French Collection

That was fun to watch, even on YouTube. 3v3 development camp hockey is not where I base an opinion but gives me an idea of what some guys look like and can do. Guys that stood out to me: Benson is a dog on a bone when he doesn’t have the puck and is really creative with it. Doesn’t have the speed to blow by anyone but his edge work is fantastic and he handles the puck extremely well. He is a possession beast and has a defensive conscience at 18. Novikov is big and is a good player. He looks kind of a lumbering skater but he gets there and he was smart with jumping into the play. He could have crunched guys defensively but without hitting he just got in the way or angled them off. He is not yet 20 so will gain size, power and coordination. I think he will be an NHLer. Neuchev is highly skilled. He showed some good stick handling and created some offense. He had a few shots that were stopped with good saves. Marjala looked very good with the puck and went to the net. He may shy away from that with hitting but he has good offensive instincts. Richard has good size, a good shot and looked nifty around the net. Just starting his NCAA career so he can slow cook some more. Kisakov looked decent offensively, he seems faster than most. Ratzlaff was good, these goalies face a lot of high danger chances in this format but he was solid. All the goalies were decent. Johnson showed a few bursts of good skating and seem to be a Dman first. N.Savoie was a good all round Dman.

It’s great to have depth on D. The Sabres are in a position of strength with D and can make a trade and sustain a few injuries. It is a fine line though, for team chemistry. We have been guessing at the pairings and who will be sitting out. These guys are professional athletes, geared to play and play as much as possible. If guys like Joki, Boosh, EJ and Stillman are in a rotation like Krebs, Quinn, Peterka and Asplund were last year there will probably be some grumbling and demands for more ice time. They have contracts that pay them well even if they sit but these guys want to play. Early team success will help boost the morale. A few injuries will get everyone some games but I hope the room is strong enough to keep everyone “happy”. I think Bryson and Joki will be moved with Clague being #8.

Don’t most of the arbitration cases get settled at the 11th hour? Maybe some teams are so tight to the cap that they can’t sign guys. The Leafs are also close to 10% over the cap limit allowed during the summer or does LTIR help there?

Yes, couple of years at prep school.

Perreault, Housley, Andreychuk are the first ones I can think of.

He would not disrupt the chemistry and would bring in some Cup rings. He is from Quebec, like Levi. He could be the 23/24 version of Anderson, but able to play more.

I wonder if KA has reached out to old teammate Jonathan Toews about his feeling on playing another year. He could be load managed in Buffalo, rotating in as 3/4C. He doesn’t have to have the burden of wearing a letter, just help the young guys learn how to win. I think he could help the PK and he is one of the best at the dot.

Neuchev has decent size, right?

I can see Chicago picking p Bryson on waivers, they have cap space and only 4 NHL D. A lot can happen in the next 2 months, and maybe nothing due to the summer doldrums. Clague on a 2-way deal makes Bryson even more expendable imo.

Some people are comparing Benson to Marner, skill and size wise. Marner scored 126 points in 63 games in his draft year and 116 points in 57 games in his D+1 year. These numbers are between Kane and Benson for draft year. It will be fun to see how he turns out. If he hits his ceiling, a bunch of other teams will look bad.

I thought they were NCAA coaches.

Another guy I wouldn’t rule out moving is Marc Andre Fleury. I know he has a NMC and is tired of moving. The Wild have $7.4M cap space remaining to fill out 6 spots. They have 3 RFAs to re-sign in Gustavsson (#1 goalie) Addison (PP QB?) and Duhaime. They only have 5D, 6 with Addison so they could use one of the Sabres bottom options. Retain 50% on VO + Bryson to take MAF and his $3.5M. Step it up to Joker if they throw in Foligno. The Wild have Hunter Jones at $785K and top prospect Wallstedt as goalie options to back up Gustavsson.

Nicholas Savoie from the Quebec Remparts. Played with Komarov.

I’m curious to see who goes over the boards for PK1. Clifton is one of them with Mule is my guess. EJ with Power/Boosh as PK2.

Moscow Mule. Neuchev intrigues me, I think he will surprise people and end up better than Kisakov.

I know Mike Comrie has Edmonton connections and married Hillary Duff. I can’t recall him winning Cups though.

I’ve circled back to Hart being my favourite goalie acquisition. He can handle the starters’ workload and has done fine on a bad team. He is young enough to fit into this team short term and perhaps longer term. He can help Levi navigate breaking in at a young age. If Levi develops well then Hart can be moved for good assets.

The role based on his body of work.

I am nervous about giving Levi the pressure of being #1 this season without a fall back plan. He was impressive in his 7 games last year and he could do it. The only recent guy I can recall doing something similar is Carter Hart. He played 18 games in the AHL as a 20 year old and finished the season as the #1 in Philly with 31 games there.

The Leafs were dressing an ATO goalie as a backup in a few games just to save a few thousand dollars towards the cap.

There is the handedness issue again. Dahlin is a great defenseman and has quite a bit of experience on his off side. He seemed to be fine. Joki, EJ and Boosh may not be as good on their off side, meaning they could be a liability. Stillman may get extra games because he is LHD.

I think this is a possibility. Maybe there are games where they dress 7D. Marty was saying yesterday that coaches like 8D to run through the drills. This also tells me that 3 goalies is not in the cards if they carry 8D.

No I don’t think you’re full of it. Like other leagues, coaching and goaltending has improved a lot. It’s more Wild West than the NHL but games are more disciplined. Looking at Kane’s draft class, the only goalie I recognize as an NHLer is Scott Darling, and he’s not exactly good. Darling played 126 games and only three others from that class got in any games, with 11 being the most.

That was a weak draft. Kane really stands out. Kane’s numbers were similar to Bedard’s. Kane outscored Benson by 50 points in their draft year, that is a lot of points. Both were in the CHL. There was much more balanced scoring on the Winnipeg team while Kane’s London team was top heavy. Just guessing but Kane probably got 2 minutes of PP time, every time. I would have to say Kane was a much better prospect than Benson at 18. There are definite similarities to their games as well as their physical size.

I think the dominoes falling for teams grabbing D was a factor. Reinbacher, Simashev and Willander were behind him on most mocks/lists. Size (But) and position (Danielson) were the two final pieces that made him fall to the Sabres. Both of those guys were far behind Benson on consensus lists. He is regarded as a strong defensive player so he’s got that on Skinner right from the get go. His game is more playmaking than scoring which is the opposite of Skinner. If Benson was 2 inches taller and a C he might have gone in the top 5 imho. Skinner has improved his passing and defense, which helped him have a great season.