Atlanta/ Valabik?????

[trahans99]

Can anyone tell me why Atlanta would waste there #10 pick on this big, tall baboon. I've already posted a few other messages on this guy last year telling everyone this guy shouldn't be picked in the first round. Atlanta had done a good job in the prior drafts so I was shocked that they were the team dumb enough to think Valabik will become Zdeno Chara.

Has anyone seen this kid play recently? Once again the London Knights exposed him as being nothing but a big and slow!!!! Corey Perry put a move on him that made him look like a 12 year old boy!! Yes thats right, Perry deked him out of his pants just 1:23 into the OHL season and roofed it past the KW goalie.

I'm also guessing that Valabik was happy to see referee Steve Webb save his a*s by giving Prust a game misconduct for slew footing (when he did not slew foot the guy, replays prove that). I'm sure others know what Prust did to that giant, he knocked him flat on his back in a fight (prust is 5'10)!!!!

All I can say is I look forward to the Knights continuing dominating the OHL and escpecially Valabik, they expose him for what is truly is NOTHING!!!

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[littleHossa]

Atlanta seems to draft players based on their main strenghts and they go from there, Valabik's main strengh is size and they think he can round up the rest to make the NHL. They usually try to draft someone who really excells in 1 area and can learn the others.

 

[trahans99]

Atlanta seems to draft players based on their main strenghts and they go from there, Valabik's main strengh is size and they think he can round up the rest to make the NHL. They usually try to draft someone who really excells in 1 area and can learn the others.

That sounds pretty true but I have thought for the longest time that Valabik will never make the NHL. I don't think Valabik will round out the rest of his game.

 

[leafaholix*]

If Chara was a #5/6 defenseman in the NHL, Valabik wouldn't have gone that high.

 

[Hunter74]

With a defenseman that size i dont blame them for takeing a chance. If he doesn't develope very well this year they always have the option to trade him while his stock is still pretty high.

From what I have read in Atlanta is that he has really impressed them with his game. We'll see what happens in regards to his development.

Prust is awsome.

Go Knights Go

 

[NYR469]

the problem with the valabik/chara comparision is that people see that and expect valabik to play like the norris-caliber chara of this year. find some tapes of chara back when he was in juniors or first started in the nhl. he sucked. he was big and clumsy and other then his size you wondered why he would even be on the ice...

but then over the years, chara got stronger, his skating drastically improved, he got smarter as a dman, etc until you get what you see now...

chara at 18 was very similar to valabik at 18, but chara made huge strides to get to where he is now...whether or not valabik can do the same is yet to be seen.

 

[NYR469]

If Chara was a #5/6 defenseman in the NHL, Valabik wouldn't have gone that high.

if chara was a 5/6 dman then no one would have used him as a comparision because then he'd be in the same group as a someone like cory cross.

 

[#2]

I think Valabik will make the NHL as a #4 or 5 dman.. I think he'll put up limited numbers around the 12-15pt range.. He kind of reminds me of Alexei Semenov on the Edmonton oilers,with more of an offensive upside(IMO). Valabik will most likely not take on the road of Chara as many hope, Chara was ASS when he first started but is now a rare commodity with a combination of size and scoring ability because of Hard Hard work. I think the Atlanta Thrashers drafted Valabik in hope that they can teach him all the skills needed to become a great defenseman, they saw a 6-7 monster and thought they have done well with recent prospects and can hopefully mold him nicely.

 

[HuskyFlames]

I think Valabik will make the NHL as a #4 or 5 dman.. I think he'll put up limited numbers around the 12-15pt range.. He kind of reminds me of Alexei Semenov on the Edmonton oilers,with more of an offensive upside(IMO). Valabik will most likely not take on the road of Chara as many hope, Chara was ASS when he first started but is now a rare commodity with a combination of size and scoring ability because of Hard Hard work. I think the Atlanta Thrashers drafted Valabik in hope that they can teach him all the skills needed to become a great defenseman, they saw a 6-7 monster and thought they have done well with recent prospects and can hopefully mold him nicely.

So if Chara was able to improve from being a very terrible player when drafted how come this kid can't? I think you are prematurely cutting him short. At the start of Chars career could you have said he would have been a #1 defenseman? Nope! The kid was JUST drafted and yet you are bsically saying he has no chance to being a top 4 defenseman. Cause in reality Val and Chara are very similar at the ages of 18. So my question is why can't Val improve? I am not saying that he will be a Chara but limiting him to a 4-5 defenseman is kidna cutting this kid short and not giving him a chance.

 

[Levitate]

because the odds are against him really...chara managed to turn his game into something real good, but if all 6'7+ defensemen could do that then they'd be taken #1 overall all the time. chara is kind of an anomoly IMO...not that players can't work hard and really improve, but it's not easy to do and not common that someone who flat out sucks can work hard enough to become a top player

basically, just cuz chara did it, that has no bearing in any way at all on whether valabik can do it. chara is chara, valabik is valabik...different players, ones success does not indicate success for the other in any way. no way whatsoever you can make any kind of reasonable link IMO

 

[Stammer Time*]

So if Chara was able to improve from being a very terrible player when drafted how come this kid can't?

For every Zdeno Chara there are 10 Kristian Kudrocs.

 

[Kubera55]

basically, just cuz chara did it, that has no bearing in any way at all on whether valabik can do it. chara is chara, valabik is valabik...different players, ones success does not indicate success for the other in any way. no way whatsoever you can make any kind of reasonable link IMO

Oh, I don't know that you can't make ANY reasonable correlation. What Chara proves is largely the same thing that Derian Hatcher, Chris Pronger, and a host of other defensemen prove: Size Matters.

Chara is probably the most dominant defenseman in the NHL today. But is he the best? Is he the fastest? The smartest? The most-skilled? Most-versatile? Best endurance? Of course not. Even today, after years and years of hard work his skating is awkward at best. Smaller, quicker players can still give him fits, and he screens his goalie from the red-line in.

BUT, as a result of his incredible size and mean-streak, he's possibly the most intimidating player in the league. A walking, talking, crease clearing bull-dozer who even the toughest PF's in the league can't go through. He can go down low on the PP and cause havoc, he can use his reach to control a tremendous amount of real estate without taking a step. All as a result of being 6'9".

Now, clearly, not all big players are good players *cough, Chris McAllister, Steve McKenna, and so on*. But as they say, you cannot teach size. Valabik has it, and the attitude and at least allegedly the athleticism to make use of it. Whether or not his work ethic and hockey smarts ever develop enough to make him a viable NHL defenseman is wide open question. But he's already got something 75% of the league would kill for, size and strength.

This is why teams are always willing to take a shot on a big guy who can skate. Look at the Rangers own Lee Falardeau, or a host of defenseman league wide (Cory Cross, Mike Wilson, the afore-mentioned-Chris-McAllister) who are clearly demi-skilled guys at best, but who hang around the NHL far longer than their smaller and shorter bretheren.

In today's NHL, size is king. And if Valabik can capatalize on his. . . well then Atlanta will look like geniuses.

 

[Amen evil king]

Atlanta seems to draft players based on their main strenghts and they go from there, Valabik's main strengh is size and they think he can round up the rest to make the NHL. They usually try to draft someone who really excells in 1 area and can learn the others.

This guy hit the nail on the head..

Valabik is only 18, he's got plenty of time to sort his weaknesses out.

As to why Atlanta would 'waste their #10 pick on this big, tall baboon', heres what our GM had to say:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospect.php?pid=3903

Valabik obviously is a guy we had our eye on for a long time. We really felt we needed that another big physical player back there on defense to protect our young players. He’s a great kid. I give him a lot of credit coming over here to North America as a Slovak player, not speaking English. He’s a real high character player.

He brings so much to the table with his size and reach. He might be OK in another two years to play for the team. The guy they compare him to is Chara at his age, they think he’s further ahead with skating and all that. We have a good history with this player, we liked him there (in Slovakia). Every time he went on the ice in Slovakia last year he’d get a penalty because of the way he played. He had to come to North America. It was the best move he made.

EDIT: added link

 

[puckstopper101]

Can anyone tell me why Atlanta would waste there #10 pick on this big, tall baboon.

Valabik is not a baboon. he's a tough player with a lot of potential in my mind. I can imagine that a lot of people don't like him because he's so rough but, in my mind, the thrashers need an enforcer and that's what valabik is. i saw him at prospect camp and he didn't look so bad to me.

 

[puckstopper101]

All as a result of being 6'9".


Valabik's 6'7"

 

[Hunter74]

Some people give little credit to scouting reports and teh scouting work GM's and there scouting staff dow when looking at drafting a big player like Valabik. Obviously they just arent gonna draft him 10th overall if he is just some lumbering moron who can do anything except be big. Someone said for every Chara there are at least 10 Kristian Kudrocs. yeah thats true but you can say that about small guys, skill guys and whatever type of player. So obviously if a team is gonna blow a high pick on a defenseman this size they better have done there homework on him.

Personally I think Atlanta has done there homework on this kid and he will turn out to be a real cornerstone for them in teh future.

 

[Amen evil king]

All as a result of being 6'9".

Valabik's 6'7"

He can still grow..

 

[trahans99]

Once again Valabik proved me right today: HE SUCKS AGAINST the LONDON KNIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had 5 penalties and him and Heshmatapour pretty much gave London the game taking 9 penalties combined and the majority were just plain dumb plays. I agree that Valabik has size and a mean streak in him, BUT he doesn't know how to use it to his advantage.

 

[Hunter74]

Once again Valabik proved me right today: HE SUCKS AGAINST the LONDON KNIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had 5 penalties and him and Heshmatapour pretty much gave London the game taking 9 penalties combined and the majority were just plain dumb plays. I agree that Valabik has size and a mean streak in him, BUT he doesn't know how to use it to his advantage.

Well obvioulsy he doens't know how to use all his assets to there full potential. He's a junior player whos 18 not a NHLer whos 27.

Glad the Knights kicked @ss, it was 5-0 last i checked i think.

 

[Bileur]

All as a result of being 6'9".


Valabik's 6'7"

He was talking about Chara,

IMO its stupid to debate whether or not he'll be a Chara type guy, simply because we dont know if he has Chara's crasy work ethic. The guy studies for his classes he takes to become a "credited Financial planner" after he comes home from games/road trips. He's nuts. His summer work-out regiment is crasy too, Havlat tried to work out with him last year and didnt last a week, he couldnt keep up.

IF Valabik has Chara's work ethic then its okay to say there is no reason he cant turn out to be like Chara but if he doesent then its not really an acceptable comparison at all.

 

[dunwoody_joe]

I'm a big Waddell fan and will cut him and Dan Marr slack on the Valabik choice for a while. Whether the logic and reasoning that went into the choice proves to be accurate will be seen within two years. If they drafted him only because of Chara--then we're in trouble. But I suspect this was a reasoned decision.

But the issue is who could have the club drafted instead at number 10. These are the guys DW could have taken instead: Lauri Tukonen, A.J. Thelen, Drew Stafford, Wojtek Wolski, Andrej Meszaros and Rob Schremp.

As I was watching the draft, I would have wagered that DW was about to select Thelen. So for me, Valabik should outperform Thelen over his career to make this choice a good one!

We'll see.

 

[kingsforever]

wow all this knight talk for a team that could only get the memorial cup by hosted it lol i would save your breath

 

[trahans99]

wow all this knight talk for a team that could only get the memorial cup by hosted it lol i would save your breath

Are you kidding me???? what other team would have been more appropriate to host this tournament? The knights broke the OHL record in points, narrowly missed out on OHL crown last season, best arena and fans and had almost there whole team returning this year. So you wanna talk about how they are getting to host the tourney? Theres many reasons and again are rated #1 in country and beat a solid #7 team in country 5-2. I am still willing to bet the knights win the OHL and earn there mem cup....even though they don't need to.

 

[Levitate]

Oh, I don't know that you can't make ANY reasonable correlation. What Chara proves is largely the same thing that Derian Hatcher, Chris Pronger, and a host of other defensemen prove: Size Matters.

no, you can't make a correlation between chara's success and valabik...what you did is make a correlation between their skillset. but just because they're both big and one of them happened to be successful has absolutely no bearing on whether the other will be successful.

valabik could be big, use his size...but still just suck in the NHL. size matters but it's not enough to make you an elite NHL player...it's not enough to even make you a fringe NHL player.

 

[TJF]

wow all this knight talk for a team that could only get the memorial cup by hosted it lol i would save your breath

London deserves to host the memorial cup this year, their a great team, with probably the best junior arena in the all of the CHL. You make is seem like London completly choked last year, they did set the OHL record for most points in a season, swept their first two rounds of the playoffs and lost in the semi's againt the Guelph Storm in 7 games, Guelph did only finish a few points behind the Knights in the regular and had a much more veteran squad but when the playoffs started last year, everyone knew it would be a battle between London and Guelph and it was.

Now as for London only getting into a the memorial cup by hosting it, you shouldn't really talk, being from Ottawa I assume your a 67's fan and wasn't it just like 4 or 5 years ago that Ottawa won the memorial cup despite losing in the 2nd round of the OHL playoffs. Luckily they were the host city so they were still able to play for the memorial cup and eventually won it, I'm sure you were cheering than so no need to be bitter.