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Leaf Rumours

I think people really underrate Staal's offense, especially considering his age and his lack of PP time.

18yrs: 81gms, 29gls (4pp), 42pts (6pp) (82gms, 29gls (4pp), 42pts (6pp))
19yrs: 82gms, 12gls (3pp), 28pts (7pp) (82gms, 12gls (3pp), 28pts (7pp))
20yrs: 82gms, 22gls (2pp), 49pts (6pp) (82gms, 22gls, (2pp), 49pts (6pp))
21yrs: 62gms, 16gls (0gls), 39pts (2pp) (82gms, 21gls (0pp), 52pts (3pp))

He's already, at age 21 (and a very young 21 - born 1 week later and he would have been in the next draft class), a very solid 2nd line 20gl/50pt guy.....and that's only with very limited 2nd unit PP time, and spending most of his even strength time with 3rd liners like Cooke, Fedotenko, and Kennedy.

I don't think it's much of a stretch at all to see him bump that up to the 30gl/70pt range with more offensive opportunity.


He's still very young, and easily with or ahead of the where guys like Getzlaf, Perry, RIchards, Carter were at the same age offensivley.
 
Staal is going to be a top center if given the role on pretty much any team other than Pittsburgh.

And I think sooner or later Pittsburgh HAS to trade him to get some depth in other areas, given their strength at C.
 
zeke said:
disagree entirely.

both are big strong but not overly physical excellent skating centremen who made their name on strong two-way play, and boatloads of character. Offensively, both are also both similar level top-notch 2nd line type talents, with both being shoot-first cycling offensive players.
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nieuwendyk dominated on the puck and in the defensive zone with his speed and elusiveness.

staal isn't physical in the same sense that lindros was physical -- but he does bear some resemblance to sundin in that regard.

i'm not saying staal isn't a good skater. it's just that joe nieuwendyk was one of the best skaters of his time. staal is good and all, but he isn't like nieuwendyk.
 
I think people really underrate Staal's offense, especially considering his age and his lack of PP time.
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don't know who this is directed to but i'll bite.

i AGREE. staal has 30 goal potential (****, he's practically already done it) and can be a 70 point guy.

i don't see him becoming a perennial 80 point scorer like his brother, though.

as for lack of pp time -- he gets about 2 minutes per game. and that's often with overlap with crosby/malkin/gonchar so he's getting some time with a couple of pretty good players.

he gets as many shifts per game as crosby, and more than malkin.

he obviously has room to get better, but i think that people overrate his potential. we're looking at a 30-ish goal 65-70 poitn player, tops.
 
Nieuwendyk wasn't Bure out there. What made his skating impressive was the size he brought along with it, like Staal.
 
he wasn't as fast as bure, no.

what made his skating impressive was his agility, NOT his size. he could mix speeds, cut and turn with the puck. he had phenomenal lateral mobility.

had nothing to do with size.
 
as for nieuwendyk -- i hate using youtube to prove a point, but honest to god, this was the second highlight of his that i found (the first was a jam play where cujo robbed him)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPtGYn8N8i8"]YouTube- 1999-00 Round 4/Game 6/1st OT: Both Teams Nearly Win It[/ame]

i don't care about the deke.. but nieuwendyk's quickness, lateral mobility, elusiveness, and ability to turn are fantastic. the guy was an amazing, amazing skater. i'd put him up against anyone on this side of coffey.
 
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA3DlpqUBTE"]YouTube- Neely - Otto scrum 1/19/89[/ame]

the third nieuwy clip i stumbled upon.
 
As good as nieuwendyk was, he would have been so much better if he didn't suffer knee problems in his early 20's. The guy was just sensational as a rookie. That's a big reason he never scored 50 again.
 
I like Staal but he will never be the incredibly smooth skater that Nieuwendyk was. To compare them on that level is just silly.
 
No, it's silly to ignore how smooth of a skater Staal is because you have a hard on for Nieuwendyk. Check out those videos I posted. He's a tremendous skater.
 
Habspatrol said:
No, it's silly to ignore how smooth of a skater Staal is because you have a hard on for Nieuwendyk. Check out those videos I posted. He's a tremendous skater.
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what's silly is that you can't watch those videos and see that staal isn't as good of a skater as nieuwendyk was.

i don't get it.

i'm not slighting staal at all. i thikn he is a very good young player with a bright future. i think he's a great skater.

but joe nieuwendyk was one of the best skaters of his era. amongst forwards maybe the best.

smooth, fast, amazing balance, great laterally, he could change speeds, he could make quick cuts at top speed..

there are a lot of things that staal is better than nieuwendyk (especially in terms of his physical play).

and zeke, honestly, you're way off the mark here. they aren't very similar at all. staal plays like sundin. nieuwendyk had a solid frame and decent size which obviously helped, but he did'nt make a career of outmuscling guys around the outside like staal. he was a finesse player.
 
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