Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

[BoldNewLettuce]

but what does kelly hrudey think?

 

[Senor Catface]

Ah yes, the main board. This is exactly the place I would go to get opinions on Oiler players.

 

[JGuardz]

In my opinion, one of the most underrated centers in the game. He's a great 2-way centre, and has scored at a near ppg pace this year, (playing lots of it without McDavid, with Chiasson, Caggiula, and Puljujarvi).

He just scored a beautiful shootout goal. I would consider him a #1 center.

Looks like he's played close to 2/3 of the season with mcdavid so far.

So it looks like he's benefiting from playing with mcdavid.

 

[winnipegger]

When he's not playing with McDavid he's a 60 point center which is pretty good. Not 1st overall good, but still, quite good. That 2011 draft was not so great. Imagine getting 3 1st overalls in a row and two of them are RNH and Yakupov ugh.

 

[HugginThePost]

From what I remember there were 4 potential 1st overalls that year with no clear consensus on who was #1.

That's never been a great sign of high-end potential.

Oilers needed a C, and took the flashiest centre in RNH, but it really could have been Huberdeau or Couturier.

None of them really put up significantly impressive Junior campaigns.

Hmmmmm.......I recall a lot of comparisons to Gretzky game. We were led to believe that you guys were re-creating the Oilers of days gone by.

Nuge = Gretzky
Hall = Messier
Shultz = Coffey
Eberle = Kurri
Yakapov = Anderson

The lists went on and on......

He was hyped.....don't kid yourself.

And before you tell me no one thought he was the next Gretzky, I know that. But comparisons were made between the two for their IQ and play making.

 

[HugginThePost]

Nuge is an extremely effective player. Not flashy, not a ton of high end offensive skill, but very responsible in his own zone, and always brings a solid compete level.

I have a lot of respect for him and all of the BS he has had to put up during his time as an Oiler.

He's never been a #1 centre, and thats perfectly fine. I would say he's the best true second line centre in the game (players like Malkin etc are all 1Cs that just play on stacked teams). He should never be leading the charge, but he's a great compliment to any strong first line.

You don't really believe this do you?

He's a good #2C....he's not the best in the league.

He's not even the second best C on his own team.

 

[McRpro]

When he's not playing with McDavid he's a 60 point center which is pretty good. Not 1st overall good, but still, quite good. That 2011 draft was not so great. Imagine getting 3 1st overalls in a row and two of them are RNH and Yakupov ugh.

Doesn't stop people from loling at the Oilers and their, "Four #1 picks". Like all 4 were superstars or something. They sure got 2 of them at the worst possible time.

 

[Negan4Coach]

HE CAN ONLY BE TRADED FOR AHO AND SLAVIN AAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[t0nedeff]

When he's not playing with McDavid he's a 60 point center which is pretty good. Not 1st overall good, but still, quite good. That 2011 draft was not so great. Imagine getting 3 1st overalls in a row and two of them are RNH and Yakupov ugh.

and Schiefele isn't an 80 pt player when he isn't playing with Wheeler.

 

[the mcdavid era]

He's a solid 2C

 

[Pointteen]

When he's not playing with McDavid he's a 60 point center which is pretty good. Not 1st overall good, but still, quite good. That 2011 draft was not so great. Imagine getting 3 1st overalls in a row and two of them are RNH and Yakupov ugh.

I don't have to imagine it, unfortunately.
Nuge is a consummate professional. Always ready to play. He can play any forward role effectively. That's worth 6 million a year. If we get one good winger for the top six, I don't mind Nuge getting someone worth playing with on his even strength line.

 

[Freudian]

He's always been a good player. Good skater, good defensively and there is some offense to his game. When he doesn't draw the toughest opposition, he looks better.

 

[KCC]

He’s proven he can do it on his own and he’s very good defensively. Plus he’s deadly on the pk.

 

[Shanahanigans]

Man Oilers players are literally the only ones who get punished for actually producing with skilled players. Yes, Mcdavid, Draisaitl, and RNH have all been involved in each other's points. That's because our best wingers are PTO 4th liner Alex Chiasson, and Drake Cagguila. Of course they won't produce as much playing with players like Lucic (who is not an NHL player at this point) or Spooner.

Aside from those 5 playes, no Oilers forward has more than 2 goals. The next best goal scorer is Klefbom with 3 goals. To win 3-2 last night, the Oilers had to play Mcdavid, RNH and Draisaitl north of 27 minutes each. Klefbom played over 30 minutes last night, which is the 2nd or 3rd time he's done that. I know this is an RNH thread, but I don't think people realize how big the gap is between those 3 centres+Klefbom, and the rest of our team.

 

[HaNotsri]

When he's not playing with McDavid he's a 60 point center which is pretty good. Not 1st overall good, but still, quite good. That 2011 draft was not so great. Imagine getting 3 1st overalls in a row and two of them are RNH and Yakupov ugh.

And the other one turned into Larsson...

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Hmmmmm.......I recall a lot of comparisons to Gretzky game. We were led to believe that you guys were re-creating the Oilers of days gone by.

Nuge = Gretzky
Hall = Messier
Shultz = Coffey
Eberle = Kurri
Yakapov = Anderson

The lists went on and on......

He was hyped.....don't kid yourself.

And before you tell me no one thought he was the next Gretzky, I know that. But comparisons were made between the two for their IQ and play making.

I think someone said "he sees a lot of what Gretzky sees" as a stylistic comparable to his vision.

He never even represented Canada at the World Juniors that year.

But lets not kid ourselves. He had 106 points in his draft year which wasnt spectacular. It was 'ok'.
But nothing compared to Gretzky's 182 points.



Nobody ever thought Nuge was Gretzky. Stop trying to paint a narrative that never happened.

 

[Thenameless]

He's been excellent so far this season, even more so under Hitchcock. He's been great for a while now and is an excellent soldier. Very happy to have him as a member of the Oilers. Not so sure he's a number 1 in the traditional sense but he is certainly a very competent player anywhere in the lineup.

Yes, your team is weak(er) if he's your number 1 center, but it would be a luxury to have him as your number 2 center. Let's not get into guys like Forsberg, Fedorov, or Malkin.

 

[5 14 6 1]

Yes, your team is weak(er) if he's your number 1 center, but it would be a luxury to have him as your number 2 center. Let's not get into guys like Forsberg, Fedorov, or Malkin.

Yeah that's a fair statement. High end #2 Passable #1

 

[ThreeOfAPerfectPair]

Name 30 centers better than RNH.

 

[Pizza the Hutt]

Name 30 centers better than RNH.

This is 34 I think...

Mackinnon
McDavid
Point
Duchene
Backstrom
Eichel
Monahan
Draisatl
Malkin
Tavarares
Scheifele
Crosby
Giroux
O’Reilly
Couture
Larkin
Stamkos
Drouin
Barkov
Bergeron
Seguin
Pettersson
Matthews
Kopitar
Barzal
Kuznetsov
Karlsson
Getzlaf
Toews
Trochek
Aho
Rakkell
Staal

That said, he is very good. You have 1 generational C, an elite C and an great 2C. Stop being so greedy.

 

[JayE]

but what does kelly hrudey think?

Sam Bennett passed him years ago.

 

[ujju2]

He is an ok player, never does anything super impressive, not a 1C. Definitely not what I thought he would be as a first overall.

You're a Caps fan, I take it you missed the game this season when he intercepted Carlson's drop pass, deked around Backstrom and beat Holtby shorthanded? And that's not an attack on the Caps, you know the Caps are my 1B team.

 

[ujju2]

This is 34 I think...
...
That said, he is very good. You have 1 generational C, an elite C and an great 2C. Stop being so greedy.

Fair enough, I'm not sure I agree with 3-4 of those, but that's fine. So he's an elite 2C or a low-end 1C. That's basically where I see him too. If he keeps this play up for the entire season though, I'll have to move him up a couple more spots still.

 

[Highmarker]

Nugent should be in consideration for the Selke this year. Seriously great all around player and will likely have close to 70 pts this year.

 

[Curufinwe]

This is 34 I think...

Mackinnon
McDavid
Point
Duchene
Backstrom
Eichel
Monahan
Draisatl
Malkin
Tavarares
Scheifele
Crosby
Giroux
O’Reilly
Couture
Larkin
Stamkos
Drouin
Barkov
Bergeron
Seguin
Pettersson
Matthews
Kopitar
Barzal
Kuznetsov
Karlsson
Getzlaf
Toews
Trochek
Aho
Rakkell
Staal

That said, he is very good. You have 1 generational C, an elite C and an great 2C. Stop being so greedy.

No Couturier?