Taking Olden (92) that's alot to pay for someone that will only be here for a year.
My guess it's a first round selection from this years draft.
First round selections might only be around for a year as well though.
With Hunter about to pay a large price to bring in Domi, wouldn't a 94 make the most sense? Someone who will be in the league for nearly the same amount of time as Domi and Horvat?
Wow, really intrigued into who the Knights fancy in the Import Draft.
They must have a pretty good idea that the prospect will be coming over, giving up quite a welt.
Kucherov?
The London Knights have acquired the first overall pick in Wednesday's CHL Import Draft from Barrie in exchange for Reid McNeill, a 2nd in '13, a 3rd in '13 and London's 1st round Import pick in 2011. Knights' General Manager Mark Hunter says that he has the pick narrowed down to two players and now must make his decision on which one he is going to take before the draft begins at 9 AM on Wednesday.
Any of you Knights fans able to give me a quick run down? Anyone know his personality off the ice too? Would he be a good teacher to 3 young and talented D-men?
Good Kid
Late bloomer- high school player 2 yrs ago. Had a real big late growth spurt.
Staedy, Physical player, tries to keep it simple in own end (not much O to his game)
NHL draftee
Hell fit in well and should be good in a leadership role.
Just a case of Knights having some depth on the back end and having to give up a talent to get the #1 import draft
First round selections might only be around for a year as well though.
With Hunter about to pay a large price to bring in Domi, wouldn't a 94 make the most sense? Someone who will be in the league for nearly the same amount of time as Domi and Horvat?
To be honest I'd rather pay a large price for a current player in the league then an import. To me if he's around for a year it's almost a waste of a pick and a large dent in the picks.
If it's down to 2 players then he better make up his mind. I'd rather him have a done deal with the player rather then still thinking about it.
Any of you Knights fans able to give me a quick run down? Anyone know his personality off the ice too? Would he be a good teacher to 3 young and talented D-men?
My favourite thing about Reid McNeill is he could log a lot of minutes in a pinch due to injuries/penalties, etc.. and he's capable of shutting guys down. He's a reliable guy he wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a big kid with a bigger hurt.. you'll really enjoy him. He'll definitely be the type of guy who goes out and does his job night in and night out with complaining one bit about it. That in and of itself will rub off on the youngster's in Barrie and they'll be better for it. I know London fans will echo this, you will be missed Reid!
My favourite thing about Reid McNeill is he could log a lot of minutes in a pinch due to injuries/penalties, etc.. and he's capable of shutting guys down. He's a reliable guy he wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a big kid with a bigger hurt.. you'll really enjoy him. He'll definitely be the type of guy who goes out and does his job night in and night out with complaining one bit about it. That in and of itself will rub off on the youngster's in Barrie and they'll be better for it. I know London fans will echo this, you will be missed Reid!
I thought Reid sort of plateaued last season which wasn't necessarily bad, but what you see is what you get. I bet he'll get an 'A' in Barrie.
One factor in trading Reid could be the assurance of Tinordi returning and possibly Clendening committing. Plus, the Knights realize that they have 3 '93 dmen ready to play and they need to develop. I like how Hughes is still here - solid stay at home guy who's tough to knock off the puck.
Reading some things on twitter, it sounds like the Knights will make top Russian 2012 prospect Mikhail Grigorenko their first pick on Wednesday's draft. Pyette just posted a free press article on it, too.
The Knights' future looks damn bright with Domi also on his way.
I thought Reid sort of plateaued last season which wasn't necessarily bad, but what you see is what you get. I bet he'll get an 'A' in Barrie.
One factor in trading Reid could be the assurance of Tinordi returning and possibly Clendening committing. Plus, the Knights realize that they have 3 '93 dmen ready to play and they need to develop. I like how Hughes is still here - solid stay at home guy who's tough to knock off the puck.
Reading some things on twitter, it sounds like the Knights will make top Russian 2012 prospect Mikhail Grigorenko their first pick on Wednesday's draft. Pyette just posted a free press article on it, too.
The Knights' future looks damn bright with Domi also on his way.
It's definitely an exciting time to be a Knights fan (again)
I thought Reid sort of plateaued last season which wasn't necessarily bad, but what you see is what you get. I bet he'll get an 'A' in Barrie.
One factor in trading Reid could be the assurance of Tinordi returning and possibly Clendening committing. Plus, the Knights realize that they have 3 '93 dmen ready to play and they need to develop. I like how Hughes is still here - solid stay at home guy who's tough to knock off the puck.
Reading some things on twitter, it sounds like the Knights will make top Russian 2012 prospect Mikhail Grigorenko their first pick on Wednesday's draft. Pyette just posted a free press article on it, too.
The Knights' future looks damn bright with Domi also on his way.
That pretty much tells me that Barrie was not on his list...LOL
So one of the two should be http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=937293 this kid. What do you think? I think I'm jumping the Knights bandwagon now when the future looks good, especially if you get a finn. Should be able to catch a few games via streams next season.
Here's my thoughts at Olli Määttä. Big physical d-man who has good positioning and first pass. When he has the puck he plays with the calmness and make they play. Good at bring the puck to the offensive zone by skating, very smart and trustworthy. He have good shot and his shots are mostly on goal because he rather shoots a rebound puck from bad shooting spot with too much traffic than hard onetimer. His biggest asset is how consistent he is. The difference of his bad game and good game isn't big. Can play at all situations.
Skating is his biggest concern, Not bad but not good aswell.
Scouting report on Olli Maatta from the draft board:
As the youngest player ever to make the Finland WJC team (same age as Reijo Ruotsalainen, Janne Niniimaa and Mikael Granlund, but with an August birthdate, younger than any of them) he played only sparingly (in last preliminary round game against Slovakia), but showed off why he was on the team in the first place. Plays a physical, no-nonsense game. Skating is a bit rough-- lacks immediate acceleration, and is a bit lacking in his pivots and turns. Good hands for making quick breakout passes. Sees the ice well; doesn't handle the puck like a hand grenade. Showed some pretty good poise for his first WJC action.
One NHL scout spoke to me about him during a break in the action and said: "He's two-way, all around defenseman. He does a little bit of everything and has a lot of enthusiasm. His first shift was full of excitement; he had courage to show up and play and he wasn't panicking with his feet."
He is ranked top 20 for next year's draft on the mock drafts I've seen, while Grigorenko could go as high as #1. It seems that the Knights are more likely to get more than one season out of Maatta than they would Grigorenko, but that obviously is not set in stone.
Honestly, could the Hunters not have had this kid well after first overall? Why give up a North American defensemen and two high draft picks to take another two way defender? He sounds like Scott Harrington's brother and right now Harrington isn't exactly showing why the Knights "tampered" to get him.
This is my first reaction, without actually seeing this kid play. Who knows, Hunter could look like a genius for making the trade to pick him, but from what I see, this has a bigger chance of turning out to be one of the few bad moves Hunter has made instead of, "wow what a genius."
I hope the hype stays low, I look forward to seeing Matta at camp, but there is going to be lots of questioning as to why they passed up on Grigorenko.
Scouting report on Olli Maatta from the draft board:
As the youngest player ever to make the Finland WJC team (same age as Reijo Ruotsalainen, Janne Niniimaa and Mikael Granlund, but with an August birthdate, younger than any of them) he played only sparingly (in last preliminary round game against Slovakia), but showed off why he was on the team in the first place. Plays a physical, no-nonsense game. Skating is a bit rough-- lacks immediate acceleration, and is a bit lacking in his pivots and turns. Good hands for making quick breakout passes. Sees the ice well; doesn't handle the puck like a hand grenade. Showed some pretty good poise for his first WJC action.
One NHL scout spoke to me about him during a break in the action and said: "He's two-way, all around defenseman. He does a little bit of everything and has a lot of enthusiasm. His first shift was full of excitement; he had courage to show up and play and he wasn't panicking with his feet."
He is ranked top 20 for next year's draft on the mock drafts I've seen, while Grigorenko could go as high as #1. It seems that the Knights are more likely to get more than one season out of Maatta than they would Grigorenko, but that obviously is not set in stone.
Honestly, could the Hunters not have had this kid well after first overall? Why give up a North American defensemen and two high draft picks to take another two way defender? He sounds like Scott Harrington's brother and right now Harrington isn't exactly showing why the Knights "tampered" to get him.
This is my first reaction, without actually seeing this kid play. Who knows, Hunter could look like a genius for making the trade to pick him, but from what I see, this has a bigger chance of turning out to be one of the few bad moves Hunter has made instead of, "wow what a genius."
I hope the hype stays low, I look forward to seeing Matta at camp, but there is going to be lots of questioning as to why they passed up on Grigorenko.
I know little about CHL Import draft tactics, but doesn't it seem its easier to convience a kid from europe to come over if he is 1st overall? I mean that is an honour that is rarely passed. And maybe he was targetting Grigorenko with the 1st pick, but couldn't get him to promise to come over or something similar.
Either pick didn't bother me... both have the abilities that we lacked last year. The Russian was scoring and Olli from the vids I"ve seen seems to be the same puck moving D-man that we really don't have and something Worrad could be.
I just hope Olli get the playing time he should to get him comfortable and not 5 or 6 shifts a games that makes him wonder why he's here.
In saying that... we have what 9 D-man now that can play... a couple of moves will be made and this team better find some size up front or this team will be intimidated from the get go.
Either pick didn't bother me... both have the abilities that we lacked last year. The Russian was scoring and Olli from the vids I"ve seen seems to be the same puck moving D-man that we really don't have and something Worrad could be.
I just hope Olli get the playing time he should to get him comfortable and not 5 or 6 shifts a games that makes him wonder why he's here.
In saying that... we have what 9 D-man now that can play... a couple of moves will be made and this team better find some size up front or this team will be intimidated from the get go.
Im sure London will trade a few to recoup what will loose in the expected Domi deal.
And the point I made earlier in this thread was also true "the earlier the pick, the more eager the player is to come over".
The Hunters haven't had the great success or patience with Imports... Kostitsyn and Names are the two that really stand and Kalle Ekelund who had to take his lumps of not playing much before he was able to play.
The Hunters aside from last year limit there youth to 5 or 6 shifts a game. If he's got the ability to be in the WJC then I hope there isn't a problem with putting him on the ice regularly.
I know little about CHL Import draft tactics, but doesn't it seem its easier to convience a kid from europe to come over if he is 1st overall? I mean that is an honour that is rarely passed. And maybe he was targetting Grigorenko with the 1st pick, but couldn't get him to promise to come over or something similar.
Sure, it's a great accomplishment. But, it really means that the team drafting you is sure you're coming. I guess it's like the chicken/egg debate.
Is trading a d-man imminent now for the Hunters? I'm sort of hoping they trade one of their slow footed defensemen to make them quicker overall back there. When I read that skating is a concern for this kid, I grimace a bit since that was the glaring weakness on this team the whole season.
I don't know what will happen to this core. I have this feeling that one more will be moved for some picks (possibly Harrington), which could really shake this team up. McNeill was a character guy who likely was traded since he was a 92 and they're trying to accumulate younger guys. However, out of all of these guys, to me, Harrington and McNeill had the worst years. For them to be considered top 4 d-men on this team, they didn't really show enough. I have a feeling Mark isn't done trading...at least I'd hope to see one more big change.
