Yeah, but I don't know that's he's more than a fourth liner.That's why he didn't crack the top 20. Same for Samson.
Maybe so, but he has some intangibles to bring to a 3rd or 4th line that I like. Heck, sometimes quality bottom 6 guys are more important than top 6, especially during a playoff run.
But regardless Cory, you do a fantastic job. I appreciate it.
1. Great to see Boychuk slide down a bit with the amount of talent that has been infused into the system. A lot of people get caught up in AHL numbers, but the fact remains that Boychuk has gone into camp 3 times with a locker with his name on it and hasn't kept it for more than a few games in any one stretch. We're talking about a prospect who remembers Justin Williams as a Hurricane here. He was already almost a year advanced on his '08 eligible peers and is only about 4 months older than Brandon Sutter. Eyes are slowly opening on Boychuk and I would be lying if I said I didn't feel some kind of vindication in that sentiment despite never, ever, rooting against his success... only observing the lack of progress. Will be first in line to eat crow should the occasion call for it.
2. Danny Biega, despite me being a huge fan of his, got too much of a bump here in my estimation. Alt, Levi, and Lowe all have claims to that territory. Levi in particular being a notable bit lower than he should be in my estimation via giving up about six months in age to the others and being WJC eligible next year with a strong possibility to make the USA squad that traditionally ignores CHL talent.
3. I still like Dumoulin ahead of Faulk, but I can see why Faulk's willingness to come straight out has increased his exposure and profile enough to push him ahead of Dumoulin.... but I still think Carolina values Dumoulin quite a bit. Dumoulin is so much better in his own zone than Faulk that it's ridiculous at this stage and arguably, Dumoulin can handle the puck just as readily. Faulk has a much better shot and better mobility, but Bobby Sanguinetti has them all beaten there. I didn't like a lot of what I saw from Faulk with Charlotte at the end of the season in his own end. I know he's pretty much under age for that level but it was disconcerting to me.
4. Viktor Rask being ranked 5th surprised me a bit, but a positive surprise. I like it when we have a player we aren't afraid to back in regards to ranking them where we feel talent places them. I think a lot of fans that haven't seen anything of Rask are going to be more inclined to agree with that ranking once they see him in the WJC this season playing a pivotal role for Sweden. It's too bad he's not 2 or 3 years more advanced, because he profiles to be exactly what we need at the professional level right now down the middle. Strong two way center with draw skills and more a distributor than scorer. Character issues overblown in my estimation. Hope to see him in the Dub this year and not Charlotte.
5. Unsure how Mattias Lindstrom keeps hanging around the order. One would think he would have needed to show more tangible improvement to beat out a few guys for a spot on the list.
6. The criminally delisted or unranked: Oskar Osala and Justin Krueger. For Osala to go from 8th *?* to unranked in the matter of a year without a major injury or a disappointing season in Charlotte is mystifying to me. The stigma attached to playing a year in the KHL is incredible. I don't find it to be a death sentence. Quite the contrary, I think it's a logical step for a player who struggles with skating to go to a larger surface and improve that facet of his game. It helped Anton Babchuk, in my estimation, round his game into a near Top 4 capacity. As far as Krueger is concerned, he's right up there in regards to players that JR expects to be in the mix to contribute this year from the blueline. Surely there could have been room for both on the list at the exclusion of perhaps Lindstrom and Peters.
Vagrant, I really don't agree with your downgrading of Faulk... He was actually a little better in his end than I expected... He'll never be a shut down blue liner, but I think he'll never be a liability... His mobility is off the charts and he's a better athlete than Dumo...
It sure is nice to have to argue about what order our top 3 D prospects should be in
3. I still like Dumoulin ahead of Faulk, but I can see why Faulk's willingness to come straight out has increased his exposure and profile enough to push him ahead of Dumoulin.... but I still think Carolina values Dumoulin quite a bit. Dumoulin is so much better in his own zone than Faulk that it's ridiculous at this stage and arguably, Dumoulin can handle the puck just as readily. Faulk has a much better shot and better mobility, but Bobby Sanguinetti has them all beaten there. I didn't like a lot of what I saw from Faulk with Charlotte at the end of the season in his own end. I know he's pretty much under age for that level but it was disconcerting to me.
Yeah you know I think we're in agreement here. For me, it's close enough that it's not worth discussing, because I really do think it's neck and neck and I see both sides of the argument, but I'm only mildly excited to see Faulk's debut while I smile every time I think abut Dumoulin in a Canes uniform... Especially with our pure offensive talent on the back end (which I know could change in a heartbeat, but come on, Pitkanen, Kaberle, McBain, Faulk, Murphy) I get kind of excited when I think about us having a TRUE 2-way defender... To me he really just doesn't have a weakness as a prospect. He certainly has things he needs to work on, but as far as glaring holes or huge question marks with his game (which both Faulk and Murphy have plenty of), Dumoulin's got none really. Seems to have a lot upstairs too. I'm not necessarily down on either of our other two guys, just really high on Dumoulin.
My order is still Murphy-Dumoulin-Faulk, just because of Murphy's ridiculous upside, but when you think about it, with our new-found balance in our prospect pool, really the only thing we don't have much of is safety. There's something to be said about Dumoulin being the only real "safe," non-NHL ready prospect that we've got...
2. Danny Biega, despite me being a huge fan of his, got too much of a bump here in my estimation. Alt, Levi, and Lowe all have claims to that territory. Levi in particular being a notable bit lower than he should be in my estimation via giving up about six months in age to the others and being WJC eligible next year with a strong possibility to make the USA squad that traditionally ignores CHL talent.
Not sure I can agree here. I can understand Levi, but I don't see anything Lowe or Alt has done to deserve to be ahead of Biega. From what I can tell, he was an offensive catalyst for Harvard as a sophomore defensemen, which is much more than Alt or Lowe can say. I'm obviously not saying those guys can't be better, but they have no "claims to that territory" in my opinion.
1. Great to see Boychuk slide down a bit with the amount of talent that has been infused into the system. A lot of people get caught up in AHL numbers, but the fact remains that Boychuk has gone into camp 3 times with a locker with his name on it and hasn't kept it for more than a few games in any one stretch.
What? Boychuk wasn't expected to make the team in '08 and '09 by anybody. He missed the entirety of training camp in '08 with a wrist injury and in '09 the team had 13 forwards on one-way contracts.
Quote:
We're talking about a prospect who remembers Justin Williams as a Hurricane here.
Ah, yes, the long forgotten days of two and a half years ago.
Quote:
He was already almost a year advanced on his '08 eligible peers and is only about 4 months older than Brandon Sutter.
This sentence also accurately describes Zac Dalpe.
I think plenty of people, including myself have a hard time exactly placing Dumoulin on the list because of the system he is playing in. Im sure i sound like a broken record on this but it is easy to hide warts in Dumo's game because of how conservative they are in their own end under York. Their forwards go deep into the zone and take alot of the pressure off of the dmen. Im not saying he cant do it just that it is hard to place him in a ranking without being able to see him do the heavy lifting on the backend. I view it kind of like the Cam Newton situation...the dude clearly has alot of tools but we havent been able to see him use them in a more prostyle setting. Its essentially the same thing we said about Faulk. We were happy to see him come out because his college system was going to hinder his learning curve and we needed to see the kid work in our system. I think this is part of the reason we see Faulk ranked higher.
That said, im not comparing York's system to the system Faulk played under. Dumo will clearly come out with a solid grasp of defensive concepts and principles. The foundation will be set and ready to build on.
man, who ever would have thought we'd be having this much discussion about a guy that is probably still about 2 seasons away from even being Ward's backup?
I've been saying for a long time that this board inconveniences more electrons in the name of a backup goalie than any other position for any other team on any other board. It's amazing.
I have no issues with the rankings (ours or theirs). Lots of splitting hairs going on, which is to be expected with stuff like this. I'm just mostly excited to see us have a top-15 batch of prospects, but I'll be more excited when one of them grabs an available forward slot with the Hurricanes.
6. The criminally delisted or unranked: Oskar Osala and Justin Krueger. For Osala to go from 8th *?* to unranked in the matter of a year without a major injury or a disappointing season in Charlotte is mystifying to me. The stigma attached to playing a year in the KHL is incredible. I don't find it to be a death sentence. Quite the contrary, I think it's a logical step for a player who struggles with skating to go to a larger surface and improve that facet of his game. It helped Anton Babchuk, in my estimation, round his game into a near Top 4 capacity. As far as Krueger is concerned, he's right up there in regards to players that JR expects to be in the mix to contribute this year from the blueline. Surely there could have been room for both on the list at the exclusion of perhaps Lindstrom and Peters.
Hofmann, from Tramelan, Switzerland, probably had more than few Canes fans checking their lineup sheets Sunday at the RBC Center during the Red-White scrimmage. Playing on a line with Riley Nash and Chris Terry, No. 65 for the White made some plays that grabbed everybody's attention, notably a no-look pass to Terry for an early second-period goal.
"It was fun for me and I was very excited," Hofmann said. "It was a crazy experience. I played with two good guys and it was good."
Nash and Terry each scored a pair of goals. Hofmann had a pair of assists and scored an empty netter just before the final horn sounded as the White won 10-7.
