Prospect Info: 14th Overall - Julius Honka

[BigG44]

IIRC .... I think it was Shapiro on the Athletic that did a pretty excellent video review of how Montgomery used Butler, another smaller offensive D, in Denver. If unleashes Heiskanen and Honka in similar ways and allows them to grow through mistakes ... could be a ton of fun.

 

[WhatWhat]

Yeah Montgomery said zone exits start with the D and should go through the middle of the ice and he like to give the D a bit of freedom to breakout how they like (I assume that means skate it out vs pass it out depending on how they read the play).

That is quite literally a 180 from Hitch who wanted the puck off a stick in 3 seconds and break out up the boards. Gonna make breakouts a little harder for our weaker breakout D (Methot and Lindell) but between Kling, Honka, Johns and Miro we should have 4 D who breakout comfortably quite often

 

[jballa95]

Yeah Montgomery said zone exits start with the D and should go through the middle of the ice and he like to give the D a bit of freedom to breakout how they like (I assume that means skate it out vs pass it out depending on how they read the play).

That is quite literally a 180 from Hitch who wanted the puck off a stick in 3 seconds and break out up the boards. Gonna make breakouts a little harder for our weaker breakout D (Methot and Lindell) but between Kling, Honka, Johns and Miro we should have 4 D who breakout comfortably quite often

I think Methot definitely will need a puck-moving d-man to move the puck up the ice. Lindell I think is limited with his ability skating the puck up the ice but his first breakout pass is good, so I am not too worried. I think the pairs will end up becoming:

Lindell - Klingberg
Heiskanen - Johns
Methot - Honka

While, Heiskanen might not become a top 4 right out of the gate, I don't think it will take long. Methot can cover for Honka, and when and if Methot gets injured - Heatherington or Bayreuther can step in. If Heiskanen really impresses, you could eventually switch him for Lindell. All in all, not a bad young defensive core.