Freaking love this 99.9% and the other 0.01% is that he isn't a centre (Love him more than Copp, but didn't think Habs would have gotten rid of an RFA). He's a brilliant player and I promise you lot Lehkonen will fit in within the Avs system considering his attributes with Bednar's tactics. I really want to see how good he'll be with Newhook because I suggest that Artturi's offence is underappreciated and will be better with the Avs. Also I am not too worried about what we traded up; PJ Stock had a graph today that mentioned 2nd rounders tend to have only a 46% success rate of playing more than one-hundred NHL games. Losing Barron hurts as it did with Helleson, since we have no more right-handers in the system, but I am still under the perception that Barrons' are found in every draft. Still, that value is quite good considering that Oilers gave up a 2nd rounder for freaking Kulak (LOL) and that Copp brought back Barron's bro (who is an underrated prospect) and two 2nd round conditional picks. Avs did amazing here if you consider what happened around the league, plus Lehkonen is an RFA that we can re-sign or trade for at least a 1st rounder back.
I don't think I agree with you on Barron. Yes, he's a big mobile RHD with some offensive skill, great. BUT, as I've mentioned on here before (I think it was in a conversation with
@henchman24 or
@S E P H a few weeks ago) there are legit concerns about Barron in the DZ that make me a bit skeptical that he'll reach his ceiling.
To be more specific, in watching all our preseason games this year I noticed that Barron seemed to really struggle a lot with tracking his man in the zone (especially in the crease area) as well as gap control which I found weird considering how good of a skater he is.
I haven't watched much of the Eagles this year but I'd nonetheless guess that he has improved some of those weaknesses as he's received some coaching from Eagles head coach Cronin who has a great track-record of developing NHL Dmen with the Islanders (De Haan, Mayfield, etc) and Colorado (Graves, Timmins), so I'd guess that he still pans into a 2nd pairing guy at the NHL level.
I hope things work out for Barron in Montreal, but with how good and young the Avs blueline is right now I don't think he'll be missed all that much. Especially if we re-sign Manson which I do think Sakic will try to do.
Barron was a solid prospect, but screamed too much vanilla for me. I mean you need those players in your system, on your team, and I liked his athletic attributes the best. He's like a Justin Braun who could skate at the modern game's pace, but he isn't like Behrens that reads the game at such a higher level. I suggest that he'll hit his potential, which is a mid-pairing two-way defenceman that isn't great in any zone, but is good in every zone. The higher his IQ develops for the pro game, the more he'll become a solid #3, but I don't expect anything else than that.
To prove my point, I actually went back to the drafts from 2016 to 2022 to showcase that he's a dime-a-dozen prospect that any team can find if they have a late first. That doesn't mean these players suck or anything, but more in regards to that he's replaceable...atleast for me.
2016: Dante Fabbro, Logan Stanley, Dennis Cholowski, & Libor Hajek
2017: Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Henri Jokiharju, Conor Timmins, & Nicolas Hague
2018: Ryan Merkley, K'Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Ramus Sandin, Alexander Alexeyev, & Matthias Samuelsson.
2019: Ville Heinola, Tobias Bjornfot, Ryan Johnson & Jackson LaCombe
2020: Shakir Mukhamadullin, Justin Barron, William Wallinder, & Helge Grans
2021: Corson Ceulemans, Carson Lambos, Logan Mailloux, & Olen Zellweger
2022: Tristan Luneau, D, Kevin Korchinski, Arseni Koromyslov & Denton Mateychuk
Some of those were early second rounders. Obviously we don't have a 1st for this year, but wanted to include some picks to showcase what I meant via McKenzie's latest ranking. I am a fan of Luneau. This doesn't include David Spacek, Seamus Casey, Bogdans Hodass, Isaiah George, and Michael Mastrodomenico who are other names I like. Spacek and George top that "other list" for me.
Great 5 on 5 stats, surprised he's not that good on the PK?
Could be the team he's on? He was fine on the PK last year in the playoffs from what I've watched.
