Hello Hawks fans. I was wondering, after 2 years of watching Nick Leddy, what are your guys thoughts on him? And where does he fit in the future plan of the Hawks?
He's decent offensively, terrible in his own end. He needs more defensive awareness, and is too easy to take off the puck. He has great potential, I'm just hoping he reaches it.
Q is ****ing with his development by putting him on the PK
Good shot, doesn't use it enough.
Great skater.
He can already hang with some of the best in terms of rushing the puck into the zone, but he doesn't do it enough.
Skittish in his own end.
Not awful positionally, but very weak on the boards.
Has never had a single right to be on the PK, but Q kept him there all year.
Overall, that's not bad for a 21 year old in the NHL. Still plenty of room for improvement, but he's shown a lot of potential.
you can see that he needs more time and experience. His D needs to get better and I don't see a reason why it won't improve.
His offense is good already. Kid is something special and this will be remembered as Bowmans best trade.
I think he is very overrated around here. He is weak on his stick and terrible in his own end. He lacks awareness around the net and doesn't have the strength to clear players from the crease. Basically a slightly better Campoli. He has the upside to be a solid number 4.
His upside is to be Brian Campbell and I think he will reach that in a couple more seasons. For now, he's someone you want on your third pairing while he learns the defensive side of the game and give him a ton of PP time. He really needs to add some muscle though. He seems to have a small frame, like Kruger, but he just needs to find a way because he gets physically dominated by forwards with size.
His upside is a 2nd pairing PMD. Really needs to work on his play in his own end, that comes from gaining strength, working on his positioning and being overall a tougher player to play against. Plenty of smaller d men thrive in the NHL by being great positionally and with their sticks and tricky along the boards, Leddy needs to develop that. His offensive instincts are great though and he is already a very good puck rusher and has a nice shot. Needs to get comfortable using them and he'll be fine. Should never, ever have gotten the playing time and PK time he did this year.
i) "Kid is something special" says a poster above --WELL MAYBE he turns into another Erik Karlsson -but I'm skeptical of how much better he will be offensively--I see nothing special about him helping our woeful PP (so far)--MAYbe I'm wrong but unless he scores a lot more GOALS aand lots of PP points ---can we carry a defensive liability who now gets shoved off pucks so easily and can't clear guys from in fronrt of our net--so what is he now? A classic "offenseman" who is yet only a half-Karlsson who may or may not ever add that missing half of the "next level" AND a d-man in development on D who should improve in processing the p;ay (as all do with more experience) BUT who may or may never get to the level of strength required to no longer get manhandled in the grind partof the game on the boards and in front of the crease... IF the "o" increases to Karlsson-like proportions it will naturally improve his+/- ;if his offense plateaus with maybe only a 25% increase and his defense only gets 25% better from processing the plays better but the strength never gets good enough such that he won't get shoved off pucks or be so ineffecyive trying to move bodies in the crease area of the Hawks net,THEN we get a somewhat better player but nowhere near "special" ...
Another factor willbe HOW LONG for his full development? Will he explode offensively as Karlsson did last season or just improve say 10-15 pts more then hit his plateau?
I do not think the hawks can keep claiming his full explosion to max potential is still 3-4 yearsaway because 'he is so young" -I'm not saying he mustshow special THIS YEAR--but surely by the 2013/14 season or else i'm afraid "special" will NEVER show...IF he is going to be special he must play top 4 and be featured on the pp..NO 5-6 d-man is ever "special" ...so we shall see if the talent projected ever materializes or not... My own hunch is--he is NOT SPECIAL but it is up to him to prove my hunch wrong.. I hope he does,but my skeptical nature prevents me from going gaga over him like some of the posters here who swallow the Hawks hype machine prospect/young guy over estimates hollus bollus...For now I'm not buymg the hype--I don't see him dominate the attack in the o=zone like Karlsson can control the play -which IS "special" --so untill Leddy does anything 'difference-making" and so threatening to oponents that they must stop him above all others on the team to stymie the Hawks attack- until he gets to that level of threat-I think opponents just think of him as not very special at all -not a "difference-maker" ...Will he stay in such a lowly status or explode into greatness or merely just improve a bit? I think we willdefinitely know the answers within the next 2 seasons..
Will be a very solid second pairing puck mover in a few years.
He IS a solid PMD for the second pair already. His D will improve with time and he will be one of the best 2nd Pair PMDs around the league
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndgt10
I think he is very overrated around here. He is weak on his stick and terrible in his own end. He lacks awareness around the net and doesn't have the strength to clear players from the crease. Basically a slightly better Campoli. He has the upside to be a solid number 4.
you hate everything about the Hawks... you really want them to lose and hate them
Really, he is not as bad as some say he is... he is not a liability, he is not years away and he does not belong to the A as some think
I don't think he belongs in the A (you can't send him down after 1.5 years in the NHL anyway) And I think he shows flashes of brilliance in the attacking zone. I also think he's a huge liability in his own zone though.
Looks better when he plays with another solid d-men i.e. not oduya. Why those two were used together at even strength is beyond me. What has always got me is how leddy shows so much speed skating with the puck but it seems like he gets worn out from this and then say the team gets the puck going the opposite way after he rushed it up, now he's too gassed to hang with the opposing teams rush, and there goes a 2 on 1.. so I want to see his endurance improve for this next year, of course aside from the obvious needed improvements in his def. awareness and strength. Looking up... he's a 21 yo defender.. not many are capable of playing at this level at that age.. to say he isn't special is a major dis to what this kid provides our team. yes he has been a big liability on the ice at times, but he has always made some really big plays on d as well. Hoping his future stays bright.
Really, he is not as bad as some say he is... he is not a liability, he is not years away and he does not belong to the A as some think
He is not a liability in the offensive zone, he is a good asset there. Same can be said for the PP. The same, however, cannot be said for his d zone play and him on the PK (it's laughable he was played there last season). I'm not saying he should not be on the team but to say he's ready for second pairing minutes is just silly, and, as another poster pointed out, his play actually regressed throughout the year, kid lost a ton of confidence. He should not be in the AHL but he should not be on the second pairing.
He is a liability in the defensive zone, simple as that. Weak along the boards and in front of the net and not great positionally, yet. Give him time and we will be but on a contender like the Hawks we cannot afford to play him on the 2nd pairing.
Kid is something special and this will be remembered as Bowmans best trade.
I really hope not. It was a good trade, as I'd take Leddy any day over Barker. If it ends up being Bowman's best trade that means Stan is getting burned or not making trades for impact players in the future.
I really hope not. It was a good trade, as I'd take Leddy any day over Barker. If it ends up being Bowman's best trade that means Stan is getting burned or not making trades for impact players in the future.
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How man gm's can boast they managed to trade a guy who's currently being healthy scratched on non-playoff teams for a 21yr old dman playing 22min a night and scored 37 pts? BTW, Leddy was the secondary piece in that trade.
How man gm's can boast they managed to trade a guy who's currently being healthy scratched on non-playoff teams for a 21yr old dman playing 22min a night and scored 37 pts? BTW, Leddy was the secondary piece in that trade.
