It's kind of funny to me, but sometimes being a later pick is better. It forces guys to really look at themselves in a mirror and figure out why they fell as far as they did in a draft. With 1st and 2nd round picks you get a lot of guys that think they are NHL ready and don't put in the necessary work.
Interesting. I think I heard that Koskinen hired Kobe's trainer this summer, but more for the physical aspect of it.
Ethan spent much of his summer under the guidance of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
We said the same thing about Matt Benning in his rookie year.
Bear beat out Bouchard and for reasons we can clearly see in his current on ice performance. If Bouchard is not the #1 then it was not a wasted pick. Yakupov and Puljujarvi were wasted picks. If Bouchard is our 6 dman then it was a successful pick because we drafted and developed a successful NHL player. Remember when the Oilers were constantly playing our 18/19 year olds consistently. Gagner, Cogliano, Paajarvi, Hall, Eberle, Nuge. Yeah, they were fantastic teams. Let kids develope and mature before thrusting them into the best league in the world. I believe Broberg and Bouchard will fill out an extremely strong dcore over the next few years. Let the team develope veteran depth guys first such as BEAR who is awesome, Jones who plays well and will be a solid 5-7 D and Lagesson a potentially great depth guy or trade bait. You forget that our team also has the likes of Klefbom and Nurse? Once Benning is out i would assume that spot will be filled be Bouchard with Russel on his left, and then you will be extremely grateful that Holland and Tippet did not rush teenagers into a mans league. Yamamoto is small, period, i dont care how skilled he is in the AHL, we need to develope that one like Martin St. Loise, allow him to get super jacked so he isnt shoved off the puck by NHL MEN. Yam will be up next year. Benson I am not to sure, I think he has peaked and may be solid 3rd/4th line depth player. Reality is, 18/19 year olds on other teams are needed there because their teams suck the way the Oilers sucked when we drafted Hall.
We did not pick a Dman top 10 to be a #6D.
Bouchard has a lot to learn on the defensive side ...Probably he will learn and most likely will be a top 4D but its going to take some time....I think the idea right now with him is "we will look in on you at game 45 but mostly likely we will see how you do in next years camp."
I think a lot of it for these younger guys is finding that optimal size that works best for them. It's tough in season to make the adjustment, but come the off-season they can work on it.
If the 18/19 year old has the veteran support not only on D but also in the forward ranks and goalie, then it can definitely work. However, in the past, the kids were thrown en mass into the deep end with very little solid veteran support.
How's Quinn Hughes doing with bums like Myers and Tanev? Don't tell me the tandem of Myers and Tanev are much more superior than Nurse and Klefbom. The league is getting younger. Vet support is overrated. I don't see kids like Makar and Girard have much veteran support. More like young kids support. And I don't see how we can't just throw Broberg and Bouchard on the 3rd pairing now and make it work. I bet you the tandem of Broberg and Bouchard can do more damage than half the 3rd pairings in the NHL NOW.
