Nathan Beaulieu

[JimmyDarmody]

Honestly, I don't really disagree with you.

The thing is this HF-effect can be a bit hard to discern when your wading in it. I think there are a lot of young prospects who legitimately have all the upside in the world and don't necessarily translate.

IMO, Beaulieu has "it". And will be an upper echelon 50-55 points dman. But I'm a little concerned that I might be getting too caught up in the sexy aspect of him being a recent, french canadien, MTL first rounder.

I hope I have nothing to worry about though, as I have him in my main Fantasy Pool

Nathan doesn't speak a word of french. But I agree, he has the "it" factor IMO. First time in years that I've been excited about our 1st round pick.

 

[DJB]

Brian Campbell 2.0 with slightly better defence. Don't think that he will rush the puck like Campbell does in the pros though...

Both are great skaters and good first pass guys.

 

[jmelm]

We had him at #9 in our final ranking. I think everyone else had him in the top-15. Not sure how much more love did he need?

Well that's my point (and I wasn't indicting you in particular, because I wasn't aware of your rankings. I was referring to RedLine, ISS & other sources).

Bob McKenzie and many others kept talking about the "Top 9" in this draft, and how there was a clear separation after the top 9 (which did not include Beaulieu).

What I didn't understand was why this kid wasn't ranked in the same vicinity by others and it didn't become a "Top-10" or "Top-11" because I didn't see that much separation between this player and the others in that top group.

So koudos to you and CSS for having him in that category -- which just adds to the confusion of why others didn't have him there. Some of those others may say that if you have Beaulieu in your top 9, there's someone who's ranked too low and I'm not entirely clear on what the basis for that argument would be. ..

 

[jmelm]

Brian Campbell 2.0 with slightly better defence. Don't think that he will rush the puck like Campbell does in the pros though...

Great comparison, although I disagree with the 2nd sentance.


But think about this: Brian Campbell with better defense and 3 inches taller -- that's an elite, arguably top 12-15 defensemen in the league.

 

[bruinsfan46]

Great comparison, although I disagree with the 2nd sentance.


But think about this: Brian Campbell with better defense and 3 inches taller -- that's an elite, arguably top 12-15 defensemen in the league.

Is there any particular reason you're so, so high on Bealieu? Usually when posters are this high on a prospect their either a fan of their junior team or a fan of their pro team. You appear to be neither. I think you're getting way ahead of yourself, if Bealieu projects to be who you say he does then he would have been a top three pick, not 17th.

 

[Philly85*]

He reminds me of perhaps a more offensively gifted version of Ladislav Smid. Good skaters, good first pass, kind of ho hum offensively and defensively but lots of potential to be better offensively at least. He's a decent pick, good upside, nothing spectacular, if all goes well he should pan out as a top 4 D.

 

[dm1371]

Good to hear all this good stuff on my new boy

 

[Bleeker]

i saw him play 5 games last season in the Q, and he really reminds me of Brian Rafalski ( skating, vision and hockey QI ) , but this kid is already 6,3 !? I thought he would be picked between 8 or 12

 

[jmelm]

Is there any particular reason you're so, so high on Bealieu? Usually when posters are this high on a prospect their either a fan of their junior team or a fan of their pro team. You appear to be neither. I think you're getting way ahead of yourself, if Bealieu projects to be who you say he does then he would have been a top three pick, not 17th.

You are correct: I'm a Pens fan, and also a lover of the game in general, so I have no particular bias to Montreal or St. John.

I went out of my way to try to watch St. John's games to watch Pens' prospect Despres. I had no preconceptions about Beaulieu because, frankly, before this season I didn't know the player (as much as I follow prospects, I don't really follow guys years before their draft, unless it's a Crosby, Hall, etc. type player)

In watching those games, I came away VERY impressed with Beaulieu -- even more than Despres, quite frankly (when comparing them at the same age/point in their careers).
As for why he wasn't picked higher, that's just the nature of the draft and each teams' needs/perspectives. Given that CSS had Beaulieu ranked ahead of Couturier, Murphy, Strome and Scheifele -- all of whom were drafted ahead of Beaulier -- just shows that putting him in a similar category is not an unreasonable or isolated view.

 

[Bjorn Le]

When CSS put Beaulieu a 5 it was bashed by everyone, even some Saint Johns fans. Don't know why you think 17 is such a fall anyway. Most projected him from the mid to late teens, and that's where he went.

 

[Jayevs]

I think hes gonna be a big bodied offensive-dman, who isnt all that physical and nothing special deffensively, except for his long reach will help him break up plays

 

[Mathradio]

How did he fall to #17? I expected the Canes to take him at #12 or so.

 

[Talks to Goalposts]

How did he fall to #17? I expected the Canes to take him at #12 or so.

You could make a case that he fell because he didn't have one exceptional skill set that a team felt they could really use. Brodin has terrific tools, Siemens has the physical play, Ryan Murphy has fantastic offensive skills and Oleksiak is huge. If they are relatively equal in perceived ability the generalist can end up falling.

 

[Bjorn Le]

How did he fall to #17? I expected the Canes to take him at #12 or so.

Because there was better players avaiable...I think Canes fans would have killed Rutherford if he would've taken Beaulieu over Murphy (Or some of the other players still there)

 

[jmelm]

You could make a case that he fell because he didn't have one exceptional skill set that a team felt they could really use. Brodin has terrific tools, Siemens has the physical play, Ryan Murphy has fantastic offensive skills and Oleksiak is huge. If they are relatively equal in perceived ability the generalist can end up falling.

I disagree. Beaulieu is an absolutely elite skater. It can also be argued that his hockey sense is superior to Siemens or Oleksiak, and I think he has elite offensive potential (though not at Murphy's level).

Because there was better players avaiable...I think Canes fans would have killed Rutherford if he would've taken Beaulieu over Murphy (Or some of the other players still there)

I don't think you can simply say "there were better players available". Drafting is subjective asessment, not objective fact.

As Bob McKenzie always says "it only takes one team to like one player more than you to cause you to fall". I think this is the case with Beaulieu, where you simply had teams that had a different preference or need.

And on that last point, while the rhetoric is that you always draft the BPA, I don't think that's 100% true all the time in reality. COL have Elliot & Barrie (as well as Johnson) who have a lot of offensive ability, so a big stay at home Dman in Siemens fit more of an organizational need, even if Murphy was the "better player". NYR are absolutely stacked on defense so they opted for Miller over Beaulieu, and Buffalo the same with Armia.

 

[Karlssonlee]

I don't expect much from him offensively in the NHL. I'd expect him to be more of a Tom Poti, early in his career, where he was suppose to be an offensive defensive but change his role over time. Or like Chris Phillips.

He's not that good offensively, people are just impressed by his skating and think it can translate to being an offensive defenseman.

This is just my honest opinion of him.

 

[DJB]

Nothing wrong with getting a a guy that can play on your pp and put up around 30-35 points...

 

[alphahelix]

how does Beaulieu compare to Martin Marincin? I saw them play one CHL game each in person but that isn't enough to learn anything significant about either. There did seem to be some similarities and the offense was there for both of them [both in the games I saw and at the end of the season on the stats sheet]

 

[R S]

Nothing wrong with getting a a guy that can play on your pp and put up around 30-35 points...

When did he do this?

 

[Mr. Hab]

Is there any particular reason you're so, so high on Bealieu? Usually when posters are this high on a prospect their either a fan of their junior team or a fan of their pro team. You appear to be neither. I think you're getting way ahead of yourself, if Bealieu projects to be who you say he does then he would have been a top three pick, not 17th.

PK Subban was chosen in the 2nd Round.
IMO, Subban should have been selected TOP 5 overall or TOP 8 overall that draft year (2007).
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2007e.html

I'll trust ''jmelm'' (sounds like a professional scout,imo) who has seen Beaulieu play in many games and has no bias VS the opinion of ''bruinsfan46''. Thank-you very much.


Beaulieu may one day prove that he could/should have been selected in the TOP 9 or TOP 10 of the 2011 Draft (instead of 17th). Time will tell... and I'm sure ''bruinsfan46'' will be ecstatic for the Habs and Beaulieu if he does become a successful NHL dman one day.

 

[FF de Mars]

Beaulieu doesn't seem to be the same type of player as Subban. Subban reminds me of Svoboda and Beaulieu of Desjardins.

 

[Mr. Hab]

Beaulieu doesn't seem to be the same type of player as Subban. Subban reminds me of Svoboda and Beaulieu of Desjardins.

Svoboda!! Really?! Well, I'll respect your opinion/observation...it's been awhile since Svoboda played but I've seen some old clips of Svoboda on CBC, and...everyone just seemed a lot slower back then!! (Svoboda looked smooth -good skater- but not as fast/flashy/entertaining/skilled as Subban,imo).
Desjardins (is a rightie, not that it matters that much!)...I wouldn't mind this comparison at all. Desjardins was a solid offensive/defensive dman (nothing flashy, not overly physical but physical enough from what I remember...solid dman).


Beaulieu comparisons: I like jmelm's fair, non-biased comparisons (from this thread) of Beaulieu...
Keith Yandle
Whitney
Brian Campbell with better defense and 3 inches taller -- that's an elite, arguably top 12-15 defensemen in the league.


Other Beaulieu comparisons: PK Subban, Mike Green, Brian Campbell... I believe jmelm's comparisons/observations are more realistic...although if Beaulieu had a bit of PK in him I wouldn't be against that! For me there's only one PK Subban and for defence I'd take PK over Green and Campbell anyday, imo.

 

[Han Solo]

beaulieu is the real deal

 

[toshiro]

Both have superior straight ahead speed to the players mentioned.

Beaulieu doesn't seem to be the same type of player as Subban. Subban reminds me of Svoboda and Beaulieu of Desjardins.

 

[toshiro]

Svoboda had elite lateral ability and elite passing skills. He weighed in at about 170 so was always picking himself up from the ice. Beau would appear to be faster than Desjardin but a Desjardin with speed would be an awesome D man.

Svoboda!! Really?! Well, I'll respect your opinion/observation...it's been awhile since Svoboda played but I've seen some old clips of Svoboda on CBC, and...everyone just seemed a lot slower back then!! (Svoboda looked smooth -good skater- but not as fast/flashy/entertaining/skilled as Subban,imo).
Desjardins (is a rightie, not that it matters that much!)...I wouldn't mind this comparison at all. Desjardins was a solid offensive/defensive dman (nothing flashy, not overly physical but physical enough from what I remember...solid dman).


Beaulieu comparisons: I like jmelm's fair, non-biased comparisons (from this thread) of Beaulieu...
Keith Yandle
Whitney
Brian Campbell with better defense and 3 inches taller -- that's an elite, arguably top 12-15 defensemen in the league.


Other Beaulieu comparisons: PK Subban, Mike Green, Brian Campbell... I believe jmelm's comparisons/observations are more realistic...although if Beaulieu had a bit of PK in him I wouldn't be against that! For me there's only one PK Subban and for defence I'd take PK over Green and Campbell anyday, imo.

Svoboda had elite lateral ability and elite passing skills. He weighed in at about 170 so was always picking himself up from the ice. Beau would appear to be faster than Desjardin but a Desjardin with speed would be an awesome D man. In Junior Green was like a general out there. A Mike Green with defensive abilities would be awesome.