Where would you rank these players offensively? Not this season obviously, but long term.
Erik Johnson
Ty Wishart
David Fischer
Bob Sanguinetti
Dennis Persson
Ivan Vishnevskiy
Also, are there any top end powerplay type defencemen that should rank among these guys that I left off? How about Mark Katic? How good is this guy going to be?
Thanks for all of your help guys, I greatly appreciate it. I'm flying to Toronto on September 30th for a hockey draft and really need some young firepower on defense.
I think the best of them all offensively will be either Sanguinetti, Johnson, or Vishnevsky. Sangs could do it because of the fact that he's got great vision, skating, passing, and a good shot from the point. People question his defense, but if you've ever seen him play, he's actually very adequate defensively. Won't compare him to Niedermayer, but he plays a lot like him. Johnson plays a great two way game, and I keep hearing comparisons to Wade Redden, although I think EJ plays with a more physical edge. Vishnevsky they say could be a 2nd coming of Sergei Zubov. It's real tough.
A few random points:
1) Vishnevsky's skating is marvelous. He's also good with the puck, but needs some work in his own end.
2) Katic is almost certainly the best skating d-man available in the '07 draft at this point, but we need to see more of him in Sarnia first...he's still only a bit over a year removed from midget hockey.
3) I really think Fischer has the second-most long term potential of any defenseman in the '06 draft, from my limited viewings. I like him better than Sanguinetti or Wishart. Fischer's a project though...when I say you'll have to wait for him, I mean it.
4) I don't know enough about Persson.
5) Erik Johnson does not belong in this group. He's simply a considerably better player with considerably higher potential than the others here in basically every sense of the word.
I agree with you on Johnson, but I don't think he's too far ahead of Sangs and Vish offensively. His defense is way better than those two put together though. Fischer, maybe it's just that I haven't seen enough of him, or don't see his upside, but I see him being a steady and reliable two-way guy on the 2nd pairing. Same with Wishart. Don't know a lot about Persson either.
