Expect ons of those top 5 to be traded this off season
Disagree. Not Holland's style.Expect ons of those top 5 to be traded this off season
Disagree. Not Holland's style.
+20 points, like Slava Voynov did at his rookie-seson in AHL, would be nice.
3rd pair, 2nd PP should be his duty.
I think Sproul will be at 1st pair + 1st PP and Jensen is at 2nd pair. Right-handed 2nd PP pointmen position will be a competition between Marchenko and Jensen. Better will get the ice-time.
Left-handed pointmen will be Almquist and Ouellet.
Almquist - Sproul
Ouellet - Jensen
XXX - Marchenko
Nicastro
Don't really know who will be penalty-killers. Maybe Ouellet at 1st PK and Almquist at 2nd, like he has been already at this season.
Well it wouldn't be very good with 4 rookie defensemen either. The AHL club wants to win to, its not just a league for prospects to develop.
Personally I would pair them as follows, for balance and where I think they are at.
Almqvist - Jensen
Almqvist is a cerebral puck mover, needs to gain a step, but he has sound positioning and an active stick, what he lacks is speed. Jensen will be the fastest player on the team next year. I see him more as a swift skating stay at home type, he will chip in on offense maybe sometimes decently but reminds me of Beauchemin or Hedican, guys with offensive talent but guys that use their skating to become very good defensive d-man.
Ouellet - Marchenko
Ouellet is ready in all three zones, he can move the puck, is solid on the boards and is a coaches best friend. Marchenko has a nice physical component to his game, is a slick puck mover with a plus shot. He is more offensive and Ouellet will provide him cover. This pairing will be a nightmare in transition as both players can go and both can cover for each other although Ouellet will be counted on to be the more defensive minded in my opinion.
Evans - Sproul
A massive and intimidating pairing. Evans can be the rock that allows Sproul to learn and jump up into the play. Eventually when Sproul is proving adequate in his own end you can experiment with him up the lineup, but he needs to work on positioning and having a D-man that covers his mistakes is the answer not throwing him to the wolves.
PP D-pairings Almqvist - Marchenko & Ouellet - Sproul
PK D-pairings Evans - Jensen & Ouellet - Almqvist
Good ES pairings, but I'd put Sproul to PK because he has to learn to PK some day. I'd prefer learn those skills in AHL than NHL. Don't want another Yandle for Wings some day. He is so big with good reach, just like Ericsson = future penalty killer. Ericsson developed from forward position to be our best PK defenceman, so Sproul can definitely go with same route.
The idea is to win at the AHL level too, they care about that.
For me Sproul is going to be there for 3 years. Just what I have seen from his game, so he learns responsible 5 on 5 play most of the year and we still get to use his PP game as a weapon. In year two he becomes a PK guy. Year three he logs massive minutes in preparation for the show.
Like I said if he gets ahead of where we think he is in development that is great. He gets more responsibility. But he is pretty much the sixth option on the PK next year because of what this roster appears to be trending at. Sure work him in a little. One interesting thing is if this lineup comes together especially on the back-end, they are going to blow a lot of people out which is good for development. I think they will get to experiment plenty because of just how much firepower they are going to have.
I think the "starting 4 rookies" is kind of overblown. Look at the top 6 that Grand Rapids are rolling with currently. Billins, Almqvist and Dekeyser are all rookies.
- As far as experience you could compare Jensen to Billins/Dekeyser coming straight from college.
- Marchenko would compare to Almqvist in the fact that they both play pro in Europe.
- Ouellet is even more pro ready then Billins was when he jumped into the lineup.
If they send Nicastro to the ECHL as was mentioned above. And keep Paetsch/Evans I think that would still be good enough for a winning team.
Personally I would pair them as follows, for balance and where I think they are at.
Almqvist - Jensen
Almqvist is a cerebral puck mover, needs to gain a step, but he has sound positioning and an active stick, what he lacks is speed. Jensen will be the fastest player on the team next year. I see him more as a swift skating stay at home type, he will chip in on offense maybe sometimes decently but reminds me of Beauchemin or Hedican, guys with offensive talent but guys that use their skating to become very good defensive d-man.
PK D-pairings Evans - Jensen & Ouellet - Almqvist
Jensen is an offensive defenseman first and foremost. His defensive game is what needs more work. Not sure how much of him you've seen
Personally I would pair them as follows, for balance and where I think they are at.
Almqvist - Jensen
Almqvist is a cerebral puck mover, needs to gain a step, but he has sound positioning and an active stick, what he lacks is speed. Jensen will be the fastest player on the team next year. I see him more as a swift skating stay at home type, he will chip in on offense maybe sometimes decently but reminds me of Beauchemin or Hedican, guys with offensive talent but guys that use their skating to become very good defensive d-man.
Ouellet - Marchenko
Ouellet is ready in all three zones, he can move the puck, is solid on the boards and is a coaches best friend. Marchenko has a nice physical component to his game, is a slick puck mover with a plus shot. He is more offensive and Ouellet will provide him cover. This pairing will be a nightmare in transition as both players can go and both can cover for each other although Ouellet will be counted on to be the more defensive minded in my opinion.
Evans - Sproul
A massive and intimidating pairing. Evans can be the rock that allows Sproul to learn and jump up into the play. Eventually when Sproul is proving adequate in his own end you can experiment with him up the lineup, but he needs to work on positioning and having a D-man that covers his mistakes is the answer not throwing him to the wolves.
PP D-pairings Almqvist - Marchenko & Ouellet - Sproul
PK D-pairings Evans - Jensen & Ouellet - Almqvist