HF Habs: U18 World Men's Hockey Championship, April 25-May 5

[Whalers Fan]

Eiserman showing us who he has been all year, a player carried by Hagens. Great finisher, no doubt, but I want a lot more from a Top 7 pick.

US NTDP season ticket holder here. I was excited to see how Eiserman would progress this season after an interesting and impressive U17 season last year. He came into this year touted as a potential top 2 overall pick,, but he just has not progressed like I thought he would, and the scouts seem to agree, as he has slid down the draft board. Eiserman seemed at times like he wants to do it alone instead of being part of a team -- he would carry the puck through the neutral zone and deep into the offensive zone, ignoring his teammates, too often. In that respect he reminded me of Ho Sang when he played in the OHL. He can score, but I'm not sure how he'll fit in at higher levels of competition.

When the Habs selected Caufield in his draft year, I was really excited because I thought he had more tools than just the sniper that many here who had only seen highlight videos claimed. With Eiserman, though, I think (and hope) the Habs do better than him with their pick.

 

[SlafySZN]

Ryder Ritchie looks bigger than his listed 6'0, and is another August birthday.

He was injured for a major part of the year so he's pretty underrated coming into the draft

 

[Schooner Guy]

The strength of this Team Canada is really the under-agers who aren't eligible for the upcoming draft. Lots of high end 2007s.

 

[Team_Spirit]

Vinny to Kent; 9 figures net worth and here we are..

Martin to himself; how do I tell TVA the Quebecers suck this year?

Nick to himself; I need more free Skoda merch

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

LOL the ultimate nopotism draft, only selecting players by their family name.

1. Iginla
2. Zetterberg
3. Koivu
4. Satan

Who am I missing?

I am not sure if he is expected to be drafted, but you can add Ewan Huet to this list

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Are McKenna and Bedard really cousins or is that fake news

 

[CaptnNemo]

Are McKenna and Bedard really cousins or is that fake news

Cousin from alliance I've read a while ago. Not a direct cousin.

Y'all feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Twisted Sinister]

Didn't have chance to check these out yet (have them recorded). So did Eiserman play well or badly, with his hattrick?

 

[Hannibal]

How was Iggy jr?

 

[Shred]

Vinny to Kent; 9 figures net worth and here we are..

Martin to himself; how do I tell TVA the Quebecers suck this year?

Nick to himself; I need more free Skoda merch

Lapointe "How do I ask Vinny to join the biceps club?"

Love how Kent gives no f's lol

 

[WeThreeKings]

Expected more from Eiserman Iginla and Helenius today. Let's see how they settle in.

Martone is so f***ing good.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Expected more from Eiserman Iginla and Helenius today. Let's see how they settle in.

Martone is so f***ing good.

Already a huge kid to boot, he'll probably top out at around 6ft4 and 215-ish. He's built for the power game.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

How was Iggy jr?

Watched most of the game. Didn’t notice him at all.

Also, it sucks that we don’t get to see Lidstrom or Catton in these games.

Expected more from Eiserman Iginla and Helenius today. Let's see how they settle in.

Martone is so f***ing good.

Eiserman had a hat trick…

You were expecting five?

 

[Habs7631]

Eiserman had a hat trick…

You were expecting five?

People complaining about 2 things : the way he got his hat trick and how he wasn’t involved elsewhere/didn’t show any thing else other than goal scoring.

I don’t know, didn’t watch the game. But it’s what I’m reading.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

People complaining about 2 things : the way he got his hat trick and how he wasn’t involved elsewhere/didn’t show any thing else other than goal scoring.

I don’t know, didn’t watch the game. But it’s what I’m reading.

Yeah, I saw the goals… it’s still a f***ing hat trick.

 

[BergevinBurner]

Yeah, I saw the goals… it’s still a f***ing hat trick.

I don't get the knock on Eiserman that all he does is score goals. Hockey games are purely decided on which team scores more goals lol.

 

[Andrei79]

I don't get the knock on Eiserman that all he does is score goals. Hockey games are purely decided on which team scores more goals lol.

Really, you don't get the knock ?

Matthews has scored at historic rates in the regular season, which Eiserman won't do, and he gets destroyed for his struggles in the post-season. We're talking about a big center with an all around game. A much more valuable player.

And it's also important to look at goals and see how many actually translate to the NHL. Everything is much, much harder in the NHL and you're expected to bring something other than the one skill. Look at Laine, a bigger body, with better pedigree, more skill and a better shot and Winnipeg couldn't wait to trade him.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

4 games again tomorrow:

7 am: Slovakia vs Latvia (Yeah, not getting up for this one. It's probably not being televised anyway).

8 am: Switzerland vs Kazakhstan (Ditto)

11 am: Finland vs Norway

12 pm: Canada vs Czech Republic (I will be able to watch this game).

 

[CHwest]

I don't get the knock on Eiserman that all he does is score goals. Hockey games are purely decided on which team scores more goals lol.

If you score 10 and allow 12 you don't win. lol

 

[BergevinBurner]

Really, you don't get the knock ?

Matthews has scored at historic rates in the regular season, which Eiserman won't do, and he gets destroyed for his struggles in the post-season. We're talking about a big center with an all around game. A much more valuable player.

And it's also important to look at goals and see how many actually translate to the NHL. Everything is much, much harder in the NHL and you're expected to bring something other than the one skill. Look at Laine, a bigger body, with better pedigree, more skill and a better shot and Winnipeg couldn't wait to trade him.

All the forwards that he's in the mix with have their pros and cons, but imo his cons are all things I can see a good coach ironing out going forward, and his pros are more valuable than the rest of the pack.

Eiserman has already scored at historic rates in one of the best development systems on the planet, sure it'd be fantastic if he was also a shut down defensive player or played a power forward style of game on top of that, but if he did then he wouldn't be on the table in the 5-7 range.

I could easily knock Lindstrom's injury history to the point of saying he shouldn't be in the mix in the top 10, or Catton's size to the same extent. I think doing that would be overkill though due to the upside they have and I view Eiserman in a similar way. He has his warts, but I think they're being overblown in comparison to the other forwards in the 3-10 range.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Really, you don't get the knock ?

Matthews has scored at historic rates in the regular season, which Eiserman won't do, and he gets destroyed for his struggles in the post-season. We're talking about a big center with an all around game. A much more valuable player.

And it's also important to look at goals and see how many actually translate to the NHL. Everything is much, much harder in the NHL and you're expected to bring something other than the one skill. Look at Laine, a bigger body, with better pedigree, more skill and a better shot and Winnipeg couldn't wait to trade him.

Marner gets destroyed. Matthews actually plays decent hockey. No, he doesn’t produce as much in the playoffs as in the regular season but that’s true of most players.

Many guys who were one way players went on to be solid playoff scorers. Brett Hull (soft, one dimensional, poor skater) was one dimensional but still averaged about 50 goals out of every 82 playoff games, same with Bossy. Phil Kessel was a great playoff scorer. All those guys led teams to cups.

 

[Andrei79]

All the forwards that he's in the mix with have their pros and cons, but imo his cons are all things I can see a good coach ironing out going forward, and his pros are more valuable than the rest of the pack.

Eiserman has already scored at historic rates in one of the best development systems on the planet, sure it'd be fantastic if he was also a shut down defensive player or played a power forward style of game on top of that, but if he did then he wouldn't be on the table in the 5-7 range.

I could easily knock Lindstrom's injury history to the point of saying he shouldn't be in the mix in the top 10, or Catton's size to the same extent. I think doing that would be overkill though due to the upside they have and I view Eiserman in a similar way. He has his warts, but I think they're being overblown in comparison to the other forwards in the 3-10 range.

The knocks he has are the ones that lead to players dropping significantly every year. A player who doesnt compete without the puck is a player who's not going to be in the good graces of NHL teams. The reason why NHL teams don't like it is because they're exactly the type of thing that doesn't get ironed out by coaching. They also don't look at pure goal scoring numbers, they look at how they're scored.

 

[26Mats]

I don't get the knock on Eiserman that all he does is score goals. Hockey games are purely decided on which team scores more goals lol.

Because if you give the puck away to other teams and they then score more than you score, you're doing the opposite of helping your team score more goals.

 

[Andrei79]

Marner gets destroyed. Matthews actually plays decent hockey. No, he doesn’t produce as much in the playoffs as in the regular season but that’s true of most players.

Many guys who were one way players went on to be solid playoff scorers. Brett Hull (soft, one dimensional, poor skater) was one dimensional but still averaged about 50 goals out of every 82 playoff games, same with Bossy. Phil Kessel was a great playoff scorer.

You're being all over the place by bringing up Kessel. He's a completely different kind of player who had multiple dimensions to his offense even during his draft year. So did Bossy. Heck, Hull is the closest comparison as a low compete "lazy player" at the time of the draft and he basically proves the point: that's an extreme outlier that comes once every few decades. Nothing any serious scouting team should base themselves on. And Matthews has been the target of harsh criticism for his playoff performance, it's not a matter of opinion, it's a fact.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The knocks he has are the ones that lead to players dropping significantly every year. A player who doesnt compete without the puck is a player who's not going to be in the good graces of NHL teams. The reason why NHL teams don't like it is because they're exactly the type of thing that doesn't get ironed out by coaching. They also don't look at pure goal scoring numbers, they look at how they're scored.

And sometimes a player gets so scrutinized people focus on a grain of sand while ignoring the beach. Mike Bossy dropped for that very reason. Hull was drafted late in the draft. Caufield fell to mid draft…