Ron Francis’ Future

[gstommylee]

Bingo. We're building through the draft and our very first draft is just now starting to play. Yeah, Beniers was rushed into the lineup early, but the rest of that class is just starting to get their chance at the NHL level.

So there is nothing to tear down and rebuild. What we have is following the blueprint. Getting caught up with the aging veterans that were acquired in the ED or as stop-gap free agents misses that they were never intended to be some Cup winning roster.

I wouldn't call rushed. He went back to college for a year after we drafted him.

 

[Kat Predator]

I wouldn't call rushed. He went back to college for a year after we drafted him.

I meant it as a shorthand for: he's been playing in the NHL for a while now and did not go through CV like the others. "Rushed" was less typing.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I actually think we have a pretty decent amount of guys who have the potential to be top line players.

Dragicevic, Catton, Firkus, Sale, possibly Rehkopf and Price. OFM has 2C written all over him.

I think that's pretty good for a team in the position we are, ala Arizona back in the Don Maloney days when they continually finished mediocre and kept drafting guys like POJ, Soderstrom, Hayton, (to be fair these were Chayka) Gormley, Boedker, Samuelsson, Turris, Mueller, Tikhonov, Merkely, Fischer, Jenik, etc - you need to hit on at least some of your later draft picks and get lucky in these sorts of situations. Getting one or two won't cut it.

Fortunately there are a lot of guys that I think have a shot to make the NHL in our pool and at the very least a lot of skill guys with talent who could definitely be good 1st line players. More of them are the hardworking gritty middle six guys yes, but we've swung for the fences quite a few times already. If we keep doing that, there's a good chance we'll be fine eventually.

 

[gstommylee]

I meant it as a shorthand for: he's been playing in the NHL for a while now and did not go through CV like the others. "Rushed" was less typing.

He wouldn't have lasted long in the AHL with how he was playing in 2022.

 

[majormajor]

I actually think we have a pretty decent amount of guys who have the potential to be top line players.

Dragicevic, Catton, Firkus, Sale, possibly Rehkopf and Price.

I'd probably bet on Rehkopf or Price making it as topline caliber players over Dragicevic, Firkus, or Sale. They each have a shot at it.

Cayden Price is well balanced, good size, good skater. Nothing special but he seems to be a good decision maker and might be a #2 guy. I've learned not to rule much out for D-men. Decision making will determine the difference.

Rehkopf has special tools, he can make amazing power moves with the puck. But then plays soft most of the time. I'd like to see him become more of a power forward but he has more of a soft skill mindset.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I'd probably bet on Rehkopf or Price making it as topline caliber players over Dragicevic, Firkus, or Sale. They each have a shot at it.

Cayden Price is well balanced, good size, good skater. Nothing special but he seems to be a good decision maker and might be a #2 guy. I've learned not to rule much out for D-men. Decision making will determine the difference.

Rehkopf has special tools, he can make amazing power moves with the puck. But then plays soft most of the time. I'd like to see him become more of a power forward but he has more of a soft skill mindset.

Dragicevic has elite hands and playmaking, he reads the play well and has good stick work. He needs to work on consistency but he's IMO the d-man in recent drafts closest to being the next Makar/Hughes etc. Nobody else has hands like him and his shot is also a bomb even though he's more of a playmaker. I'll acknowledge there were concerns with him from scouts but personally in my viewings I never really saw those concerns. I don't think he's bad at defence. Just raw.

Firkus has elite hands, vision, and hockey IQ. He's the definition of a player who has a nose for the net much like Eiserman is in the same way (or someone like Tkachuk in the NHL). He's small and needs to work more off the puck defensively but he has the talent to be the next top goal scorer in the NHL.

Sale is the toughest to rate for me...he has great vision, IQ and playmaking offensively and sometimes he looks good and well balanced, other times not so much. People criticize his production but I couldn't care less about whether he produced better in the CHL or not, it's about how he looks and how he gets those points. Right now I view him as a complimentary top six piece but he could easily be a Nick Backstrom type of player, he'd probably play well with Shane Wright offensively.

I agree that they all probably have a decent chance to hit top line, and there's also other guys like OFM and Nyman who have an outside shot too.

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Dragicevic has elite hands and playmaking, he reads the play well and has good stick work. He needs to work on consistency but he's IMO the d-man in recent drafts closest to being the next Makar/Hughes etc. Nobody else has hands like him and his shot is also a bomb even though he's more of a playmaker. I'll acknowledge there were concerns with him from scouts but personally in my viewings I never really saw those concerns. I don't think he's bad at defence. Just raw.

Firkus has elite hands, vision, and hockey IQ. He's the definition of a player who has a nose for the net much like Eiserman is in the same way (or someone like Tkachuk in the NHL). He's small and needs to work more off the puck defensively but he has the talent to be the next top goal scorer in the NHL.

Sale is the toughest to rate for me...he has great vision, IQ and playmaking offensively and sometimes he looks good and well balanced, other times not so much. People criticize his production but I couldn't care less about whether he produced better in the CHL or not, it's about how he looks and how he gets those points. Right now I view him as a complimentary top six piece but he could easily be a Nick Backstrom type of player, he'd probably play well with Shane Wright offensively.

I agree that they all probably have a decent chance to hit top line, and there's also other guys like OFM and Nyman who have an outside shot too.

Those three are interesting. The concerns with Dragicevic that I am aware of were more to do with his skating than anything else. I have only seen a few games of his but his defense never looked "bad" to me.

Firkus has surprised me a little this season. I expected him to struggle heavily in his first pro season but he has been decent enough. My concerns with him go to size and the fact that he is not a high-end skater. Those two make it very hard to translate to the NHL.

Sale, I have no idea either. Even when I watch CV, I almost never notice him. But then see that he has had a point.

 

[Dead Coyote]

Those three are interesting. The concerns with Dragicevic that I am aware of were more to do with his skating than anything else. I have only seen a few games of his but his defense never looked "bad" to me.

Firkus has surprised me a little this season. I expected him to struggle heavily in his first pro season but he has been decent enough. My concerns with him go to size and the fact that he is not a high-end skater. Those two make it very hard to translate to the NHL.

Sale, I have no idea either. Even when I watch CV, I almost never notice him. But then see that he has had a point.

Dragicevic had concerns with defence and compete in his draft year, along with skating. But honestly, I don't think he has a ton of issues with anything. His skating is just okay, and could easily be a lot better. His defense is completely fine, yeah I've seen him make some boneheaded plays but when you're basically the only competent player on your team playing 30m a game I won't hold it against you a ton. Mostly just bad clear attempts or giveaways. Not a big deal IMO. Will get better with experience and usage.

Firkus yeah, my only real concern with him has been skating because gaining speed and acceleration would give him waaay more tools off the rush to score. But I have no doubt he'll be productive at some level in the NHL because he just is adept at putting in rebounds and has an excellent shot. He could stand to put on more strength too but I'm not too concerned about that, he should be perfectly able to adapt his game to hold onto the puck less and is already a perfectly fine passer.

 

[majormajor]

Dragicevic has elite hands and playmaking, he reads the play well and has good stick work. He needs to work on consistency but he's IMO the d-man in recent drafts closest to being the next Makar/Hughes etc. Nobody else has hands like him and his shot is also a bomb even though he's more of a playmaker. I'll acknowledge there were concerns with him from scouts but personally in my viewings I never really saw those concerns. I don't think he's bad at defence. Just raw.

Firkus has elite hands, vision, and hockey IQ. He's the definition of a player who has a nose for the net much like Eiserman is in the same way (or someone like Tkachuk in the NHL). He's small and needs to work more off the puck defensively but he has the talent to be the next top goal scorer in the NHL.

Sale is the toughest to rate for me...he has great vision, IQ and playmaking offensively and sometimes he looks good and well balanced, other times not so much. People criticize his production but I couldn't care less about whether he produced better in the CHL or not, it's about how he looks and how he gets those points. Right now I view him as a complimentary top six piece but he could easily be a Nick Backstrom type of player, he'd probably play well with Shane Wright offensively.

I agree that they all probably have a decent chance to hit top line, and there's also other guys like OFM and Nyman who have an outside shot too.

Yeah there's a ton of skill for all three.

I haven't watched Dragicevic since the draft, but nice to see his production has bounced back.

Sale I was ready to give up on after last year - but maybe they've gotten through to him in CV. The inner drive has to be great for any of these guys to make it, and with Sale it's his #1 problem. So I'm a skeptic.

Firkus could be great, I love the shot, but I'm rarely confident about a player that small.

 

[dylanmacarthur]

Well the "I told you so's" always come out when things go bad for any team but there's a question of optimism and pessimism and you need patience in sports.
Enough time has gone by now to draw some conclusions on things like draft choices and how trades worked out. So the mistakes are cumulative and in the end something has to be changed. The logical move right now is dumping Francis.

It was even more logical to never hire him. This was all utterly predictable and was predicted.

He shouldn't be allowed to finish the season. Let the culture change start now.

 

[Kevinsane]

Well, this is interesting. Tod Leiweke was in Buffalo for the game today. He’s not usually with the team on the road, Sportsnet reports.