Sabres Defense 2024-25 Poll

[LGR4GM]

10 hours ago, JohnC said:

He was the consensus #1 pick prospect in that draft. No one made the claim that he was a super star in college. That's your manufactured red herring you created to argue against. In time, he's going to be an upper tier defenseman in the NHL. If you think otherwise, that's okay. Time will tell.  

 

First, I used the language you and other did. Elite and Dominant, which is incorrect. I'll prove you said that below.

Second, he shouldn't have been the consensus #1 and I vehemently argued against that with data in his draft year. So far, it is starting to come to fruition that he was indeed not the best player in his class. We'll see if that changes. 

Third, there is no red herring. You just want to dismiss my argument without any type of proof. It's an old trick, but it gets used a lot. You used the term "elite player in college" which is not accurate. He was a good, not elite player in college. Here's 2 references. First it implies he'll be a star, second he's called dominant in college, which he wasn't. 

Final nitpick, you claim "He was an elite player in college in his short stint there" but Owen Power played 59 games over 2 years. That's not really that short and while his 2nd year was very good, he was not dominant or elite. Rasmus Dahlin is elite, Power is a level below that.

I really hope he grows up and becomes dominant but so far, he's the nhl version of his college self; a steady positional defender with little physicality who uses his length to take away space and uses his passing for good outlet passes. He's a solid #3 right now and can become a 40pt+ #2 defender. My issue is that's not how he's being described. 

13 hours ago, JohnC said:

 

Power is a young player playing a challenging position on a top two pairing. I'm confident that he will get steadily better the more he plays. He was an elite player in college in his short stint there. That doesn't mean that the dominance he demonstrated in college will immediately translate to the NHL. Speaking for myself, he's one young player that I am not worried about. 

16 hours ago, Pimlach said:

 

I hear those tall comments a lot - there are also tall players that develop quickly or on a "normal" time frame.   Including star players.  

Power's issues have nothing to do with height and a lot to do with his age, experience, his playing style, and probably even the level of coaching he has received thus far.  His size and skill made him a dominant player prior to the NHL.  Now he has to do it in the best hockey league in the world. 

[LGR4GM]

@JohnC I find it pretty disingenuous for you to use the terms "dominant" and "elite" for his college play and then accuse me of red herring when I said "talk about him like a super star" considering elite and Dominant is how you'd talk about a super star. So the bottom line here is your red herring comment is bull hockey. 

Owen Power wasn't Dominant or elite in college. He was good. 

Ftr, I like Owen Power a lot. He's a good hockey player. 

Edited September 1 by LGR4GM

[#freejame]

I remember Owen Power being the most NHL ready player in the draft, not as having the highest NHL potential. I thought that was Hughes then and still think that now. 

[French Collection]

I think a big part of Power elevating his draft status was his World Championship performance, becoming Canada’s go to Dman vs men and some NHLers. 
It was a relatively small sample size tournament, but he shined.

[LGR4GM]

5 minutes ago, French Collection said:

I think a big part of Power elevating his draft status was his World Championship performance, becoming Canada’s go to Dman vs men and some NHLers. 
It was a relatively small sample size tournament, but he shined.

It did. NHL teams over value the world's a bit. 

Again, I don't have issues with Power. I like him, he's gonna be a solid #2 guy and if he adds about 25% physicality that will be fine. 

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

@JohnC I find it pretty disingenuous for you to use the terms "dominant" and "elite" for his college play and then accuse me of red herring when I said "talk about him like a super star" considering elite and Dominant is how you'd talk about a super star. So the bottom line here is your red herring comment is bull hockey. 

Owen Power wasn't Dominant or elite in college. He was good. 

Ftr, I like Owen Power a lot. He's a good hockey player. 

You can be one of the best college defensemen in college and still not fall in the category of being a super star prospect. So your predictable bull hockey response is not surprise coming from someone who has a tendency to be intermittently insufferable.  

[LGR4GM]

The thing with Worlds is twofold. First is most teams are men's teams so an 18yr old there is a big deal,  see konsta helenius. Second, it happens right before draft time so you get recency bias at play too. 

My issue with worlds is it is short. The best players aren't there although many good ones are. Finally some teams give lots of opportunities to their young guys and some don't. Just like ffb, opportunities or targets matter. It's why Benson is so under the radar, he has almost 0 pp opportunities but was very good 5v5. 

When scouting it's better to see someone play well here but if they don't it doesn't really mean that much imo.