LD Miro Heiskanen (2017, 3rd, DAL) Part II

[koyvoo]

I still feel like I was capable of being an adult at around 14-15. It is an irrelevant anecdote, but so is yours.

Again, I’d generally feel confident that most feel that way in and around the age, but I’d safely wager that 10-20+ years after the fact, most would disagree with what they felt back then. And most of the time, my money would be safe.

At 14-15, at best you’re only starting to blindly and cluelessly work your way through more adultish situations fit the first time.

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

He can in his home country. No need to downplay the laws of Finland. We consider him an adult.

 

[LT]

Let’s move on from the age discussion.

 

[Kcb12345]

He has been dominant in his own zone these past 2 games, and tonight his 3rd period performance really showed he is gonna win some Norris trophies in his career. Generated so many chances and had some himself as well.

As far as his offensive "drought" goes, it was pretty expected when Klingberg returned but it looks a lot worse than it is because of the Stars lack of any secondary (and lately any at all) scoring. He's still been incredible despite having to carry Roman Polak every night...ugh

 

[Boxscore]

He has been dominant in his own zone these past 2 games, and tonight his 3rd period performance really showed he is gonna win some Norris trophies in his career. Generated so many chances and had some himself as well.

As far as his offensive "drought" goes, it was pretty expected when Klingberg returned but it looks a lot worse than it is because of the Stars lack of any secondary (and lately any at all) scoring. He's still been incredible despite having to carry Roman Polak every night...ugh

Heiskanen reminds me of a rookie Provorov - there were nights he was clearly the best defenseman on the team as a rook. I'm still sick in my stomach that the Flyers could have drafted Heiskanen and took Patrick instead. I could only imagine a Philly blue line that featured Provorov, Heiskanen, Gostisbehere, Sanheim, and potentially Myers soon.

 

[Kcb12345]

One other thing about Miro that I thought I'd never be able to say, I have more confidence in him shooting the puck than I do anyone else on the team. Especially with Benn being awful now and Seguin so inconsistent.

His wrist shot is just crazy hard and accurate. Whenever he gets the chance to release it (and his release is very quick) everyone just freezes on the ice. I had no clue it was such a rocket and honestly I thought it was something he needed to work on before this season..

Now obviously Seguin is the better goal scorer and just a pure sniper but he gets so many chances and shots and I honestly never expect them to go in anymore because of how inconsistent he has been. I'm to the point where if Heiskanen is getting a good scoring chance I almost expect it to go in.

Wish I could get that confidence in Seguin back, and I thought we were recently with him lighting it up, but now he's back to being inconsistent it appears.

 

[Boxscore]

Heiskanen is Dallas' new Zubov - a complete, horse of a D.

 

[Spotty 2 Hotty]

I saw plenty of times last night that Heiskanen was on with Klingberg, was open and calling for the puck, but Klingberg wouldn't pass it to him. Maybe I'm just reading too far into things, but do you think Klingberg is bothered by the fact that Heiskanen already seems to be passing him on the depth chart, or am I just focusing on things too much because of how bad the team has been?

Heiskanen is Dallas' new Zubov - a complete, horse of a D.

It's looking like it might be that way, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't want more of a sample size with another season or two before claiming that.

 

[Dr Pepper]

How is he a child?

I took it to mean, comparative to the rest of the league.

He's not even 50 games into his NHL career, and already he's proven why he was drafted #3.

Still a "young pup", so to speak, compared with most of the NHLers he faces.

There's only nine players in the entire league younger than he is, and he still leads all rookies in TOI/G by two and a half minutes.

32nd overall in the entire league in that department as well. Fairly impressive for a rookie if you ask me.

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

Let’s move on from the age discussion.

I feel this conversation is important though. I for one see Heiskanen as more of a fetus than a child or adult. No matter who you cheer for you have to admit a fetus playing 30 minutes a night is impressive.

 

[Kcb12345]

I saw plenty of times last night that Heiskanen was on with Klingberg, was open and calling for the puck, but Klingberg wouldn't pass it to him. Maybe I'm just reading too far into things, but do you think Klingberg is bothered by the fact that Heiskanen already seems to be passing him on the depth chart, or am I just focusing on things too much because of how bad the team has been?



It's looking like it might be that way, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't want more of a sample size with another season or two before claiming that.

No Klingberg has been doing that to Seguin too for a few games now. I get he wants to get pucks to the net but changing the point of attack and then getting it to the net is even better. Especially when the passing lane is completely open

 

[Spotty 2 Hotty]

No Klingberg has been doing that to Seguin too for a few games now. I get he wants to get pucks to the net but changing the point of attack and then getting it to the net is even better. Especially when the passing lane is completely open

Gotcha. I know it's probably because he's trying to overcompensate for being out and coming back playing pretty rusty, but it's not helping. I just couldn't tell if he was trying to do it all by himself as a way to show he's still got it over a shiny new player or if it's just him making questionable decisions again. It'd be understandable either way considering how well Heiskanen has played.

 

[Hokinaittii]

I think last night against Buffalo Miro was able to show why people have been putting him in the same conversation with Dahlin as the most promising young D prospect in the league. No points but was solid defensively and it seemed like the All Star appearance did him some good since there were times when he was flying out there with the puck.



Pretty nice midseason highlight package for a teenager defenceman. Crazy potential with this guy.

 

[BusQuets]

I think last night against Buffalo Miro was able to show why people have been putting him in the same conversation with Dahlin as the most promising young D prospect in the league. No points but was solid defensively and it seemed like the All Star appearance did him some good since there were times when he was flying out there with the puck.



Pretty nice midseason highlight package for a teenager defenceman. Crazy potential with this guy.

Won't go too much into Dahlin vs Heiskanen but having seen many games from both of them i have to say that Miro's shot is on another tier compared to Dahlin's. Both slap shot and especially wrist shot.

 

[Star Ocean]

Won't go too much into Dahlin vs Heiskanen but having seen many games from both of them i have to say that Miro's shot is on another tier compared to Dahlin's. Both slap shot and especially wrist shot.

Dahlin has a muffin of a shot.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

Heiskanen is Dallas' new Zubov - a complete, horse of a D.

He is not close to Zubov yet, and personally I don’t think he’ll get there. Zubov was one of the best D in the world in a better era than this one, so I don’t mean to offend Heiskanen fans.

 

[Legionnaire]

He is not close to Zubov yet, and personally I don’t think he’ll get there. Zubov was one of the best D in the world in a better era than this one, so I don’t mean to offend Heiskanen fans.

He's better defensively than Zubov was at the same age.

 

[Dr Pepper]

He is not close to Zubov yet, and personally I don’t think he’ll get there. Zubov was one of the best D in the world in a better era than this one, so I don’t mean to offend Heiskanen fans.

He's better defensively than Zubov was at the same age.

Well Zubov didn't even enter the league til he was in his early 20's, 2-3 years' development ahead of where Heiskanen is now.

Maybe by the time Heiskanen hits Zubov's age during his record-breaking '94 season (age 24), he'll put up similar numbers offensively as well.

 

[EXTRAS]

He is not close to Zubov yet, and personally I don’t think he’ll get there. Zubov was one of the best D in the world in a better era than this one, so I don’t mean to offend Heiskanen fans.

Over-rating zubov. He had 1 Norris nomination in his career, finishing 3rd that season. And in 1993-94 he didn't lead dmen in scoring, nor wasn't top 20 in overall scoring. What was record breaking?

Heiskanen definitely has a chance to be equal, or even better than zubov.


Edit: And in 12 healthy seasons only was selected for the all Star game 4 times. That says something, regardless of how meaningless the all Star game may be.

 

[BusQuets]

Over-rating zubov. He had 1 Norris nomination in his career, finishing 3rd that season. And in 1993-94 he didn't lead dmen in scoring, nor wasn't top 20 in overall scoring. What was record breaking?

Heiskanen definitely has a chance to be equal, or even better than zubov.


Edit: And in 12 healthy seasons only was selected for the all Star game 4 times. That says something, regardless of how meaningless the all Star game may be.

Just goes to show you how little those nominations mean. Zubov was absolutely one of the best defensemen of his time. Also while he wasn't offensive dynamo there was this thing called defense which he did at Norris level.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Over-rating zubov. He had 1 Norris nomination in his career, finishing 3rd that season. And in 1993-94 he didn't lead dmen in scoring, nor wasn't top 20 in overall scoring. What was record breaking?

Heiskanen definitely has a chance to be equal, or even better than zubov.


Edit: And in 12 healthy seasons only was selected for the all Star game 4 times. That says something, regardless of how meaningless the all Star game may be.

The record he broke (or set, I guess, would be the correct term), was that he's the only defenceman on a President's Trophy-winning team to lead that team in scoring.

I'm fairly certain the record still stands.*

As for your last part; yeah, Zubov was never "the guy", overshadowed by Bourque, Coffey, Lidstrom, Stevens, you name it. But he still put together one hell of a career as one of the best d-men of his day. Certainly one of the best Russians, at any rate.

*EDIT: Just looked it up, and apparently Coffey managed the same feat the following year with Detroit.....albeit in a shortened season. So Zubov's still got the high score, I guess.

 

[hairylikebear]

Zubov was offense first and Heiskanen is defense first. I don't expect Heiskanen to be similar to Zubov when he is fully developed. He just doesn't have the same offensive vision, but I think he is a better skater. Although I didn't watch a ton of young Zubov when his skating would have been at its best.

 

[Gardner McKay]

Over-rating zubov. He had 1 Norris nomination in his career, finishing 3rd that season. And in 1993-94 he didn't lead dmen in scoring, nor wasn't top 20 in overall scoring. What was record breaking?

Heiskanen definitely has a chance to be equal, or even better than zubov.


Edit: And in 12 healthy seasons only was selected for the all Star game 4 times. That says something, regardless of how meaningless the all Star game may be.

Heiskanen has the chance average 60 points per season as defenseman? Heiskanen has a chance to put up 89 points at his peak? Heiskanen has a chance to lead his team in scoring en route to a Stanley Cup?

Looking at Norris and All-Star nominations as a way to judge Zubov is an absurdly foolish position. I mean, it isn't like Zubov was going against guys like Borque, Leetch, Chelios, Lidstrom in his prime (a combined 17 Norris trophies between them).. oh wait he was. You might as well say (insert defensive prospect here) definitely has a chance to be equal to or better than Shea Weber. I mean, he never won a Norris.

Heiskanen is a great prospect. No doubt about it. But my god, you use context when discussing players from previous eras.

 

[serp]

Zubov was what made those Stars team function and be a perenial contender for a decade and when he had to retire the team completely fell to shit. Yeah he didn't get too much personal hardware and accolades but he was an elite player offensively and defensively. Heiskanen is a very good prospect but lets not get carried away just yet.

 

[TheFinnishTrap]

Heiskanen has the chance average 60 points per season as defenseman? Heiskanen has a chance to put up 89 points at his peak? Heiskanen has a chance to lead his team in scoring en route to a Stanley Cup?

Looking at Norris and All-Star nominations as a way to judge Zubov is an absurdly foolish position. I mean, it isn't like Zubov was going against guys like Borque, Leetch, Chelios, Lidstrom in his prime (a combined 17 Norris trophies between them).. oh wait he was. You might as well say (insert defensive prospect here) definitely has a chance to be equal to or better than Shea Weber. I mean, he never won a Norris.

Heiskanen is a great prospect. No doubt about it. But my god, you use context when discussing players from previous eras.

You mention this, but hold Heiskanen to 90s scoring standards? Also, the "player x had to compete against this and that player" argument isn't really worthwhile, as the only thing that matters and can be reliably assessed is how a player compares to his contemporaries.