The Value Of An NHL Draft Pick
Jonathan Willis
March 10 2011 06:58PM
Late last month, Jason Gregor looked back at the NHL draft from 1996 to 2005, in an attempt to put a value on NHL draft picks. Gregor’s far from the first to do so; after the jump I’ll look at his work and that of others to see what we can say about the NHL Draft.
Luongo, Or Not Luongo?
Jonathan Willis
February 28 2011 12:43AM
Roberto Luongo has a distinguished international career. Representing Canada on the international stage he has collected four gold and two silver medals – the most recent one coming after he backstopped Canada to Olympic gold, replacing an ineffective Martin Brodeur. Considered a franchise goaltender by most at the NHL level, he has added another bullet to his credentials as Canada’s premiere crease talent: his 0.924 SV% this season ranks fifth among NHL starters, and is the best mark posted by a Canadian.
What does that mean for his chances at Canada’s 2014 Olympic team? Well, if you’re Pierre McGuire, it means he should be sitting at home watching the television like the rest of us.
Stepping Into The Breach: Chris Tanev
Jonathan Willis
February 16 2011 02:03PM
The defence corps of the Vancouver Canucks has started to resemble the participants of a death march over the past few weeks. Alex Edler’s injury triggered some sort of bizarre cascade effect, as in the three weeks since Lea Sweatt, Keith Ballard, Dan Hamhuis and finally Andrew Alberts have all fallen by the wayside. All it would take now to completely decimate the Vancouver blueline now would be injuries to Bieksa and Ehrhoff, along with a stiff breeze hitting Sami Salo.
While the injury list has been mostly bad news for Vancouver, it has had one positive affect: uncovering Chris Tanev as an NHL defenceman.
Canucks/Flames Postgame: Playoff Preview?
Jonathan Willis
February 12 2011 11:45PM
That was a great hockey game. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching bottom-feeder hockey all season, but it was a nice change to watch a pretty good team play a really good team. As the commentators noted time and again, it felt like a playoff game.
The First Overall Pick: Avoid Nugent-Hopkins
Jonathan Willis
February 05 2011 09:39PM
As it stands today, at least four players have a legitimate shot at going first overall: defenceman Adam Larsson of the Swedish Elite League, and forwards Sean Couturier, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gabriel Landeskog.
After looking through the numbers, I’m convinced that Nugent-Hopkins would be the wrong selection.
