Valabik's downside

[Fighter]

Future is for BIG, TOUGH stay-at-homers who can fight and pass and hit and shoot but maybe nothing else with the stick. they will have stats like 82. 2+12=14 150pim and +35. It's easy to find a big player but harder to find any skilled ones. Think that!

Yeah, Bouwmesteer, Jackman, Pitkanen, Barker, Suter and so on fit perfectly what you have said

 

[db23]

But Komisarek hasn't done so well at the NHL level yet from what I have seen.

Komo will. He'll be a dominant NHL defenseman within a couple of years.

Valabek was be a good pick as well. The guy was one of the top scoring defencemen at the U18 tournament and made the CHL All Rookie team. He has to have some skill to do that.

 

[dunwoody_joe]

I've seen Valabik and Coburn today.

Valabik is a monster--period. Big, strong, mean and intimidating. All this nonsense about poor skating is just that--nonsense. He can skate fairly well, no Bowmeester, but pretty well for a young monster. He stayed on the ice after practice to work on agility drills including quick starts and bursts. Needs work on the side to side agility but he will pick it up easily, no doubt.

Valabik has a huge wing span and knows how to use it. Good defensive positioning, mostly, with only occasional misreads (on the 2 on 1 situations). Offensively he showed nice tape-to-tape breakout passes and a respectable shot. During 3 on 3 drills he was all over the ice and was throwing his weight around. Drilled a couple of forwards and seemed willing to drop the gloves several times. Rough, tumble and big. I can see why he was the 10th pick. I'm a believer. He still needs time to develop, but 2 years out he's a starter.

Coburn is also huge. Almost as big as Valabik (maybe 1 inch shorter). His positioning is almost flawless. Also a huge wing span and never (at least today) out of position. He is defensively very fluid. On the offense, he is a better skater than Valabik. Quick to join the rush and sharp on the breakout. He is not nearly as rough and tumble as Valabik, but he did lay out some nice checks--effective and efficient, if not vicious. He looks just about ready.

Coburn and Valabik were paired together today and looked like a natural pair. Maybe a #1 pairing in a couple of years? Gotta love the potential.

 

[Buffaloed]

I'm going with Wade Belak as my downside comparison. He was a high pick (#12 overall) and a big, physical player like Valabik. They're both high risk, high reward-type players. I don't think the Cairns and McAllister comparisons hold because they weren't picked so early, so the high risk doesn't apply. Mike Wilson was never very physical so I don't see him as comparable either.

Belak could have become a great dman had he developed better agility; improved coordination, footspeed and acceleration, and last but not least "puck sense" (not to be confused with "puck poise". There's a lot of excellent dmen in the NHL who aren't great skaters and there's a lot of great skaters who never made the cut as NHL dmen. What separates the men from the boys is the mental ability to anticipate the play and the physical ability to react to it. Unless the guy skates like Paul Coffey, he's going to be cleanly beaten if he doesn't anticipate and react correctly within 1-2 seconds. Belak has never been able to develop that part of his game to the point where he's an acceptable dman.