Thought Kuznetsov was better than Tarasenko in the WJC. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Do you think if Washington struggles and someone offers a couple good players for his rights they would consider moving him for immediate help?
Not one single GM in the league would offer anything close to Kuznetsov's value should he come over and perform is. Too much Russian factor.
Best we can do is a late 1st from a team that has 4 of those and is bored drafting. Imagine if St. Louis dealt Tarasenko for the 25th pick in last year's draft. That's what trading Kuznetsov would look like.
At the very least coming over later would have avoided the peeing in Dave Fay's Wheaties fiasco and the hate Fay's disciples placed on him that he had to deal with his entire career in DC.
But yeah you'd have to be a pretty stupid individual to not understand that starting down a path at 19 does not get you to the same place at the same point in time as starting down that path at 22.
We're now blaming imaginary Dave Fay disciples for Semin's career woes...
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George McPhee....The Teflon GM. 15 years of failure and counting....
6 - Number of playoff series the Capitals have won since George McPhee took over as General Manager in 1997 (which makes him the third-longest-tenured GM in the League), three of which came in McPhee's first season on the job.
I think we can say size, shot and defensive abilities. Probably speed also.
I believe Kuznetsov's ceiling is closer to Malkin than to Datsyuk.
In 3 months from now he will go to Worlds with some top-6 role I guess. We will see if he's progressing or not.
My biggest thing I want to see from Kuznetsov is him do one timers, I know he can do them, he is a nice slapshot. Just needs to work on doing one timers, it will be such a asset on the PP, we know Ovechkin can make the pass, he just needs someone who can and will one time it.
I see Kuznetsov being on the caliber of a Jordan Eberle although they are different players. The next Malkin or Datsyuk is severely pushing it.
I see Forsberg as being like a Bobby Ryan, although again, they are completely different players. I'm just saying caliber wise as in you put their names along with these NHLers.
By the way the only person that reminds me of Ovechkin is Tarasenko.
He was regarded as the best European prospect skater on the mid-term rankings for the 2010 Draft. His father was a Russian league scoring champion and Olympian.
He won't be Ovechkin talent probably, but he's darn good. He reminds me of Jeff Skinner on steroids.
Kuznetsov I don't know if there's a direct comparison. He's got some Eberle, some Skinner, but he's bigger and probably can play more physical, though that remains to be seen.
Forsberg seems like Franzen or Cole type.
Only one really reminding me of Ovechkin is Yakupov. Ovechkin is hard to peg, since he has numerous flaws in his game that would sink him if he wasn't an absolute beast in other respects.
Guys that score 2/3 or less of the points they're capable of? No, Carolina can enjoy that one; we have our fill of those here.
every player scores at 2/3 there potential, even gretzky could have done better but it doesnt matter. ironically im one of semins biggest defenders yet his haters seem to think he could be much better than i do. lets face it like green he benefited greatly from boudreaus system and he was never an elite player like you guys think.
I think we can say size, shot and defensive abilities. Probably speed also.
I believe Kuznetsov's ceiling is closer to Malkin than to Datsyuk.
In 3 months from now he will go to Worlds with some top-6 role I guess. We will see if he's progressing or not.
Difference between Malkin and Datsyuk? Datsyuk is smarter, has better hands. Shot? Not that much. Datsyuk is just such a brilliant playmaker that he passes more. Speed? No way. Datsyuk has a unique skating style(due to his "career starting" injury). It doesn't look fast, but it is when needed. Very fast. Size is definitely an issue.
And you can't talk about Malkin's and Datsyuk's ceiling. They are pretty much equal though different players with diffrent strenghs.
As for Kuznetsov, I doubt he'll get a top 6 role on that team, but he'll probably be there.
What is the latest on this guy? Is he coming over soon? if so when?
14-15 at the earliest. After Sochi (well, I guess they could find a way to bring him over late in 13-14 after his KHL time is done, although I don't exactly know how).
No kidding!! Damn if this kid doesn't turn out to be a star or doesn't even come over to play in DC, so many fanboys are going to have their hearts destroyed.
I'll side with McPhee on this one stance...."I'm worried about the players who are here (not the ones who aren't), the players who WANT to be here".
14-15 at the earliest. After Sochi (well, I guess they could find a way to bring him over late in 13-14 after his KHL time is done, although I don't exactly know how).
Yeah, it all depends on how the KHL arranges their season around the Olympics. Sochi's going to be Feb 7-23, and the last game of this year's KHL regular season is Feb 17, so something'll have to give. Then there's the playoffs. Traktor's a playoff team this year, who knows how they'll be next year. This would probably be something to ask the KHL board about.
