Skating ability

[Vince15]

With the new NHL, all NHLers must be great skater. My question is that one. Who are the best skater and/or the fastest skater in the 2007 entry draft?

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[Louis Houde]

For the forwards:
-Bill Sweatt
-Patrick Kane
-Alexander Vasiliev
-Colton Gillies (for his frame)
-Angelo Esposito
-Luca i
-Sergei Korostin
-Maxim Mayorov

For the defense-man :
-Mark Katic
-Brendan Smith
- Nick Petrecki (impressive mobility for his frame)

 

[ISS Hockey]

With the new NHL, all NHLers must be great skater.

I think you might be overstating the emphasis on skating. While good skaters who lack size and have skill have been given more freedom to display their talents with the crackdown on obstruction and a more strict interpretation of the rules, I do not think that all NHLers must be great skaters.

It is definitely fair to say that there is no longer room for a poor skater, but an average skater with good hockey sense still has a home in the NHL. Don't believe me? Rico Fata is still a tremendously fast skater and has not been able to maintain a regular job at the NHL level.

 

[Redwingsfan]

backlund deserves some mention here aswell. he is one of the best skaters in this draft.

 

[BuddehJuS]

For the forwards:
-Bill Sweatt
-Patrick Kane
-Alexander Vasiliev
-Colton Gillies (for his frame)
-Angelo Esposito
-Luca i
-Sergei Korostin
-Maxim Mayorov

For the defense-man :
-Mark Katic
-Brendan Smith
- Nick Petrecki (impressive mobility for his frame)

I really hope the yotes draft him!

 

[Kaktus*]

Cherepanov is top 5 skater in this draft.

 

[Yann]

Cherepanov is top 5 skater in this draft.

Really? I have only seen him at the WJC where he was great, but as to what I heard that was actually one of his weaknesses and he needed to work on that.

Could someone who has seen him alot shed some light on this?

 

[msky]

Really? I have only seen him at the WJC where he was great, but as to what I heard that was actually one of his weaknesses and he needed to work on that.

Could someone who has seen him alot shed some light on this?

i completely agree with you

 

[Blind Gardien]

I think you might be overstating the emphasis on skating. While good skaters who lack size and have skill have been given more freedom to display their talents with the crackdown on obstruction and a more strict interpretation of the rules, I do not think that all NHLers must be great skaters.

It is definitely fair to say that there is no longer room for a poor skater, but an average skater with good hockey sense still has a home in the NHL. Don't believe me? Rico Fata is still a tremendously fast skater and has not been able to maintain a regular job at the NHL level.

One could even suggest that the idea of the "new NHL" actually makes skating *less* important in some ways. I'm not exactly suggesting that, mind you. But taking out the obstruction, the interference, in some ways that can allow a weaker skater more room to survive too... if one doubts it, maybe you weren't watching a lot of hockey in the 1980s, say... a much more wide-open offensive era of hockey, but there were quite a number of significant point-producing players who in my recollection were far weaker skaters than today's generic brand.

Also, when a greater emphasis is placed on the powerplay as a source of team offense, again, it doesn't necessarily require great skating players to make significant offensive contributions in that aspect of the game.

Now, I'm not entirely sure that the "new NHL" will ultimately settle on being quite so "new" as it once might have appeared to be heading towards, and of course you still always want good skaters as a generalization anyway... but one still has to look at everything a player brings to the table, and if a guy has vision and skills without tremendous speed (Schremp and Little being a couple of notable recent examples) or can play a power game down low (e.g. Ryan) or provide an Andreychuk-like presence in front of the net on all those PPs we see these days... well, there are still ample reasons to draft guys whose skating isn't "great".