Confirmed with Link: Alex Newhook for 31st, 37th and Fairbrother

[sheed36]

Didn't take long for The Newfoundland Turnip crowd on Facebook to get in on the Newhook to the Habs trade with a meme about it..

 

[Jaynki]

It’s bitter to hear Hughes didn’t have the NHL horses to shift to acquire a needed player (Pierre-Luc Dubois) and also witness Hughes turn Toffoli to Mešar and Lehkonen to Barron and have neither of them be worth considering as trade pieces not even a year later. Our prospect pool must be unusually bad that he gives up very valuable draft capital to acquire Newhook.

Or maybe he got taken advantage of by a more experienced GM. We’ll see how it all shakes out by mid July. Maybe we will be celebrating

We did have the NHL horses to acquire Dubois. We were not interested in paying them. (Dach!)

Did he got taken advantage of tho? Maybe he is also taking advantage of McFarland?

I am lukewarm on Newhook but his analytics seems good and there seems to be untapped potential here. I am ready to give the runner a chance. (Donner une chance au coureur)

31 and 37 is steep but on the other hand, our prospect pool is full of those B-level prospect.

Lets see!

 

[Kwikwi]

He's 5ft10 and wasn't the consensus from Avs fans that they messed the pick up by taking him over others?

I'm scared.

There will be good players at 31 and 37 left.

I'm really scared.

go check all pick 31 and 37 last 12 season. You wont be scared anymore

 

[Mario le Magnifique]

I like this move. Newhook is fast, is skilled and has a good shot. Like him as a winger. Disgruntled fans can bust a nut saying he couldn't crack the top 6 on the Avs but dayum, talk about the holy molly expectations he had to answer to, at age 21-22. No shit. I'm not sure on which wing he plays but he might already be our 2nd best winger in the depth chart.

 

[Sterling Archer]

It is like giving two 2nd and a Ahler for a very young to a top 20 draft choice with some experience that we think has untapped upside. We have to trust our managemment and see what happens.

I get it, hopefully it will work out and I'll be eating crow. I do have faith in HuGo so hope it works out. Fingers crossed. We'll see.

 

[NotProkofievian]

Where was Newhook projected to be drafted in his draft year?

He entered the year as a potential top 5 pick. I had him right around 15 after watching him all year, and that's about where he ended up both being ranked and picked. Many people wanted him, many others myself included wanted Caufield. A few people wanted Krebs and don't like to mention it.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

70pts players don't get you a late first and a 2nd, they usually don't get traded.

This is a gamble similar to Dach. I'm personally not a fan of. I wonder what it means for Beck moving forward when we already have Suzuku, Dach and Newhook down the middle?

I think it's more of a "let the kids battle it out" kind of move. Beck isn't ready for anything more than a bottom six trial run. Which means Newhook gets a chance to make the second line his and show he's a legit NHLer. It's essentially Dach 2.0.

I'm a bit iffy on this trade only because we gave up a bit too much. Drop the second and I'd feel it's a more even trade. With that said, I was also iffy on Dach and look how that turned out.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Can you elaborate on your issues with his skating?

You've obviously seen a lot of him, I'd love to hear your take on why think his skating is overrated.

Thanks!

I don’t think he’s a bad skater at all, but coming out of the draft he was touted as a high-end skater and I’ve never seen that in the NHL.

He’s just not as fast and explosive as you’d like for that size.

His best attribute is his shot imo.

 

[vokiel]

So when do we send Newhook, Harris and Mesar for PLD??

If he doesn't sign before July 1st, it should be a 1st and 3rd with an offer sheet of 1 year.. Now that'll be
worthy

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

Where was Newhook projected to be drafted in his draft year?

Mackenzie had him at 13. No one on here actually thought GMs would be stupid enough to gift the Habs Caufield. But I remember a crap load of posters being on the Newhook bandwagon in 2019

 

[Captain97]

Where was Newhook projected to be drafted in his draft year?

I remember the year before his draft year he was top 10, I think in his draft year it was surprising he fell to. I thought he was gonna go around 12.

I was happy at 15 when Philly was picking because I knew we'd get CC or Newhook.

 

[Beer and Chips]

Doesn't this smell like mediocrity? What if Smith is available at 5, doesn't Newhook become redundant? I don't get it.

 

[Eegs]

70pts players don't get you a late first and a 2nd, they usually don't get traded.

This is a gamble similar to Dach. I'm personally not a fan of. I wonder what it means for Beck moving forward when we already have Suzuku, Dach and Newhook down the middle?

They might see Newhook more as a winger.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Best of luck to Newy with you guys.

Didn’t work out in Colorado. They tried him at Centre and it didn’t click. Maybe it was too much expectations early in his career to do so for a contending team.

Hopefully he improves in Montreal and it’s a win-win for both teams.

He will improve when St Louis gets to work with him.

 

[dinodebino]

I'm not too sure how we'll be a contender if we're populated by 5'10" smurfs.

This seems like a panic/PR move. Nothing more, nothing less.

Come on man, aren't you tired of this team being pushed around? Isn't everyone?

PR panic?!?! Lolol If you had read social media, 70% of the francophones did not want PLD after he had made his nest with his 8.5+ salary demands.

No PR move. If it were to be a PR move Girard would have been the target, or any other franco.

 

[Habsfan18]

Doesn't this smell like mediocrity? What if Smith is available at 5, doesn't Newhook become redundant? I don't get it.

I think the team views Newhook as a winger.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Doesn't this smell like mediocrity? What if Smith is available at 5, doesn't Newhook become redundant? I don't get it.

The more centres the better. And most centres, not named Kotkaniemi, can play wing.

 

[abo9]

Maybe a little column A, column B.

I read somewhere (this could be completely false, please check me if I'm wrong, lurking Avs fans) that Bednar is pretty old school when it comes to young players (a guy like Makar aside, obviously).

I'm not big on the size thing either tbh. We've got decent-sized guys throughout the lineup.

Reading through this thread (it populates fast lol), I see others pointing out its size in the bottom 6 that'll be required.

I don't disagree much with that. For the top 6, give me talent before size. This team needs offensive talent. Unicorns of talent + size are nice to have, but they're not given easily.

 

[dinodebino]

It's because he could not be relied upon in the middle-6 center with 2PP time role that he was presented with. The view of his potential cooled down as he lost that spot and never showed anything to get it back.

I still think he has 2nd line winger upside and that Montréal will help him get there but he's got a lot of work to do. Mostly needs to create himself more space either with skate or decision speed.

Exactly. Winger.

 

[Victoire HuGo]

Alright so my first thoughts:
I don't hate this deal since it goes with management's MO and what they've preached since day 1. The Dach move has also proven that a) they have an eye for talent b) we have the right people in charge for these kind of moves with MSL and Nicholas and c) it accelarates the rebuild. I'm super curious as to what's next since the forward group is already super crowded.

So let's do a deep dive:
At first glance, Newhook's stats are bit disappointing. Point pace went down compared to last year. Not much improvement on time on ice (so role; Compher stole the minutes he was supposed to get) and less shots on goal than the year before. His underlying numbers don't really indicate he was unlucky (not a super high IPP or on ice % percentage). Slightly more OZ starts than last year so not as sheltered.

Okay let's continue, how about linemates:
That's where things get interesting

1	150:43	14.6	ANDREW COGLIANO - LOGAN O'CONNOR - ALEX NEWHOOK	10	2	8	53	64	45.3	104	143	42.1
2	85:23	8.3	VALERI NICHUSHKIN - EVAN RODRIGUES - ALEX NEWHOOK	4	4	0	44	43	50.6	86	87	49.7
3	64:44	6.3	EVAN RODRIGUES - MARTIN KAUT - ALEX NEWHOOK	3	3	0	28	24	53.8	53	54	49.5

ERod is a fine player and so is Nuke but those are not very sexy names. A washed up Cogliano and O'Connor who is dime a dozen guy.

How about the year before?

1	105:37	12.3	J.T. COMPHER - LOGAN O'CONNOR - ALEX NEWHOOK	3	2	1	49	55	47.1	87	92	48.6
2	83:36	9.7	NICOLAS AUBE-KUBEL - NICO STURM - ALEX NEWHOOK	5	1	4	44	41	51.8	75	84	47.2
3	61:18	7.1	NICOLAS AUBE-KUBEL - J.T. COMPHER - ALEX NEWHOOK	2	0	2	22	37	37.3	38	64	37.3

Not much better.

How did he trend this year?

Quarter	GP	G	A	PTS	SOG	PPP	PPTOI	TOI
1	19	4	3	7	31	0	1:25	13:49
2	22	5	4	9	31	1	2:01	16:08
3	19	4	5	9	28	1	0:59	13:51
4	22	1	4	5	26	0	0:59	11:57

He started off cold, was better in the middle stretch and then had his worst stretch to end the year. Seems like he lost the confidence of coaching staff there. Maybe he was demoralized by injuries or his game was considered too risky to Bednar's liking since the Avs were barely getting by around that time of the season when he was playing 16+ mins a game.



That goal at 1:10 is definitely exciting stuff. Seems to be more of a playmaker than shooter. Curious what the folks have to say about his shot or our prospect gurus.





THis is a player who was coveted for his skating in his draft year and is still his best skill. Now is skating something the team was missing? Hard to say but the team didn't really have a speedster in the line-up. I'm curious as to what role they see Newhook having on the team. At this price, I think I would have preferred going for Lafreniere instead. That being said, if there is one thing that is different between these two players is definitely skating ability so management probably decided to give the edge to the struggling young player with skating as a forte rather than opposite.

I wonder if he can play RW despite being a LH shot.

 

[vokiel]

Doesn't this smell like mediocrity? What if Smith is available at 5, doesn't Newhook become redundant? I don't get it.

Hughes was his agent before becoming GM, you don't have to understand it further.

 

[sampollock]

I like this move. Newhook is fast, is skilled and has a good shot. Like him as a winger. Disgruntled fans can bust a nut saying he couldn't crack the top 6 on the Avs but dayum, talk about the holy molly expectations he had to answer to, at age 21-22. No shit. I'm not sure on which wing he plays but he might already be our 2nd best winger in the depth chart.

avs board says "not a fast skater" ?

 

[dinodebino]

Now, let’s get rid of some wingers pls.

 

[Archijerej]

Yeah, Dvorak is as good as gone.

I'm not so sure about that.

Newhook seems like the type of winger Dvorak was missing on his line and we have several forwards much less useful than him.

Dumping Dvorak would be a mistake imo. There's value there to be recovered, even if he's not in our long-term plans.

 

[Walrus26]

So on a team with forwards:

6'3" & 227 lbs Anderson
6'4" & 212 lbs Dach
6'3" & 228 lbs Slaf
6'2" & 200 lbs Monahan
6'4" & 218 lbs Armia
6'1" & 216 lbs Pez

possibly 6'1' & 185 lbs Heineman

we're complaining they got a guy who is 5'10" and 190 lbs?

I think Heineman has a chance of making the big club this year.

Funny how Newhook has gone from a can't miss top 6 (at least) prospect to someone who's going to be a worse contributor to team performance than a combined, what, 25% chance that those two picks we traded will turn into one serviceable NHLer plus a D prospect with no chance of cracking our lineup.

The guy who posted the last 10 years of 31 and 37-picked players nailed it.