Around the NHL - (2024-25)

[dracom]

You going to give daily updates? Gonna get old real quick.

Should also update us when they go a game without a point, just so we can keep track you know?

 

[AngelDuck]

Ask yourself this question. Do you honestly think Fantilli would produce like he is now under Greg Cronin?

To put things in better perspective here, Fantilli is 5th in points on his team, with a full season played. Leo is now 3rd in points, tied for 3rd in goals with the Ducks, while missing a half a dozen games. and not finishing two others, and with less ice time.

Leo has had Killorn all season on his RW. Fantilli had Marchenko. It's not a fair comparison. Columbus scored 45 more goals than the Ducks this season. Their Top guy has 80 points and have two guys at PPG averages. Ducks top guy has 54 points and Leo has rarely played with him,

Don't make me do the mic drop again, lol.

I don’t see many people on here who regret the Carlsson pick over Fantilli

I do think a lot of people (myself included) have serious doubts that Sennecke can be as good (or close to as good) as Demidov is going to be.

That one has a decent chance of burning us. Especially when you consider that Zegras has kind of hit a bump in the road.

Imagine having Demidov with McTavish… and Carlsson with Gauthier…IMO that type of offensive nucleus is a lot easier to envision plugging the pieces around than what we have now

Idk. Madden better have known what he was doing because he literally said themselves that they reached

 

[Big Fat Rebound]

I still firmly believe that Demidov (and Michkov before him) is a management call. They took Mintyukov because he was already in North America; I love the Samuelis, but they are risk-averse and so long as they own the team, I don't think they'll ever take a swing on guys like that, no matter how badly they want to come over.

 

[JAHV]

As I pointed out earlier, you can like Demidov all you want and say that there was no risk in drafting him, but that belies the entire last 20 years of draft history. Demidov is the first Russian drafted from a Russian league with a top 5 pick since Ovechkin and Malkin in 2004. It's not only the Ducks.

 

[Reveille1984]

Michkov was understandable since that draft class was loaded and we had the opportunity to get a 1C. The reach for Sennecke never made sense to me given Demidov's trajectory and potential. If you're going to take a huge off-board risk anyways, you might as well just go for the homerun and risk it with the elite Russian player.

Have the Samuelis been notably anti-Russian over the years? It seems kind of odd that they'd be as hands off as they are with general hockey operations, but then be overly involved with where our draft picks are coming from. It honestly smells more like a Verbeek thing and him not wanting a top pick where he has no say in their development or how they're managed.

 

[FiveTacos]

I do think a lot of people (myself included) have serious doubts that Sennecke can be as good (or close to as good) as Demidov is going to be.

That one has a decent chance of burning us. Especially when you consider that Zegras has kind of hit a bump in the road.

Meh, imagine the burn for Chi if Bedard isn't as good as billed and they need to find a whole new top forward to build around. Or CBJ if Lindstrom ends up too damaged to play.

We're not the only team that passed, but out of the 3 who did I like our position the best right now, and it was the most justifiable of the bunch, IMO.

 

[FiveTacos]

Have the Samuelis been notably anti-Russian over the years?

I think the Ducks' org in general has been pretty Russian-averse since Smirnov and Chistov. We've picked like 3 guys from Russia since then.

 

[MCB]

Well I've come to hate the Oilers a lot but seeing their fans act this way was quite annoying. I'm not rooting for either to win as much as I'm rooting for one side to lose first. Like they beat Edmonton and then get swept, that's fine with me. I'm also fine if Edmonton beats them. I just want them to lose quickly.

Or.... You can cheer for a meteor to hit crypto.com arena like I will be doing.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

Given what Cronin has done to Z's development I think we dodged a huge bullet not "winning" Bedard. The ugliness of where Bedard would be now would be the talk of the league way more than it is now.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

I think the Ducks' org in general has been pretty Russian-averse since Smirnov and Chistov. We've picked like 3 guys from Russia since then.

And for Columbus it's Zherdev and Filatov who haunt them, the Russians Columbus has been drafting have been lower picks away from the lottery.

 

[MCB]

Omg habs fans are even more insufferable with demidov. I really hope sennecke lights it up when he makes his debut.

 

[la patineuse]

I still firmly believe that Demidov (and Michkov before him) is a management call. They took Mintyukov because he was already in North America; I love the Samuelis, but they are risk-averse and so long as they own the team, I don't think they'll ever take a swing on guys like that, no matter how badly they want to come over.

I doubt the Samuelis are making these hockey decisions.

 

[Terry Yake]

in michkov's case, it wouldn't surprise me if his camp made it clear to the ducks and other teams that he wasn't interested in playing for them and preferred to be in a big market. maybe the same with demidov too and that's why the ducks and columbus passed on him

or it was as simple as not wanting to risk drafting russians that high in fear of them not coming over

 

[dracom]

can't explain how much I want the Canes to win and for the Habs to miss the playoffs.

 

[tomd]

Omg habs fans are even more insufferable with demidov. I really hope sennecke lights it up when he makes his debut.

A potential superstar fell right into their lap...I don't think they'll care if Sennecke lights it up. We can only hope that Sennecke is as good or better than Demidov because that should certainly be our expectation.

 

[Static]

 

[The Duck Knight]

There isn't a team in a worse spot in the league than Vancouver. If they're lucky they'll get a Nemec/Mercer/1st type of package for a top 3 D-man in the league.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Ask yourself this question. Do you honestly think Fantilli would produce like he is now under Greg Cronin?

To put things in better perspective here, Fantilli is 5th in points on his team, with a full season played. Leo is now 3rd in points, tied for 3rd in goals with the Ducks, while missing a half a dozen games. and not finishing two others, and with less ice time.

Leo has had Killorn all season on his RW. Fantilli had Marchenko. It's not a fair comparison. Columbus scored 45 more goals than the Ducks this season. Their Top guy has 80 points and have two guys at PPG averages. Ducks top guy has 54 points and Leo has rarely played with him,

Don't make me do the mic drop again, lol.

Hmmm...

I think Fantilli would thrive under Cronin's type of simple play and counter rush offense, tbh. Fantilli has fantastic speed, good finisher, and can lay out some bombastic hits. Although, I think Terry would be tied to Fantilli b/c I don't think Fantilli has a higher playmaking game than Terry. Terry the facilitator and Fantilli the finisher. It's a good match.

We have to remember that Fantilli and Carlsson are different types of centers. It took a 4 Nations break, which can be seen as an occupation conference were top people meet to exchange idea to become better, to wake Carlsson out of his Cronin-induced doldrums onto a 0.93 ppg rate! Without that 4 Nations event, then Carlsson would be stuck at a 0.40 ppg rate.

I am relieved to know that Carlsson is away from Cronin for good. Now, let's see if Verbeek can get an offensive-minded head coach, but surrounds him with a better PK and d-man coach.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Rutherford could play supervillain in almost any movie.

 

[Gliff]

Just straight up tampering lol.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

A potential superstar fell right into their lap...I don't think they'll care if Sennecke lights it up. We can only hope that Sennecke is as good or better than Demidov because that should certainly be our expectation.

I've have been watching some pre-draft Sennecke scouting reports. Many were identifying Sennecke's 2nd half production and connecting it to him finally adapting to his ever growing body. They were expecting Sennecke to be a top-10 pick and possibly even higher. Sennecke has kept his small frame game as he's grown, which makes him a far more electric player because he can do more with the longer frame and reach such as more power to his quick snapshot or thieving pucks from defensemen.

Sennecke's length, odd flexibility, uncanny vision, and creativity allows him to do more than almost anyone else. That is probably why some of the media pundits include a projection that Sennecke could be higher than just a top-10 pick.

Growth by draft season, Sennecke
D-1: 5'10
D+0: 6'2.75
D+1: 6'4

Once Sennecke starts filling in his frame, then his skating speed could also vastly improve. It may take Sennecke a couple more years to where that filling in starts to solidify itself since he still isn't finished growing taller.

Sennecke could also be a potential superstar, but his timeline is different from Demidov's.

On a tangent, how many people are kicking themselves for not drafting LaCombe, who is looking like a #1D as a second round pick? It took four years in college and one year of adapting to the NHL level.

 

[All Mighty]

I sometimes get frustrated that Verbeek is a poor speaker and that he doesn’t say much of anything anyway, but I take that 100 times out of 100 over this. Not only did he not have to say that, but I can’t think of a single positive thing it could lead to (for Vancouver at least).

 

[Big Fat Rebound]

Between him going public with the Pettersson/JT Miller saga and calling it irreparable and Allvin essentially dissing Boeser in his post-trade deadline presser, it's unbelievable what a transparent group of dumbf***s that front office has been over the last six months (and this doesn't even include the Boudreau fiasco two years ago). I feel for Canucks fans.

 

[AngelDuck]

New Jersey is going to end up with all 3 Hughes brothers for their primes it feels like

That would really be something

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

New Jersey is going to end up with all 3 Hughes brothers for their primes it feels like

That would really be something

That's better than having all 3 Hanson brothers.