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Laval Rocket Thread

GGpX said:
Another thing to add... There's a limit to what coaches can realistically do to "develop" players.

Despite some here (hi Sal) who compared Owen Beck to Ryan O'Reilly, no coach on earth can teach Owen Beck how to score or generate any kind of real offense at the NHL level. He simply doesn't have the talent. There are some things, such as hockey sense, that are God given. A coach can maybe improve it a little, but it usually is what it is.

Then it becomes a debate or discussion about, what exactly does an AHL coach do to "develop" players? When hockey "pundits" say he needs seasoning!, it's a broad and kind of dismissive way of approaching it because it doesn't mean anything specific beyond the player in question needs more experience.

Personally, my opinion on "development" at the AHL level has changed a lot recently. Of the draft picks we have, I'd only sign maybe 25% of them and get a bunch of AHL veterans to surround them, without cutting out the opportunities for the young players. I don't care about William Trudeau, no offense to him. I don't care about Xavier Simoneau, no offense to him. I care about Joshua Roy & Logan Mailloux. Those two are the players who, if they make the NHL, could have an impact with us. Developing long-shot prospects who might end up as fringe NHLers? Sorry, I think our energy would be best served focusing on the higher tier prospects.

The AHL has a rule in regards to the amount of veterans you can have, but I'd always have maximum possible. With the remaining spots, I might sound like Rejean Tremblay, but I'd probably sign the best overagers from the Q and have them play as depth forwards to fill out the quota. I'd get coaches to do much more focused on-ice skill training and off-ice tape study with the key prospects. If at the end of the ELC, they aren't NHL regulars, cut bait and try again.
Click to expand...
Isn’t it already similar to what you describe? It seems like in general we sign our first and second rounds picks, unless they bust spectacularly, then only sign 1 or 2 from the rest of the picks. Then we fill it up with mostly veterans from Quebec.
 
GGpX said:
Another thing to add... There's a limit to what coaches can realistically do to "develop" players.

Despite some here (hi Sal) who compared Owen Beck to Ryan O'Reilly, no coach on earth can teach Owen Beck how to score or generate any kind of real offense at the NHL level. He simply doesn't have the talent. There are some things, such as hockey sense, that are God given. A coach can maybe improve it a little, but it usually is what it is.

Then it becomes a debate or discussion about, what exactly does an AHL coach do to "develop" players? When hockey "pundits" say he needs seasoning!, it's a broad and kind of dismissive way of approaching it because it doesn't mean anything specific beyond the player in question needs more experience.

Personally, my opinion on "development" at the AHL level has changed a lot recently. Of the draft picks we have, I'd only sign maybe 25% of them and get a bunch of AHL veterans to surround them, without cutting out the opportunities for the young players. I don't care about William Trudeau, no offense to him. I don't care about Xavier Simoneau, no offense to him. I care about Joshua Roy & Logan Mailloux. Those two are the players who, if they make the NHL, could have an impact with us. Developing long-shot prospects who might end up as fringe NHLers? Sorry, I think our energy would be best served focusing on the higher tier prospects.

The AHL has a rule in regards to the amount of veterans you can have, but I'd always have maximum possible. With the remaining spots, I might sound like Rejean Tremblay, but I'd probably sign the best overagers from the Q and have them play as depth forwards to fill out the quota. I'd get coaches to do much more focused on-ice skill training and off-ice tape study with the key prospects. If at the end of the ELC, they aren't NHL regulars, cut bait and try again.
Click to expand...
The habs should have all sorts of skill coaches. For prospects, for AHL, for NHL.

The biggest thing the AHL coach can do is give opportunity/ice time and on the fly help. Aka next time make this read or that read.
 
GrandWazoo said:
Isn’t it already similar to what you describe? It seems like in general we sign our first and second rounds picks, unless they bust spectacularly, then only sign 1 or 2 from the rest of the picks. Then we fill it up with mostly veterans from Quebec.
Click to expand...
Yes and no. Generally, around ~50% of our draft picks get signed. If you take the 2021 draft, only 3 of the 9 players taken haven't/won't get signed (Kapanen's just a matter of time) to an ELC.

There was a time when we signed Dalton Thrower and Conor Crisp to ELCs. Like Trudeau & Simoneau, no offense to either of 'em, but the probability of them making the NHL was slim to none.
 
GGpX said:
Yes and no. Generally, around ~50% of our draft picks get signed. If you take the 2021 draft, only 3 of the 9 players taken haven't/won't get signed (Kapanen's just a matter of time) to an ELC.

There was a time when we signed Dalton Thrower and Conor Crisp to ELCs. Like Trudeau & Simoneau, no offense to either of 'em, but the probability of them making the NHL was slim to none.
Click to expand...
ZERO
 
GGpX said:
Yes and no. Generally, around ~50% of our draft picks get signed. If you take the 2021 draft, only 3 of the 9 players taken haven't/won't get signed (Kapanen's just a matter of time) to an ELC.

There was a time when we signed Dalton Thrower and Conor Crisp to ELCs. Like Trudeau & Simoneau, no offense to either of 'em, but the probability of them making the NHL was slim to none.
Click to expand...
I mean, it really depends on the years. 2021 we signed our 3 1-2rd picks, plus 3 more. Not sure why we bothered with Simoneau at all to be honest. Trudeau I get it, he did well in juniors and prospects camp and was our best D in Laval 2 years ago.

2020 we signed our 3 1-2rd picks, plus 2.
2019 we signed our 2 1-2rd picks, plus 2.
2018 we signed 3 of our 4 1-2rd picks, plus 2.
2017 we signed our 2 1-2rd picks, plus 2.

For 2022, we signed our 4 1-2rd picks, plus likely 2 or maybe 3.

There is a pattern.
 
Last time I was in Potsdam, NY you could get a bottle of Genesee Cream Ale for 75 cents and pitchers were $3.25 at the Bali Hai bar downtown. I also saw Clarkson play Concordia in an exhibition game.
 
HP, Krusty, Habs4Life, Burg(where the fuck are you now Burg?), Maria know and they'll never tell, unless you bribe them then they'll tell.
 
You mentioned that you knew Hughes back in the day on the West Island but something you said led me to believe that you were significantly older than he was. Hughes is a few years younger than me but something you wrote (and I can't recall exactly what that was) led me to think that you were at least a couple of years older than me.
 
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