"Draft Debates and Prospects' Progress: The Latest Updates on Laval Rocket Players and NHL Draft Picks"

2023-05-30 15:14:14

Imagine the following scenario. The Laval Rocket has just reached the semi-finals of the American Hockey League playoffs.

Posted at 11:14 a.m.

Juraj Slafkovsky was loaned out to him at the start of the qualifiers after his junior club went out in four straight games. The young man should in principle dominate there, after having been drafted in first place overall the previous summer.

But after 14 games in Laval, Slafkovsky has only six points, including two goals. He was even scratched twice in the association final. The Rocket is instead led by Anthony Richard, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen and Xavier Simoneau.

In these same series, two attackers drafted later in the first round, Joakim Kemell in 17^e rang et Jiri Kulich au 28^eare a hit with eight points, including seven goals, in eleven games for the first and ten points, including six goals, in ten games for the second.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Philadelphia Flyers’ fifth overall pick, Cutter Gauthier, a 6-foot-2, 194-pound power forward, scores seven goals in ten games for Team USA at the World Championship.

Many would undoubtedly howl with the murder in Montreal and would already claim the head of the new recruiters of the team. It would be a wasted pick and arguably one of the biggest blunders in draft history.

The good weather, the buds in the trees and the noise of the lawn mowers bring back to memory the debates of the spring of 2022.

At this time last year, more than 90% of Canadiens fans hoped to see the team claim Shane Wright in first place, in an artisanal poll on Twitter. Almost 3,000 readers nevertheless voted.

Wright was at the top of almost every list of specialists…and pseudo-specialists. We still saw the reincarnation of Patrice Bergeron and pretending otherwise could earn you the worst insults.

Montreal could finally count on its big number one center, ready to play in the NHL from the 2022-2023 season and Nick Suzuki would eventually be relegated to the second line.

PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE

The Canadian had drafted Juraj Slafkovsky in first place.

The Bell Center was stunned on July 7, 2022 when Kent Hughes announced his first-row pick. Fans, some of whom were already wearing a number 51 Canadian jersey, digested the decision better after seeing the New Jersey Devils and Arizona Coyotes also shun the young man in favor of Simon Nemec and Logan Cooley.

Jagged series

Wright scored his second goal of the playoffs on Monday night, grabbing a return shot in front of the opposing net, in a 3-1 loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They are trailing 2-1 in their series against the Milwaukee Admirals, the Nashville Predators’ farm club.

The young man had his second point in as many games, having been scratched for two games by coach Dan Bylsma.

He got an assist on Saturday following an effective play at his blue line to allow an exit zone, his fifth point in thirteen games. “We have a winning and competitive environment and we wanted Shane to be part of it,” Bylsma said after the weekend win. He probably just played his best game in that regard. »

The development of a young player remains uncertain. And everyone goes at their own pace. The Kraken, however, must be concerned to see their 19-year-old first choice struggle so much this spring in the American League, after a disappointing playoff run in the junior ranks and a lackluster World Junior Championship, overshadowed by the potential first overall pick, Connor Bedard.

PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE

Shane Wright

Typically, top young players can already dominate in the American League at a young age. Jesperi Kotkaniemi had amassed 13 points in as many games in Laval during a brief demotion at 19 years old.

Cole Caufield wasn’t moldy there long. He scored three goals in his first two games before being recalled to Montreal in 2021. He has nine points, including five goals, in eight games in this league where he will never return.

But a young player can also experience a difficult start to his career in the professional ranks and bounce back if he puts his mind to it. Fourth overall pick in 2010, Ryan Johansen was also dropped from his American League playoff roster in 2013 at age 20 and later became a good center in the NHL, although we would have liked more constancy in his case.

It will take several more years to draw conclusions from this repechage. Juraj Slafkovsky was the only one to play in the National Hockey League on a regular basis this winter, but that doesn’t give him first place at this point in the game. Especially not with 10 points in 39 games.

But at 6ft 3in and 238lbs, he will be an asset for CH if he can possibly score between 25 and 35 goals, without having the pressure to drag the club on his shoulders.

Cooley is coming off a stellar season in the NCAA with 60 points in 39 games at the University of Minnesota, and 14 points in seven games at the World Junior Championship. The sixth overall pick, David Jiricek, has been one of the best defensemen in the American League. The eighth overall pick, Austrian center Marco Kasper, was recalled for one game in Detroit after a strong season in Sweden.

The Canadian may regret having preferred the Slovak winger Filip Mesar, after a lackluster season in the junior ranks, to Jiri Kulich at 26^e rank so much the Czech is fuming in the American League. He may already regret it.

Who knows if the young defender Lane Hutson, drafted at the end of the second round, will not become the most important player of this vintage for the CH. Hutson, 19, now 5-foot-10, 161 pounds, is coming off six points in nine games for the Americans at the World Championship after a stellar rookie season of 48 points in 39 games at Boston University.

An unknown goalkeeper in the final

The San Jose Sharks had paid a second-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes in July 2021 to get it. But we weren’t convinced by Adin Hill’s 25-game season as a backup to James Reimer in 2021-22 and handed him over to the Golden Knights in August 2022 for a fourth-round pick. even though he was still only 26 years old.

PHOTO STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE, USA TODAY SPORTS

Adin Hill

Hill was an acquisition of former general manager Doug Wilson, not his successor Mike Grier. He preferred another goalkeeper of the same age, Kaapo Kahkonen. You could blame Grier today, but Hill wouldn’t be the starting goaltender in the Stanley Cup Final if the club’s number one goaltender, Logan Thompson, hadn’t been injured, and if Jonathan Quick and Laurent Brossoit hadn’t not failed along the way.

Brossoit also played Vegas’ first seven playoff games, before being kicked out in the second game of the second round against the Oilers, never to get a second chance.

Hill is 7-2-1 with a 2.07 GAA and .937 save percentage since the start of the playoffs. Let’s see what kind of contract will earn him his run in the playoffs when the season ends…