News and Notes XX: The off-season is near, lets go Golfing!

[tarheelhockey]

What about Eetu Luostarinen - 2nd round pick?

Didn't think anything of him TBH. Just a face the crowd.

 

[Breakdowns]

Didn't think anything of him TBH. Just a face the crowd.

That is a pity, let`s hope he can develop back in Finland

 

[CandyCanes]

Very similar viewings for me as Tarheel. But I'd like to add a guy that wasn't on my radar going into today's camp, but caught my attention. That was Matt Filipe. Kid was creating scoring chance after scoring chance in today's scrimmage.

Also it was really hard to pay attention to this scrimmage as I had to refresh twitter every 5 seconds to see what was going on with free agency lol.

 

[GoldiFox]

Gauthier was easily the best in the prospects game for me. Created a ton of chances, used his speed and frame well, and worked hard in all 3 zones.

 

[geehaad]

I only watched the 4-on-4 first period and only zeroed in on a handful of players...I agree with the below:

Roy - I feel like other people see something in this guy that I'm just not seeing.

Elynuik - He has all the attributes of an up and coming NHL'er, but the in-game performance didn't look good at all. He might not be hockey-smart enough to make it.

Others:

Carroll - His play looked "older" than everyone else out there. I was impressed.

Foegele - Had a couple of "breakaway" opportunities that got a rise out of the crowd. If he's playing responsibly to his own end (not sure of this), then his ability to get behind defenders has to be of value.

Smallman - Looked slow and unskilled.

Gauthier - Was definitely noticeable. Didn't do well in control of the puck, but a few times I noticed him before I noticed who he was. That's a good thing.

Necas - Easily the best forward on the ice. He was getting into everything, creating lots of looks, speeding around, controlling the puck along the boards. Though, I'm sure some of his effectiveness is likely due to there being 2 less skaters on the ice during that period...still, he has a lot of puck skill, so it gives me no cause for concern that he'd have difficulty handling in less space.

 

[geehaad]

Gauthier was easily the best in the prospects game for me. Created a ton of chances, used his speed and frame well, and worked hard in all 3 zones.

I would agree with that if he didn't have such difficulty keeping the puck on his stick (during 4-on-4 play).

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Didn't think anything of him TBH. Just a face the crowd.

He had a nice goal on Other Eetu.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Bean looked good to me. Fast, good hands, confident with the puck. Made a couple of slick plays at the point under pressure with no one behind him.

Best thing I saw Necas do today was back checking hard to break up a 2-on-1. Impressed.

 

[NotOpie]

Final thoughts on rookie camp:

Necas - What we're seeing right now is irrelevant IMO. He's not close to being grown into his frame. It'll be 3 years before we see what he's capable of doing.

Gauthier - He's clearly an NHL talent. Big guy with wheels and hands. My concern is the way he thinks the game, and especially his ability to pass and receive passes at speed.

Bean - I was impressed by his performance in the game environment. He's shifty and thinks fast. Still a work in progress but he's a good asset.

Roy - I feel like other people see something in this guy that I'm just not seeing.

Martin - This was the surprise of camp for me. He's a fine skater, thinks the game VERY well, and has good stick skills. Has a great sense for where the offensive lanes are, where to jump in and where to back off, and he controls his gaps nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing him against pros in training camp.

Elynuik - He has all the attributes of an up and coming NHL'er, but the in-game performance didn't look good at all. He might not be hockey-smart enough to make it.

Kuokkanen - It was an up and down camp for him. To me he seems like a player who's more than the sum of his parts. He plays a pro-style game and has a good amount of raw skill. Seems like he has a Jokinen-like upside, and a decent chance of hitting it.

The rest are in over their heads against NHL competition, no need to bag on them but I don't see them making it.

For me, the best player(s) on the ice today were Bean and Necas, followed fairly closely by Foegele and Gauthier. Bean, in my opinion, had his best showing that I've seen. He was confident, shifty as Tarheel said, made several beautiful passes, and the goal he scored was tight. Necas is such a good skater that a lot of everything else he does almost pales in comparison. Foegele is both fast and quick and plays hard ALL THE TIME. They ran out a line of Foegele/Kuokkanen/Mattheos a number of times and it was always dangerous. I see much more upside to Kuokkanen than some, but I agree, he already plays a pro-style game.

I thought Roy actually played pretty well. He had a few nice puck possession plays, but his shot wasn't on. Plus he wasn't always paired with the most skilled guys.

I totally agree on Martin, he was absolutely "shut down" on defense and had a much better offensive awareness than I'd been led to believe and had witnessed earlier in the week.

The other guy who I'll give a serious shout-out to was Eetu Makiniemi. He is one cool customer who is super quick and positionally sound. I believe in the 3 days I only saw 1 or 2 goals scored on him (I'm sure I missed some). The thing that was impressive was his ability to keep the play in view, rarely screened from the puck.

Very similar viewings for me as Tarheel. But I'd like to add a guy that wasn't on my radar going into today's camp, but caught my attention. That was Matt Filipe. Kid was creating scoring chance after scoring chance in today's scrimmage.

Also it was really hard to pay attention to this scrimmage as I had to refresh twitter every 5 seconds to see what was going on with free agency lol.

I was going to add this as well. He's got a pretty decent shot, plays super fast, and seemed strong, working the corners a couple of times always coming away with the puck.

Gauthier was easily the best in the prospects game for me. Created a ton of chances, used his speed and frame well, and worked hard in all 3 zones.

I thought he looked better than he looked all week, but for my money, today Jake Bean was the best player on the ice.

 

[CandyCanes]

I just gotta say we have a pretty solid looking NHL squad right now and we've got a pretty dang impressive prospect pool to along with that. We'll be watching & cheering on some good hockey for years to come.

 

[HisIceness]

I just gotta say we have a pretty solid looking NHL squad right now and we've got a pretty dang impressive prospect pool to along with that. We'll be watching & cheering on some good hockey for years to come.

Agreed. It's been quite a dismal last several years but things have slowly been looking up for the past 2 years. First with the blue-line, and now with the prospects in our system. This summer, I'm as excited as I've ever been.

I just hope more folks who were fans but left during the dark days will return. And hopefully, the team will finally play past the regular season.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I agree on Felipe. He showed the same things today that he showed in drills the other day. Good offensive instincts, plenty of skill. I don't quite see a future NHL'er there, but he could be a nice add in Charlotte.

Other Eetu.

We've got to straight this Eetu situation out.

I propose we refer to the goalie as E1 and the skater as E2.

 

[NotOpie]

I agree on Felipe. He showed the same things today that he showed in drills the other day. Good offensive instincts, plenty of skill. I don't quite see a future NHL'er there, but he could be a nice add in Charlotte.

We've got to straight this Eetu situation out.

I propose we refer to the goalie as E1 and the skater as E2.

One other guy who showed well all week, but didn't get much time in the scrimmage is Max Zimmer. Dude can fly and has a very nice shot. Thing I noticed about him, though, is his very slick passing ability.

 

[geehaad]

I propose we refer to the goalie as E1 and the skater as E2.

Don't those terms already exist in our lexicon, and they aren't good?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I agree on Felipe. He showed the same things today that he showed in drills the other day. Good offensive instincts, plenty of skill. I don't quite see a future NHL'er there, but he could be a nice add in Charlotte.




We've got to straight this Eetu situation out.

I propose we refer to the goalie as E1 and the skater as E2.

But they're both E2. That's the problem, you see.

Maybe it's E2A and E2B.

 

[A Star is Burns]

From what I saw in between free agent things, I agree with lots of observations that have been thrown out there on who looked good. But it's tough to judge guys on a scrimmage and a style of play that isn't particularly what they experience in a typical hockey game. I would think Roy for instance would be much less likely to shine in format like this. But there was a lot of good things on display for what this type of thing is.

 

[Bub]

But they're both E2. That's the problem, you see.

Maybe it's E2A and E2B.

E2L and E2M

 

[Unsustainable]

It's Lone Star and the other Eetu

 

[Lempo]

I can't believe this is an actual issue in a two Sebastian Ahos league.

Eetul, Eetum. Dolor sit amet.

[imagine CI doing some Undertaker **** at this space]

 

[Unsustainable]

I can't believe this is an actual issue in a two Sebastian Ahos league.

Eetul, Eetum. Dolor sit amet.

[imagine CI doing some Undertaker **** at this space]

Finwanese should be 2nd language around here

 

[tarheelhockey]

We should draft some kid named Erik Stall.

 

[Unsustainable]

We should draft some kid named Erik Stall.

We did draft Erik Karlsson the following year.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And the off-brand version of Justin Falk.

 

[Roboturner913]

Personally I'm still holding out hope for Erik Stahl and Eric Coal

 

[HisIceness]

We did draft Erik Karlsson the following year.

That was JR realizing he ****ed up 4 years earlier.