I can't find anything about Kopitar being a bad skater during his draft year.
People also had concerns with Monahan's skating, but only because it was average.
I've seen Draisaitl's skating described anywhere from below average to bad.
Kopitar:
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Big, strong Slovenian born player who spent the 04-05 season in Sweden with Sodertalje. Good skater but could use some more first-step quickness. Excellent over all skill level. Has good size and fine tools. Excellent understanding of the game, good positional player. Has a good shot, can score in many ways. Smooth hands, effective at face offs. Good, hard working competitor with excellent attitude. Has the size but do still need muscle and strength.
Quote:
According to the NHL's Central Scouting Service, Kopitar is a big, strong forward who moves well for his size. He has good straight-forward speed but could improve on first-step quickness. He has an excellent overall skill level and an excellent understanding of the game. He has a good selection of shots and can score in many ways.
Best forward on his team for the last seven years....not even close.
I agree he is the best forward on the Kings but he is not top 4 in the NHL he is 7th at best
I agree with those about Drasaitl's skating being a big concern. Personally I was hoping he would look amazing in this tournament to solidify his position in the top 3 but all I have read is his skating has been noticeably terrible.
I don't think Draisaitl is a consensus top 5 pick, regardless of whether he's on the cover of THN.
I want Draisaitl to be great, and I think he's probably going to be who we pick, so I'm not rooting against him. Just some concerns in a weak draft.
In the end, whomever this teams scouting staff feels has the highest upside that's who we should pick. If we are suddenly picking a lesser player because we feel the chances of that guy busting are smaller we are in trouble. Developement is as important as drafting, and a prospect that needs work shouldn't be enough to scare away a franchise whose goal is to win the cup. We can't be afraid of failure.
We already have a bigger, average skating center to build around. If it's between Draisaitl or Dal Colle at #4, for me it's MDC all the way.
Hopefully one of the SAMs drop to us though.
Need to be greedy with centers though. If there is a tie I'd go with Draisatl. Honestly though, like both players.
I'm pretty bad with judging guys speed unless they're on either end of the spectrum, horrible or blazing, but I haven't noticed Draisatl being slow, when a guy is effective in his skating that's what matters most, and he's effective.
What do you consider "talent"? I've always thought that skating ability (including speed) was under the talent umbrella.
Either way, things like hockey intelligence can go a long way to overcome slowrt footspeed. Conversely, a burner that's dumb isn't much good (eg. Fata). Although, at 4th overall you'd like to see a guy that has both speed and IQ.
To me talent is puck skills both in terms of when it's on their stick and when it's not. Are they in the right areas to give and receive passes and make shots, how hard do they shoot, how quick they get it off, how good their passing is, and their overall creativity.
Things like hockey IQ, speed and size to me are the tools that facilitate the talent. Hockey IQ is different than positioning, because you need to know how plays will develop and react before the play develops. Two examples of the difference are Cheechoo (when he was good) and Gaudreau. Cheechoo knew he needed to go to X to receive a pass and score courtesy of Joe Thornton. Gaudreau is different because he seems like he is five steps ahead of everyone.
That's why a player can be "less skilled" and be the better player. With the Sams, Bennett has a little more raw skill than Reinhart, but because Reinhart is so cerebral, he makes up for that and is more dangerous in my opinion.
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John Tavares looked like he was skating in quicksand the first time I saw him play an NHL preseason game. He turned out ok.
I would rather have one of Reinhart, Benett, or Ekblad only because they are always listed as the top 3 by scouts but I wouldn't be disappointed in Draisaitl either.
Sam Reinhart gets knocked for his skating as well.
Edit: he's a good guy, and watches a lot of hockey, but he's not an expert. He's a fan. I'm not saying he's wrong, just saying his opinions hold about the same weight as any other fan who watches WHL hockey.
Last edited by The Fonz; 05-13-2014 at 10:43 PM.
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That's the reason why I've been leaning MDC/Ehlers because both of them are quite fast MDC is only above average, where Ehlers is a burner.
After talent, size and speed are the two most important things. In this case, both talent and size are not a factor (MDC is taller than Draisaitl and they are close talent wise (I think MDC has the edge there too)), speed is the determiner for me and MDC is a burner compared to Draisaitl.
Add in the only advantage that Draisaitl has is he's a center and that might go away as well, yeah go with MDC.
Is position really only the only advantage Draisaitl has over Dal Colle though?
If that were the case wouldn't Dal Colle be ranked ahead of Draisaitl in more scouting rankings, and thus included more in the conversation of the supposed 'Top 4' heading into this draft?
'Talent' is quite vague - style of play and hockey sense are also huge factors in what makes a better player, and from what I've read in scouting reports Draisaitl's ability to play a cycle game along the boards and hockey sense are both impressive (I don't know if they are better than Dal Colle's, of course)
I like both players and would be happy with either of them, but I feel like there are aspects of Draisaitl's game you are missing in your evaluation.
Two things are concerning for me of Draisaitl... he's not a greater skater, slow, and has questionable compete level. Also, if he's not producing in the offensive zone, he's invisible and generally floats around a lot.
From what I've seen in past drafts is that players that are more filled out seem to get overrated a bit in the rankings. It's like how you saw McIlrath and Morin get drafted early because they are huge D-men even though the rest of there game was lacking. Similarly, the rankings tend to prefer center's over wingers slightly because that's a lot more difficult of a position to play and most teams need centers.
MDC is only like 170, where Draisaitl is 210. That also enables Draisaitl to push on guys, which he will have issues with in the NHL when he goes up against the Regehr type guys. Kopitar is able to be successful doing that because he's 6-4 230, Draisaitl is 6-1 or 6-2, so it's not quite as likely to be successful.
MDC is more of a finesse playmaker with a good shot that jumps in and out of the play than a guy who bulls through people on the way to the net, but it's not like he's a pushover either. He could develop that as he fills out. He does shoot quite a bit too, so it's not like he's always looking to pass like Tanguay.
It's not like Draisaitl is garbage, the difference in abilities between them is slight overall, my preference is due in part to preferring faster players and those that are more projectable. With Draisaitl already being filled out, there's not really a ton of room for him to grow physically. MDC could likely add 40, maybe even 50 pounds between now and his likely veteran NHL playing weight, which will bump him to 210-220 (He has broad shoulders, so he's not likely going to be slight).
Really I would be thrilled with any of the top 6. They all are very good in their own ways, because they are extremely different.
You have
Monahan --> Reinhart
Matt Duchene --> Bennett
Kopitar --> Draisaitl
Bigger more physical Tanguay/Simon Gagne --> Dal Colle (there's not a bang on comparison from what I've seen)
Plus Ehlers.
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FWIW Zenon Herasymiuk (scout for Future Considerations) says Draisaitl finished ahead of Renihart for the on ice testing at the CHL's top prospects game.
Phase 1 consists of a 30-meter sprint and reaction test to evaluate an athlete's forward and backward acceleration and speed. The tests are completed with and without the puck to challenge the athlete in fundamentals of skating and puck control.
Phase 2 consists of a weave agility to demonstrate an athlete's forward acceleration and ability to maintain speed while performing multi-directional movement. The prospects will be instructed to perform this drill once while controlling a puck and once without it.
Phase 3 is the transition agility test, which evaluates an athlete's directional transitions between forward and backward skating. The exercise calls for players to follow a figure-eight pattern around four flags.
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There's a player that I've found while researching my Euro week articles that I think could be a solid pick in the 3rd round. RW Juho Lammikko, he's a 6-2 RW who's fast and has some slick hands. He had 42 pts in 37 games, for comparison Granlund had 52 in 40 in his draft year, but Lammikko also played 20 games in the mens league. Of all the European forwards outside the first round, the two that I like the most are Jakub Vrana and Lammikko. Either would be solid with our 3rd's
Here's a couple short vid's on Lammikko (one's a penalty shot, the other is him capitalizing on a rebound)
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When I think of a hockey players skill, I think of
speed,
passing,
shooting,
body checking,
how to take a hit,
how to avoid a hit,
fighting,
back checking,
protecting the puck, etc.
These are all part of the game and should all be considered. Skill isn't just the flashy parts of the game.
scouting reports on players should look like ea nhl 14 player attribute screens, complete with star and colour coding to indicate ceiling and likelyhood of reaching potential
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