He clearly shouldn't be on the team and he clearly shouldn't have been drafted that high. Canada has more confidence in a foward playing D than they do in letting him play even one shift.
He was picked as high as he was for the same reason Zdeno Chara and Boris Valabik were.
Sometimes it works out(Chara), sometimes it doesn't(Valabik).
For every Victor Hedman out there, there's 3 or 4 Wade Belaks.
What a stupid post
First of all, he's 6'5, not 6'7-6'9 like Chara and Valabik are
Second of all he backboned the defense of Spokane to a Memorial Cup at age 16. Skates extremely well (pre-knee injury) and can flat out shutdown opposing forwards. Despite playing bad this WJC, he still shutdown 90% of the forwards who came in his reach.
It's amazing how 5 games in the "all-knowing" WJC can affect a player's value. Oh yeah, tell that to Victor Hedman and Tyler Myers who had bad WJCs last year yet are playing 20 minutes a night in the NHL right now.
Cowen is a still a fine prospect but his knee and leg obviously require a lot more strengthening after the ACL surgery
It's great to see such level headed evaluation of a prospect from a staff member, no less.
Honestly, the people complaining about Cowen should go out and tear their knee apart and try to run in a year, much less play hockey at the highest level and see how you do.
18 months, people. I don't care what the prognosis is for an early return. Just because the knee is healed enough for you to be able to participate in games and complete rehabilitation does not mean your knee is totally back to tip top shape. It takes a good six months even after all the "healing" has taken place for you to be even close to the level you were before the injury. There are some aspects of movement that you never recover, but throwing the gauntlet down after roughly 10 months after an operation to repair the MCL, ACL, and tears in the meniscus is laughable.
I am not here to sway anybody one way or the other in regards to Cowen's place on the team and if he should be there or not, but to make such outlandish statements like "bust" and this is just woefully premature and ridiculously typical of the knee jerk populace of prospect watchers that think a guy is worth nothing unless he's in the NHL the year after he's drafted or dominates in the WJC that year.
By the time Cowen is assigned to Bingo, he'll be ready to play hockey again. His conditioning will need work, but physically his knee should be good by then. If the Sens were smart, they would shut him down after his junior season, get him in a workout program, and have him debut next season in the AHL after many months of steady stability building knee workouts. He'll get that speed back but it takes time.
It's great to see such level headed evaluation of a prospect from a staff member, no less.
Honestly, the people complaining about Cowen should go out and tear their knee apart and try to run in a year, much less play hockey at the highest level and see how you do.
18 months, people. I don't care what the prognosis is for an early return. Just because the knee is healed enough for you to be able to participate in games and complete rehabilitation does not mean your knee is totally back to tip top shape. It takes a good six months even after all the "healing" has taken place for you to be even close to the level you were before the injury. There are some aspects of movement that you never recover, but throwing the gauntlet down after roughly 10 months after an operation to repair the MCL, ACL, and tears in the meniscus is laughable.
I am not here to sway anybody one way or the other in regards to Cowen's place on the team and if he should be there or not, but to make such outlandish statements like "bust" and this is just woefully premature and ridiculously typical of the knee jerk populace of prospect watchers that think a guy is worth nothing unless he's in the NHL the year after he's drafted or dominates in the WJC that year.
By the time Cowen is assigned to Bingo, he'll be ready to play hockey again. His conditioning will need work, but physically his knee should be good by then. If the Sens were smart, they would shut him down after his junior season, get him in a workout program, and have him debut next season in the AHL after many months of steady stability building knee workouts. He'll get that speed back but it takes time.
Remember when Hossa, who was supposed to bedraftef high had major knee injury and surgery and dropped down the draft cause of the worries about that knee and now........................ i hope this is one of those cases.
From Bob McKenzie...
Give the kid a break.
i'd rather have cowen, but that's because of the style of game he plays and his top-end potential. Questioning kadri's committment seems strange and homerish.He played well in spokane
Much rather have a committed. Cowen than Kadri
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Hossa blew out the knee after he was drafted. IIRC, Hossa dropped because teams were concerned about whether Hossa had the commitment needed to be an NHL player.
He looks awful. Worse than awful he's easily the worst Dman on the Canadian team. I'm not just talking about skating issues, the guy makes poor decisions with the puck.
He played better tonight.
Desjardins is a tool. If a guy isn't good enough, and you don't plan on playing him, don't pick him for the team. All they did was destroy Cowen's confidence, they shouldn't have even taken him on the team with the way they handled it.
Seriously, the kid is gonna go back to Spokane a much worse player than when he left the team for the WJC thanks to the coaching staff of team Canada.
Hands down the worst player I have ever seen put on the Canada jersey at the WJC.
Seriously, the kid is gonna go back to Spokane a much worse player than when he left the team for the WJC thanks to the coaching staff of team Canada.
i'd rather have cowen, but that's because of the style of game he plays and his top-end potential. Questioning kadri's committment seems strange and homerish.