How about some love for Oskar Osala
Valentenko, a 1st to 2nd round talent, taken late because of lack of knowledge of him.
Valentenko, a 1st to 2nd round talent, taken late because of lack of knowledge of him.
Care to explain how a defenseman playing in the RSL/RSL juniors was not known? Neftekhimik isn't just some obscure Russian team...
He means during his draft year. He wasn't playing for Neftekhimik then (well 2 games) he played for Neftekhimik-2 last year but the Habs scouts said the rink was one of the coldest rinks they ever visited.
Neftekhimik-2 had to have played at other rinks though, and he could've been seen there. He was also on the Russian junior team and played against the CHL. Also, don't the Habs have a Russian scout? I'm sure he saw him at least a few times and was the reason they drafted him, and there are plenty of other teams with Russian scouts.
Sure, he's had less exposure than 1st round picks, but we're talking about a 5th rounder here...Besides, most scouts knew nothing about Tulupov and he got picked up in the 3rd round.
CSB had him ranked #138 amongst Europeans, and I believe he might have been the lowest-ranked European player taken. For the most part, the number of players picked past the #50 or so ranking were few and far between. FWIW.With Valentenko I think he was just more of an unknown or scouts didn't think that highly of him. I forget where he was ranked by CSB but I know that Russianprospects didnt even have him on their list of eligible draft prospects for the '06 draft.
1st - Chris Summers
2nd - Artem Anisimov
3rd - Kaspars Daugavins
4th - Kevin Montgomery
5th - Alex Biega
6th - Kevin Koopman7th - Eric Condra
Undrafted: Chad Greenan, shocked he was not picked.
Perreault is probably the biggest steal of the whole draft and I see that nobody except you mentions his name....
Lots of key board punchers here.....
Enough?
He truly surprised me in WJC. He started in the 4th line in practise games, but after getting Joensuu's spot and getting a scoring role in the first line alongside with Lindgren good things started to happen. He was one of the best players in the whole tournament and I really hope that the self-confidence he showed carries on later on this season and further. He reminded a young Shanahan with a combination of skills, will and power.
Who do you think is the steal of the draft in each round. Here are my choices. Not too sure about most of the players, but this is from what I know.
1st - Bryan Little
2nd - Nigel Williams
3rd - Kaspars Daugavins
4th - Kevin Montgomery
5th - Maxim Lacroix
6th - Jordan Fulton
7th - Benn Feriero
Valentenko, a 1st to 2nd round talent, taken late because of lack of knowledge of him.
Bobby Hughes
183rd overall pick in the sixth round.
Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL:
37 GP / 30 G / 31 A
Main question about him was his size, but at 5'10" and 170 lbs. he is only 10 lbs. behind Ray Whitney who may currently be the best player on the Hurricanes' roster.
So were you saying this before all this talk about how great he was at the world juniors? Players are drafted where they are for a reason. Clearly there were reasons why he wasn't a 1st or 2nd rounder. And it's more than lack of knowledge. NHL teams have tremendous budgets for scouting. He would've been seen.
That is a pile of crap, every team will pick the player next on their scouting list. If Valentenko was next on the teams list they would choose him if they really wanted to.Even Slitty didnt even know who he was, and many teams wanted to take him late because they felt no one knew of him.
I'm sure it's 1 of 2 things: 1) People have no idea who he is 2) those who do know of him and what he's doing in the Q still see his shrimp-like, diminutive size (5'8" 150 lbs) as a major deterrent, even in the "New NHL"
I'm guilty of the option #2.
Lets face it that is tiny. Fleury was only 5'6'', but had a decent amount of bulk in his youth at 165 and got up to about 175 in his late 20's.
The Caps had a ridiculously sick draft. Backstrom and Varmalov are enough to be very happy, but Bouchard, Osala(4th) and of course out of nowhere Perreault(6th). Just awesome.