2019-2020 Laval Rocket & ECHL Thread II

[RoxDan11]

Player development is starting to become a bigger thread these days, and I agree with it, especially with a team like Montreal where it’s hard to attract big market players. Everyone has their opinions on player development and I’m curious to what others think.

Do you think if Montreal had a dedicated ECHL team, that certain players (eg: Cole Caufield) would be best suited starting their pro career there or playing another year in the NCAA, or junior or their respective home country leagues. Sometimes a jump to the AHL could be too much.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Yea. That could be a possibility. Thanks for pointing out Vegas and their recalls. I don't know the CBA rules all that much. So it is odd that all of those recalls by Vegas were regular recalls and it's a total of 6.

The Vegas situation is a weird one. Only thing I can think of is that Whitecloud & Roy were injured before the TD and therefore weren't eligible to be called up/sent down for the paper transaction normally reserved for Deadline day. Injured players can't be sent down.

So the 25th/26th up and down assignment/recall of Whitecloud & Roy was to satisfy AHL eligibility for playoffs, and also wouldn't count towards the 4 recalls since they're coming off IR AND played less than 25% of Vegas' games from the start of the season.

So they got two freebies. That also means Vegas has used all 4 of their recalls.

 

[Number 57]

The Vegas situation is a weird one. Only thing I can think of is that Whitecloud & Roy were injured before the TD and therefore weren't eligible to be called up/sent down for the paper transaction normally reserved for Deadline day. Injured players can't be sent down.

So the 25th/26th up and down assignment/recall of Whitecloud & Roy was to satisfy AHL eligibility for playoffs, and also wouldn't count towards the 4 recalls since they're coming off IR AND played less than 25% of Vegas' games from the start of the season.

So they got two freebies. That also means Vegas has used all 4 of their recalls.

If that's the case, same applies to Ouellet here. He was already with the Habs before the deadline but got injured. Was sent down as a paper transaction for AHL playoffs, and got called right back up on Feb 29th.

 

[Treb]

Guys like Caufield are AHL ready IMO. It would be great for guys like Houde, Fonstad and McShane though.

 

[pepperMonkey]

Player development is starting to become a bigger thread these days, and I agree with it, especially with a team like Montreal where it’s hard to attract big market players. Everyone has their opinions on player development and I’m curious to what others think.

Do you think if Montreal had a dedicated ECHL team, that certain players (eg: Cole Caufield) would be best suited starting their pro career there or playing another year in the NCAA, or junior or their respective home country leagues. Sometimes a jump to the AHL could be too much.

Doesn't matter if there is an ECHL team or not if the development team/staff are crap. Sure, people are saying drafting and Timmins is the problem but even if they are crap in drafting, the fact that we couldn't develop anyone we draft into decent 3rd or 4th players players or decent bottom pairing D's sorta says the development team had been pure garbage.

 

[Habsddicted]

Doesn't matter if there is an ECHL team or not if the development team/staff are crap. Sure, people are saying drafting and Timmins is the problem but even if they are crap in drafting, the fact that we couldn't develop anyone we draft into decent 3rd or 4th players players or decent bottom pairing D's sorta says the development team had been pure garbage.

I believe there is also an age limit with AHL/ECHL contracts, like 21 years or older but I'm not sure

 

[montreal]

I believe there is also an age limit with AHL/ECHL contracts, like 21 years or older but I'm not sure

you have to turn 18 by Sept 15th to play in the AHL, doesn't matter if it's an NHL or AHL or ECHL contract.

 

[Scintillating10]

Doesn't matter if there is an ECHL team or not if the development team/staff are crap. Sure, people are saying drafting and Timmins is the problem but even if they are crap in drafting, the fact that we couldn't develop anyone we draft into decent 3rd or 4th players players or decent bottom pairing D's sorta says the development team had been pure garbage.

Joel shouldn't be crap would he. He came with big credentials. But I am bit familiar with Laval going ons

 

[pepperMonkey]

Joel shouldn't be crap would he. He came with big credentials. But I am bit familiar with Laval going ons

Joel Bouchard? Ahh, you are right, of all the crap MB brought in, yeah, the one person who I like. Hope he can right this fast sinking ship. Or at least keep it afloat long enough till someone replaces MB.

 

[Scintillating10]

Joel Bouchard? Ahh, you are right, of all the crap MB brought in, yeah, the one person who I like. Hope he can right this fast sinking ship. Or at least keep it afloat long enough till someone replaces MB.

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

 

[Treb]

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

And he did. Evans, Fleury and Brook all showed more improvement than pretty much any prospects under Sly.

 

[sharks9]

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

Last season with Lefebvre: 58 points
1st season with Bouchard: 72 points
2nd season with Bouchard: 66 points with 15 games left

Obviously we want the AHL team to make the playoffs, but they definitely have improved the 2 years he's been here.

 

[DAChampion]

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

There seems to be a better handling of prospects than there was under Lefebvre, but yes it's too early to be sure. What I can tell you is that Kotkaniemi got a lot of minutes under Bouchard, that Brook and Fleury get a lot of minutes under Bouchard, whereas under Lefebvre the best prospects were frequently relegating to playing lower minutes.

The Rocket are in playoff contention in spite of having a comically absurd number of injuries. The following players will not be dressing for the Rocket next game, due to injuries for both the Habs and the Rocket:

Forwards: Dale Weise, Charles Hudon, Lukas Vejdemo, Jake Evans, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jesse Ylonen, Joel Teasdale, Ryan Poehling, Alex Belzile.
Defensemen: Xavier Ouellet, Karl Alzner, Christian Folin, Noah Juulsen, Cale Fleury.

That's literally an entire top-9 forward corps and a top-4 D-corps. I've never seen anything like it. The fact that they're in contention for a playoff spot is a miracle.

 

[DAChampion]

The Rocket Playoff hunt got harder this weekend, as the teams that did play won their games. I will keep updating this after every Rocket game, or sometimes on days when the other teams played.

Currently, the 3rd and 4th place team in the North Division are respectively on track for seasons of 92.47 and 87.21 points. Last year, those spots went to teams that finished with 91 and 84 points.

Thus, I estimate that for the Rocket to end up in 3rd or 4th place, they need to finish with 92 or 86 points respectively.

Given that the Rocket now have 66 points in 61 games, they need approximately 26 points in their last 15 games to finish in 3rd place, or 20 points in their last 15 games to finish in 4th place.

 

[Archijerej]

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

I'm usually highly critical of him, but what he's done in the second half of the season deserves high praise. He identified the problem of high-profile veterans not buying/not fitting into the team's concept (Varone, Barber, Peca, McCarron, Kinkaid), purged them from the team and got the replacements to buy in (Dauphin, Blandisi, Lucchini, McNiven). Laval is currently one of the hottest teams in the AHL despite a roster decimated by injuries and call ups.

 

[montreal]

There's no doubt that Bouchard is doing a much better job, if he had gotten more help from MB this team likely makes the playoffs in back to back years. But what's more important is that the prospects seem to be developing better and no matter what they throw out there as a roster the team plays much more structured hockey then they did under the last regime.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Bouchard been here 2 years, should show some results by now

They're building something here. A new approach to their development program that Bouchard is a big part of. This won't happen in one or two years. It's a process that will take time to see results in.

Also, the influx of the 2017 draft and later have just started coming in this year. So some of the more skilled prospects have yet to go to Laval to go through Bouchard.

As for the results on the ice right now, when you factor in the injuries to key players plus losing the top scorers of your team to call ups, the fact that Laval is in a dogfight right now for the playoffs is a positive.

In 76 games last year, they had 72 pts. This year, in 61 games, they're at 66 pts. So you can see there are results. They had 30 wins in 76 games last year, they have 29 in 61.

 

[angusyoung]

There's no doubt that Bouchard is doing a much better job, if he had gotten more help from MB this team likely makes the playoffs in back to back years. But what's more important is that the prospects seem to be developing better and no matter what they throw out there as a roster the team plays much more structured hockey then they did under the last regime.

Hope you weren't counting on MB to help the Rocket.

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[montreal]

no Poehling or Fleury at practice today. Hopefully they are ok for Wed's game but if not we must have some help for the Fri/Sat games vs the devils. If Drouin is good to go they have to send down Hudon or remove his emergency call up status which would be the last recall they can make for the season.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Binghamton is really hot right now having won 6 in a row (and won 9 of their last 10). They now hold the 4th and final playoff spot in the division. They are 4 points up on Laval. The back-to-back this Friday and Saturday against them is vital. But before them, Laval will face Belleville. Even though Laval beat them last game, they still remain one of the best teams in the AHL. And even more than that, they seem to have Laval's number every time, even if they've lost 2 games in a row. Big week for Laval coming up.

The good news is that everyone is pretty much at the same amount of games played. No more of this 2 or 3 or even 4 games in hand on Laval. So the portrait is a little more clear. Everyone's on pretty much equal footing right now.

Also good is that Laval is also on a good little streak. They won 3 games in a row and won 6 of their last 10. And one of their losses was in the shootout so they at least got a point out of that, picking up 13 pts of a possible 20 in that span.

 

[ngc_5128]

Binghamton is really hot right now having won 6 in a row (and won 9 of their last 10). They now hold the 4th and final playoff spot in the division. They are 4 points up on Laval. The back-to-back this Friday and Saturday against them is vital. But before them, Laval will face Belleville. Even though Laval beat them last game, they still remain one of the best teams in the AHL. And even more than that, they seem to have Laval's number every time, even if they've lost 2 games in a row. Big week for Laval coming up.

The good news is that everyone is pretty much at the same amount of games played. No more of this 2 or 3 or even 4 games in hand on Laval. So the portrait is a little more clear. Everyone's on pretty much equal footing right now.

Also good is that Laval is also on a good little streak. They won 3 games in a row and won 6 of their last 10. And one of their losses was in the shootout so they at least got a point out of that, picking up 13 pts of a possible 20 in that span.

View attachment 333621

Bingo will be tough to catch, I think. Their last 31 games has left them with a 24-7 record.

 

[DAChampion]

Bingo will be tough to catch, I think. Their last 31 games has left them with a 24-7 record.

Have you considered changing your screen name to Centaurus A?

 

[ngc_5128]

Have you considered changing your screen name to Centaurus A?

haha...I would probably get less questions about if I went to North Georgia College or if I just really like Nintendo Game Cube.

 

[DAChampion]

haha...I would probably get less questions about if I went to North Georgia College or if I just really like Nintendo Game Cube.

Can you explain the gamecube reference?