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- Feb 18, 2013
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I wrote all over your post.
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think simply being 'ready' is enough. I want them to be overripe, if anything. Handing out spots like Oprah won't do them any good. Let them season for as long as possible until there's no way to ignore them. I want them more than hungry to play in the NHL so that when they do get the shot they seize it rather than accept it as a rite of passage because they played well in the American League for one season or a few games.
Like I said, overripe is what I'm going for too. I want scoring prospects to go point-per-game. Bjorkstrand did. I want checking prospects to physically dominate and score. Anderson did. D prospects, you better control the whole flow of the game. Werenski did. You say "until there's no way to ignore them", and that moment has passed.
The one that seems most at this point is Bjorkstrand. He's a pure scorer and dominating at times - something the CBJ sorely lack. He looked very, very good to me last season. If there's a spot to be had (Hartnell), he's one I want to see in the NHL.
Even if we keep Hartnell, there's two top 9 scoring winger jobs to be had for a rookie. You just have to be better than Calvert, which would push him down to the 4th line. If you can do that, the job is yours.
I'm sure Werenski will get a hard look because of his play but the NHL is a different beast so we'll see how camp and preseason goes.
That's true for all of them. I'm not suggesting you tell them to buy a house before camp starts!
Those are the two I think of when I picked '2' as my answer. From a roster perspective, I don't really see it being more than that at the beginning of the season. Though we always want to jettison the old guys here, I think we forget the value of a tried and true NHLer to a team. Funny how we're so quick to want to give spots to these kids, but in years past the board was collectively incensed that guys like Prospal, Letestu and MacKenzie weren't retained. It seems to me that the shift has now went too far the other way and we want to do things like trade Bob because Korpi had a good 30 games or so.
I wasn't pushing that. I'm not saying trade away the vets, throw away the key, and burn the insurance policy. You can keep the insurance policy and demote them when you want to.
Other thoughts on readiness:
I think Chaput is ready, but as a #3/4 C it really doesn't matter with Campbell still here. I wish he had just replaced Letestu, but management thought differently.
Chaput is like if Campbell was bigger and faster but had even worse hands and hockey sense. Not much of an upgrade if any. And the fact that we have so many other rookie forwards likely means that he has zero chance.
I like where Anderson is and hope he bangs the door down soon.
He is! This is what banging the door down is!
Milano and Rychel need some work. Heatherington seems very slow. Falk is the yo-yo, capable to fill in when needed but seems like he'll live life on the fringe of the NHL for now. Kukan, I don't see what others see there.
I agree with all of this, though I'd add that Rychel might just need a new team, and Kukan looks great to me. No question in my mind that he was better than our bottom pair guys. No need to hurry any of this group though.
The goalies played fantastic in the A and Korpi had a great run up here, but I don't know that I think he's ready to sit for 50-60 games a year and open the door for folks on the bench. I think he needs to play until he can be a 1B with Bob. I think people forget how good Bob can be. Forsberg has looked awful in most of his NHL starts...hopefully the confidence of this run bleeds into next season. I don't want to chalk up an L every time Bob needs to sit half of a back to back any more than any of you, so I want McE out too, but I don't think sabotaging the development of these kids is worth it. I'd rather see them play a lot of games for another year or two.
They can rotate as the LE starter and Bob-backup. Or if our prospect/backup starts 30 games I think that's a good amount of starts for a developing goalie. There are development leagues that don't even have that many games in the season! 30 games a year as backup is basically called the "Cory Schneider development model".
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