Tons of players of his ilk have carved out NHL careers, fyi. Halmo may not be great but he has enough talent to not hurt a team playing 4th line minutes. We will have to also wait and see how he does when he gets back from injury, he`s been out 3ish months. Funny you bring up Michael Haley because I have seen both of them play a ton of games and Halmo`s game is light years ahead of Haley.
Bridgeport Sound Tigers Discussion Part IV
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Tons of players of his ilk have carved out NHL careers, fyi. Halmo may not be great but he has enough talent to not hurt a team playing 4th line minutes. We will have to also wait and see how he does when he gets back from injury, he`s been out 3ish months. Funny you bring up Michael Haley because I have seen both of them play a ton of games and Halmo`s game is light years ahead of Haley.
It does not really matter but its often Ness. He plays the most and toughest minutes on a very bad team. Bport is inept offensively and is always on there heals. They have a complete lack of talent upfront and that really makes for issues down low.
Le Grec
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UncleOscar
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I don't think he's played one game with Ness, honestly. Maybe when Pulock was hurt, but Pulock has been with Ness pretty much all season.
It's been Carkner recently, sometimes Pelech. It was mostly Mayfield at the start of the year when everyone was healthy. He does play some of the toughest minutes on the team, though. All situations.
Yes, second PP with Pelech as of late.
He has played with pretty much everyone but much of his time in the last 2ish months was with Ness.
UncleOscar
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My bad, you're right. I completely blocked out that was a pairing when Pulock got hurt. Thought it was Ness-Czuczman and then Ness-someone else but Reinhart did fill in there. It's also worth noting Reinhart and Czuczman are really the only LHD to play the right side.
The biggest problem with Bport as if they only have a couple is lack of talent all around. They have only had a couple of solid dmen and a few good forwards. Having Ness as a mentor for the kids is not great while being a good skater he is soft and shy`s away from contact on most shifts. I feel like a solid journeyman should anchor the D and bring the kids along. Same upfront a crafty AHL veteran or 3 that can help the kiddies up front and put them in position to succeed. An example of that is when Nelson, Nino and veteran Colin Mcdonald played together in the AHL. This year they tried to get some vets in place but lost Skille to the waiver wire and Conacher was terrible. Zolnerciyk(SP) and Cmac were doing the best they could but could not carry the play because they don't play that style. Also guys like Sundstrom, and Perrson are a disappointment. Collberg I will give 2 more years to but he just cant stay healthy long enough to get into any kind of flow.
Next season I expect Reinhart to start in Bport again and Pulock to start in the NHL. That is based on assuming Vish is not retained, Pulock fills that need. I could see Pulock and Hamonic playing together and Dehaan playing on the 3rd pairing. I can see Griff in the show but then I have to assume Hickey and Strait are gone.
Couldn't understand why he was resigned.
If Ness himself were smart, he'd get a good gig in Europe and go from there. He has the tools to excel over here and honestly, in his case, he's gotta look at a guy like Rafalski and think "So what if I spend five years playing key minutes and developing at the pro level in Finland/Sweden/Germany/Russia/Switzerland, I can always become an NHLer at 28/29/30 if I develop properly".
It doesn't happen often, but he's not heading anywhere in the AHL and still isn't a difference-maker there.
Mark Katic made this decision.
A guy who has done more than toil in the AHL, but whose career is winding down. Makes sense.
Theoretically, the team could continue to go with all three. Collberg is still there and Snow ain't giving up on him yet.
The other two are RFAs. Just, for them, the allure of an SHL or Allsvenskan offer, which could be financially better than the AHL contract, might be too much. Neither is near the end of his development.
All things considered, I agree that Pulock looked like he was on the quicker path to the NHL.
Reinhart's season needs to be classified as stagnation, at best. For a kid many felt could be penciled into the Isles' line-up, the adjustment to the AHL has been anything but impressive.
Visnovsky:
Does he not have another year or an option on his current contract? If not, I wonder what it would take to resign him, cause what we see from him now does not look like a guy who can't continue to contribute here. If affordable for another season, I'd have to think that both he and Snow would look to keep him around.
To meet Katic was a better and more active player than Ness. I have no clue how Katic is playing in Europe but I can imagine he and Ness being interchangeable except I have seen Katic throw some booming hits.
Vish is a UFA after the season, I guess we will see if he is brought back. If he is brought back I would like to see him almost as a platoon type guy or a place holder for one of the kids.
Vish is a UFA after the season, I guess we will see if he is brought back. If he is brought back I would like to see him almost as a platoon type guy or a place holder for one of the kids.
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I wouldn't call Reinhart's season a stagnation. Bridgeport is absolutely terrible, even you are questioning above why the "veteran" defenseman (Ness) was retained. He's a rookie playing big minutes in all situations and is a defensive defenseman by nature. We don't often see these type of defensemen step into the NHL right away. We do, however, see offensive defensemen like Pulock make the jump to the NHL quicker.
There haven't been many, if any, brightspots for Bridgeport this year.
Brunomics
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Le Grec
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To be honest, i wasn't judging him, just curious...
And i've seen Leggio play, hence no judging....
Brunomics
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Gotcha,
That's why I question how bad the Bridgeport team really is. He was 7-13 when he started giving up almost 4 goals per game. It's a minor miracle they won 7 of his starts.
Jester9881
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I don't get this thinking at all, especially from someone that seems to have a good feel for whats going on in the Islanders minor system. When we got Griff, the biggest complaint about him was his offense.... now that they're trying to use this time to fine tune that part of his game, all we get are complaints about his +/- and claims of stagnation. I just shake my head and hope the kid lasts long enough to shove it down everyones throat the way CdH did last year, and will do once again next year.
- May 17, 2011
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I'm in agreement, as shown above, but lets not come off hostile here Jester. Chapin's a good guy.
What this really comes down to is the Isles Brass wants Reinhart developing in #1 role, and rightfully so. The big club doesn't have a standout defenseman that can play upwards of 24 minutes a game in every situation like seemingly every top team in the league has. The problem, and it's not really a problem, is that Bridgeport is a very bad team.
If anything, the penciling into the lineup stuff can be attributed more to how bad this defense really was before the additions of Boychuk and Leddy.
For what it's worth, Ryan McDonagh never had impressive stats in college or in the AHL.
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That's ok. If he had been drafted late first or afterwards, I don't think I'd have had the higher expectations.
It's not so much the stats that I find disappointing, as I know the team has been dreadful. It's the stats in combination with some of the posts here and some other things I've been hearing elsewhere that have been attesting to him having a lot harder time showing a lot of the stuff that made him such a stalwart with the Oil Kings.
Juniors is juniors, but Reinhart's game is built on subtle instincts and a clamping down on things that suffocates opposing attackers and quickly nips their attack in the bud, especially with stick checks and defiling opponents along the boards through smart positioning. He's supposed to be a strong thinker of the game and good reader of oncoming attacks.
Whether or not he truly has such capabilities, they've not (yet) been effective at the AHL level.
Does it mean he won't be a useful NHLer? I trust the Isles and Hockey Canada enough to know that he's gonna pan out at some point. Personally, I've never come away being particularly impressed with him when I've seen him internationally (Ufa and Malmo).
Still, this particular season hasn't been one in which we've gotten to see why he's hoped to be a lynchpin on the Islander blueline in years to come. My impression coming in was that he was more mature and beyond his years in bringing that airtight defensive game. Lord knows he spent more than enough time in juniors honing that game.
Few steps forward can be seen this winter. I see that as stagnation as I thought he'd be at a point in development where even if the team was this poor, he'd be more of a 5-15-20 -2 type of player getting 20 minutes a night in the AHL.
I thought that's where he'd be at.
I guess he's just not there yet. There's time. Still, a synopsis of this BPort club just doesn't give us much to smile about.
Also a bit surprised that, when healthy, Pulock looked so much more ready for being effective at the AHL/pro level. A real shame we haven't gotten to see him put in a full season.
Jester9881
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I hope I wasn't coming across as being hostile toward anyone in particular, if so I apologize.
That said, everything you just said is correct. Simplified, Griff was drafted high because of his evident defensive game, as well as having the tools (shot, IQ) to eventually show plus offensive ability.
In the Dub, he was relied on heavily as the shutdown guy and never really got a chance to work on his offensive weapons. Now, in the AHL it seems that the coaching staff is letting him focus on that aspect of his game.
I'm not sure if you follow baseball at all, but it's not unlike a top level pitcher working on his curveball or slider. They know he's got an A+ fastball/changeup combination and can get people out at the MLB level.... but if he could just get another breaking pitch to get MLB hitters off his FB, it will make those other two pitches that much better. So, they have the young pitcher go out there and throw it in all situations for better or worse.
Right now they have Griff taking more shots at the point, playing more agressive in the offensive zone and even rushing the puck at times. They know his defense is NHL quality.... but you don't go to the minors to work on things you already do well.
The trade off is that his defensive numbers don't look as good as they should for a defensive defenseman. But look at what he's doing offensively, especially watching him. As an AHL rookie, he's putting up similar numbers as he did when he was a vet in the Dub. That's a huge development that we all should be very happy about.
That said, everything you just said is correct. Simplified, Griff was drafted high because of his evident defensive game, as well as having the tools (shot, IQ) to eventually show plus offensive ability.
In the Dub, he was relied on heavily as the shutdown guy and never really got a chance to work on his offensive weapons. Now, in the AHL it seems that the coaching staff is letting him focus on that aspect of his game.
I'm not sure if you follow baseball at all, but it's not unlike a top level pitcher working on his curveball or slider. They know he's got an A+ fastball/changeup combination and can get people out at the MLB level.... but if he could just get another breaking pitch to get MLB hitters off his FB, it will make those other two pitches that much better. So, they have the young pitcher go out there and throw it in all situations for better or worse.
Right now they have Griff taking more shots at the point, playing more agressive in the offensive zone and even rushing the puck at times. They know his defense is NHL quality.... but you don't go to the minors to work on things you already do well.
The trade off is that his defensive numbers don't look as good as they should for a defensive defenseman. But look at what he's doing offensively, especially watching him. As an AHL rookie, he's putting up similar numbers as he did when he was a vet in the Dub. That's a huge development that we all should be very happy about.
I disagree completely! Many of these players are already pegged as a certain type of player. Just because he needs to work on his offensive game doesn't mean coaches are going to give him more slack and let his defensive game fall off. You are in the AHL and the system you are playing in is going to be very similar to the NHL clubs system. You need to fit in seamlessly when you make that transition. I personally don't think Reinhart will have much of an offensive game in the NHL and from what I've seen of him he better get a little more nasty in his game or he won't have much of a defensive game either. If they thought his defense was NHL quality he'd be up with the big club already.
rikker
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agreed completely. hockey players are not programmable, and experience ups and downs like every other human. to expect any player progress or regress in a linear fashion, is not very realistic. waaaaaaaay too early to judge/pigeonhole this kid. it seems that the Isles really want all their defencemen to be active offensively (see Strait joining the rush recently ugh... ), so it makes sense that they are working with him on this aspect.
Jester9881
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This happens all the time, both ways. Why is it no surprise when an offensive prospect is told to concentrate on defense and his offense suffers, but everyone loses their **** when it's the other way around? I'd also like to point out that despite the numbers (+/- lmao) his defense has been fine..... it's pretty obvious those that don't actually watch yet insist on adding their opinion on the subject. His defensive game is already NHL quality and has been, he's in the minors on a numbers crunch at the moment due to the additions of Boychuk and Leddy. They're using this time to fine tune his offense, which again is painfully obvious to anyone that has followed him through Jr's and his first year in the pros.
Jester9881
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I feel like some of you are under the impression that the AHL exists for teams to compete for the Calder cup. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's a developmental league, plain and simple.
Are you saying developing players in a losing atmosphere is acceptable ? Development is also learning how to win in a winning atmosphere. The Islanders have done a very poor job in supplying Bridgeport with quality players this year. totally unacceptable.
Jester9881
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I'm saying that development trumps winning by a rather large margin in the AHL.... or any DEVELOPMENTAL league for that manner. You know what teams do that want to win? They put emphasis on putting veteran players in key spots.... in other words, top prospects aren't put into positions to improve their game. Otherwise, what the frick is the point of the AHL? Might as well just fill the roster with pros that can't find a gig in the NHL.
Development is the key but I feel it goes hand and hand with winning. You need to sprinkle your roster with key "character veterans" that show these young players what it means to be a "pro". What I see this year is the "stagnation" of prospects due to the teams inability to compete.
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