French Collection

I am a bit worried about Sam's slight drop off in his Junior numbers this year. Kootenay is a bit weaker statistically this year too, maybe he's having to do more with less. My hope is that his body is changing due to working out and adding weight for next season. A previous comparison to Igor Larinov may be the most interesting one I think about. An intelligent 2 way game that makes everyone else shine seems to be his style. He also plays a 200 foot game and all special team situations. His leadership qualities will probably earn him a letter down the road. Previous high draft picks whose numbers didn't grow when sent back to Jr. are Spezza who dropped off a bit in his 19th year. Bobby Ryan's stats stayed the same for his post draft years. Tavares peaked in his 16th year and actually dropped off in his draft year. I think he starts as 2 or 3 C in October.

Going back a generation here but Mario Lemieux had 282 pts in 70 games in his draft year. Guy who was 3rd in league scoring that season never played 1 game in the NHL. Many top scorers in junior were never able to take the next step, could be numerous reasons: Size, fire in the belly, speed, confidence, mental makeup, conditioning etc... We don't know the draft prospects other than by stats like points but that is not the be all end all. I hope Murray has had a look at multiple games of Strome, Hanifin, Marner, Krouse, Provorov etc... In case we pick 3rd.

Hawerchuk is another alumni finding coaching success. Has had some good teams in Barrie of the OHL. I don't think Murray will look at Alumni too hard when he is ready to pull the chute on Teddy.

Not saying Marner doesn't deserve a high ranking but I haven't been impressed with watching him in couple of games. Probably a few of his weaker games because he's putting up a ton of points in the others. Then again, Cody Hodgson was near 2 points a game in his last junior season, so points are not the be all end all.

Detroit has a bad contract in Stephen Weiss. 4.9 cap hit for 3 more years.

Sam Reinhart with 2 helpers but Kootenay loses.

Baptiste finishes with 2 g and 1 helper.

Stewart's value may rise as Timmy waits. As long as there are a few teams that feel left out of the arms race.

Mario Lemieux 282 pts in 70 games in his draft year. Different game then and it was the Q, but those are impressive numbers.

Paul Kariya had 100 pts in 39 games as an NCAA freshman. He was a talented player whose concussion issues limited his production and longevity.

Baptiste with 1g and 1a after 2 periods for Erie.

Drew Doughty provides anti tank weaponry.

Good one. Can they put that one together in time, years of highlights to go through. He has been playing better since riding the pine though, 8 goals. Maybe looking to trade him.

I thought entry level contracts were pretty standard. There are minimums and then some bonus incentives. I liked Brandon's game but I wonder what the issue was? He expected to be a first rounder and wasn't, have a gripe with the other 29 teams who passed you over as well.

Nashville gave us a first for Goose, would Stewart return that now?

Shut out today. .500 hockey will cause them to drop in the standings.

Curiosity got the best of me so I went to NHL.com enhanced stats for the first time. I looked at team stats only. Looked at SAT as the main one, focusing on top teams and some anomalies (Habs, Flames, Canes and Ducks). I also looked at traditional stats like shots on goal and goal differential. The shots led me to figure out how many actual shots were generated by SAT. Overall goals divided by shots led to team shooting and save percentages. Interesting findings: Preds are 9th in SAT 51.5%. Goal differential is 56.1%. Obvious factor is Rinne's SV% but they also have a 9.5 Shooting %. Habs are 22nd in SAT 48.9%. Price is right because they have the best SV%. Outshot by 1.6 shots per game. 1 trick pony. Ducks are 15th in SAT 50.3%. Shooting % is an excellent 9.9% while SV% is good. Can they keep it up? Isles generate and give up tons of SAT. Good goal differential due to 9.6% shooting. .900 SV% is worrisome. Bolts have a solid SAT 52.9%. Excellent goal differential may be due to whopping 11% shooting. Red Wings are 53.2% SAT. They don't generate lots but have 300+ fewer SAT against than the next best club. Solid SH and SV %. Blackhawks have top SAT differential. Goal differential is even better. Their tough division has them lower in the standings. Kings are a beast at 54.1% SAT (top %). Low goal differential and standing due to low SH % and so-so SV%.Quick rebound? Flames have 28th ranked SAT 44.5% yet sit in a playoff battle and rank 15th in overall points. Their goal differential is+15! SH% of 10.6 helps as does a decent SV%. Digging down showed that only 56.1% of SAT against led to actual shots on goal. The next best team was 63.2%!!! They are blocking shots and shooting lanes way better than others. Canes sit 12th in SAT yet 27th in points. Poor goal differential. SH% of 7.4 was even lower than the Sabres. SV% was poor as well. Sabres SAT is 37%. The only stat I found to be good was that 72.1% of our SAT end up as a shot on goal, tops among the 11 teams I studied. This was actually a fun exercise for an original six era guy.

Isles played 5 games in 7 nights and were shut out. Hope they keep losing, making our pick more valuable. St. Louis can keep winning and get the President's trophy so Jets get late pick.

Neuvirth had a great game. Relies a lot on reflexes vs positioning, contrary to new age goalies. He is a bit smaller than the new breed. Larsson had a good shift filling in for Zemgus, 200 foot game. Played fine otherwise. Nice to see Bogo stand up for teammates, Benoit knocked Wilson down to start fireworks then saunters over to hug Fisher. Risto was pretty good. Pysyk was solid in limited minutes. Ennis is nifty (sorry I'm using Rick Middleton's nickname, but it fits). Zemgus was a locomotive.

Mitch Marner matches McDavid's 5 point game.

It would be interesting to see players' possession stats in contract years vs other seasons. The 110% cliche might be accurate in those years. I'm old school so the analytics seem like too much, but I am intrigued by some of it to contradict plain points and plus/minus. I hope the chips will be more accurate for possession numbers because I don't see shots, attempted shots as the ultimate possession number. Some players and teams may have the puck for long periods of time in between shots, while others may pepper the opposition from everywhere. An example of time between shots would be a strong cycling line (Getzlaf,Perry) that can hem you in your end for an entire shift but only get one shot. They're setting up for a good opportunity and wearing you down. The Russian teams of the past played a stick handling and passing game until they had a high percentage shot. I don't have the numbers but these guys seemed to have the puck for 40 minutes but only took 30 shots. They didn't dump and chase but would retreat back in the neutral zone to try a carry in.

I don't know if Kane has captain potential in him but an A for effort may be in the near future. His type of leadership may be more on ice than off ice. He may not like having rookies under his wing away from the rink.

I believe there is some truth to a post in the trade thread about him being trumped by the ex Blackhawks group and Wheeler for alpha dog status. He had a long run with the franchise and wasn't a big part of the room. He may not be a rah-rah guy but his on ice give a schit meter has always been high. He may embrace the youth movement that he will lead. He was a large part of Junior success at the Memorial Cup and World Championship.

Helps the tank. We can't do anything but hope for 30th now. Increases ice time for Ben-Wa's Mess, which could step up their trade value (5th rounder instead of 6th). wow! May cause Pysyk and or McCabe to get some NHL ice time and $$. Bogo is gonna carry a lot from here on out, more ice time than ever in his career. Gorges could form a shutdown pair with Bogo next year or they could each pair with a young'un and mentor.

Both Staal's may be out of Carolina by 2016. Eric has lost a step and Jordan has not been effective since his days in Pittsburgh.