Confirmed with Link: Habs draft Mike McCarron with the 25th overall pick (signs ELC, will play in OHL)

[Bourdon101]

He will surely be able to flourish in his physical role, since they dont seem to be too big up frot, but have very nice skill players. A memorial cup team that will host this year's cup with a coach that knows how to coach nasty hockey seems to be the perfect place for McCarron to devellop. I would like them to put emphasis on his offensive side but I cant control it.

 

[buddahsmoka1]

He sure moves well for a big fella.

 

[Redux91]

Another advantage to going the CHL route is being able to experience an NHL training camp right away. Maybe even play in a pre-season game or two...

this is very true

i think the fact kristo never played a preseason game with the habs rly hurt his chances for a good look by management

where as i can CLEARLY remember tinordis first preseason game at 18 years old, and although very RAW, he didnt look bad at ALL out there, its great to see this kids progression since then

 

[neil2005]

This pretty much confirms he is headed to London.

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/07/09/big-american-michael-mccarron-expected-to-pick-knights-over-ncaa

 

[NotProkofievian]

This pretty much confirms he is headed to London.

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/07/09/big-american-michael-mccarron-expected-to-pick-knights-over-ncaa

There's no information contained in that article that wasn't mentioned in today's tweets, which confirmed nothing.

The announcement, be what it may, will be tomorrow though according to McCarron's dad (mentioned in the article, but tweeted earlier today).

 

[Phil Parent]

Great! I think the Hunters will enjoy working with a guy that has that kind of size and skill set. And vice versa, McCarron could learn a thing or two under them and really flourish. Match made in heaven and a great thing for us.

Hopefully London gets on the SportsNet broadcasts a lot!

 

[Disappearing Semin]

Great! I think the Hunters will enjoy working with a guy that has that kind of size and skill set. And vice versa, McCarron could learn a thing or two under them and really flourish. Match made in heaven and a great thing for us.

Hopefully London gets on the SportsNet broadcasts a lot!

They usually do... Hope McCarron goes the London route as well, did we ever produce good players coming out off the college route?

 

[Ezpz]

They usually do... Hope McCarron goes the London route as well, did we ever produce good players coming out off the college route?

McDonagh. Higgins and Komisarek weren't too bad. Hainsey would have been good without management failure trying to send him to the minors through waivers when he was clearly NHL ready.

Going wayyy back there's Savage, Conroy, LeClair, Chelios, Ludwig, McPhee, Nilan, Langway etc.

 

[Captain Mountain]

They usually do... Hope McCarron goes the London route as well, did we ever produce good players coming out off the college route?

McDonagh and Patches come to mind in recent memory.

 

[FlyingKostitsyn]

Very excited to see McCarron go to London! This is the right decision for him. Its the aspect I was most worried about when he was drafted.

Now he can concentrate on the two aspects he needs to work on most to be a great NHLer - that is beating people up and playing a lot of hockey. He's going to be a man amongst boys out there however.

 

[HuGo Sham]

i think it's a great decision. i don't think MacD and patches are comparable. this kid plays a rough tough intimidating game - which mirrors the pro game FAR more. One could argue he needs to work on his fundamentals but I think he'll be able to do both in London.

 

[Kenny Powders]

TSN 690 sportscenter Shaun Starr just said it was confirmed.

 

[Brockoli]

I had a season pass this past year and the positives about that site is they have games from EVERY league CHL, AHL, NHL, KHL... but a negative is that for CHL, most of the time the quality of the feed is pretty bad (not HD). Every once in a while when sportsnet plays a CHL game then you can get it in HD. but other wise expect poor-ish quality.

Yah, the quality is only as good as the source. I will say this about hockeystreams though, the service has gotten 1000x better over the past year. It used to rebuffer a lot, but they've pretty much eliminated that issue now. I watched just about every habs game in HD this past season and I could probably count the number of times I had buffering issues on one hand.

brockoli

 

[Habs 4 Life]

Awesome. At least we will see some games on Sportsnet and also can't wait for the Memorial Cup tournament

Only thing that sucks is we are going to have to listen to 29Dryden29 that poster from London who hates the Knights

 

[Analyzer*]

He, himself still hasn't mentioned it, but London does seem like the logical choice from how McCarron was talking in his interviews.

 

[WestIslander]

McCarron is off to London, confirmed on TSN690 and by Tony Marinaro too, Tony will be talking about this between 10:00 and 12:00 today.

 

[Myron Gaines*]

I want him to improve his skating and his offensive game above everything.

 

[Whitesnake]

All signs are headed towards that people...but NO confirmation yet from the man himself.

 

[Gally11]

http://video.canadiens.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=66&id=262421&cmpid=embed-share-video


Dunno if this was posted yet.. Timmins on draft, a lot on McCarron

 

[Hannibal]

Didn't knew McCarron was taking boxing lessons since he was a Young kid and he's doing very good in the boxing ring apparently!

 

[smitty10]

Didn't knew McCarron was taking boxing lessons since he was a Young kid and he's doing very good in the boxing ring apparently!

This was a very good pick by the Habs. As a Leafs fan, it reminds be completely of the Tyler Biggs pick from two years ago.

Biggs wasn't known for his offense (the potential is there), but had some great intangibles. McCarron is a bit bigger (6'5, 235 while Biggs is 6'3, 225), however if you look at their stat lines and qualities that they bring to the table, they're very similar players. Both have boxed most of their lives, came up through USDP and have the potential to one day be top 6 power forwards in the NHL. Just be patience with his offensive game. It's not the fastest part of their game to develop and it may take a full year in the OHL before he puts up PPG numbers. That being said, he's a great pick!

Although other fanbases may rip the pick, it's a risk the Habs had to make. If he develops correctly he'll be the exact player you guys need. I hope to see him and Biggs brawling in the NHL one of these days! At the very least, Bergevin drafted a huge bottom 6 player.

 

[Analyzer*]

This was a very good pick by the Habs. As a Leafs fan, it reminds be completely of the Tyler Biggs pick from two years ago.

Biggs wasn't known for his offense (the potential is there), but had some great intangibles. McCarron is a bit bigger (6'5, 235 while Biggs is 6'3, 225), however if you look at their stat lines and qualities that they bring to the table, they're very similar players. Both have boxed most of their lives, came up through USDP and have the potential to one day be top 6 power forwards in the NHL. Just be patience with his offensive game. It's not the fastest part of their game to develop and it may take a full year in the OHL before he puts up PPG numbers. That being said, he's a great pick!

Although other fanbases may rip the pick, it's a risk the Habs had to make. If he develops correctly he'll be the exact player you guys need. I hope to see him and Biggs brawling in the NHL one of these days!

Pretty much.

What else is was Montreal going to do ? Draft another skilled, but small forward ?

London is a great program and it seemed to help Tinorid out great. He should start with the habs. He looks NHL ready. Hopefully they speed up his (McCarron's) progression in the same way.

I saw a thread on the leafs board wondering if Biggs was a bust already. I felt like posting saying if they don't want him, the habs will take him.

A Biggs-McCarron type pick are safe bets for the nhl. They can play on any line. Need goals ? They can do that. Need a player to level someone, then challenge the other team ? They can do that. Taking small players usually means they need to be top 6, or else they can't make it.

 

[Grant McCagg]

Didn't knew McCarron was taking boxing lessons since he was a Young kid and he's doing very good in the boxing ring apparently!

Well - that would explain why Mr. Timmins told me he was "tough as nails" when I mentioned to him that another scout was wondering if he was "phony tough." One thing you can't deny about Timmins is that he works hard and does his homework even if you disagree with some of his picks.

It can be difficult to ascertain whether many big American prospects are good fighters or not because they are often in leagues where fighting is pretty much impossible. Komi for one - we didn't know how well he could fight. The fact that he actually knows how to fight already is a decided bonus.

Let's hope that quiets the "But Lucic has boxed for years" crowd down a bit. The Habs are banking that Mac is an answer for Lucic down the road....as I have posted before...he doesn't have to beat him..but hopefully he'll at least stand up to him, and other big top 9 forwards in the league. I have a feeling he's going to be able to more than hold his own.

There's no doubt in my mind that he's going to London. Been predicting that for more than a month...and it was for me..one of the main reasons why he was such an appealing pick.

 

[overlords]

Well - that would explain why Mr. Timmins told me he was "tough as nails" when I mentioned to him that another scout was wondering if he was "phony tough." One thing you can't deny about Timmins is that he works hard and does his homework even if you disagree with some of his picks.

It can be difficult to ascertain whether many big American prospects are good fighters or not because they are often in leagues where fighting is pretty much impossible. Komi for one - we didn't know how well he could fight. The fact that he actually knows how to fight already is a decided bonus.

Let's hope that quiets the "But Lucic has boxed for years" crowd down a bit. The Habs are banking that Mac is an answer for Lucic down the road....as I have posted before...he doesn't have to beat him..but hopefully he'll at least stand up to him, and other big top 9 forwards in the league. I have a feeling he's going to be able to more than hold his own.

There's no doubt in my mind that he's going to London. Been predicting that for more than a month...and it was for me..one of the main reasons why he was such an appealing pick.

And I might be wrong about this, but I think that Mcarron can go to the AHL whenever he/the habs want, right? Since he was drafted before he played in the CHL, he's exempt from the CHL/AHL agreement.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Jonathan Bernier ‏@JoBern 5 min
Le père de M. McCarron vient de me confirmer que son fils a pris sa décision ce soir. Le #ch en fera l'annonce demain matin. #Habs

It says he talked to M. McCarron who said his son took his decision tonight. The Habs will announce it tomorrow. I guess if there's an announce to make, he chose to go to London. Choosing WMU would just mean he stays put.