Only time will tell. Brunner was a late bloomer and is 26 now, not among the very youngest anymore, but he's also better than ever before. I'd say if he makes it, he still can have 5+ good years in the NHL. There are several threads and articles on him to be found.
Brunner is a somewhat controversial person among Swiss hockey fans, but IMO mostly due to him being awesome on the ice. I guess that comes with the success, haters are never far away. Some might say he is an arrogant and sometimes whiny ass, others might say he is just going his way. He has a lot of confidence and seems to be very determined. He is also a bit of a cheeky monkey and thus makes plays on the ice that others wouldn't, which is a factor for his late success in the NLA.
He dominated the last season and was the first Swiss player to win the scoring title since 30 years, and he did that by an impressive margin. He had 60 points in 45 games, the next player was at 51pts in 49 games. He just made it look so easy, it was a treat to watch. He also played a good WC tournament, so the next logical step was to sign with an NHL team.
I would say too that Brunner is a step above Wick or Ambühl. They are good players on their own but they were never the dominant difference makers that Brunner is. He is clearly the best Swiss forward since a long time, and in the short future I can only see Sven Bärtschi (and hopefully Nino Niederreiter) being better than him.
Just took this quote from the prospects -side.
Arrogant, whiny ass, walks his own way. I'm starting to like him.
Brett Hull was kind of same. A bad bad hockeyplayer.
I just can see Mike Babcock yelling for the team at practise:
"Look at this guy. He understands what this sport is about. Shoot the god damn puck in the mutha****ing goal. He understands it, Sammy understands it, shoot shoot shoot. Shoot, win games and shoot. Don't circle in the corners, and avoid the contact, cut in the middle and shoot the god damn puck. The goals won't come if you don't shoot. Right, Val?"
A fully fit Omark with the right linemates and confidence could without a doubt light up the NHL. He was way better before he came to the NHL - seems like he regressed. He dominated in the national team before he went to the NHL - afterwords when he came home he was terrible, just terrible.
A fully fit Omark with the right linemates and confidence could without a doubt light up the NHL. He was way better before he came to the NHL - seems like he regressed. He dominated in the national team before he went to the NHL - afterwords when he came home he was terrible, just terrible.
If Oilers want a 4:th for him, please do it!
You guys are like squirrels, gathering nuts for the long winter.
Where in the hell does Omark fit on a team that probably won't have room for Nyquist and Tatar?
Checked out and LA picked Jeff Tambellini with that pick; next pick was Corey Perry and couple of picks later went Loui Eriksson; just interesting.
Schneider was a decent stopgap. But he was always weak defensively and when we got him, his skating was an issue.
The upgrade in speed we got with Rafalski and Stuart was one of the main reasons for our success, IMO.
It's really quite amazing that our team was as good as it was when you look at our defense.
But really, the Red Wings' great defensive forwards and coaching that stresses defense-first made Detroit a nice place for old defensemen to come retire.
Too often, though, the defensive weaknesses were exposed in the playoffs.
Slow defense was less of an issue with younger versions of guys like Draper, Maltby, etc. who still had pretty good speed before losing a step or 3 coming back on the backcheck. As the forwards slowed down, the D got more exposed and it all just snowballed from there. Even in the glory years the Wings would struggle most against teams with good speed, like the Oilers and Kings. Even middling type players like Todd Marchant or Andy MacDonald.....hell even Stephane Yelle would give them headaches with their speed games.
Slow defense was less of an issue with younger versions of guys like Draper, Maltby, etc. who still had pretty good speed before losing a step or 3 coming back on the backcheck. As the forwards slowed down, the D got more exposed and it all just snowballed from there. Even in the glory years the Wings would struggle most against teams with good speed, like the Oilers and Kings. Even middling type players like Todd Marchant or Andy MacDonald.....hell even Stephane Yelle would give them headaches with their speed games.
Not only the speed of Fedorov, Draper and Maltby, but advanced puck possession game of Fedorov, Yzerman, Shanahan, Hull, Larionov, etc.
Our offense had the puck a lot.
A fully fit Omark with the right linemates and confidence could without a doubt light up the NHL. He was way better before he came to the NHL - seems like he regressed. He dominated in the national team before he went to the NHL - afterwords when he came home he was terrible, just terrible.
If Oilers want a 4:th for him, please do it!
Strange... same thing happens with Russian players also. They leave as good KHLers. Play a season or two in the AHL/NHL. Come back and barely do anything in the KHL. Not all of them, but there are several cases like this. Ilya Zubov and Nikita Filatov to throw a few names out.
Although in case of Omark, I think he was was nothing special in the KHL already. So I never got all the hype when he joined the Oilers.
A fully fit Omark with the right linemates and confidence could without a doubt light up the NHL. He was way better before he came to the NHL - seems like he regressed. He dominated in the national team before he went to the NHL - afterwords when he came home he was terrible, just terrible.
If Oilers want a 4:th for him, please do it!
Same thing happened with Swiss players !
I suspect that in the NHL, they adjust the player to the system. (players, due to abundance, are commodity ! unless he's a perfect star ) ... therefore breaking some players with a "Keep it simple" that has as a destructuring effect on the player.
It's also possible that some guys peak early and decline early which would account for the change in production. Or they don't have the same amount of drive and passion once they flame out on their NHL dream as they did before. Or they never grow their game and become easier to defend and predict as players see them more and more.
Can't really point to any real reason it happens. I imagine with each player it's different and most likely on them and not the fault of the NHL/AHL system in some way.
It's also possible that some guys peak early and decline early which would account for the change in production. Or they don't have the same amount of drive and passion once they flame out on their NHL dream as they did before. Or they never grow their game and become easier to defend and predict as players see them more and more.
Can't really point to any real reason it happens. I imagine with each player it's different and most likely on them and not the fault of the NHL/AHL system in some way.
a Canadian pro coaching in Switzerland was telling that one of the big differences was that in Switzerland, you make something with the players you have while in Canada, you have your system and chose the player that best fit the position.
of course it may be a big generality but it still is a hindsightfull remark.
I just don't see what Omark would bring that we don't already have. Like others mentioned, Tatar is prob ready for the NHL now but we don't have room. Gus is ready now and will probably start the year with the Wings, he's pushing out a lower tier player and we already are going to have to trade a forward or two before his graduation.
The real catalyst for that line are Z and Brunner. Not to mention Brunner is a right-hand shot, something we've REALLY been lacking as a team but especially in the top 6. I don't know how many easy backdoor goals Briere gets because he drives the net and he's already ready on his strong side for a sweet pass snaked his way last minute.
It was fun to see Henrik Zetterberg at distribution of prizes at the Floorball World Championships. The tournament was in Switzerland, so quite clever to ask a hockey superstar to be there and raise the hype a bit.
Sweden beat Finland 11-4 at the final after a total dominance.
Brunner was a late bloomer and is 26 now, not among the very youngest anymore, but he's also better than ever before. I'd say if he makes it, he still can have 5+ good years in the NHL. There are several threads and articles on him to be found.
