Around the NHL - (Off-season edition)
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The Midnight Burrito
True Fan
Today is “Frozen Frenzy,” where the goal is for every team to play. I don’t think this is a season-long thing or anything. Just for today, lots of games to watch.
Deuce22
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CrazyDuck4u
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- Oct 14, 2006
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gunnergunther
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- Jul 3, 2010
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Terry Yake
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- Aug 5, 2013
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watching the caps-flyers and drysdale looks terrible defensively
it'd be hilarious if both he and cutter and up busting
it'd be hilarious if both he and cutter and up busting
Terry Yake
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Sol
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I am reading the Flyers board and they pretty much hate him. It’s crazy to see since he seemed like such a competent OFD with a great shot. He was considered to have the best shot in 2020 draft
Terry Yake
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he's a great skater but nothing else about him really stood out to me. he's undersized, terrible defensively, and his shot isn't great at all
but hard to call him a bust already given how much time he's missed with injuries. if it makes flyers fans feel any better, gauthier hasn't done shit so far this season either
la patineuse
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- Aug 21, 2010
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I think Drysdale has very good skating...and that's it. His shot is ok, his compete is ok, but he's small and he is low in the hockey IQ department, which explains why Verbeek was fine trading him. He just doesn't seem to be in the right places or make the right plays.
Drysdale with 2 PP assists (both secondaries) today, but neither of them were terribly impressive plays. Still cool to see him get on the board tho.
Terry Yake
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Oilers again start slow. I haven't watched him closely but dont feel like people should worry about him, he already proved he's a great player under that new contract. This might be just a slump
Hockey Duckie
Registered User
I think you're overspeculating the reason for Drysdale being traded with the knowledge of how Drysdale's been playing in Philly.
Here is Drysdale's MyNHLdraft page full of scouting report snippets from several scouts/media outlets:
Jamie Drysdale | Jamie Drysdale Profile | Jamie Drysdale Scouting Report 2020
Jamie Drysdale scouting report for NHL Draft. Profile contains Jamie Drysdale stats, videos and written bios
www.mynhldraft.com
What I liked about Drysdale during the draft process was videos of him taking defensive lessons outside of his OHL team. At least he was dedicated to go above and beyond to improving his craft.
Drysdale earned AHL rookie of the month as an 18-year old (over Zegras!) and promptly got promoted to the NHL level in the shortened COVID season. The jump to the NHL was steep defensively, but not offensively for Drysdale's full rookie season: 81 NHL games, 32 pts, and a -26 rating as RD1. His next two seasons have been marred with injuries, deterring growth on the ice.
- 2021-22, Anaheim: 81 NHL games, 32 pts, and -26 rating (Rookie season)
- 2022-23, Anaheim: 8 NHL games, 0 pts, and -3 rating
- 2023-24, Anahiem: 10 NHL games, 5 pts, and -2 rating
- 2023-24, Philly: 24 NHL games, 5 pts, and -18 rating
Last season, we can see a stark difference in production between Anaheim and Philly. The offense popped Drysdale in Anaheim, but became muted in Philly. Drysdale has to unlearn man defense from Anaheim and learn zone defense under Torts. Torts wasn't lying about Drysdale has a lot to learn for zone defense.
I hope for the best for Drysdale.
FiveTacos
Registered User
I don't feel like his offense ever "popped". It was ... okay at times, I guess. But he never seemed all that dynamic or aggressive. If you're gonna be a speedy little dman in the league, you gotta be in attack mode all the time, and that's never been Drysdale. Not even in junior. Thought he might turn it up in Philly as they compared him to Karlsson, so I thought they were gonna let him gamble and roam and live with the defensive consequences, but to be successful at that you have to make great offensive reads.
And sure, he's still learning and adjusting defensively. But the reality is that for guys like him, size will always be a limitation in terms of reach and puck battles. He can still become a good transition defender, puck retriever, and good at skating or passing into transition ... but he's not even put it together on that yet. Now add in the inability to stay healthy, and boy it's hard to justify any positivity.
If he doesn't show some significant progress at some point this year, I'd give serious consideration to moving on if I were Philly. Because if he stalls out next year too, he won't even be worth qualifying at another 2.3m and you gotta let him walk, or trade him for a pittance to some rebuilding team taking a one year flyer on him.
I think with defensemen it's a little easier to tell if somebody has a lot offensive acumen just with the eye test than it is with forwards. Maybe it's because you don't expect offensive ability quite as much with dmen as with forwards. When i watch Drysdale, it looks offense just doesn't come naturally for him. He may still put up 30-40 points, but i don't see him being anything close to a 'big scorer'.
He doesn't really make plays that would indicate he's got great vision or hands and he doesn't have the acumen or instincts to force himself into dangerous areas with the puck on a whim like you see a lot of the greats doing. And his shot isn't great either.
When he first came up after that nice run he had in the AHL, he had a similar profile to Dan Boyle i thought - smaller RHD, a good skater, but he just doesn't have anywhere near the vision, shot, or creativity that Boyle had
He doesn't really make plays that would indicate he's got great vision or hands and he doesn't have the acumen or instincts to force himself into dangerous areas with the puck on a whim like you see a lot of the greats doing. And his shot isn't great either.
When he first came up after that nice run he had in the AHL, he had a similar profile to Dan Boyle i thought - smaller RHD, a good skater, but he just doesn't have anywhere near the vision, shot, or creativity that Boyle had
