Kesler Vs Umbereger

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Russian_fanatic

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Kesler Vs Umberger

Who would you have on your team? Who would you say will be the better player?

I think Kesler is the better player why? He's a better leader, owns a better all around game(Think Marchmant or Draper), owns better speed, and will be more valuable to his club in the future.
 

Fedz

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Umberger has the talent.
Kesler has the heart.

I think anybody would choose Kesler right now because he's more proven.
 

Russian_fanatic

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Fedz said:
Umberger has the talent.
Kesler has the heart.

I think anybody would choose Kesler right now because he's more proven.

Kesler has talent. He was the 13-16th ranked player in a deep 2003 draft.
 

Mizral

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Russian_fanatic said:
Kesler has talent. He was the 13-16th ranked player in a deep 2003 draft.

Maybe, but he doesn't have Umberger's offensive talents. Kesler is the better prospect for the time being, but Umberger does have the potential to be pretty good too.

Then again, Fedor Fedorov has talent and look where that has got him.
 

Russian_fanatic

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Jay Thompson said:
Maybe, but he doesn't have Umberger's offensive talents. Kesler is the better prospect for the time being, but Umberger does have the potential to be pretty good too.

Then again, Fedor Fedorov has talent and look where that has got him.

Fedor is lazy. Does the same go towards Umberger?
 

TomahawkSniper

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Kesler is better. It would've been nice if Umberger had signed with the nucks. Burke is too strict with prospects. Just over an extra $100,000 or so. :shakehead
 

NYRangers

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Umberger IMO will be one of the prospects who has the talent but doesnt have the heart/desire to suceed.
 

AJ1982

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I think Umberger will be better than Kesler. Umberger has more natural talent and I think the "lack of heart" and "lazy" accusations are more the product of a long hold out than anything based in reality. Heck, IMO, Umberger was better in his freshman year at OSU than Kesler was. I also don't think Kesler's 5 points in 28 NHL games and 11 points in 33 games at the AHL level is too much to be excited about. To me he looks like a 3rd line player. He needs to prove a lot this year, and certainly so does Umberger.
 

TomahawkSniper

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AJ1982 said:
I think Umberger will be better than Kesler. Umberger has more natural talent and I think the "lack of heart" and "lazy" accusations are more the product of a long hold out than anything based in reality. Heck, IMO, Umberger was better in his freshman year at OSU than Kesler was. I also don't think Kesler's 5 points in 28 NHL games and 11 points in 33 games at the AHL level is too much to be excited about. To me he looks like a 3rd line player. He needs to prove a lot this year, and certainly so does Umberger.
Kesler has only just turned 20 and has already played in 28 NHL games. He has shown he can definately handle the NHL. He's fast, gritty, and solid defensively. He has time to improve his offensive number's and it will come with experience.
 

blah

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Umberger looks like he's in great shape. So once he shakes the rust off he could possibly play for the Flyers sometime during the season. A move to LW would likely occur at the NHL level though. Somik or Brashear will probably be the 4th LW in the top 12. Not much to beat out if he impresses in the AHL.
 

nazzy

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Morrison_Rulz said:
Kesler has only just turned 20 and has already played in 28 NHL games. He has shown he can definately handle the NHL. He's fast, gritty, and solid defensively. He has time to improve his offensive number's and it will come with experience.
Do you really think he shown he could handle the NHL last year? No offense as I'm a fellow Canucks fan as well and would like to see our prospects develop as well as they can but in my view, you're being a little too biased here bud.

Solid defensively? What do you call getting caught out of position and taking obstruction penalties when he's in trouble? I saw a lot of that towards of the end of the year..

Gritty? Kesler is tall but still has some major filling out to do on his body. I never saw much of grit at all from Kesler aside from a few light hits here and there that didn't make much of an impact. I'll give him a break on this one since he still has to fill out his frame.

Speed? I can agree with you there, his excellent skating ability is probably the main reason he saw that many games.

But honestly, I think Crawford and the Canucks put him in too many NHL games last year, taking away some more constructive developing time with the Moose. Kesler still needs at least one more year of seasoning in Manitoba in my opinion with the majority of the games played with the Moose.
 

Hunter Gathers

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AJ1982 said:
I think Umberger will be better than Kesler. Umberger has more natural talent and I think the "lack of heart" and "lazy" accusations are more the product of a long hold out than anything based in reality. Heck, IMO, Umberger was better in his freshman year at OSU than Kesler was. I also don't think Kesler's 5 points in 28 NHL games and 11 points in 33 games at the AHL level is too much to be excited about. To me he looks like a 3rd line player. He needs to prove a lot this year, and certainly so does Umberger.

Well he certainly practiced like **** when he did some drills and such for the guys down in Hartford.

He showed no desire there and no desire to be signed.
 

MS

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nazzy said:
Do you really think he shown he could handle the NHL last year? No offense as I'm a fellow Canucks fan as well and would like to see our prospects develop as well as they can but in my view, you're being a little too biased here bud.

Solid defensively? What do you call getting caught out of position and taking obstruction penalties when he's in trouble? I saw a lot of that towards of the end of the year..

Gritty? Kesler is tall but still has some major filling out to do on his body. I never saw much of grit at all from Kesler aside from a few light hits here and there that didn't make much of an impact. I'll give him a break on this one since he still has to fill out his frame.

Speed? I can agree with you there, his excellent skating ability is probably the main reason he saw that many games.

But honestly, I think Crawford and the Canucks put him in too many NHL games last year, taking away some more constructive developing time with the Moose. Kesler still needs at least one more year of seasoning in Manitoba in my opinion with the majority of the games played with the Moose.

This would be almost my exact opinion as well. Yeah, you can see the size/skating combination and the potential there, but I don't think I can ever remember a player so unready for NHL competion seeing so much time on an NHL roster. For about 25 of 28 games, he looked weak as hell, lost almost all his battles for pucks, lost damn near every faceoff, looked scared of handling the puck, and was completely overmatched physically. Then he had 2 or 3 games right at the end of the season where he used his speed better and forechecked more effectively, and Canuck fans started peeing their pants over his development.

The tell-all stat for where Kesler is at right now is that he scored 1 goal in his last 32 AHL games last season. He has *a ton* of development to do at that level before he should be seeing regular NHL duty.
 

TomahawkSniper

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nazzy said:
Do you really think he shown he could handle the NHL last year? No offense as I'm a fellow Canucks fan as well and would like to see our prospects develop as well as they can but in my view, you're being a little too biased here bud.

Solid defensively? What do you call getting caught out of position and taking obstruction penalties when he's in trouble? I saw a lot of that towards of the end of the year..

Gritty? Kesler is tall but still has some major filling out to do on his body. I never saw much of grit at all from Kesler aside from a few light hits here and there that didn't make much of an impact. I'll give him a break on this one since he still has to fill out his frame.

Speed? I can agree with you there, his excellent skating ability is probably the main reason he saw that many games.

But honestly, I think Crawford and the Canucks put him in too many NHL games last year, taking away some more constructive developing time with the Moose. Kesler still needs at least one more year of seasoning in Manitoba in my opinion with the majority of the games played with the Moose.
Maybe I was being too biased. I know that Kesler needs more time in the minors before he'll be a regular though. I said he can handle the NHL, not dominate it. ;) Of course he still needs to learn, but he's doing well already. I know his offense needs work and it will come with experience (not saying it will for sure). He didn't look too out of place with the nucks in most of those games. I think it was against the preds where Cooke, Linden and him put on a show grabbing two goals in the same shift (he got a goal and an assist). He 's only a rookie and the talent and desire is there. He looks to be a very promising prospect. :)
 
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