Intangir
Registered User
I know it's still extremely early in the season and that rookies who impress now could (and probably will) falter a bit as the season goes along, but I'm curious about what rookies from other teams passed the eye-test with flying colors when you guys watched them play either against your main team or against other opponents.
Anyways, here are some of the rookies that impressed me of the games I watched.
Travis Dermott - I've actually watched every Leafs' games this season untill now as I wanted to see what a team boasting Matthews and Tavares as a one-two punch at center would look like. Suffice to say I was impressed offensively and underwhelmed by their defense, with Dermott being a notable exception. He seemed to be quite in control out there on the ice and, in my opinion, he has been the second-best Leafs' defenseman after Rielly in this early part of the season. I especially like his zone breakouts and awareness all over the ice. In short, I think the Leafs have a small gem in this guy; one that could, and probably will, be a solid top-4 D.
Elias Pettersson - I watched him play the last two games for Vancouver and I've got to say, so far the hype about this guy seems to have been justified. Despite so-so ice-time, Pettersson's made many great and simple plays and reads offensively for Vancouver. Even though he's pretty green and a pure rookie, his hockey sense, agility and skill level are all really top-end even amongst NHLers and I personally believe this guy could end up a PPG+ player in his prime.
Rasmus Dahlin - Although he hasn't registered a point yet, from the 2 Buffalo games I've watched, Dahlin really popped out and made himself noticeable as he was easily the best Buffalo Sabres defenseman in both those games. His D-zone play has been pretty spot-on, his breakout pass out of the zone and transition play is the best I've seen in a rookie defenseman ever since the days of rookie Drew Doughty (!!!), his arsenal of shots is really impressive for a rookie (not top-tier yet but probably will be one day), his overall skating ability is great, he has exhibited good strength along the boards (although that's probably one of the areas he needs to improve upon the most) and was incredibly smart and efficient in how he battled on the boards, using physicality when needed and a good poke check against stronger players. Three games in, he's basically looked like a stud and young franchise D-man.
Andrei Svechnikov - What can I say, he's big, fast, skilled as hell, boasts an absolutely amazing passing ability (makes tape-to-tape passes while getting tightly checked), is incredibly hard to stop once he has possession of the puck, has really good shooting ability and hand-eye coordnation, was a bit tentative his first game out there (which is ony natural) but looked much better the two other games I've watched of him. His positioning offensively is pretty good and he has actually showed quite a bit of hustle defensively despite it clearly not being his strong point as he came back on the backcheck to put pressure on the opposing puck carrier quite a few times from what I saw. I think this guy ends up being a PPG+ winger for Carolina
Anyways, here are some of the rookies that impressed me of the games I watched.
Travis Dermott - I've actually watched every Leafs' games this season untill now as I wanted to see what a team boasting Matthews and Tavares as a one-two punch at center would look like. Suffice to say I was impressed offensively and underwhelmed by their defense, with Dermott being a notable exception. He seemed to be quite in control out there on the ice and, in my opinion, he has been the second-best Leafs' defenseman after Rielly in this early part of the season. I especially like his zone breakouts and awareness all over the ice. In short, I think the Leafs have a small gem in this guy; one that could, and probably will, be a solid top-4 D.
Elias Pettersson - I watched him play the last two games for Vancouver and I've got to say, so far the hype about this guy seems to have been justified. Despite so-so ice-time, Pettersson's made many great and simple plays and reads offensively for Vancouver. Even though he's pretty green and a pure rookie, his hockey sense, agility and skill level are all really top-end even amongst NHLers and I personally believe this guy could end up a PPG+ player in his prime.
Rasmus Dahlin - Although he hasn't registered a point yet, from the 2 Buffalo games I've watched, Dahlin really popped out and made himself noticeable as he was easily the best Buffalo Sabres defenseman in both those games. His D-zone play has been pretty spot-on, his breakout pass out of the zone and transition play is the best I've seen in a rookie defenseman ever since the days of rookie Drew Doughty (!!!), his arsenal of shots is really impressive for a rookie (not top-tier yet but probably will be one day), his overall skating ability is great, he has exhibited good strength along the boards (although that's probably one of the areas he needs to improve upon the most) and was incredibly smart and efficient in how he battled on the boards, using physicality when needed and a good poke check against stronger players. Three games in, he's basically looked like a stud and young franchise D-man.
Andrei Svechnikov - What can I say, he's big, fast, skilled as hell, boasts an absolutely amazing passing ability (makes tape-to-tape passes while getting tightly checked), is incredibly hard to stop once he has possession of the puck, has really good shooting ability and hand-eye coordnation, was a bit tentative his first game out there (which is ony natural) but looked much better the two other games I've watched of him. His positioning offensively is pretty good and he has actually showed quite a bit of hustle defensively despite it clearly not being his strong point as he came back on the backcheck to put pressure on the opposing puck carrier quite a few times from what I saw. I think this guy ends up being a PPG+ winger for Carolina
