Confirmed with Link: Avs Sign Nate Guenin,Guillaume Desbiens, JT Wyman and Nick Holden

[PAZ]

Is this the same Nick Holden who's 26 and has played seven NHL games with zero points? Cause that's the guy the Avs signed. Maybe your guy is still out there.

Honestly, why are you so cynical about every Avs signing lately?

 

[Wilch]

Is this the same Nick Holden who's 26 and has played seven NHL games with zero points? Cause that's the guy the Avs signed. Maybe your guy is still out there.

Not an Avs fan.

But ahem, just thought I'd bump this thread and do a "I told you so" :p

Good for you guys, and like I said, would have been ecstatic for the Canucks to pick him up.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Not an Avs fan.

But ahem, just thought I'd bump this thread and do a "I told you so" :p

Good for you guys, and like I said, would have been ecstatic for the Canucks to pick him up.

Honestly, if he wasn't so good at pinching on the PP he'd never have stuck with our club. He's not a very good bottom pairing defender (right now at least).

Doesn't have a good shot, doesn't have a good pass, doesn't play physically, slow as molasses, average IQ... he's basically on one of the only clubs in the NHL that could use him. I like him as a person based on what I've seen and he sounds like a great teammate... but if he's on this club in two years it's either because he's substantially improved some area of his game to make himself indispensable or he's ok as our 7th defender.

 

[CB Joe]

Honestly, if he wasn't so good at pinching on the PP he'd never have stuck with our club. He's not a very good bottom pairing defender (right now at least).

Doesn't have a good shot, doesn't have a good pass, doesn't play physically, slow as molasses, average IQ... he's basically on one of the only clubs in the NHL that could use him. I like him as a person based on what I've seen and he sounds like a great teammate... but if he's on this club in two years it's either because he's substantially improved some area of his game to make himself indispensable or he's ok as our 7th defender.

Except he's tied for 18th overall in goals for defensemen this regular season and tied for 2nd in goals scored by a defensemen this playoffs. He'd have a bottom pairing roster spot on every team in the league. However he shouldn't get a bigger role yet.

 

[Foppa2118]

Not an Avs fan.

But ahem, just thought I'd bump this thread and do a "I told you so" :p

Good for you guys, and like I said, would have been ecstatic for the Canucks to pick him up.

You must have been waiting a while to bump this. I've become a fan of his, but he was in no way an answer to the Avs D problems last summer. That's what irked me the most. That we'd been so patient for so long, and Holden, Guenin, and Benoit were their answers to the D problem. Now were in the same boat this summer again hoping they do something to address it.

I wasn't sold on Holden's first half of the season, but he was much better post Olympic break, and quite good in the playoffs, especially game 7 where I thought he was the Avs best D man.

I've said it before, but I think he's a very coachable player that can continue to get even better if he's motivated to do so.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Except he's tied for 18th overall in goals for defensemen this regular season and tied for 2nd in goals scored by a defensemen this playoffs. He'd have a bottom pairing roster spot on every team in the league. However he shouldn't get a bigger role yet.

There's plenty of examples of players that have overachieved in any given year, Nick Holden's season was a classic example of overachieving. That's not to say he couldn't improve over the offseason and next year, but he was unreliable defensively and got just about all of his goals from smart backdoor pinches.

 

[RockLobster]

If I'm the Avs, I'm telling Holden to do Power Skating drills all off-season long...he's GOT to improve his foot-speed and his speed in general, one of the slowest on the team, at times he made Nate frigging Guenin look faster than he was.

He's also got to improve his overall Hockey IQ, which I feel he did as the season wore on but he was still prone to a lot of "" type behavior.

 

[Foppa2118]

If I'm the Avs, I'm telling Holden to do Power Skating drills all off-season long...he's GOT to improve his foot-speed and his speed in general, one of the slowest on the team, at times he made Nate frigging Guenin look faster than he was.

He's also got to improve his overall Hockey IQ, which I feel he did as the season wore on but he was still prone to a lot of "" type behavior.

You know who I'd really love to see focus on their skating, but more so their acceleration on their first couple strides, and lateral movement is EJ.

When he gets up to speed he's a good skater, but watching him get there is painful sometimes. Looks like he's skating on dull skate blades. I wonder if some kind of skating coach could bring some of the speed back to his stride he lost with his knee injury.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Not an Avs fan.

But ahem, just thought I'd bump this thread and do a "I told you so" :p

Good for you guys, and like I said, would have been ecstatic for the Canucks to pick him up.

Good call, one of the better surprises of the year. Hopefully he can keep improving. I don't expect miracles but as a bottom pairing defenseman he wasn't bad. Also the few times he was played 20+ minutes he stepped up his game.

 

[RockLobster]

You know who I'd really love to see focus on their skating, but more so their acceleration on their first couple strides, and lateral movement is EJ.

When he gets up to speed he's a good skater, but watching him get there is painful sometimes. Looks like he's skating on dull skate blades. I wonder if some kind of skating coach could bring some of the speed back to his stride he lost with his knee injury.

I'd lean on the side of "disagreeing" with you...I don't have a problem with EJ's skating to be honest, I think he has a fine enough first couple of strides/acceleration and I'm not at all worried about his lateral movement...but hey, that's just me.

 

[Foppa2118]

I'd lean on the side of "disagreeing" with you...I don't have a problem with EJ's skating to be honest, I think he has a fine enough first couple of strides/acceleration and I'm not at all worried about his lateral movement...but hey, that's just me.

Watch for it next year, and you'll see it be an issue on occasion. He comes very very close to getting beat in foot races back for the puck, and barely contains guys that get a step on him wide sometimes.

He makes up for it with his smarts, his reach, and his angles. It's one of the main concerns in his game that kept him off the Olympic team, although I think he still should have gone.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I think EJ knows his first step isn't the fastest. He says he likes to go behind the net and get the puck with speed on the PP, he doesn't like to start from a complete stop.

 

[Nihiliste]

You know who I'd really love to see focus on their skating, but more so their acceleration on their first couple strides, and lateral movement is EJ.

When he gets up to speed he's a good skater, but watching him get there is painful sometimes. Looks like he's skating on dull skate blades. I wonder if some kind of skating coach could bring some of the speed back to his stride he lost with his knee injury.

It's been long enough that I think what we see is what we get with EJ's skating.

 

[Avsboy]

I felt Holden was our second best d-man in the playoffs. His foot-speed could improve but he has made absolutely massive strides this past year.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

I felt Holden was our second best d-man in the playoffs. His foot-speed could improve but he has made absolutely massive strides this past year.

If he can figure out defensive zone positioning a bit better and along with that use his size a bit better to clear space in the D zone, not to hit really just to push a bit more, he COULD turn into a legit #3 D man.

 

[Foppa2118]

I think EJ knows his first step isn't the fastest. He says he likes to go behind the net and get the puck with speed on the PP, he doesn't like to start from a complete stop.

That's interesting, I hadn't heard him comment on his skating before. I think he's smart to approach it that way.

It's not so much his skating with the puck though. I think he does well enough to manage that. It's the occasionally moment without the puck that gets him in a bit of trouble. When he's got to make a quick transition back to defend, or if he's chasing down a puck.

He's still a great D man as it is, it's just the one thing keeping him from taking that next step, no pun intended.

It's been long enough that I think what we see is what we get with EJ's skating.

Yea, I think that's more or less true. I just wonder if there can be some tweaks made with his stride. It's funny, usually big men take long strides when they skate, but his is kind of short. He makes quick little steps, and sometimes I wonder if he'd cover more ground after the third step if his strides were longer, but who knows. I'm not a skating expert.

His acceleration was much different pre golf cart injury though. It's kind of too bad. I still wonder if it can be improved upon though.

 

[PAZ]

I felt Holden was our second best d-man in the playoffs. His foot-speed could improve but he has made absolutely massive strides this past year.

No way he was better than EJ or Barrie. **** Cooke.

 

[Wilch]

On a side note...

You guys got ****ed pretty bad with Cooke kneeing Tyson Barrie.

It sucks that the league didn't and doesn't properly punish these types of behaviours. Cooke should have been tossed out of the league ages ago. 7 playoff games for an obvious attempted murder is a joke.

I was pulling for the Avs too, although admittedly I'm jealous of all the success and young exciting players on your team. Better luck next year.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I thought Holden's name was Nate until like December.

 

[Ceremony]

It took me a good while to realise people weren't mis-typing "Guerin."

 

[not a troll]

I get nervous when I see Holden carry the puck up the ice.

 

[AvsGuy]

There's plenty of examples of players that have overachieved in any given year, Nick Holden's season was a classic example of overachieving. That's not to say he couldn't improve over the offseason and next year, but he was unreliable defensively and got just about all of his goals from smart backdoor pinches.

I fail to see how that's a bad thing. The guy played just over half a season and was on pace, full season, for 40 some points. And he's barely staying on the Avs roster? I disagree hard. Not saying he's a future star but he was as key a cog on the power play as almost anyone on this team.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

I fail to see how that's a bad thing. The guy played just over half a season and was on pace, full season, for 40 some points. And he's barely staying on the Avs roster? I disagree hard. Not saying he's a future star but he was as key a cog on the power play as almost anyone on this team.

How many players do you ever see succeed in the league that are one trick ponies? All it takes is for players to start honing into him better and he's hardly going to be anymore effective than any other bottom pairing defender (if you take Holden from this season and simply remove ~5 goals).

He needs to improve somewhere significantly to be someone that should stick around. Defensively, positioning, physically, skating... something.

 

[nanzenkills]

You must have been waiting a while to bump this. I've become a fan of his, but he was in no way an answer to the Avs D problems last summer. That's what irked me the most. That we'd been so patient for so long, and Holden, Guenin, and Benoit were their answers to the D problem. Now were in the same boat this summer again hoping they do something to address it.

I wasn't sold on Holden's first half of the season, but he was much better post Olympic break, and quite good in the playoffs, especially game 7 where I thought he was the Avs best D man.

I've said it before, but I think he's a very coachable player that can continue to get even better if he's motivated to do so.

I agree with this. There were only 3 D-men in the playoffs whose play I was happy with: Johnson, Barrie before he went down, and Holden. He turned out to be a lot better of a signing than I expected.

I wish he was a faster skater, but his positioning, especially in the offensive zone, ended up becoming good enough so that his foot speed was rarely an issue later on in the season or in the playoffs.

 

[R S]

I agree with this. There were only 3 D-men in the playoffs whose play I was happy with: Johnson, Barrie before he went down, and Holden. He turned out to be a lot better of a signing than I expected.

I wish he was a faster skater, but his positioning, especially in the offensive zone, ended up becoming good enough so that his foot speed was rarely an issue later on in the season or in the playoffs.

I thought Wilson was just fine after he replaced Barrie.