Rank D from 2003 draft

[BobMarleyNYR]

Almost 2 years after the draft: rank the D-men who were taken in the first two rounds of the entry draft. Below you find the players, including their original draft #.

Ryan Suter (#7)
Braydon Coburn (#8)
Dion Phaneuf (#9)
Brent Seabrooke (#14)
Brent Burns (#20)
Mark Stuart (#21)
Shawn Belle (#30)
Danny Richmond (#31)
Mike Egener (#34)
Kevin Klein (#37)
Tim Ramholt (#39)
Matt Smaby (#41)
Matt Carle (#47)
Shea Weber (#49)
Ivan Baranka (#50)
John Doherty (#57)
Michal Barinka (#59)
David Liffiton (#63)

I will omit those whom I haven't seen...
Phaneuf
Suter
Coburn
Stuart
Seabrooke
Weber
Ramholt
Baranka
Liffiton
Barinka
Smaby

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I like Richmond. I think he was a risky pick with some very interesting upside. And from the way he was described to me and his size, I was pleasantly surprised by his physical game when I saw him.

Exactly. He's a spunky player with alot of speed and offensive flair. I think it was reasonable for the Canes to take a flier on him.

 

[bruins4777*]

In the past two days I've heard you've refered to yourself as a Bruins fan, a Predators fan, and a Thrashers fan.

You also have friends in Vancouver who drive across one of the biggest countries in the world to see Tim Ramholt play.

its like this.
i'm a bruins fan first and foremost, secondly a thrashers and panthers. then preds.
after those main 4 i cheer for some other songs, but i'm not as huge on them. These include the flyers, nux, kings, blue jackets, yotes and some other teams. I live around hershey so i see all of the flyers games, so i know the flyers very well, and i use to be a pretty big flyers fan until recently. Canucks i follow really closely cause a lot of my close friends are canucks fans, but i don't like them as much as i use to, for no particular reason. Kings i just admire their struggle i just don't follow them much. Blue jackets i follow because of geoff sanderson, marc denis, and rostival klesla. Denis use to play in hershey for 2 seasons, and i'm not really a bears fan...but i liked him always. And coyotes i use to be a huge fan of cause they had sean burke, who was the one goalie who made me fall in love with goaltending more than any other player. So i followed them really closely, but i don't as much before. Now i only really like johnson and mara. I'm a big langkow fan, but i hate the flames so thats a no go.

So i follow a lot of teams....and thats a fairly long explanation of the teams i like.

And my friends saw ramholt play like i dunno maybe once a month or so. Mainly their giants fans. What i get from them is he's talented, but he isn't super incredibly dynamic. You know what i mean? I find it hard to judge dmen, i'll say this, i'm not very good at judging dmen unless i watch them extensively or in just a few games they are incredibly dominant. I follow certain dmen like bouwmeester and pitkanen very closely and i break down their styles cause i see them so much, but in general i'm inconsistent at judging potential of these guys. Usually i'll need to see a guy at least 3 or 4 times before i can get a good read on him. I'm better at judging goaltenders....

 

[bruins4777*]

Exactly. He's a spunky player with alot of speed and offensive flair. I think it was reasonable for the Canes to take a flier on him.

When i saw him, he looked poor positionally and he looked kind of uncomfortable physically. He would play physical but do it in a sort of bizarre way, its hard to explain, but he looked kind of "uncomfortable" at times on the ice. But at other times offensively he looked decent. He's only his first year pro, so that could be it?

 

[Phanuthier*]

And my friends saw ramholt play like i dunno maybe once a month or so. Mainly their giants fans.

Seriously though, whats the milage on this guy's car?

 

[Rabid Ranger]

When i saw him, he looked poor positionally and he looked kind of uncomfortable physically. He would play physical but do it in a sort of bizarre way, its hard to explain, but he looked kind of "uncomfortable" at times on the ice. But at other times offensively he looked decent. He's only his first year pro, so that could be it?

Are you talking about with London or Lowell? If the former, every player has a bad day, if the latter, he's a rookie defenseman in a top tier league. Don't get me wrong, Richmond is a project, but he has alot of excellent skills, and is doing reasonably well.

 

[Starsdude]

Belle is effective when he limits himself to a defensive defenseman.

Otherwise he's a liability if he's trying to be too offensive, because he doesn't have the offensive skills or the head to play the puck in an attacking mode. If he plays a defensive role, he'll be a good #5/6 defenseman in the NHL because of his size, strength, and skating.

That actually is good to hear as a solid defenseman who can skate is needed around Dallas. I think just because a player is more defensive oriented people generally limit a player to a 5/6 role but I suspect with his skating, size and strength, he can be put in a higher pair. Dallas' defense as it relates to young players/prospects is pretty good and Belle is part of that. I think the development of Fransson and Daley still remain critical to this franchise as does development of a young scorer whether it be Jokinin , Erikkson or someone else

 

[bruins4777*]

Are you talking about with London or Lowell? If the former, every player has a bad day, if the latter, he's a rookie defenseman in a top tier league. Don't get me wrong, Richmond is a project, but he has alot of excellent skills, and is doing reasonably well.

it was in lowell, so ya thats what i figured.