in an off year) as Kovalev last season. In less games.

Wyman will go to the Ivy League from prep school as Chris Higgins did at the age of 18. Wyman goes to Dartmouth instead of Yale, although two of his schoolmates Will Engasser and Rob Page will debut with Yale. Wyman was team captain and MVP playing alongside Engasser, Page and a couple of other drafted highschoolers at the Blake School. He is a bit bigger than listed, Dartmouth has him at 6-2, 190 pounds. It will interesting to see how he compares to another freshman RW at Dartmouth, Ken Johnson, who was the top Tier II junior in Canada last year. [Edited on 2004/6/29 by beckham]

1. Kyle Chipchura I couldn't really see the point of this pick. Chipchura is from just outside Edmonton, but the Oilers avoided him with the #14 pick, drafting Devan Dubnyk after they were unsuccessful in moving up to get Drew Stafford. Lowe said that they didn't really need a goalie, and they wanted Stafford who is a very similar player to Chipchura. So the Oilers, who would see him all the time, didn't like him. Hopefully his perfromance last season was injury related. You can't use a first round pcik on a forward who scores 15 goals in junior. 2. Alexei Yemelin So hard to project Russian defenceman. Had a lot of penalty minutes for the Russian League. Was on the U18 team. 3. J.T. Wyman From Edina, Minnesota and is reminiscent of a former habs from the same town, Tom Chorske. Explosive, good shot, decent size. Chorske became a defensive specialist, but had a long NHL career. A lot longer than the hometown hero Montreal drafted ahead of him that year, Jose Charbonneau, who was a total bust. I can see a similar situation here, with Wyman turning into a decent NHL player and Chipchura disappearing.