Boris Valabik Was A Good Strategic Pick

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Techbert

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I was not a fan of the Thrashers taking Boris Valabik at the time, but it grew on me and I see the reasoning. At pick #10, Boris had the best chance of anyone left of becoming a game-changing force. He's got some work to do on his compass skating, but huge guys have time to develop.

I don't expect anyone here to take my word for anything, so I reference what writers & scouts said in HF's "OHL Top 40 prospects for the 2005 draft". His name kept coming up, like he was the only defenseman in the league. None of it sounded like Boris was being used as a human turnstile.

Ryan… was one of the few Attack forwards who kept going to the net right to the end as many of his teammates had been intimidated by the nasty Ranger defense led by Boris Valabik.

I saw Boris Valabik completely control Erie one night in every sense and so Blunden comes off the bench and sticks up for all his teammates, gets the crap beat out of him but he kept getting up to try and land one or two blows.

Fraser gives the Rangers coaching staff a nice one-two punch with Boris Valabik when it comes to matching up against the scoring lines of the opposing teams.

(Hesh) In Kitchener he played with Boris Valabik, a guy with his own size and limited abilities who went 10th overall, but this kid must be dense because he apparently didn’t learn a thing.

I realize the OHL is not the NHL, but it sounds like Boris is doing something right. Both Coburn and Valabik are big and strong enough to have 30 min per game potential, so once Valabik grows into his body one of these two should be on the Atlanta ice pretty much all the time. That's in front of Lehtonen and behind Kovalchuk and Heatley. I would hate to have to play Atlanta then.
 
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Vlad The Impaler

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Has not impressed me either.

Was he concussed early last season? He looked like he had regressed.

It is a very long shot that this guy will be a game-changing force. He really needs a stronger season. He's not very noticable at the OHL level.
 

Debrincat93

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i was a little more suprised atlanta wouldnt take a risk with tukonen still on board and take valabik. Hell, didnt most have thelen a little further down too, Thelen would have been a smarter pick, regardless if he regressed too becuz he was booted off MSU, but atleast he'll be in the WHL next year
 

hfboardsuser

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The Thrashers didn't consider Tukonen or Thelen as serious choices because they wanted to bolster the size on their blueline. Neither of the aforementioned guys does that- and despite Valabik being a project, he's what the team needed. It's the same reason they picked Coburn before that.

I'm down on Valabik and Coburn at the moment, but I'd love to see them as Atlanta's second pairing one day.
 

NYR469

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Mr Bugg said:
The Thrashers didn't consider Tukonen or Thelen as serious choices because they wanted to bolster the size on their blueline. Neither of the aforementioned guys does that- and despite Valabik being a project, he's what the team needed. It's the same reason they picked Coburn before that.

I'm down on Valabik and Coburn at the moment, but I'd love to see them as Atlanta's second pairing one day.

2nd pairing?? you use 2 top 10 picks on dmen i'd hope they can develop into a top pair. they might not develop into a top pair but thats what my hope/expectation would be.
 

hfboardsuser

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2nd pairing?? you use 2 top 10 picks on dmen i'd hope they can develop into a top pair. they might not develop into a top pair but thats what my hope/expectation would be.

I'd say that's a bit unrealistic going with what we've seen up to this point. Defensemen take longer to develop than other players, especially two big ones. If you can take two with such mammoth size that both pan out, I'd say you came out on top. But maybe that's because I think drafting big defensemen in the first round is a crapshoot.
 

X-SHARKIE

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Mr Bugg said:
The Thrashers didn't consider Tukonen or Thelen as serious choices because they wanted to bolster the size on their blueline. Neither of the aforementioned guys does that- and despite Valabik being a project, he's what the team needed. It's the same reason they picked Coburn before that.

I'm down on Valabik and Coburn at the moment, but I'd love to see them as Atlanta's second pairing one day.

Coburn is an absolute stud IMO, I've watched him the AHL for the past month and he was right up there with Ryan Suter, whom I've seen at this level many times.
He defensively could develope into a Mike Rathje, offensively he reminds me of Eric Brewer.

He's a great defensive prospect, he'll be Atlantas #1-#2 defenseman of the future.

Wadell went for a home run with major bust potential as well with Valabik. Now Valabik didn't progress this year in the OHL statistically but overall i'm not sure how he played. He was very impressive at the WJC's though when I saw him. If Valabik can get rid of the mental errors and mistakes, and learn the ins and outs of defensive positioning, gap control,how to move the puck out on the outlet ect. he could be a big force someday.

Even if Valabiks offensive game never comes along he will be, as long as he fine tunes his defensive game he could be a player that changes the game.

A 6-7 defenseman with his unreal meanstreak is very hard to find.. in fact you're probally going to only have a shot at one via the draft, or calling up the Isles ;) because they're very rare.

So Atlanta shouldn't be shuned for taking him, although mabey he went to high? Although I doubt he would've lasted very long past 10th overall. Although it seems to me that everyone with canadian television who sees him more then me by a fair ammount of games, seems to really hate him.

Or mabey it's because he hurts their favorite players shift in shift out?

IDK
 

CharlieGirl

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X-SHARKIE said:
Although it seems to me that everyone with canadian television who sees him more then me by a fair ammount of games, seems to really hate him.

Or mabey it's because he hurts their favorite players shift in shift out?

IDK
No question, he's hated by other teams, but he has never injured an opposing player. Does he make it difficult to play against Kitchener? You bet.

He sat out about a month this year with a concussion and came back a little gun shy. By the time playoffs rolled around, he was back in form.

He's come a long way as far as taking stupid penalties (he still gets called a lot and some are well deserved) but has shown a lot more patience than he did his first year in Kitchener.

He is Kitchener's best defenseman on the PK. He still has a lot of work yet to do (outlet passes in particular), but he appears to be working hard to improve his game. There aren't a lot of players who want to (or are able to) stand in front of Kitchener's goal when Valabik is on the ice.
 

Top Corner2

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He's an urthodox top 10 pick.....but I think it was a good pick. Especially being in the position Atlanta is in. Guys his size and temperment don't come along that often. If he can adapt to the NHL someday he will make Atlanta a hard team to play against. As if they won't be hard enough already!
 

thomasincanada

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Charlie_Girl49 said:
No question, he's hated by other teams, but he has never injured an opposing player. Does he make it difficult to play against Kitchener? You bet.

I'd love to see the Perry/Valabik relationship continue in the pros (whether that be NHL or AHL). Definately each others least favourite players.

Tom
 

Roger's Pancreas*

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I like the guy personally. I think he's a very raw talent like you said earlier that needs to be refined. If the Thrashers can devlop him he'll be a bottom four defenceman that has a few important roles. I can't wait for him to get into the AHL.
 

X0ssbar

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I've read a lot of Chara/Valabik comparisons.

What was Chara's potential when he was drafted - similar to Valabik? i.e. long term project - high risk/high reward? If his potential is anything close to Chara, then I can't blame Atlanta for taking the risk.
 

WADEugottaBELAKthat

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I don't entirely disagree. However, if Valabik ends up merely being a 6th D-man with a presence and Anrej Meszaros ends up being a fluid, unassuming 2nd D-man, I would say GM Don made the wrong decision.
 

Patty Ice

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Minnesota Norse Star said:
I don't entirely disagree. However, if Valabik ends up merely being a 6th D-man with a presence and Anrej Meszaros ends up being a fluid, unassuming 2nd D-man, I would say GM Don made the wrong decision.

Well, hindsight is always 20/20 now isn't so that aint a ballsy statement right there. I like the move...shows some nuts on Waddell's part. As per HF gang, he's being written off prematurely.
 

CharlieGirl

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thomasincanada said:
I'd love to see the Perry/Valabik relationship continue in the pros (whether that be NHL or AHL). Definately each others least favourite players.

Tom
I agree -- but I have a feeling Marty St. Pierre may have been Boris' least favourite of all time!
 

McDonald19

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I've only seen him against London and all he tried to do is knock over Corey Perry and/or Dylan Hunter every shift. He kept going to the penalty box every shift.

If he makes it in the NHL it will be as a third pairing d-man who is out there to scare people, thats it.

You can't tell me Atlanta wouldn't trade Valabik for Meszaros right now.
 

CharlieGirl

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McDonald19 said:
I've only seen him against London and all he tried to do is knock over Corey Perry and/or Dylan Hunter every shift. He kept going to the penalty box every shift.

If he makes it in the NHL it will be as a third pairing d-man who is out there to scare people, thats it.

You can't tell me Atlanta wouldn't trade Valabik for Meszaros right now.
Not to argue with your projection (I don't have a clue how Valabik is going to end up ), but London made a lot of players look bad this year.
 

Hunter74

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McDonald19 said:
I've only seen him against London and all he tried to do is knock over Corey Perry and/or Dylan Hunter every shift. He kept going to the penalty box every shift.

If he makes it in the NHL it will be as a third pairing d-man who is out there to scare people, thats it.

You can't tell me Atlanta wouldn't trade Valabik for Meszaros right now.


If I were him i woudl want to crush Hunter aswell.

I think you are drastically exaggerating. 7 minor penalties over 5 very chippy games and only in game 3 and 4 did he have multiple minors(2) and 3 fighting majors 2 of which came in the 6-1 blowout in game 4. Fraser, Davis had 6 minors apeice and Clarckson had 7 minors to boot. So obvioulsy it wasn't a situation were Valabik was just being stupid considering the type of series it was and teh amount of penalties that were called in it. I dont know why all these London people hate Valabik so much especially since they all claim he sucks so bad? If he sucks so bad then they shouldn't hate him so much should they?

What team wouldn't want a big mean defensive giant on the blueline to handle the other teams Power Forwards?? When playing against Bertuzzi, Iginla, Horton, Forsberg, Heatly, Thornton, Tkachuk, Nolan and any other big strong offensive players were you would need a big strong intimidating defenseman to neutralize them. Thats when your gonna be wishing you had a Valabik type player on your blueline to shut those players down. Especially in the playoffs when a Power Forwards are absolutly killing your defensive unit are you gonna be crying for someone to shut them down.

Not sayings Valabiks a for sure thing but he's nothing to scuff at.
 

trojan4

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Valabik is 6'7 212lbs... fine.

What happened to Kristian Kudroc (6'7 255lbs)?

According to hockeysfuture Meszaros is 7.5B while Valabik is 7.5C.

Valabik 10th overall, Meszaros 23rd...
 
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