Chips Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 I like what I see in Brandon Sutter; he comes from a great family of players that can be game breakers and team leaders! GO HABS GO! Appology accepted. One of the problems I've noticed with the forum lately is that everyone is taking themselves way too seriously. This used to be a fun place, but now it seems as if people just argue with each other over who's right and who isn't. very good point Dark_Faerie87; I still enjoy reading the comments posted by the regulars who have made this forum what it is today. Yes they are still around. GO HABS GO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 According to MYNHLDRAFT.com mock, the Habs would end up with Alex Plante at the #16 slot, and Zach Hamill at the #24 slot. I could live with that. just a funny little aside here... according to NHLMYDRAFT.com, in 2006, we drafted Johnathan Matsumoto in the 3rd round while Philadelphia picked Ryan White. Then, in the 4th round, we picked Jakub Kovar, a goalie from Slovakia... i guess they forgot to take into account the draft position trades... i gotta say that philadelphia got the better of the deal in that scenario... we didn't get White.... sheeeeshhhh.... GO :hlogo: GO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 9, 2007 Author Share Posted March 9, 2007 Matsumoto was a prolific scorer in the NCAA. Don't know anything about Kovar. Time will tell, but White certainly looks like a winner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 Ryan McDonagh won the Mr Hockey Award for the state of Minnesota. Curiously enough, in the last scoring stats, he had 38 points in 25 games, which were the exact numbers posted by David Fischer last year in the same league. I think McDonagh played a couple more games after that however. Not sure if he will go to the USHL. There are just a few games left in the regular season, and the team that owns his rights is well out of playoff contention. There was some talk of his joining the U18 Team for the balance of the season, but I haven't heard anything definite. Tommy Cross did join the team, and had 2 assists in the last game they played. It will be interesting to see if one or more of the U.S. defensemen can push Alzner and Ellerby at the top of the rankings. Nick Petrecki has come on a bit at the end of the year and his team is headed for the playoffs. He had a 92 MPH slapshot at the Skills Comp, tied for tops. I still think he has a chance to be the first D man selected. He and Tommy Cross are nearly a year younger than Alzner and Ellerby. Lots of room for projection there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montreal Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Ryan McDonagh won the Mr Hockey Award for the state of Minnesota. Curiously enough, in the last scoring stats, he had 38 points in 25 games, which were the exact numbers posted by David Fischer last year in the same league. I think McDonagh played a couple more games after that however. Not sure if he will go to the USHL. There are just a few games left in the regular season, and the team that owns his rights is well out of playoff contention. There was some talk of his joining the U18 Team for the balance of the season, but I haven't heard anything definite. Tommy Cross did join the team, and had 2 assists in the last game they played. It will be interesting to see if one or more of the U.S. defensemen can push Alzner and Ellerby at the top of the rankings. Nick Petrecki has come on a bit at the end of the year and his team is headed for the playoffs. He had a 92 MPH slapshot at the Skills Comp, tied for tops. I still think he has a chance to be the first D man selected. He and Tommy Cross are nearly a year younger than Alzner and Ellerby. Lots of room for projection there. The difference is that McDonagh played for CDH who was a much better team then Fischer's Apple Valley. CDH was favored to win the state tournament this year but got upset from what I heard, didn't see the game. McDonagh is also bigger but not as good of a puck mover from the little I've seen of him with CDH. I've seen Petrecki once, and I don't know much about Cross other then what I've read. If either overtake Alzner, I'd be very surprised. Ellerby I haven't seen yet but I've heard a lot of good about him so perhaps he goes higher then Alzner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 The players consistently rated in the top 10 seem to be Cherepanov, Kane, Gagner, Couture, Esposito, Voracek, Alzner, Ellerby, Van Reimsdyck and Gillies. Gillies seems to be dropping and may be replaced by Zach Hamill. So Montreal would be looking at Gillies, Petrecki, Plante, Mayorov, Blum, Andersson, McDonagh, Cross, Pacioretty, Backlund, Veilleaux, I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark_faerie87 Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 The players consistently rated in the top 10 seem to be Cherepanov, Kane, Gagner, Couture, Esposito, Voracek, Alzner, Ellerby, Van Reimsdyck and Gillies. Gillies seems to be dropping and may be replaced by Zach Hamill. So Montreal would be looking at Gillies, Petrecki, Plante, Mayorov, Blum, Andersson, McDonagh, Cross, Pacioretty, Backlund, Veilleaux, I suppose. Just wondering, but any relation to Mark? If so, we should definitely draft him! B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacchus Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 Just wondering, but any relation to Mark? If so, we should definitely draft him! B) We already had a few coke head weenies on our team, and none of them worked out ... bow if they guy's last name was Solo, I'd be all over that idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montreal Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 The players consistently rated in the top 10 seem to be Cherepanov, Kane, Gagner, Couture, Esposito, Voracek, Alzner, Ellerby, Van Reimsdyck and Gillies. Gillies seems to be dropping and may be replaced by Zach Hamill. So Montreal would be looking at Gillies, Petrecki, Plante, Mayorov, Blum, Andersson, McDonagh, Cross, Pacioretty, Backlund, Veilleaux, I suppose. Next month we'll get a better idea of how things are shaping up after the U-18's. Plus we'll likely know where we are picking and hopefully the sharks fall apart in the playoffs. We could have 5 picks in the top 70, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Also I think Turris is a lock to be top 5 if not top 3. Turris, JVR, Kane, Cherepanov, Alzner, imo are the likely top 5 as of now (not in any order) Brett MacLean is a guy I could see us getting. Petrecki, Plante, Andersson, Backlund are also of interest. I don't know what to make of Gillies, I'd personally hope we shy away from Russians like Mayorov/Korostin/Karamnov. Espo I could see us being intereted in but I'm not sure what to make of him either. I like his speed but from what i've seen he plays too soft which is what they say about Veilleaux. Pacioretty I only saw once and didn't really stick out. I would be interested though, same with Aaron Palushaj (not in the 1st though) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMMR Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I really wonder which team will take a shot with Cherpanov, with the issues and back channels needed to get Malkin out a lot of teams may fear picking him. I know he is the highest rated but if he is available around 7 or 8 I would not be suprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexstream Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 If Espo is really not good enough for us, I hope someone ahead of us picks him first!!! Otherwise, be ready for the endless soap opera by Tremblay, Villeneuve, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montreal Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 If Espo is really not good enough for us, I hope someone ahead of us picks him first!!! Otherwise, be ready for the endless soap opera by Tremblay, Villeneuve, etc. My personal take on it is that Timmins to me has earned the benefit of doubt, so whoever he picks I'll be excited about. I know that some question some picks. Kostitsyn- Carter, Getzlaf, Bernier, Brown, others Urquhart at 40th over Bergeron, Carle, Shea Weber Chipchura- Wolski, Meszaros, Zajac Price- Kopitar Clearly there are better choices from the early looks of it, but for one thing, it's very rare that you end up picking the very best players of the draft outside 1st or 2nd overall. The took some gambles that still could backfire badly. If Kostitsyn doesn't pan out, that will be a huge missed opportunity since the talent that could have been taken might of had a solid impact with the Habs. Urquhart until recently had bust written all over him. But every team will make mistakes, usually it happens to 29 teams at a time. That said the scouting staff has done a good job imo. Finding guys like Grabovski, Halak, S. Kostitsyn, Emelin, Valentenko, Streit, Lapierre, White, O'Byrne, D'Agostini, Aubin..... Not saying these are all going to make it or that they are all great picks but that there are a lot of off the board type picks that currently are doing an impressive job for the most part. Add in the amount of drafted players we recently added to the roster in the last 2 years. Higgins, Plekanec, Perezhogin, Latendresse, Lapierre, Streit, Murray, Kostitsyn, Halak, Milroy, Grabovski, Cote, Danis, Ferland. That's 14 drafted prospects to see at least one game in the last 2 seasons and over 5 drafts. Add other drafted prospects like Komisarek who is in only his 2nd full season and parts of 2 other seasons. Ryder who is in his 3rd full season, Markov's in his 6th season. Price is looking really good after all the mess it caused on draft day at habs sites all across the web. Kostitsyn is slowly coming around, Chipchura has been impressive defensively in his first year as a pro. Higgins at one point in the season was looking like the best player on the team. Plekanec has been really solid. Streit has been impressive imo. Lapierre has shown he's a real pest and pain to play against. Latendresse has had a successful rookie year imo. He's got to work on things but there's a lot of hope that he will become a very good nhler. Perezhogin has had his ups and downs tough to say what will become of him, he's shown flashes of skill as well as bad plays. Murray was solid last year imo, Halak I don't know what to make of his time with us. He was ok at times and not so good at times, hope he can get back on track in the ahl cause it seems to have effected Danis, he hasn't looked the same since he was in the nhl imo. Grabovski was interesting when called up. Milroy/Ferland/Cote filled in for depth when needed, all did ok. So I got to think that Timmins and his staff will do a good job at the draft. It likely won't turn out to be the best player in the draft, there will likely be someone picked after them that ends up being more productive but we stand the chance of getting more solid prospects, and adding more depth. Most picks don't amount to much, but the fact that we have gotten so much youth into our lineup is at least a good sign. I know the team has gone to crap but it's not really fair to blame that on first or second year players. I think Komisarek is going to continue to get better, Higgins I expect very big things from, Plekanec, Streit, Latendresse, Lapierre, Perezhogin, I expect to see all of them improve, hopefully a good bit. Kostitsyn hopefully gets a full time spot next year and shows what he can do. It might take him a couple years to really be effective but who can say what will happen with anyones development/progression. The point is that the farm system has turned around a great deal, is loaded with depth, while lacking top end talent per say, we are starting to see the benefits of a good farm system. Hopefully they continue to get better and if there are other picks that turn out to be better, so be it, as long as we have young players that continue to get better and help the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAK Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 here a little teaser of maybe things to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sakiqc Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=199943&hubname= Apparently the NHL just changed the format of the next draft. More a team advances in the playoffs, lower his selection will be. Canadiens didn't vote. I guess Gainey think that SJ will get a worse pick than they would have had with the old system.. I don't know how much it will change the order. I think it's way too complicated for nothing. And trading draft picks gets more complicated, since you know even less what the pick will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 Whoa, left Turris out of the top 10 Oversight. I think he is the best talent in the draft. So that makes 10 with Turris in place of Hamill. Leaves some pretty decent talent from the #11 position onwards. Some people don't seem to like this draft. I think it should be as good as last years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=199943&hubname= Apparently the NHL just changed the format of the next draft. More a team advances in the playoffs, lower his selection will be. Canadiens didn't vote. I guess Gainey think that SJ will get a worse pick than they would have had with the old system.. I don't know how much it will change the order. I think it's way too complicated for nothing. And trading draft picks gets more complicated, since you know even less what the pick will be. It probably improves the value of the San Jose pick ever so slightly as things sit. The teams just squeezing into the playoffs in the West ve more regular season points than the bubble teams in the East. I really doubt anyone in the Habs front office has the math skills to figure that out, though, so maybe that is why they abstained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 I would like them to take Petrecki and Pacioretty because they seem like two players available in the 10-20 range of the draft who are both "safe" picks and potential big upside picks at the same time. Petrecki should be at minimum a big solid defensive presence who can serve as a team cop, a la Komisarek. He is pretty close to the size of Komo at 17, and has similar raw skills. He is probably more agressive as well. On the other hand, Petrecki has been tabbed as a potential star from the age of 14 or so, when he went to play in the EJHL. He shares a lot of characteristics with Dion Phaneuf, and is bigger than Phaneuf was at 17. Pacioretty seems like a safe pick in the sense that he is already 6-2, 210 pounds, skates well, and has a reputation as a good defensive forward. So he should be at least a solid third line winger in the NHL, particularly after a few years with Red Berenson in Michigan. On the other hand, Max is putting up similar numbers to Paul Statsny and Joe Pavelski at the same age in the USHL. Without the benefit of a lot of power play time or production. He has virtually identical numbers to Kyle Okposo from a year ago, and is bigger than Okposo. Potentially a John LeClair type power winger down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 The real wildcard in this draft is shaping up to be Antoine Lafleur. He is performing as well as Pavalec and Bernier in the Q, and is already 6-5 I think. Hard for me to beleive he won't draw interest in the first round. He is a real smart kid like Carey Price, as well. That is the biggest single predicator of success or failure from a prospect's draft year onwards. The smart kids get better, the less smart kids spin their wheels and fall behind. Despite the apparent depth in goal, I think the team will be very tempted by him if he is there late in the first round. He may actually be the best prospect out of the Q this year, and the fact that he is pur laine Franco gives him more value to the Habs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 For the Akim Aliu supporters, he just got kicked off his junior team for detrimental conduct. Maybe he has a drug problem. :?- Anyway, as I said a couple of months back, not someone the Habs want in their organization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexstream Posted March 13, 2007 Share Posted March 13, 2007 I say go for Angelo! We need a talented Center... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 I would put Zack Torquato and Corey Tropp on my wish list as well. They are both among the youger players available in the draft, and both have put up impressive numbers in the situations they are playing in. Torquato was traded to one of the worst teams in the OHL, but maintained over a point per game scoring average. He is a bright kid with leadership qualities and has pretty good size at 6-0, 195 pounds. Corey Tropp has better numbers in the USHL than Kyle Okposo did a year ago, and he doesn't have the benefit of playing with another star player as Okposo did with Trevor Lewis. Corey is easily the leading scorer on one of the lower scoring teams in the league. He has decent size as well, at 5-11, 190, and is very bright. Off to Michigan State next season. Both could be available for the Habs second round pick, and may warrant a trade up if they stay on the board into the second round. I like them better than Esposito or Hamill as far as offensive centremen are concerned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 27, 2007 Author Share Posted March 27, 2007 Another interesting prospect, defenseman Ben Blood of Shattuck St Mary's School in Faribault, Minnesota. Blood has great size, 6-3, 215, and pretty good hands. Hasn't received the same hype as some previous SSM players since the team is not the powerhouse it was. Off to U North Dakota next year. Top student as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Excellent points Dark. 1. The reason the Habs did not draft Kopitar is the same reason 10 other teams did. He was a high risk player. Kostitsyn was not a mistake he is still very young. Is Perezhogin a mistake? 2. If Chipchura becomes a 3rd liner and is not a foctor on a regular basis for the Canadiens I would be shocked. 3. Indeed the Habs will search for a right handed centre, or any right handed forward. 4. Also with Espo dropping in the draft I would love for the habs to take a shot with him. it's unlikely that montreal will have a shot at esposito unless a team like columbus, st. louis or edmonton will exchange their 1st overall for both of montreal's 1st round picks or something like that... if something like that takes place, they might even consider taking voracek if he's still available... all of that aside, i hope that montreal takes a serious look at zach hamill or keven veilleux... GO :hlogo: GO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobby Posted March 28, 2007 Author Share Posted March 28, 2007 Esposito and Veilleux are not that bright. I hope Montreal stays well away from those two. The FO has shown a lot more good sense in drafting smarter kids with character in the past couple of years, I doubt they will revert to the old ways. Voracek will be taken long before Esposito. I can't see Espo going in the first half of the first round. He is going to drop like Schremp did in 2004. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Esposito and Veilleux are not that bright. I hope Montreal stays well away from those two. The FO has shown a lot more good sense in drafting smarter kids with character in the past couple of years, I doubt they will revert to the old ways. Voracek will be taken long before Esposito. I can't see Espo going in the first half of the first round. He is going to drop like Schremp did in 2004. that being the case, if he's available at the san jose to montreal pick then, why not? GO :hlogo: GO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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