Prospects, and the future of the NHL

losing Dougie is awful. adding Rinaldo hurts even more and Im not sure why.

 

It hurts because it's so fucking terrible.

Just think, with Beleskey, Rinaldo, and JHayes alone, you're almost gauranteed to have 2 players on the ice in places they shouldn't be.

 

They are expanding the Boston penalty box as we speak. A tri-level or something.

 

long overdue for expansion.

 

lol.

 

Thats a 'B' hive.

 

It's down to three cities that will host the IIHF 2018 WJC Tourney: Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Tampa and Chicago got eliminated.

I do not know how much influence the NHL has on this decision, but they have to be rooting for Pittsburgh. Having a prestigious international event in town would add luster to the Pens' sale. As it is, they're a very formidable and worthy candidate. The new hockey center deserves global attention - even more so as it is connected to Pitt Medical.

Buffalo's strength is also their weakness; they hosted the 2011 WJC. That was pretty recent for a city not named Toronto or Montr?al. On the other hand, that was an extremely successful tourney.

I won't comment on STL's prospects of getting the tourney other than that I think it's PIT's to lose.

 

I think that Buffalo's greatest strength is their proximity to Canada. They'll sell out the Slovak/ Czech game, no way St Louis does. Boston had a hard time in '96. I think North Dakota also struggled to fill all the games fairly recently. Just off of my memory, I could be wrong.
US needs Canada for a successful WJC.

 

I have a feeling that the Canadian border thing can be used against Buffalo in Pittsburgh's sales pitch. "We need to show the world that the US Hockey does not need Canada to be successful". Something to that effect.

Obviously I would be delighted if Buffalo is awarded the WJC. Hell, maybe we can have a L4S conflab when that happens - the wings will be on me! I just think the stars are aligned to bring the tourney to PIT.

 

They also have devices that can track skating to gauge speed and how each player skates each shift. I wouldn't be surprised if there's software to track video of other teams' players to see how fast and/or how efficient a player is on his skates. You could see how smart Suter is, how OV lags to a line change, or how quickly Kopitar can back check just by having tenth of a second intervals strung together for a large sample size.

I wonder who uses it. There's so many fun toys going into the game, like all the other pro sports, I just don't see or read much about how, when, and if they're used.

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/all-nhl-arenas-will-have-walk-through-metal-detectors/

I wonder how much they have to fluff Gary and Bill to get that contract.
Time to sell see through bags like Roger!!!

 

did u just call roger a see thru bag? and here i thought cutter hated gary.

 

Yours for the low, low price of 3x what it costs without a logo CVS or Walgreens...as long as you buy it through NFL.com. If the NFL is going to spend on security, they're going to nickel and dime you every chance they can...Gary took notes.

 

There's a guy on the Sabres SBNation (Die By The Blade) board that I think is real good; I rank him up with the best I've read for draft rankings. His name is T McGee, and there's someone else I know with a similar name that knows a thing or two about hockey.

In any case, this is his 2016 draft rankings:

ROUND 1:
#1: Auston Matthews, RC, SWZ
#2: Patrick Chychrun, LD, OHL
#3: Patrik Laine, RW, FIN
#4: Matt Tkachuk, LW, OHL
#5: Dimitri Sokolov, LW, OHL
#6: Jesse Puljujarvi, RW, FIN
#7: Max Jones, RW, OHL
#8: Mike McLeod, C, OHL
#9: Logan Brown, C, OHL
#10: Kieffer Bellows, C, USHL
#11: Julien Gauthier, RW, QMJHL
#12: Alex Nylander, W, OHL
#13: Dante Fabbro, RD, BCHL
#14: Olli Juolevi, LD, OHL
#15: Kale Clague, LD, WHL
#16: Tyson Jost, C, BCHL
#17: Mikhail Sergachov, LD, OHL
#18: Chad Krys, LD, NCAA
#19: PL Dubois, LW, QMJHL
#20: Sam Steel, C, WHL
#21: Carl Grundstrom,LW, SWE
#22: Tyler Benson, LW, WHL
#23: Jake Bean, LD, WHL
#24: Tim Gettinger, W, OHL
#25: Jacob Cederholm, RD, SEL
#26: Rasmus Asplund, LW, SWE
#27: Charlie MacAvoy, RD, NCAA
#28: Brett Howden, C, WHL
#29: Sean Day, LD, OHL
#30: Jacob Movarare, LD, SWE
ROUND 2:
#31: Riley Tufte, RW, NCAA
#32: Markus Niemilainen, LD, OHL
#33: Clayton Keller, C, NCAA
#34: Ondrej Vala, LD, WHL
#35: Travis Barron, LW, CHL
#36: Zach Sawchenko, G, WHL
#37: Luke Green, LD, QMJHL
#38: Dillon Dube, C, WHL
#39: Evan Fitzpatrick, G, QMJHL
#40: Evan Sarthou, G, WHL
#41: Simon Stransky, LW, WHL
#42: Jordan Kyrou, C, OHL
#43: Nick Pastujov, LW, USNTDP
#44: Jonathan Dahlen, C/W, SWE
#45: Max Lajoie, RD, WHL
#46: Vitali Abramov, W, QMJHL
#47: Tarmo Reunanen, LD, FIN
#48: Beck Melentsyn, C, OHL
#49: William Fallstrom, C/LW, SWE
#50: Libor Hajek, LD, WHL
#51: Luke Kunin, C, NCAA
#52: Brandon Saigeon, C, OHL
#53: Victor Mete, LD, OHL
#54: Adam Mascherin, C, OHL
#56: Filip Gustavsson, G, SWE
#57: Tobias Eder, W, GER
#58: Ryan Lindgren, LD, USNTDP
#59: Alex DeBrincat, C, OHL
#60: NA Popageuyev, W, RUS
ROUND 3:
#61: German Rubtsov, F, RUS
#55: Eetu Tuulola, RW, FIN
#62: Carter Hart, G, WHL
#63: Patrick Bajkov, W, WHL
#64: Jake Kryski, C, WHL
#65: Sam Duggan, C/W, SWE
#66: Vlad Kuznetsov, LW, QMJHL
#67: Jaeger White, C, WHL
#68: Joey Anderson, F, USNTDP
#69: Andrew Peeke, RD, USHL
#70: Cliff Pu, C, OHL
#71: Janne Kuokkanen, LW, FIN
#72: Jeff De Wit, C, WHL
#73: Logan Stanley, LD, OHL
#74: Linus Lindstrom, C, SWE
#75: Sahvan Khaira, RD, WHL
#76: Cam Dineen, LD, OHL
#77: Sam Girard, D, QMJHL
#78: Trent Frederic, C, USNTDP
#79: Will Bitten, C, OHL
#80: Anthony Salintri, LW OHL
#81: Taylor Raddysh, RW, OHL
#82: Otto Somppi, C, QMJHL
#83: Jacob Sjevstrup-Schmidt, W, USHS
#84: Daniel Marmalind, G, SWE
#85: Marek Hecl, RW, SVK
#86: Igor Kabanov, RW, QMJHL
#87: Dylan Couglan, RD, WHL
#88: Oliver Felixson, LD, QMJHL
#89: Jonathan Ang, C, OHL
#90: Tye Felhaber, C, OHL
HM:
Dmitri Alexseyev, LD, RUS
William Alestam, G, SWE
Mitchell Matson, C, USHS
Willie Knierim, RW, USHL
Givani Smith, LW, OHL
Griffin Luce, LD, USNTDP
Nathan Bastian, C, OHL
Otto Makinen, C, FIN
Kristians Rubins, LD, LTV
Cam Morrison, LW, NCAA

http://www.diebytheblade.com/2015/9/25/9397295/aapg-and-top-100

 

I was just reading McKenzie's post of the top 15.
Presented in BOOYAH! fashion and visuals.

http://www.tsn.ca/elite-prospect-matthews-tops-mckenzie-s-ranking-1.364099

Only really big difference, as if it matters in September, is that McGee's list has Sokolov in the top 5 and McK has him at 12.

 

I had just downloaded the TSN report but had not read it yet. One thing I like about T McGee is that he is not afraid to go against the grain when it comes to his rankings. If he does not like a prospect he does not leave any doubt about it.

Obviously this is September so a lot will change over the next nine months. Still, it's good to get a jump on the draft outlook. That's especially true now that the draft lottery will select the top three teams, and not just the number one seed. Even teams that just missed out on the playoffs have a decent chance of moving into the top three.

Arizona is going to really try to get the first pick. First, they need a C, and second, Matthews is a local kid. Too bad that the last place team could easily find themselves drafting #4 in June.

 

That's why I appreciate all the rankings. While he's going to have his biases, at least they'll be different ones. I don't watch these players play outside of rare US televised OHL games or the junior tournaments.

 

Garth sends Michael Dal Colle back to Oshawa.

 

Does this make STL the frontrunner for the '18 WJC? I kinda felt PIT was the frontrunner, with BUF as my semimental preference. I forget what city is the fourth still in contention.