GDT: Preseason game 1: Knights @ Avs 7:00pm MT

[Bender]

Was super excited to finally see some pre-season hockey but that game was pretty disappointing.

I thought Cole had a tough night. Seemed like he had trouble keeping up. I think if he's slated for the bottom pairing, it shouldn't be so bad but man, he struggled big time. That's a pricey bottom pairing guy, as we all suspected.

Barrie didn't play particularly well and started doing silly Barrie-like things with the puck like he's screwin' around instead of doing what he's supposed to. I guess it's good to get it out of his system early.

I thought Rantanen looked quicker and stronger than he did last year...it was really noticeable and that's a huge positive.

I liked what I saw from O'Connor, Dickinson (1 & 2 periods), Nantel (needs more AHL time) and Beaudin (at times, he also needs more AHL time).

I was disappointed but not surprised with Josh Anderson, Nick Henry and Mason Geertsen.

I'm not sure who the Avs have scouting the WHL but it might be a good time to move on especially with next year's draft coming. At some point, you have to be able snag a guy that gives you hope they'll develop into an NHL player and it can't just be luck.

 

[BKarchitect]

Brannstrom looks fantastic - reminds me of Girard with more goal scoring ability. Almost exact same size, same silky skating and puck control and really quite effective defensively too despite being small. Just can control play when he has the puck.

I really think people predicting Vegas is going to come crashing back down to earth this year are going to be disappointed. They paid too much for MaxPac but he’ll be a nice Neal replacement and as has been mentioned, they seem to just have the same mentality out there no matter who is wearing the jersey. They are going to score a lot of goals and be tough to play again.

 

[Perratrooper]

I’m just suprised @Murzu isnt liking his own posts with another account.

 

[Murzu]

I’m just suprised @Murzu isnt liking his own posts with another account.

Lovely idea!

 

[The Kingslayer]

I don't mind losses in pre-season. Gives coaches more to work on and iron out. Figure out what's wrong early on instead of later in the season.

Bro, seasons over.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Lovely idea!

Haha yah be like SeaEagle he has a burner account Bleedwell.

 

[Foppberg]

Haha yah be like SeaEagle he has a burner account Bleedwell.

That would actually make a ton of sense. Be insanely optimistic on one account while being miserable on the other.

 

[cgf]

@cgf has 100 more likes than I do. I'll have to visit Canes board to fix that.

I did, as did @BrickAHL.

PSH only because of my Jogi-Löw related break from HF...

...that and I had a few deaths in the family this summer. The aunt who raised my father passed the day after I got back to Chicago back in June...as I was on the way to the hospital to see her...and right before I was to leave chicago for a 3 week trip through slovakia, slovenia & italy; my older sister -- who I had been in the bay area to take off through most of last season -- succumbed to her sarcoidosis...

On a positive note, at least I'm running out of sickly relatives. So the next death in the family is guaranteed to be devastating...as my father is the only one left who isn't fit as an ox for his age, and losing anyone else in the near term would be utterly shocking...


Plus I'm getting sucked back into Basketball (again) because it's been the better part of a decade since that idiotic Melo-trade & like a co-dependent spouse in an abusive relationship, I just can't leave them for someone new. So it's about time I let that disaster of a franchise break my heart again; now that the Avs have their shit together & I've stopped carrying about the NFL as well as the German national soccer team.

 

[Murzu]

PSH only because of my Jogi-Löw related break from HF...

...that and I had a few deaths in the family this summer. The aunt who raised my father passed the day after I got back to Chicago back in June...as I was on the way to the hospital to see her...and right before I was to leave chicago for a 3 week trip through slovakia, slovenia & italy; my older sister -- who I had been in the bay area to take off through most of last season -- succumbed to her sarcoidosis...

On a positive note, at least I'm running out of sickly relatives. So the next death in the family is guaranteed to be devastating...as my father is the only one left who isn't fit as an ox for his age, and losing anyone else in the near term would be utterly shocking...


Plus I'm getting sucked back into Basketball (again) because it's been the better part of a decade since that idiotic Melo-trade & like a co-dependent spouse in an abusive relationship, I just can't leave them for someone new. So it's about time I let that disaster of a franchise break my heart again; now that the Avs have their **** together & I've stopped carrying about the NFL as well as the German national soccer team.

Sorry to hear all that man. That's a lot to take in such a short period of time

 

[henchman21]

That is rough cgf... sorry man

 

[the_fan]

Was super excited to finally see some pre-season hockey but that game was pretty disappointing.

I thought Cole had a tough night. Seemed like he had trouble keeping up. I think if he's slated for the bottom pairing, it shouldn't be so bad but man, he struggled big time. That's a pricey bottom pairing guy, as we all suspected.

Barrie didn't play particularly well and started doing silly Barrie-like things with the puck like he's screwin' around instead of doing what he's supposed to. I guess it's good to get it out of his system early.

I thought Rantanen looked quicker and stronger than he did last year...it was really noticeable and that's a huge positive.

I liked what I saw from O'Connor, Dickinson (1 & 2 periods), Nantel (needs more AHL time) and Beaudin (at times, he also needs more AHL time).

I was disappointed but not surprised with Josh Anderson, Nick Henry and Mason Geertsen.

I'm not sure who the Avs have scouting the WHL but it might be a good time to move on especially with next year's draft coming. At some point, you have to be able snag a guy that gives you hope they'll develop into an NHL player and it can't just be luck.

I wouldn't be concerned yet about Cole or other veteran players not looking very good in the 1st preseason game. If Cole looks like that throughout the preseason and in first couple of regular season games, then I'll be concerned

 

[Balthazar]

Brannstrom looks fantastic

He's really good. I was sure that he'd be the centerpiece going back in the EK trade.

 

[PAZ]

Was super excited to finally see some pre-season hockey but that game was pretty disappointing.

I thought Cole had a tough night. Seemed like he had trouble keeping up. I think if he's slated for the bottom pairing, it shouldn't be so bad but man, he struggled big time. That's a pricey bottom pairing guy, as we all suspected.

Barrie didn't play particularly well and started doing silly Barrie-like things with the puck like he's screwin' around instead of doing what he's supposed to. I guess it's good to get it out of his system early.

I thought Rantanen looked quicker and stronger than he did last year...it was really noticeable and that's a huge positive.

I liked what I saw from O'Connor, Dickinson (1 & 2 periods), Nantel (needs more AHL time) and Beaudin (at times, he also needs more AHL time).

I was disappointed but not surprised with Josh Anderson, Nick Henry and Mason Geertsen.

I'm not sure who the Avs have scouting the WHL but it might be a good time to move on especially with next year's draft coming. At some point, you have to be able snag a guy that gives you hope they'll develop into an NHL player and it can't just be luck.

Maybe they should hire @R S!

 

[Foppa2118]

I'm not sure who the Avs have scouting the WHL but it might be a good time to move on especially with next year's draft coming. At some point, you have to be able snag a guy that gives you hope they'll develop into an NHL player and it can't just be luck.

The Avs have a few guys out west. Don Paarup, Lyle Wingert, and Wade Klippenstein. It's one of their most heavily scouted areas actually.

I think their lack of success in the WHL is just coincidental. The highly talented guys in the league weren't BPA options around their picks. While the later picks end up being big physical projects like Geertsen and Anderson.

Nick Henry looks like he's progressing well as a 4th rounder. Jost and Makar out of the BCHL/AJHL were their guys too.

 

[JWK]

In all honestly, how was Moser?

 

[Avs425]

In all honestly, how was Moser?

I thought he was fine, to me he seems more focused on the game were as McNab likes to rambles off on a lot of things sometimes.

 

[McMetal]

In all honestly, how was Moser?

He's still too much in the habit of being his own color commentator from the radio. It's something he'll have to grow out of, he was pulling double duty for a lot of years, but he did talk over McNab a little too much. Otherwise, as I predicted, he toned down most of the hysterics for TV (although here wasn't much to be excited about to be fair).

 

[S E P H]

The Avs have a few guys out west. Don Paarup, Lyle Wingert, and Wade Klippenstein. It's one of their most heavily scouted areas actually.

I think their lack of success in the WHL is just coincidental. The highly talented guys in the league weren't BPA options around their picks. While the later picks end up being big physical projects like Geertsen and Anderson.

Nick Henry looks like he's progressing well as a 4th rounder. Jost and Makar out of the BCHL/AJHL were their guys too.

Paarup is like a million years old and probably is on the downside of his evaluation of players. It could be coincidence, but history shows...

Nick Henry [2017 - 94th]: Doesn't look anything more than a bottom 6 player. Doubts from me that he even has NHL talent.
Josh Anderson [2016 - 71st]: Enough Said
Connor Bleackley [2014 - 23rd]: Enough Said
Mason Geertsen [2013 - 93rd]: Not truly terrible pick, but doesn't look like an NHL player currently.
Troy Bourke [2012 - #72nd]: ECHL player.
Colin Wilson [2012 - 192nd]: Not bad selection either, turned out to be decent AHLer.
Duncan Siemens [2011 - 11th]: Awful selection.
Troy Rutkowski [2010 - 137th]: Not good enough.
Luke Walker [2010 - 139th]: Not good enough.
Stefan Elliott [2009 - 49th]: Awful selection.

Besides 3 out of 10 prospect chosen from the WHL the past ten years have been top 100 prospects/players. That's a 70% failure rate with our picks in the top 100 where you want to grab at least some NHL depth. That is simply not good enough and in there were awful selections like Siemens, Bourke, and Bleackley at the worst. You can throw Anderson in there as well. The only two good picks we got from the league have come in the form of...

Calvin Pickard [2010 - 49th]
Tyson Barrie [2009 - 64th]

Simply not good enough in a league which had talent like McNabb for Elliott, Gallagher for Rutkowski and Walker, Baerschi for Siemens, Leipsic over Bourke, Scherbak/Quenneville/Lemieux for Bleackley, Elynuik/Twarynski/Mahura/Pilon/Ingram for Anderson, and Shaw for Henry. I am not saying any of these guys are world-beaters and I am not trying to play the hindsight game, but whoever is our WHL scouts isn't very good. Definitely the Bleackley and the 2010 drafts were awful for the Avs when it came to WHL selections. Gallagher was shown to be a very good player even if he was on the smaller side. I remember him going in front of the net a million times showing he played much bigger than his sized said (it wasn't very hard to miss him IMHO).

E: Would it have hurt to take a gamble on Mahura instead of Anderson at the very least?

 

[Foppa2118]

Paarup is like a million years old and probably is on the downside of his evaluation of players. It could be coincidence, but history shows...

Nick Henry [2017 - 94th]: Doesn't look anything more than a bottom 6 player. Doubts from me that he even has NHL talent.
Josh Anderson [2016 - 71st]: Enough Said
Connor Bleackley [2014 - 23rd]: Enough Said
Mason Geertsen [2013 - 93rd]: Not truly terrible pick, but doesn't look like an NHL player currently.
Troy Bourke [2012 - #72nd]: ECHL player.
Colin Wilson [2012 - 192nd]: Not bad selection either, turned out to be decent AHLer.
Duncan Siemens [2011 - 11th]: Awful selection.
Troy Rutkowski [2010 - 137th]: Not good enough.
Luke Walker [2010 - 139th]: Not good enough.
Stefan Elliott [2009 - 49th]: Awful selection.

Besides 3 out of 10 prospect chosen from the WHL the past ten years have been top 100 prospects/players. That's a 70% failure rate with our picks in the top 100 where you want to grab at least some NHL depth. That is simply not good enough and in there were awful selections like Siemens, Bourke, and Bleackley at the worst. You can throw Anderson in there as well. The only two good picks we got from the league have come in the form of...

Calvin Pickard [2010 - 49th]
Tyson Barrie [2009 - 64th]

Simply not good enough in a league which had talent like McNabb for Elliott, Gallagher for Rutkowski and Walker, Baerschi for Siemens, Leipsic over Bourke, Scherbak/Quenneville/Lemieux for Bleackley, Elynuik/Twarynski/Mahura/Pilon/Ingram for Anderson, and Shaw for Henry. I am not saying any of these guys are world-beaters and I am not trying to play the hindsight game, but whoever is our WHL scouts isn't very good. Definitely the Bleackley and the 2010 drafts were awful for the Avs when it came to WHL selections. Gallagher was shown to be a very good player even if he was on the smaller side. I remember him going in front of the net a million times showing he played much bigger than his sized said (it wasn't very hard to miss him IMHO).

E: Would it have hurt to take a gamble on Mahura instead of Anderson at the very least?

I'm not sure it's fair to critique this current group for picks prior to 2013. They've made a lot of changes to the amateur scouting group since then, as well as changing the head of scouting.

In 2016 they brought in Wingert and Klippenstein prior to the Jost draft, and they're the main guys who scout the WHL, BCHL, and AJHL now.

I know we're not happy about Bleackley, and I preferred Lemieux over him, but none of Bleackley, Scherbak, Lemieux, and Quenneville are NHLers yet at 22. Pastrnak and Kempe are really the only guys to be upset about passing on, but the Avs weren't the only ones to pass on them for lesser prospects.

Henry may only end up a bottom six guy, but that's what you hope for from a 4th rounder. Most 4th rounders don't even amount to that. So far I think Henry has looked like a pretty good pick there.

Obviously it probably wouldn't have hurt to take Mahura over Anderson, but the Avs scouts saw something they liked in Anderson. If Mahura pans out over Anderson, then it was a miss, but if neither pan out it's kind of a moot point IMO.

With this current group though after Wingert and Klippenstein took over the western scouting, they've helped select Jost, Anderson, Makar, and Henry. That's not too bad.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

The concerning thing is the Avs finding something in Josh Anderson they liked. 6 points in 39 games his draft year. That's awful and they still found a need to draft him. I get that he's a nasty guy but you have to realize the way the game is moving and that defensemen that cannot even put up points in juniors are unlikely to ever sniff the NHL because they're a liability with the puck.

 

[henchman21]

snip

Call me a bit of a pessimist, but I feel this could really be made for all of the Avs' scouts. It is too early to nail either way on anything 2015 and beyond... but prior to that, the Avs have had far, far too many misses. Identification of talent outside the first round (and sometimes within) has really left a lot to be desired.

That said, I've liked the change in strategy since the 2014 abomination. There have been a number of players selected that I think could be solid players (hope springs eternal). Some missteps for sure in that area, but some shrewd picks like Shvy, Leivermann, Weiss, and Greer in there too.

 

[The Kingslayer]

PSH only because of my Jogi-Löw related break from HF...

...that and I had a few deaths in the family this summer. The aunt who raised my father passed the day after I got back to Chicago back in June...as I was on the way to the hospital to see her...and right before I was to leave chicago for a 3 week trip through slovakia, slovenia & italy; my older sister -- who I had been in the bay area to take off through most of last season -- succumbed to her sarcoidosis...

On a positive note, at least I'm running out of sickly relatives. So the next death in the family is guaranteed to be devastating...as my father is the only one left who isn't fit as an ox for his age, and losing anyone else in the near term would be utterly shocking...


Plus I'm getting sucked back into Basketball (again) because it's been the better part of a decade since that idiotic Melo-trade & like a co-dependent spouse in an abusive relationship, I just can't leave them for someone new. So it's about time I let that disaster of a franchise break my heart again; now that the Avs have their **** together & I've stopped carrying about the NFL as well as the German national soccer team.

Sorry to hear man. Hope all is good otherwise.

 

[Foppa2118]

The concerning thing is the Avs finding something in Josh Anderson they liked. 6 points in 39 games his draft year. That's awful and they still found a need to draft him. I get that he's a nasty guy but you have to realize the way the game is moving and that defensemen that cannot even put up points in juniors are unlikely to ever sniff the NHL because they're a liability with the puck.

That's fair, but every scouting staff has a few questionable picks. Since Wingert and Klippenstein took over the western scouting they've had one questionable pick out of Jost, Makar, Henry, and Anderson. That's probably roughly equivalent to most teams, and better than some.

 

[Freaky Styley]

The concerning thing is the Avs finding something in Josh Anderson they liked. 6 points in 39 games his draft year. That's awful and they still found a need to draft him. I get that he's a nasty guy but you have to realize the way the game is moving and that defensemen that cannot even put up points in juniors are unlikely to ever sniff the NHL because they're a liability with the puck.

Honestly, I think Bednar putting him out with Geertsen against the best forechecking team in the league was a message to scouts/management to say 'stop giving me these players'

 

[The Kingslayer]

Was super excited to finally see some pre-season hockey but that game was pretty disappointing.

I thought Cole had a tough night. Seemed like he had trouble keeping up. I think if he's slated for the bottom pairing, it shouldn't be so bad but man, he struggled big time. That's a pricey bottom pairing guy, as we all suspected.

Barrie didn't play particularly well and started doing silly Barrie-like things with the puck like he's screwin' around instead of doing what he's supposed to. I guess it's good to get it out of his system early.

I thought Rantanen looked quicker and stronger than he did last year...it was really noticeable and that's a huge positive.

I liked what I saw from O'Connor, Dickinson (1 & 2 periods), Nantel (needs more AHL time) and Beaudin (at times, he also needs more AHL time).

I was disappointed but not surprised with Josh Anderson, Nick Henry and Mason Geertsen.

I'm not sure who the Avs have scouting the WHL but it might be a good time to move on especially with next year's draft coming. At some point, you have to be able snag a guy that gives you hope they'll develop into an NHL player and it can't just be luck.

Rants definitely looked quick last night. I guess he has to be because it seems even Nathan found a half a gear over the summer.