Around the League 2019-2024 Edition
- Thread starter LeafGm
- Start date
I'd definitely swap Slaf for Cooley right now... but I definitely won't be surprised if Slaf is the better player in a year or 3.
worm
Well-known member
What about for wright?
How do their fancy stats compare? I assume Cooley's numbers are better, but how much better?
Nah, I still take Slaf. I guess "still" is the wrong word since I was devastated that we didn't take Wright at the time.
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
Cooley wouldn't get top line minutes on the Habs with Dach and Suzuki there.
worm
Well-known member
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Oh lawd...
I like Hutson, he's fun to watch and moves the puck beautifully, but for all of the talk here from Habs fans about the importance of being big up front (which really isn't important), it's actually a thing on the backend. Watching him get beat in a race and then bodied into the lane by Nylander the other night was pretty instructive. The kid is probably going to lack the horsepower to be a legit #1 defender. He's probably Phil Housley redux though, which is a fucking lovely player though but I don't take him over Cooley personally. Cooley is probably going to be a pretty okay #1 centre while Hutson is going be a weapon that needs sheltering at 5v5, when holding leads, etc.
As for Slaf at #3, also nah. Unearned counting stats as the 3rd best forward on his line (& PP) are really the only thing propping him up right now imo. Wasn't high on him pre draft before the Habs lost their mind, and nothing I've seen the last 2.5 years since has changed my mind. As the Habs get better and more and more is expected to earn his minutes I think you'll find him slide down your depth chart to a middle 6 type winger, 2nd unit PP type. I'd roll the dice on Nemec being legit and Jersey just fucking him about as the #3 in a redraft.
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
Hughes traded for Dach to be the second line center, I don't think they were going to replace him so soon.He should over dach. Dach could go play wing
Dach Suzuki Caufield
Laine Cooley Demidov
I'm not saying Cooley isn't talented enough, I'm saying at the time they already had a plan.
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
Finally agree on something regarding Nemec. The rest? Nah. Slaf is earning his keep and turning his game around lately.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
5 points in his last 10 while getting fringe 1st line winger type minutes.
When your program shifts from development to competing, he'll start sliding off of that top line.
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
Confirmation bias is a fickle bitch
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
Yeah. That's an improvement.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Someone has to pick up the slack from your boy leaving.
Habsy
Not playing around anymore.
You guys are so mean to him.
zeke
Well-known member
the simplest one to look at is Net Rating. Cooley's a +6, and that's playing a legit #1C role. That number has continued to tick up since the preseason projection of +2.
Slaf is the only other one from the draft class that isn't a negative, so that's good, but he's a league average +0, which is down from his preseason projection of +3. Hutson for comparison is at +5. The only two habs ahead of Cooley are Suzuki +11 and Caufield +8, but Cooley's +6 ranks higher among centers than Caufield's +8 ranks among wingers. Suzuki and Caufield are pretty much bang on pace with their preseason projections of +10 and +9.
Cooley's on the verge of being a legit quality #1C already, but not quite there. The bottom end of the C rankings:
+8: #29-31 Hintz/O'Reilly/Strome
+7: #32-37 Trocheck/Nelson/Karlsson/Hertl/Jenner/Celebrini
+6: #38-42 Cooley/Zacha/Staal/Danault/Byfield/
though I think Cooley has been bouncing back and forth between +7 and +6 lately.
LeafGm
Well-known member
Why not?
Even if Michkov came over in five years for Montreal instead of just one like he did for Philly, for some reason…was the plan for the Habs to be in “win-now” mode at some point in the next four seasons?
And even if that was the plan…a teenage defensive defenseman seems like an unlikely candidate to be a difference-maker in that window.