Around the League - 2022-23 season thread part I

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Hockey Sports Fan

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its too early to call him a bust, because I think he will at least be an NHL player. Disappointment? Absolutely.

Anytime I watch them play, I don't notice him at all.
He’s an NHL player now. But for a big, skilled winger who had one of the better junior careers in recent memory, he could double his production and still not meet expectations.

“Bust” is a tricky term because i feel like it’s used relative to expectations and draft position. Is he bust in the sense that he’s gonna wash out of the league? Absolutely not. But he’s a bust in the sense that he’s not even remotely close to what you’d want from a first overall pick who should have been the cornerstone of a successful rebuild.
 

Saugus

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He’s an NHL player now. But for a big, skilled winger who had one of the better junior careers in recent memory, he could double his production and still not meet expectations.

“Bust” is a tricky term because i feel like it’s used relative to expectations and draft position. Is he bust in the sense that he’s gonna wash out of the league? Absolutely not. But he’s a bust in the sense that he’s not even remotely close to what you’d want from a first overall pick who should have been the cornerstone of a successful rebuild.

Lafreniere is not going to be Nail Yakupov or Patrik Stefan. But he also isn't going to be Jack Hughes or Connor McDavid. He'll be somewhere in between.

And if he does come anywhere near achieving his potential, my guess is it won't be with the Rangers.
 
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bossram

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Lafreniere would be a very interesting offer sheet target for a team that thinks they can mine the talent that's underneath somewhere.
 

Saugus

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Lafreniere would be a very interesting offer sheet target for a team that thinks they can mine the talent that's underneath somewhere.

Honestly, I think Kakko would be the more interesting reclamation project of the two of them. For the right contract and in the right role, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the Devils someday.

Either way, both of them have had their development stunted by misuse from the Rangers.
 
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MasterofGrond

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he could absolutely grind out a pretty good career with a team that utilizes him correctly. Staple him near the net on the PP, play him with someone creative who can drive his line and he can be a 20-30 goal sequence finisher who's a Cy Young risk every year.

Not worth #1 but that's a real NHL player.
 
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JrFischer54

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He’s an NHL player now. But for a big, skilled winger who had one of the better junior careers in recent memory, he could double his production and still not meet expectations.

“Bust” is a tricky term because i feel like it’s used relative to expectations and draft position. Is he bust in the sense that he’s gonna wash out of the league? Absolutely not. But he’s a bust in the sense that he’s not even remotely close to what you’d want from a first overall pick who should have been the cornerstone of a successful rebuild.

when people say bust its in relation to their draft slot and how they panned out. bust isn't tied to nhl success just how much of it.
 

My3Sons

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He’s an NHL player now. But for a big, skilled winger who had one of the better junior careers in recent memory, he could double his production and still not meet expectations.

“Bust” is a tricky term because i feel like it’s used relative to expectations and draft position. Is he bust in the sense that he’s gonna wash out of the league? Absolutely not. But he’s a bust in the sense that he’s not even remotely close to what you’d want from a first overall pick who should have been the cornerstone of a successful rebuild.
Pre-internet when you had to consume sports content in newspaper articles, radio commentary, television commentary, and magazines only, and where things like draft discussion were sort of fringe topics the term bust was almost always a highly drafted player who failed to play in a given league or at best was a marginal short lived player in a league. A guy like Zacha would not have been called a bust. Neither would a guy like Laf at this stage of his career. Bust as a synonym for disappointing is a fairly recent definition from what I see.
 

MasterofGrond

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Yeah bust is overused. "Not as good as you'd hope from that draft slot" happens a for a majority of picks, and using it for anybody outside the top 3 MAYBE 5 picks ignores exactly how often picks pan out, even in the first half of the first round.
 
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Guttersniped

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Dear Lord, with Kane out McDrais are truly men on an island. Well RNH and Hyman visit them but I don’t know if it’s possible to have more abysmal secondary scoring from forwards on an alleged playoff team.

McDavid has 11 5v5 points and Draisaitl has 9 because none of these losers can put the puck in the net. Losing Kane really hurts.

BA33A5A4-1AB5-45B9-BF3B-C9A0EE675A7A.jpeg


I mean, yikes.

15F7E2B1-618D-41C5-95BB-4A64AD766EA0.jpeg


In comparison, here’s our sexy beasts 5v5 goals

1529E6E3-364F-4997-9087-6C16627E8877.jpeg


(They do have more PP goals obviously.)
 

bossram

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Honestly, I think Kakko would be the more interesting reclamation project of the two of them. For the right contract and in the right role, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the Devils someday.

Either way, both of them have had their development stunted by misuse from the Rangers.
Oh I agree, I would prefer Kakko on the Devils too. He's already a competent defensive player, and the hope is that he can improve his forechecking + board work enough to become a Nichushkin-lite.

But I don't see the Rangers moving him while on his $2.1M ticket next season.

Laf is really primarily a playmaker. If a team wants to get the most out of him, they need to put him on the half-wall on the PP and at even-strength with a shooter.
 
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Triumph

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It doesn't really get talked about but boy was that Darnell Nurse contract a giant mistake. This is something the Devils will have to reckon with soon, who is driving the bus and are the players being driven replacable? Nurse's fluke goal scoring season was exactly at the right time for him financially.



This is his second stroke, isn't it? Scary stuff.
 
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