Bit weird to see Blunden getting almost twice the votes of Palushaj. High hopes for Blunden I understand, but expectations for Palushaj seem to have plummeted based mainly, as far as I can tell, on his first lousy day of rookie camp.
I don't know which will be the better player but Blunden has 50 NHL games under his belt, which I think gives him a leg up on Palushaj this year. Even before his stock fell this off-season, most people seemed to agree that he should spend another year in the minors and maybe see some time as an injury call-up.
There's now an overflow of 4th line winger (Darche, Moen, Blunden and White) So 4 players for two spots. Now for the 4th line center, the only real candidate is Engvist. As I said, White is a winger, I don't think he can be a center in the NHL. DD could possibly be centering the 4th line, but I think it would be bad asset management as he has very high hockey IQ and would benefit of playing with Eller and AK and both would benefit from playing with DD.
Going into camp I felt Enqvist had the edge, but Blunden has played himself into contention. 7 more pre-season games to go, though. And Palushaj has turned a bad first day of camp pretty much into a bad first week. Both Enqvist and Palushaj are probably feeling the pressure fairly bigtime going into the second game.
Starting to wonder if Palushaj is going to peak at the AHL level... He has now played in 176 AHL games. How much more developing can we realistically expect from him? Not bashing him, just wondering if he is at his personal ceiling?
Starting to wonder if Palushaj is going to peak at the AHL level... He has now played in 176 AHL games. How much more developing can we realistically expect from him? Not bashing him, just wondering if he is at his personal ceiling?
He hasn't been to impressive in the pre-season so far, there's no doubt he's a very skilled player, and will be capable of playing on the Habs some day, but he needs to step it up this pre season if he wants to crack the roster.
Too early for me to give up on the internal candidates yet... still, I sure haven't been impressed by any of them so far, and that makes me pessimistic about any of their chances.
It sounds like Madden doesn't want to move East for family reasons, it sounds like there maybe aren't a lot of external candidates to consider anymore either. A few players kicking around on tryouts, like Johnson in Detroit, who might still be options.
Maybe a few cases where the pro scouts can scour the waiver wire... if there are some cases of borderline guys for some good teams like Washington (Perreault) or Detroit who end up getting sent down, maybe those aren't exactly the RH 4th line faceoff center we're ideally looking for, but if we have an open roster spot and nobody is stepping up internally to grab it... perhaps we could at least scoop up some extra talent even if it doesn't fit the parameters we're ideally looking for.
Starting to wonder if Palushaj is going to peak at the AHL level... He has now played in 176 AHL games. How much more developing can we realistically expect from him? Not bashing him, just wondering if he is at his personal ceiling?
Problem isn't necessarily his skill level. He really needs to get stronger so he doesn't get bumped off the puck like a little girl every time he has it. Make or break year for him.
Too early for me to give up on the internal candidates yet... still, I sure haven't been impressed by any of them so far, and that makes me pessimistic about any of their chances.
It sounds like Madden doesn't want to move East for family reasons, it sounds like there maybe aren't a lot of external candidates to consider anymore either. A few players kicking around on tryouts, like Johnson in Detroit, who might still be options.
Maybe a few cases where the pro scouts can scour the waiver wire... if there are some cases of borderline guys for some good teams like Washington (Perreault) or Detroit who end up getting sent down, maybe those aren't exactly the RH 4th line faceoff center we're ideally looking for, but if we have an open roster spot and nobody is stepping up internally to grab it... perhaps we could at least scoop up some extra talent even if it doesn't fit the parameters we're ideally looking for.
Agree 100 percent. Engqvist who is leading this poll skates like he has 2 left feet. The rest don't seem to be good alternatives. Unless someone breaks out in the remaining games it will have to be an external option. I wonder if Madden will open up options for himself in October.
In an era where the players are supposed to be accountable and where we "lost" a couple of our players based on the fact that they didn't do enough to stick around....I'm shocked to hear Martin talk about how good Enqgvist is looking.....If anything, based on the fact that he was already named as one of the favorites, from his performances, he should have been cut already.....and I'm slighly exagerrating...
While nobody did enough to get that job, based on that alone, I'm not keeping Engqvist....and I'm CLEARLY not keeping Palushaj either. There's only one guy who you can keep and that might not need the extra time in Hamilton like a guy like Dumont could have (who, by the way, still has to gain some strength), is Blunden.
I'm really stunned to hear Martin having so many good words for Engqvist.....I guess those "little things" really work.....
In an era where the players are supposed to be accountable and where we "lost" a couple of our players based on the fact that they didn't do enough to stick around....I'm shocked to hear Martin talk about how good Enqgvist is looking.....If anything, based on the fact that he was already named as one of the favorites, from his performances, he should have been cut already.....and I'm slighly exagerrating...
While nobody did enough to get that job, based on that alone, I'm not keeping Engqvist....and I'm CLEARLY not keeping Palushaj either. There's only one guy who you can keep and that might not need the extra time in Hamilton like a guy like Dumont could have (who, by the way, still has to gain some strength), is Blunden.
I'm really stunned to hear Martin having so many good words for Engqvist.....I guess those "little things" really work.....
It seems Martin already choose Engqvist for the 4th line center.
This is a tough one, I'd like to see Trotter he has the best overall skill set but he is more suited to a scoring role, they may send him down in order to give him ice time with the thought in mind that he is the first call up when someone gets hurt. Enquivst doesn't do it for me, he is like a bigger but slower tom pyatt, if pyatt coudln't cut it, how is a slower version going to do it? Blunden is probably the best bet, a plug who is used to sitting in the stands for long periods of time and getting beat up
It seems Martin already choose Engqvist for the 4th line center.
Which to me should end the "As if the coach will choose to hate THAT guy or THIS guy for no reasons". No, he doesn't choose to hate a guy. He just prefers others based on what he likes to see. But while he might not hate a guy for the fun of it, he'll concentrate on things he doesn't like if he doesn't fill what he's looking in a player. Martin does not fit the coach profile of "We'll use your strengths and adapt to it", but more a "The game will be as I want it to be, you either choose to do it or not". To each their own type of teaching. He has a favorable opinion on guys that does those little things. Others, while with higher upsides, didn't use to be that great at those little things and were booted out taking their talent elsewhere....So be it. I just believe that in the end, talentwise and potential wise, we lost that way more than we won....Fortunately this year, there's nobody who in the end will be frustrated because a bigger version of Tom Pyatt will end up taking a spot. So that's a relief for this year. And we don't need more distractions than we already have. Let's hope Engqvist uses that chance he has to have a spot without really deserving it and improves from it. For the record, I don't hate Engqvist. Go back to his first camp as a tryout, and I wanted him to be signed. Still think he can help. Just don't think he deserves it 'cause that's all we kept hearing in this board.....That no players should be on board if they don't deserve it...well if it continues that way, one guy will....
However, Habs management has shown in the past that they hate too waive players. Remember how long they kept guys like Garth Murray and Greg Stewart on the roster, even if they were barely playing, because they didn't want to waive them.
Don't forget that in 2010, Pyatt won a spot over White and in 2009 Greg Stewart/Kyle Chipchura won a spot over Sergei Kostitsyn mainly because of "waiver" management.
Engvist is still better than most of other teams 4th liner
A 4th line of Moen-Engqvist-Darche or White is better than most. Is Engqvist really going to hurt us by playing 6 EV minutes a game + 2 or 3 PK minutes. Don't think so at all.
Palushaj and Blunden are not centers. Neither of them kill penalties. (Blunden averaged 7 seconds a game with CBJ). They're going to need to learn how to do both very quickly to get ahead of Engqvist.
These days, 4th liners need to be specialist in something. They play limited minutes in EV and play in PP (Darche in front of the net) and PK (Moen and Engqvist(?)) or can help the team by fighthing some times for teammates (White).
I don't know yet who deserves it but it seems to me that a few of the candidates in the poll have already ruled themselves out unless they show dramatic improvement.
