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NHL Off-Season 2013 |OT| Celebrate Good Times Come On

C

Curufinwe

Member
Flyers blogger Bill Meltzer thinks Ryan Pulock is the best defenseman available in the draft outside of Jones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9aZoQS2m54

In my opinion, Pulock is the defenseman in the Draft with the highest all-around upside after Jones. He may not be the second or even the third defenseman off the draft board, but he'd be the blueliner I'd have the highest after Jones.

As I see it, the primary reason why Pulock is not the consensus second-ranked D-man in the 2013 Draft is the chip fracture in his wrist that caused him to miss time this season and knocked him out of the Top Prospects Game. Even after he returned to the Wheat Kings' lineup, he was not quite at 100 percent for several weeks.

Looking beyond the injury, which is now fully healed, there is a lot to like about Pulock's potential. Start with his shooting. He possesses a rocket of a shot, which has been clocked at over 100 miles per hour. More importantly, he gets his shots on the net and doesn't have a long, slow windup. As such, he stands a chance of becoming a top-unit power play point man as he develops in the professional ranks.

Pulock is also fairly reliable on the defensive side of the puck. Forget his plus-minus ranking this year. His minus-seven was a reflection of playing on a bad Brandon club. His defensive game is not yet NHL caliber but is evolving at a satisfactory clip toward that status. In limited viewing exposures, I saw him routinely make a good first pass out of the defensive zone and generally makes the right reads on opposing rushes. All the tools are there to become a dependable two-way defenseman.

Pulock is not the speediest defenseman in the draft class in foot races, but he's not a deficient skater. Likewise, he's not always mean or physical but has it in him to play that way when the situation dictates it. In a mid-November game against Kootenay that I caught via webcast, he threw a pair of crushing hits on a single shift with his team trailing 2-0 early in the game. The Wheaties lost the game, 5-3, but Pulock had nothing to do with any of the Ice's goals and was easily the best defenseman on the ice for either side in that match. He also contributed a power play goal to the effort.

In an age of behemoth defensemen who can also skate well, Pulock's frame (6-feet, 210 pounds) is average sized but far from small. He will continue to fill out.
Click to expand...
 
K

KillerMan91

Member
calder said:
IIHF World Championships start Saturday (for Team Canada anyway, I think tomorrow for some teams) and I'm pretty pumped. Our team may look a tiny bit thin on D and merely OK in goal, but the forwards.... hnnnnnnnnnn.

Code: 
Matt Duchene	5'11				Colorado Avalanche
Jordan Eberle	5'11				Edmonton Oilers
Claude Giroux	5'11				Philadelphia Flyers
Taylor Hall	6'1				Edmonton Oilers
Andrew Ladd [A]	6'3				Winnipeg Jets
Ryan O'Reilly	6'0				Colorado Avalanche
Matt Read	5'10				Philadelphia Flyers
Wayne Simmonds	6'2				Philadelphia Flyers
Eric Staal [C]	6'4				Carolina Hurricanes
Jeff Skinner	5'11				Carolina Hurricanes
Jordan Staal	6'4				Carolina Hurricanes
Steven Stamkos	6'1				Tampa Bay Lightning
Stephane Robidas is the other assistant.

That's a quality group of forwards! I'm very happy Ladd get's an A, I really really hope he has a great tournament - he absolutely deserves serious consideration for Sochi, he was one of the most underrated guys in the NHL this season.
Click to expand...

Yeah if you guys have motivation to play this year it's pretty much impossible to other teams than Russia to stop you. Last year though you guys concentrated to drink booze in night of Helsinki instead of playing =P
 
C

calder

Member
Marvie_3 said:
Can we have him back yet?
Click to expand...

No chance, he was by far the Jets best player this year. Willed himself into being a credible first line winger, upped his PPG in all situations, was the quintessential Captain in the room, on the ice and in front of the media/fans. I could not have loved him more, and I think most people were pleasantly surprised at how much his offensive game ticked up this year. I had sort of thought he was plateaued at his level last year.


But, uh, you can keep Oduya I guess. He's a pretty chill dude, I don't miss his turnovers but I enjoyed him as a Jet... not to a "oh god we need to get that guy back" way or anything though. ;)


EDIT: bonus awesome pic of Laddy. I dream of finding a huge high res version so I can get a giant print made.
grant_g_ladd_sl_640.jpeg
 
M

Marvie_3

Banned
calder said:
But, uh, you can keep Oduya I guess. He's a pretty chill dude, I don't miss his turnovers but I enjoyed him as a Jet... not to a "oh god we need to get that guy back" way or anything though. ;)
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Oduya's been a lot better this year. He still has a few HOLYSHITWHATTHEFUCKAREYOUDOINGODUYA???? games here and there but he hasn't been nearly as bad as he was in the playoffs last year. He made an amazing pass to set up the game winner in Game 1 as well. I think he's overpaid a bit but we could do MUCH worse for a 3rd pairing d-man.
 
C

calder

Member
Solid game for Canada, Duchene looked good.

Tomorrow vs Switzerland, and the Swiss beat Sweden yesterday so should be a really good test.
 
R

Red_Man

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Even though the Habs don't have a high pick, I'm pretty excited for this draft. There's a lot of great players and I wouldn't be surprised to see Bergevin make a move up the draft.
 
J

jello44

Chie is the worst waifu
The IIHF is broadcasting the games live on YouTube but..... I can't watch USA vs Latvia because they made it unavailable in my country, the US.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
wsoxfan1214 said:
Where's Canucks-GAF?
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I knew the writing on the wall days ago.

Time to fantasize about the Sedins.... being traded for prospects and draft picks.

Real talk: Canucks organization will not blow up this team. They've got far too good a thing financially, I think, to take that risk so soon. NHL teams always tend to struggle for a few years, trying to make the playoffs (where huge money is made) and not willing to start over from scratch. So their core players will age until they're worth much less and they'll flirt with Free Agent A and Free Agent B and continue to draft around the 20th-mark and build up, at best, a solid pool but nothing good enough to generate the young talent that can actually bring a team some post season success. And I understand that. They did win the division again. And once you get into the playoffs, you never know what could happen (including being swept). But I know this team is no longer capable of winning the Cup (yes, I think the 2011 team was capable and maybe even the 2012 team - What if they hadn't faced LA in the first round? What if the Lightning had beaten the Bruins in the ECF? What if Rome never hit Horton? etc.). And if it were up to me I'd clean house, like a lot of fans would. Get that rebuild under ASAP and not drown in mediocrity for years like the Flames and Leafs did.
 
S

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Socreges said:
I knew the writing on the wall days ago.

Time to fantasize about the Sedins.... being traded for prospects and draft picks.

Real talk: Canucks organization will not blow up this team. They've got far too good a thing financially, I think, to take that risk so soon. NHL teams always tend to struggle for a few years, trying to make the playoffs (where huge money is made) and not willing to start over from scratch. So their core players will age until they're worth much less and they'll flirt with Free Agent A and Free Agent B and continue to draft around the 20th-mark and build up, at best, a solid pool but nothing good enough to generate the young talent that can actually bring a team some post season success. And I understand that. They did win the division again. And once you get into the playoffs, you never know what could happen (including being swept). But I know this team is no longer capable of winning the Cup (yes, I think the 2011 team was capable and maybe even the 2012 team - What if they hadn't faced LA in the first round? What if the Lightning had beaten the Bruins in the ECF? What if Rome never hit Horton? etc.). And if it were up to me I'd clean house, like a lot of fans would. Get that rebuild under ASAP and not drown in mediocrity for years like the Flames and Leafs did.
Click to expand...


So, do you think that's what's gonna happen? The alternative to this I see is that wait until the Sedins retire, then trade Kesler and/or whoever else that's old and valuable we still have and blow it up then. I honestly don't think the Sedins will ever get traded, but that might be my homerism. It's more difficult to trade a package of 2 players of that calibre than it is to trade a single Nash/Iggy.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
Yeah, I do. They'll continue to tinker, at most, so long as each offseason shows some promise that the upcoming season could include the playoffs. It'll be a few seasons, at least, before this could become a truly awful team. That's when the fire sale will begin, I think.

And the Sedins are probably five or so years away from retirement. Kesler could retire before they do. His style of play is much, much less sustainable.
 
U

Unhandled Exception

Member
I feel like I should be taking bets on whether or not Tabris stops posting in NHL threads after this sweep.

I'd sympathize with Canucks gaf but fuck you guys. We're not officially out of the same division yet.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
19 & 21 said:
I feel like I should be taking bets on whether or not Tabris stops posting in NHL threads after this sweep.

I'd sympathize with Canucks gaf but fuck you guys. We're not officially out of the same division yet.
Click to expand...
We'll be seeing him a lot less often. Then not at all when the Canucks really begin to struggle.

The silver lining for me.
 
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