2006 draft, one year later

[bobby]

The regular season is done for all of the Habs 2006 draft picks, and the early returns look very promising.

Top pick David Fischer was a true freshman on the best NCAA defense corps in the nation, dressed for every game that he was healthy, and saw regular duty. His stats weren't great, but he had to have learned a lot, stepping up a significant competitive level, and playing plenty of pressure packed hockey. After one season, Fischer hasn't shown signs of being a great steal, but hasn't shown signs of being overrated, either.

Second pick Ben Maxwell had a great first half of the season, and was near the top of the WHL scoring race when he went down with elbow surgery. He may return for the playoffs, but showed enough in the first half to more than justify his selection in the mid second round. Very good chance that Ben would have won the scoring title on a loaded Kootenay Ice team this year if he had played the full season, and perhaps the MVP award as well.

Mathieu Carle had a similarly brilliant first half of a season, before running into difficulty just past the mid way point, being traded, then taking time to adjust to his new surroundings. Matt has been back to his first half form recently and should have a good playoff. Like Maxwell, Carle looks like a bargain at the spot he was drafted.

Ryan White accomplished the most of all the draft picks last season, leading the WHL scoring race right up to the final week of the season. Great offensive production and strong two way team play make him look like a first round value pick despite being drafted in the third round.

Pavel Valentenko didn't get the same exposure, playing thousands of miles away for the main part of the season, but his steady play in the RSL, combined with an eye catching performance at the WJC make him seem like a strong NHL prospect within the next two or three seasons. Terrific return from a fifth round draft pick.

Cameron Cepek survived his post draft season, and given the circumstances that was an accomplishment in itself. First off, the fiesty, undersized, blueliner suffered a concussion which cost him one third of the season, and hampered him the balance. Then his team went in the tank, with management giving up by the mid point of the season and trading away most of the top players. Things can only get better for Cam.

All in all, it looks like a solid draft from top to bottom which should produce three or four NHL players within the next two seasons.

[shortcat1]

tanks for the resume...

it's too early to jump up fur unfettered joy yet but we have reason for at least many warm inner smiles at our possibilities here.

GO :hlogo: GO!

[JMMR]

Thanks for the report.

White and Maxwell appear huge steals.

Hopefully Valentenko makes his way over to NA next year.

[montreal]

It looks like another solid draft for Timmins and company, they have had some impressive drafts with '06, '05, and '04 with '03 starting to look better with Lapierre, Halak and Kostitsyn all in the nhl now with O'Byrne as another possible nhler imo. Add Higgins, Ferland, Komisarek, Plekanec, Perezhogin and Milroy, that's 6 more drafted players that have seen action with the Habs from '01 and '02 draft.

This will be the first draft without Andre Savard, so it will be interesting to see how we do, although I still expect us to do well, we are setup nicely with 9 picks overall and 5 in the top 75ish.

I get to see Fischer play almost every game and I am very excited about this kid. The concerns I have for him is more about his lack of offense and that he often will pass instead of shooting. He's been really solid in his own end and playing very mistake free especially as the season wore on. He's likely going to need a lot of time but we'll see how much he can progress next year. We may not see him for a good 5 years or so (total guess) but I have hope that he will be a really solid nhl defensemen, something like Markov or Desjardins if he really puts it all together, which usually doesn't happen but we'll see how it goes.

Maxwell has gotten a lot of praise since the rookie camp this summer. Should be a lock for Team Canada next year, and I expect him to have a big year since he was on pace to put up impressive numbers this year. I want to see what he does in the AHL though, he plays a very passive game but is really skilled with the puck, so it will be interesting to see how he does at a higher level in 2 years.

Carle was a nice pickup, smart move to trade down and get Fischer which allowed them to grab Carle. Really looking forward to seeing him in Hamilton next year. It will be interesting to see how he handles the ahl. Seems like he's working hard on improving his defensive game and getting better conditioning. Hope it pays off for him next year.

White is clearly one of the bigger steals of the draft so far. What a year he had plus he plays more of an nhl style, gritty do whatever he can to help his team win type of player. Also should play for Canada next year, would be great to see both of them on the team. White we were lucky to have him drop to the 3rd round, another smart move to trade up and grab him. To me he makes the nhl because if he can't make it on the top lines he can play on the bottom lines and likely do well.

Valentenko I was disappointed he didn't come over this year, as Timmins said they wanted him to come over and play a year in the chl like Mikus and Halak both coming over at 19. But it worked out good for him cause he went from playing in only 2 RSL games last year to being a regular on the 3rd pairing mostly. That said he's under contract for 2 more seasons (since this season is over for him now) and I will always have concerns about our Russian prospects making the jump. That said we are short on LD prospects and really need one or both of him and Emelin to come over. Should be interesting to see what happens, hopefully the Russian Federation gets on board with the nhl and IIHF this summer.

Cepek I saw play for the first time last week. I was surprised at what i saw. He played a good game but it was Portland's night, they really took it to Everett which likely doesn't happen often at all. It was a crazy game fights broke out in the final seconds, then Portland players starting swinging their sticks at the fans, the called the game with 2 or 3 seconds left. Cepek skated really well with good speed but he's really skinny and got hit hard a couple times. He had an assist in the game, played in all situations and got a lot of ice time. Portlands goalie Mucha was impressive. Would like to see him put some weight on, hopefully he can stay healthy next year, adding some mass to his frame might help that.

[alexstream]

Thanks for the report.

White and Maxwell appear huge steals.

Hopefully Valentenko makes his way over to NA next year.

I think Carle can be of the new brand of dman who are very good offensively but kinda suck defensively... Preissing is one name that comes to mind, Corvo I think too...

IMO Maxwell could be THE steal of the draft because he was one of the most impressive player in training camp, despite being a rookie there and being one of the youngest invited player... He was really everywhere on the ice.

I think White can be a real Darcy Tucker, not very big, fiesty, pest, good two way... and WHL scoring champ (not sure tucker was THE scoring champ, but he scored a lot while in junior).

RE: ANDRE SAVARD

It won't affect anything! one reason Savard left the team was because BG wasn't listening to him for the draft, he would put his trust in Trevor Timmins... etc.

Just look at Savard's face when Timmins announce that they were drafting Price...

[habscout]

That observation about Savard at the draft is an interesting one. It would support the idea that Gainey believes in drafting a player by position and not by the 'best available player' theme that most team's support.

RE: ANDRE SAVARD

It won't affect anything! one reason Savard left the team was because BG wasn't listening to him for the draft, he would put his trust in Trevor Timmins... etc.

Just look at Savard's face when Timmins announce that they were drafting Price...

[alexstream]

That observation about Savard at the draft is an interesting one. It would support the idea that Gainey believes in drafting a player by position and not by the 'best available player' theme that most team's support.

UH? nah, not at all... it supports the fact that BG and Timmins didn't have the same view as Savard as to WHO was the BPA...

[CerebusClone]

UH? nah, not at all... it supports the fact that BG and Timmins didn't have the same view as Savard as to WHO was the BPA...

Savard and Gainey didn't seem to share too many views

Although I'm sure Andre Savard's choice would have been very good (he did an amazing job rebuilding this organization after Houle's demolition derby), at least we got a potentielly dominant player in Carey Price. If Price does turn out to be a Luongo-type goaltender, we should quickly forget about Kopitar's rookie season, who's really the only guy making Timmins look "bad" to some fans.