Dickinson is putting up very impressive counting stats, but as someone who watches full games of him do you think he's improved his high-pressure decision making much this season?
You don't have to take my word for it, I just think making a claim that he's having the best season of any drafted defenseman without actually watching him or any other drafted defense prospect play is ridiculous.
It's gotten better, no doubt. But he gets exposed against the very best OHL teams and obviously at the WJC. Still an area for progress.
Who's having a better season? Don't say Buium whose production has literally regressed compared to last year.
I'm judging Buium, the small offenseman, solely on point production.
Buium is significantly better defensively than Dickinson, so what do you call Dickinson?
Even if this is true right now, Dickinson has the reach and skating ability to defend NHLers in a way that Buium will never be able to.
You're projecting him to be bad defensively because of his size, I'm projecting he'll be at least average defensively because of his smarts.
All of the players you listed except Weegar are amazing skaters (or at least were in their prime in the case of Letang).
You said "elite" skater. None of those guys is an elite skater.
In some respects, the season has gone as well as could possibly be expected. Celebrini's been Calder good right out of the gate despite not a lot of support, the goaltending got good enough that we were able to make a good trade off of it, and Smith is starting to round into a better player after a rough start. But picking 8th requires a leap of faith that is outside the boundary of sense.
My only worry about him is making solid defensive decisions. It's the one thing that was clearly lacking in preseason and since I don't watch London games, I have no sense if he's getting better in that regard. He needs to process situations faster and make smart decisions with the puck in his own end.
Most of them are elite skaters. Montour is one of the fastest players in the league. McAvoy was one of the best defensive defensemen in the league until recently primarily due to his skating and mobility. Some of these guys like Andersson and Orlov have fallen off a bit but were absolutely elite skaters in their best seasons. Morrissey at his best is a sublime skater and one of the fastest defensemen in the league with the puck on his stick.
I'm not worried about how he looked in NHL preseason games as a recently turned 18 year old. Does he occasionally make a bad read, take too long to make a decision with the puck or fail to properly leverage his size and skating defensively? For sure, but IMO those things are all easily coachable. You can't teach Dickinson's size, skating or shot. He has all the tools you would want in a #1 defenseman on a contending team and can still add tons of value to a NHL lineup even if he falls well short of that.
My only thing is I don't want to get my hopes up. Perhaps this is Sharks fan trauma, but we've seen so many D prospects flame out for the exact reason of all tools, no toolbox. The chance Dick hits his ceiling is low, just for defensemen in general, but he has enough tools that he should surely figure out how to contribute to a lineup. Even if he ends up Erik Johnson style, he could contribute to a contender, so long as he's not miscast.
I think 2nd pair defenseman is pretty reasonable in terms of expectations. Hopefully Sam can get there.
Why do you say this? We are last in pts and pts% with the most games played? Or are you saying "below 4th" is 5th onward?
Yes, the chance we pick 5+ is tinier and tinier. We've nearly solidified top 4 and are currently odds on favorites for guaranteed top 3.
Grier: "And with the 2nd overall pick, the San Jose Sharks are proud to select, Roger McQueen, from the Brandon Wheat Kings"
That's Pat Verbeek's move.
I was having a nice week, why you do this??
I'll give you Montour, but there is no world in which any of the rest qualify or ever qualified as "elite skaters", unless you consider a quarter of the league to be elite skaters. McAvoy has never been even a great skater, just good/above average.
I saw Reid play for the first time recently, he was very solid. I like that he and Verheoff are two RHD with solid size for next year.
You're overrating the importance of processing speed and underrating the importance of Dickinson's tools. Yes, in order to be a Makar/Hughes/Heiskanen franchise level defender you need elite processing speed and elite tools. Dickinson is likely never going to reach that level and neither is Buium.
