I'm going to bring this over to the Emery thread. I've been biting my tongue on it, for obvious reasons the glowing positive reviews are going to be looked at more favorably. I feel like people put waaaay too much weight into the WJC. The kid has great physical tools- the size and skating ability. His defensive play is obviously his strong suit. I wouldn't call him a bruiser but he does bring a good amount of physicality.
His ability with the puck has to come a long way. As it projects right now, it wouldn't be much different than the stuff that everyone gets on Trouba and Lindgren for. Not hard to envision him making good defensive plays at the NHL level but then when he takes the puck back he's missing passing lanes, bobbling pucks, chipping it off the boards... and the other team winds up with puck again. Because if you've watched this and last seasons' league play that's what you're going to see a decent chunk of. Countless times where I've seen on the break out where he doesn't identify open passing lanes, holds on to it for too long and then just chips the puck off the boards. The difference between a clean break out to spring the offense and a 50/50 puck that the other team can go the other way with. Or times where rather than putting the puck on his teammates tape he'll do a crappy little chip pass that the guy can't really receive cleanly. And when I say that I mean unforced stuff, times where he can make a clean play and doesnt. Thats just in terms of transition, in terms of the offensive zone right now theres really nothing to even talk about. There have been some reports skeptical about his puck moving, I don't really get the ones praising it. When I see that I have to wonder the context of it, because if you're talking about little 10 foot passes and stuff where there isn't much pressure than sure he can make little plays like that... pretty much every single defender in the NHL can make a 10 foot pass with limited pressure on them. So hopefully that's something that'll develop with time
And I completely agree with the people that have mentioned there's plenty of defenders in the NHL who weren't big producers in college but found a new level in the big league. Hell, look at Skjei. The guy had 3 points in his first collegiate season. His highest point total in college was 14 points. He's become a ~40 point top 4 D. Mancini didn't put up numbers, he's shown some legitimate talent at this level. So it's not like I'm counting out Emery, he's got legitimate tools but I think you have to be honest about where he's at right now. Plenty young, plenty of time to work on things
Then there's the other angle where I'm not really sure about the timing of it. You have Fox, Tuba and Schneider on the right side. Braden looks like the obvious heir to Trouba. He was 22 when Emery was chosen. So it kinda seems a hedge against either Schneider fizzling out, or pricing himself out... because by the time Emery arrives Schneider will be in his prime, so I'm not sure about the timeline there. Now Mancini has started to make a bit of a name for himself as prospect as well. Our right side was not much of a pressing need.
When the pick was made it wasn't that I didn't think Emery had an NHL future, it was some of the above points. But hopefully the kid's overall game continues to develop.
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