Jump to content

Is it Too early to put Grigo and Bust in the same sentence?


theesir

Recommended Posts

 

 

 

That link is from back in November, right? If accurate why wasn't he put in the Q back then?

 

It is from back then. I'm assuming he was just resharing it.

 

Also: that was when they attempted the Rochester thing and were denied. 26 might be right about him be exempt right after the deadline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is from back then. I'm assuming he was just resharing it.

 

Also: that was when they attempted the Rochester thing and were denied. 26 might be right about him be exempt right after the deadline.

 

My thinking is, if that was correct they would have done it after his Rochester bid was denied. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud (or whatever you want to label posting on a message board).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kathleen Lavoie@kathleenlavoie

As of today, Quebec Remparts GM Philippe Boucher still hasn't heard from the Buffalo Sabres management regarding Mikhail Grigorenko.

 

 

Retweeted by Bill Hoppe

 

I guess the Sabres are still weighing their options.

 

Perhaps because a GM announcement is imminent, and they want it to be the new GM's call? Because aside from that, I can't imagine why they haven't already sent him back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

My thinking is, if that was correct they would have done it after his Rochester bid was denied. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud (or whatever you want to label posting on a message board).

 

The point is that the exempt status doesn't come until after the deadline or 1/10 actually. So they couldn't do it then. Can now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps because a GM announcement is imminent, and they want it to be the new GM's call? Because aside from that, I can't imagine why they haven't already sent him back.

Could be with Myers suspended and CoHo and Leino injured they actually need Grigs to fill in for a couple games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Could be with Myers suspended and CoHo and Leino injured they actually need Grigs to fill in for a couple games.

 

Doubt it. I am sure they are weighing all their wonderful options in Rochester or waiting for another 4th liner to get waived. Getting your #1 draft pick playing time and experience is not an option.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nobody has ever looked like a bust at 18-19 only to develop and have have a nice career. Never happened before.

 

He should absolutely accept his assignment, but I'm certainly not ready to write him off.

Joe Thornton
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My post was quite sarcastic. Sorry for the lack of emoticon to make it clear :)

 

 

 

Agreed. I'm still not dumping him for nothing though.

Not "for nothing" but I'd actually fall madly in love with Tim Murray if he traded him by the end of the day today and got something decent in return. Maybe there's a team that was blown away by the WJCs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nobody is trading for him unless teams really want to play him in the NHL because eligibility isn't going to chance just because he's traded. A trade is a very unlikely scenario.

 

If they want to send him a message then let him sit out the rest of the season until the Q season is over and then put him in the AHL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is one good league in north America, the NHL, the other leagues (AHL, ECHL, CHL etc.) are all inferior to European ones (primarily the KHL, SHL and Liiga). Therefore it makes sense that a player who cannot make it in the NHL, but is not far off the NHL, go to Europe. Even North American guys do this, e.g. Mike Ryan.

 

So if we have a fringe NHL player going to Europe they have to pick one of the three big leagues to play in. Now a North American player probably has no real ties to any of these leagues or countries, so will just pick the league that suits their playing style, or the country they would most want to live in. However, a European player probably has other ties to Europe, e.g. friends and family. Therefore when returning to Europe they will probably play for a team in the country they grew up in. This explains why Russians generally go to the KHL, not the SHL.

 

However, these guys are just fringe NHL players anyway, so their loss doesn't really matter. If Omark goes back to the SHL at the end of this season, have the Sabres or the NHL really lost a talent that cannot be replaced, and thus has their absence hurt the game (as a game will always be better/more enjoyable/more watched if the best in the world are playing it) - honestly, no it hasn't lost much

 

Thus there is only one situation where European players returning to the European leagues hurts the NHL - that is when they are good enough to get good playing time. This is the only time it matters to the team drafting/signing a player. Zagrapan didn't go to Europe because he didn't want to play in the NHL. He went because he wasn't good enough.

 

With this in mind, we now have to answer the question how regularly do top 6/9 forwards, top 4 d-men or decent goalies return to Europe? I.e. how much of a risk is it? The answer is almost never. There are three players in the KHL who could be playing decent minutes in the NHL - Radulov, Brumistrov and Kovulchuk. (I'm sure there are other guys in Europe who could also play in the NHL but have never made the move, e.g. similar to Damien Brunner, but they are unknowns and their absence doesn't affect much)

 

Kovulchuk left after the NHL went on strike and he ended up playing in front of his friends and family whilst earning more money than he would in the NHL and enjoying it as much/more so. He didn't defect from the NHL, they gave him away and he decided not to return. It isn't surprising it happened and the NHL should be glad there were not more European players not wanting to return.

 

Brumistrov hated Winnepeg and asked to be traded, when they didn't agree to it he signed with another club. The moral here is that players have options and as human beings if they are that unhappy you are best off trying to help them rather than force them to play.

 

Radulov is an example of this Russian desire to return home. But he is literally the only one, and because of him an agreement with the KHL was formed, protecting all future players under contract.

 

Players like Grigorenko left their home and friends at age 15/16 to go to North America because they wanted to play in the NHL, combined with the fact that Radulov is the only one who did flee from the NHL I don't agree with this branding of all Russian players as greedy flight risks. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is a xenophobic hangover from the cold war.

 

Any further thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...