If you haven't heard (Brent Burns news)

[firstroundbust]

I agree for now. But wait three more years. IMO, Minny is going to be a team that plays a smart offensive game before long. They will need a player like Bouchard. I always liked the kid's attitude but he is an even more apt pupil than I ever imagined.

You have probably the advantage of seeing play each and every game. But I like my perspective because sometimes I watch team X and then I only get to watch it again three weeks later. I try to follow al the teams and what I like about it is seeing more drastic differences in the development.

Allow me to go new age a second, but I compare this to seeing a tree grow. If you watch the tree every day, you do not notice it grow. But if you see it only once a year, the differences become more obvious.

To me, this is what is happening to Bouchard. He's really the same player but at the same time everything is more effective, less cute. It could take years but he'll be one of the good ones. Better than Briere is what I expect, so I'm not worried about him being ruined too much.

With Koivu, Gaborik, O'Sullivan, this team will have a couple of offensive weapons in a few years. I don't see any of them missing the big show. Minny will mold them slowly and you're right, the team has an identity as a defensively conscious team. But the Devils did score when needed. It should be a collective offense.

It's the mobility and the ability to play a positional game that will give opponents a hard time. I think Bouchard will eventually excel at it and his playmaking skills will be put to good use in time.

I've never seen Bouchard skating as well as he is right now. It's a big difference from the less powerful, slower and especially shakier skating style he had.

I'd like to add one more thing concerning Burns on this thread: I'm not sure, but I think people forget he was injured two or three times this year. True, he has played 30-something game in the NHL only but when you take into consideration the WJCs, the AHL conditional stint and the injuries, it is more understandable why Burns didn't play more.

I don't think he's been amazing. I don't think the Wild have done a wonderful job with him. But they did sufficiently well under the circumstances. If not for these circumstances, Burns would be closer to 50 games. That's MORE than enough for a young player.

I have never believed in the myth that players need not to be rushed and absolutely have to waste time in the minors or that there is a one true way to bring up players. The reason is simple: It has been proven that it is untrue.

PREACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




ps I thought we were gonna take Mark Stuart too

 

[Bookman]

As for Bouchard, I haven't seen a game in which he's played this year where he didn't make at least one outstanding set-up(about 12 games). But when you're on a line with such notable goal scoring phenoms with the velvet hands like Matt Johnson, Antti Laaksonen, Richard Park, well, most of your best work will be for nought.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Same thing was happening to Smirnov. He was played defense in Cincy for quite a bit.

But if Smirnov went back to forward, I'd like to trade him to whatever team Fleury plays for, if he ever plays again, so they can be on a line. Oh, the irony.

 

[kingsfan]

I can't think of a prospect in recent memory that was brought along worse than Burns currently is.

I take it you have forgotten the prospect named Manny Malholtra?

 

[Rockstar Life]

The only mistake they've made is keeping him at the forward position. Burns is a natural Dman. Even his offense is mostly defensive. He only played HALF of his ONLY season in the major juniors [with Brampton Batallion] as a defensemen. Burns belongs on the blueline. He always did. The Brampton coach saw something offensive in Burns and jumped to a bad conclusion that he should become a forward. Wrong move. He should have let him continue his blueline experience. As Bookman said, nothing wrong with a Dman with a terrific offensive upside. When you consider Burns as that....maybe the #20 pick doesn't look quite so foolish [although there is NO WAY IN HELL he deserved that more than O'Sullivan did]. But if the Wild keep Burns as a forward.. well.....it'll just prove what I've suspected all along,,,they're clueless.

Burns never so much played a shift on the power play as a defencemen in Brampton, never mind half the year. He was drafted to Brampton as a forward who played half a season of defence when he was fifteen. Hardly a natural defenceman.

The idea that his development was better served in the press box then playing on a line with Wojtek Wolski and Kamil Kreps is curious at best, and has been better summarized by others on this thread. While there is little questioning Lemaire's credentials this certainly looked like a move to appease fans while Gaborik and Dupuis held out.