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Salary Cap: Dylan McIlrath

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slipknottin said:
He moves very well laterally and forward/backward. Probably at least comparable to a Klein. He struggles sometimes in his transitions when skating backwards to having to turn and catch someone. He also struggled a lot with his balance, though that seems to have been mostly resolved towards the end of this past season.

Would he be an above average skater right now? No. Is his skating good enough for the nhl right now, yes.

But i don't think many 6'5 230 pound guys in the nhl are tremendous skaters. And mcilrath is probably at least as good a skater as anyone else that size

He is certainly a better skater than someone like Orpik. Orpik just has the experience and positioning to not look exposed. While mcilrath has the better skating but has lapses of when and where he can pinch or step up, and it gets him in trouble. He's improved that a ton so far in the ahl, but he has to make that same adjustment in the nhl
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Great info, thanks. Two questions:

1. How do you see Pack games? Do you go to the mall? I can never find them on TV anymore. A Dolan cutback I suppose.

2. Are you talking about the Orpik of the last couple of years? His skating regressed considerably once he hit his early 30's - I think he had hernia surgery or something - or perhaps he's just getting old. Or are you saying McIlrath is a batter skater now than Orpik was back in his 20's when he was actually a pretty good skater.
 
Jersey Girl said:
Great info, thanks. Two questions:

1. How do you see Pack games? Do you go to the mall? I can never find them on TV anymore. A Dolan cutback I suppose.

2. Are you talking about the Orpik of the last couple of years? His skating regressed considerably once he hit his early 30's - I think he had hernia surgery or something - or perhaps he's just getting old. Or are you saying McIlrath is a batter skater now than Orpik was back in his 20's when he was actually a pretty good skater.
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I go to a lot of the pack games. I live right outside of Hartford.

I was talking about Orpik of today. I can't speak for anyone else
 
slipknottin said:
I go to a lot of the pack games. I live right outside of Hartford.

I was talking about Orpik of today. I can't speak for anyone else
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Ok, that I get. Most of the league and probably half the minors - including the ECHL - are better skaters than the Orpik of today. Just an insane contract Washington handed him. Thank goodness Sather is cap-strapped, or he probably would have topped Washington's offer...
 
Jersey Girl said:
Ok, that I get. Most of the league and probably half the minors - including the ECHL - are better skaters than the Orpik of today. Just an insane contract Washington handed him. Thank goodness Sather is cap-strapped, or he probably would have topped Washington's offer...
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Yeah, Sather's such an idiot. This team is stuck in perpetual mediocrity. They'll never go far in the playoffs.

Sather's not great, but to say he'd top Washington's offer on Orpik is ridiculous. Give the guy a tiny shred of respect. Washington's office has been significantly worse than Sather's for years and years and years now.
 
Bird Law said:
Yeah. And he is. Orpik's legs are shot. Have you seen Orpik play lately? He's a pylon. It's a shame because I love him as a player.
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Yeah, as I already said, the Orpik of today is not a great skater. Saying someone is a better skater than Orpik is not really a stretch at this point. The Orpik of his first eight or so years in the league was actually a pretty good skater. Hopefully McIlrath can become another Brooks Orpik.
 
haveandare said:
Sather's not great, but to say he'd top Washington's offer on Orpik is ridiculous. Give the guy a tiny shred of respect. Washington's office has been significantly worse than Sather's for years and years and years now.
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...which is why McPhee was fired.
 
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Jersey Girl said:
...which is why McPhee was fired.
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Fired while Sather's team made the ECF twice in three years and went to the finals. Why would you assume that the guys with actual recent success would make a decision worse than the guy who was fired or the guy who signed two awful, awful contracts so far?

The cap is tight for sure, but I don't think it's necessarily a result of Sather making a ton of mistakes. The cap is tight for a lot of teams right now. I don't think anyone would argue that Chicago is well built, and they're over the cap right now, even with Richards as a steal due to the Rangers paying him a ton.

I would love to see McI come up this year and make one of the bottom pairing players a trade piece. That'd give some good breathing room. If Miller can step up and fill a center void, that'd be doubly great. It's time to start to shift to the new wave of guys IMO, and Miller and McI are at the top of that list. They don't need to start in the NHL necessarily, but if they can work their way up before the deadline, that'd be huge. I don't think that's really unrealistic for either of them.
 
haveandare said:
Fired while Sather's team made the ECF twice in three years and went to the finals. Why would you assume that the guys with actual recent success would make a decision worse than the guy who was fired or the guy who signed two awful, awful contracts so far?

The cap is tight for sure, but I don't think it's necessarily a result of Sather making a ton of mistakes. The cap is tight for a lot of teams right now. I don't think anyone would argue that Chicago is well built, and they're over the cap right now, even with Richards as a steal due to the Rangers paying him a ton.

I would love to see McI come up this year and make one of the bottom pairing players a trade piece. That'd give some good breathing room. If Miller can step up and fill a center void, that'd be doubly great. It's time to start to shift to the new wave of guys IMO, and Miller and McI are at the top of that list. They don't need to start in the NHL necessarily, but if they can work their way up before the deadline, that'd be huge. I don't think that's really unrealistic for either of them.
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If you don't think Sather has handed out a number of bad free agent contracts - I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree.
 
Jersey Girl said:
Yeah, as I already said, the Orpik of today is not a great skater. Saying someone is a better skater than Orpik is not really a stretch at this point. The Orpik of his first eight or so years in the league was actually a pretty good skater. Hopefully McIlrath can become another Brooks Orpik.
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McIlrath's skating now is on par or better than Orpik's was at the same age.
 
The AHL game is pretty slow so you hardly see McIrath at full speed, but he can skate. He covers a lot of ice very quickly and brings the sort of gap control you want out of a big defenseman.

One is clear, and that's McIlrath is going to have to push somebody out of the lineup to claim a spot. I think he ends up seeing spot duty this upcoming season, maybe around 20 games with injuries, but he can skate.
 
Jersey Girl said:
If you don't think Sather has handed out a number of bad free agent contracts - I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree.
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And he got out of them when they actually turned out bad. Very few of his signings were seen as bad until the guy played and sucked. Rupp and Brashear aside, but those were meaningless as they weren't too hard to make disappear.

People still bring up Holik as an example. Who cares there was no cap. If he had money to play with what does that bother you?
 
haveandare said:
Fired while Sather's team made the ECF twice in three years and went to the finals. Why would you assume that the guys with actual recent success would make a decision worse than the guy who was fired or the guy who signed two awful, awful contracts so far?

The cap is tight for sure, but I don't think it's necessarily a result of Sather making a ton of mistakes. The cap is tight for a lot of teams right now. I don't think anyone would argue that Chicago is well built, and they're over the cap right now, even with Richards as a steal due to the Rangers paying him a ton.

I would love to see McI come up this year and make one of the bottom pairing players a trade piece. That'd give some good breathing room. If Miller can step up and fill a center void, that'd be doubly great. It's time to start to shift to the new wave of guys IMO, and Miller and McI are at the top of that list. They don't need to start in the NHL necessarily, but if they can work their way up before the deadline, that'd be huge. I don't think that's really unrealistic for either of them.
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This guys last paragraph..,^^^ says it all
 
Bird Law said:
Between Moose Jaw and Hartford, I've seen him play over 100 times.
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If you can determine how his skating vs. junior and minor league players will translate well to the speed of the NHL, you should get off these boards and get yourself a scouting job.
 
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