As usual there's some thing in those reports that I just don't agree with, the major one is your opinion on Goldobin's defense. There is no question it needs some work but I don't think his skating is an issue at all, effort could be.
It's pretty well know how much I dislike player comparisons but because you referenced Garbutt when talking about Rod I thought I'd make an exception. I've watched him just a bit and asked around and the one player I keep coming back to with him is Antoine Roussel.
In this draft the Sharks went (pretty far) off the board with both of their 2nds and managed to get players that were ranked quite a bit higher with their later 3rd, 4th and 5th. All around a great draft for SJ.
1. Well I did say, "
Some of it has to do with his skating, an area that many Sharks prospects struggle with,
but most of it has to do with effort". Now on the skating front, I spoke to 3 professional scouts about him--and skating came up every time. From the games I've seen, including live at the top prospects game, I gotta agree there. He loses a lot of edges, and looks a bit slow out there even on breakaways. I don't think it's a huge issue, but I do think it's something he struggles with and part of the reason he fell that far into the draft with his kind of offensive skills.
2. I thought the same thing at first haha! No joke! However, another man I spoke with over email from Switzerland, specifically said he reminded him of Ryan Garbutt the way he crashed the net and got into players heads. One thing I think makes him his own player is, Rod doesn't have a super mean demeanor, and the stuff he says on the ice is pretty PG (Burish was like that too)--I've heard Roussel and he can sure swear and say some stuff lol. At the end of the day though, they play on the same line, and do a lot of the same stuff. I think the Sharks would be happy if Rod played anything like either of them.
3. Yeah I agree, I think they did a great job. I wasn't that happy with the Schoenborn pick, but everything else, I was pretty much on board with.
My "Fun facts" got cut from the article, so here's a few pretty pointless facts.
Oldies: The team selected 5 late born (1995) players.
Spreading the Wings: 5 wings were selected in the draft--shoring up an organizational need.
Multinational: There were 5 countries represented in the picks (Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, and Canada).
What a coincidence: Kevin Labanc and Alex Schoenborn were born on the exact same day, December 12th 1995. (Dylan Sadowy and Rourke Chartier were born one day apart from one another too!)
^ The birthday thing was the only interesting thing haha.
