How good is he in the dot?
Career: 45.6%. Last two years with 40+ games: 45.3% and 45.4%.
Not good considering he is 26 years old.
As a point of reference, Galchenyuk has 45.5% FO in his career.
Same here. I remember being impressed a few years back on the Leafs. I thought he would blossom nicely....a big center drafted very high.
Is there any chance he could improve under Claude?
Anything can happen when a coach gives you icetime.
Byron was about 26 years old when we picked him off waivers.
We were lucky to be third in choice that year because he would have been gone well before 20th position.
Where MB did really good was to sign him to a two year contract.
For now he just needs to be better than Mac/JDLR/Hudon/Martinsens/Mitchell.
If he really wants it he doesn't have an all star field to beat out.
Probably ends up in the AHL but good to have some internal competition.
As Mac can go trough waivers, he does not compete with him.
But Mac improve a lot last summer.
DLR and Hudon have to go through waivers and they should be picked.
Hudon is better at scoring goals and DLR is taller and bigger.
Those two still have a few years to go before reaching 26 years old.
Holland has a career pace of 27 points with 13:17 TOI/GP so certainly no PP or very little but who would give PP to a player with a pace below 35 points?
Look at our team: Byron and Lehkonen are better and they have no PP.
I'm liking this signature more and more. I like the potential, much higher than Martinsen. If Holland and DLR do pan out, pretty sure Mitchell, Martinsen and, even if I love the guy a lot, Byron, will be expendable.
Byron brings top of the league PK, top speed and 22G and 40+ points is really good.
For me, Byron is a pretty good deal.
Mitchell, on the other hand, could be expendable.
As I was looking at FO for Mitchell, I was surprised to see that he was below 50% pretty much every year before he came to Montreal at 30 years old.
Does he still have a chance to turn his career around?
Judging by his highlights, he has a ton of skill
Seems it is his last chance for NHL.
But you could have said the same with Byron.
He was OK in Toronto two years ago but there is a lot of competition for that spot.
CJ will have all the cards needed to build the team he wants except having a sure top center.
So unless things change, Galchenyuk will have to be that center.
Danault/Plekanec can be top-9 centers but who does it in 2018-19?
If DLR does not become at least a third line center next year, the UFA centers in 2018 are plenty. This year was depleted: there was Hanzal and Thornton.
In the mean time, we have 16 forwards that will compete for 13 spots at the camp.
Top-10 are Galchenyuk, Pacioretty, Gallagher, Drouin, Lehkonen, Danault, Shaw, Byron, Hemsky and Plekanec.
Mitchell (32), Carr (25), Martinsen (27), Holland (26), DLR (21) and Hudon (22) will be compete for 3 spots.
So three of these players will have to go through waivers if they can not play in NHL.
McCarron could mess this up if he has another summer like last summer as far as training goes. His speed improved last year and lower body also.
The one that could surprise many is Martinsen, this guy has 66 NHL even if he is 27 years old. He can hit and skate and was never playing at that level in Norway.
Hudon will definitively be picked on waivers.
DLR would most likely be picked also.
As for Holland, having a spot in our roster is an uphill battle.