https://www.hockeybuzz.co...ead_id=188140&forum_id=73

Proof that Ek doesn't keep up with news around the league

While #CauseChaos    forward Martin Necas could very well wind up with the #NJDevils   , I can continue to hear that the #GoHabsGo    are still very much in on Necas.

@sickpodnhl

Wonder what the Habs would offer for Nečas

You've never seen AA and John Holmes in the same room together.
- rpeters01

Priceless.

https://www.hockeybuzz.com/boards/thread.php?thread_id=188140&forum_id=73

Proof that Ek doesn't keep up with news around the league
- Chunk

Toews is signing with the Blackhawks and they are going to sign Kane as well
Is Kane the only active 2015 Cup winner?

This might mean nothing more than house-keeping prior to July 1st, but:
It appears the rumour mill is heating up on a potential Jacob Trouba trade.
Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports the New York Rangers have asked Trouba's camp for the defenceman's 15-team no-trade list ahead of July 1. Trouba currently owns a full no-move clause in his contract, but that will flip to the no-trade list on Monday.
- wiz1901

They need to make room for Kane?
Cap dump Trouba?

Yup, I bet AA can beat both of them,
- LAHawk

Anisimov?

Toews is signing with the Blackhawks and they are going to sign Kane as well
Is Kane the only active 2015 Cup winner?
- captainserious

Teuvo and TVR

Toews is signing with the Blackhawks and they are going to sign Kane as well
Is Kane the only active 2015 Cup winner?
- captainserious

Saad, TVR, Teuvo

Saad, TVR, Teuvo
- ObeseOprah

Brandon Bollig to be red ass.

Saad, TVR, Teuvo
- ObeseOprah

Forgot about them 3.
TVR has had a solid career, wasn't bad with Carolina or Washington either. Nothing spectacular but a good 5th d man.

Interesting article in the tribune:

For weeks, the Chicago Blackhawks’ options with the No. 2 pick in Friday’s NHL draft have appeared to be an either-or proposition: Russian junior league forward Ivan Demidov or Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov.
But is it?
One draft pundit and former NHL scout contends the two aren’t as closely matched as consensus opinion would have us believe.
Grant McCagg, founder of scouting site Recrutes.ca and a former scout for the Montreal Canadiens, called Demidov “a can’t-miss.”
“There’s things I don’t like about Levshunov’s game — and I’m not alone,” McCagg said. “These public lists that have him top-three, none of the NHL scouts that I talked to — none, and I mean there’s probably a half-dozen that I talked to pretty regularly — none of them like him top-five.”
Several recent mock drafts pegged Levshunov as the No. 2 pick by the Hawks. NHL Central Scouting ranks him second among North American skaters behind Boston University forward Macklin Celebrini, calling Levshunov “a smooth-skating defenseman with high-end puck skills.”
“(He) uses his size, strength and reach as assets to effectively defend in the defensive zone and has a good grasp of positioning and coverage,” the Central Scouting report says. “Good shot control with a hard and accurate shot that makes him a legit scoring threat from the blue line. Good two-way game.”
Dan Marr, vice president of Central Scouting, told the Tribune in May, “I’d say he’s a complete (player), more of an all-around,” but acknowledged that for his staff, ”it was hard for us to sort out the defensemen.”
To that point, McCagg said, “Out of the six defensemen that are highly ranked, I think all of (the scouts he talked to), except maybe one, have him tagged as like the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in this draft class. So why would you take the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in the draft class second overall?”

After posting nine goals and 26 assists for the Spartans last season, Levshunov was named a second-team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association and earned Big Ten honors as defensive player and freshman of the year.
But McCagg believes a good system at Michigan State masked some of Levshunov’s warts.
“When he played against higher competition and was pressured in his own zone particularly, he was prone to turnovers,” McCagg said. “He jumps into the play at inopportune times.”
McCagg noted one play in which Levshunov’s defensive partner was swarmed by opposing skaters and Levshunov was “up at the friggin’ red line, and the other team scored and tied the game.”
“There were examples of that throughout the year where he thinks offense first — and he’s a defenseman,” McCagg said. “It’s often hard to break them of that habit because it can take years sometimes.
“I’ve still got him in my top 12 (overall), so it’s not like I completely hate him. He’s going to play in your top four and be a longtime NHL defenseman. But you have a chance to take what I think could be the next Pavel Bure instead (in Demidov). There’s no comparison for me.”
McCagg doubled down.
“I don’t see how Chicago can pass on Demidov,” he said. “I think he’s their dynamic duo (along with Connor Bedard) that they had with (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane. Bedard and Demidov are the next incarnation.”

Curiously, Demidov’s draft stock appeared to be slipping in recent days.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on his “32 Thoughts” podcast that he heard one team has been spreading rumors to drag down Demidov’s stock to have a shot at drafting him.
First, the 18-year-old was called a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, and another knock was that he played most of the season in the Kontinental Hockey League’s junior league, the MHL.
Asked whether he was worried the latter fact might depress Demidov’s stock, Dan Milstein, the agent for both Demidov and Levshunov, told the Tribune, “No, absolutely not.”
Added McCagg: “And then when (Demidov) shows up at the combine (that Milstein held in Florida last week) and he’s not 5-11 — he’s actually 6 foot and a half-inch and close to 200 pounds — the knock that he’s a little undersized was incorrect.”

McCagg said SKA St. Petersburg coach Roman Rotenberg’s reluctance to play 17- or 18-year-olds in the senior league shouldn’t be held against Demidov.
“I thought he may have been SKA’s best player in the exhibition season,” he said. “I don’t really see a lot of knocks on Demidov. … He’s a very competitive player. He cares away from the puck. He works hard. I think (Hawks coach) Luke (Richardson) is going to like him from Day 1.”
Demidov’s defense impresses just as much, if not more.
“He’s just so strong on his skates,” McCagg said. “He was on the ice for 0.28 goals-against per game. … I’ve never seen a mark that low. Ever.”
In Recrutes’ rankings, McCagg has Demidov second behind Celebrini with Levshunov at No. 11. In fact, he regards the University of Denver’s Zeev Buium as the top defenseman (and fifth overall).
“Buium was a lot better than (Levshunov) last year as a freshman in college hockey,” said McCagg, who said he wouldn’t be shocked if Levshunov slightly tumbled down the board.
Prospects often are highly rated early in the draft process before teams take a closer look at the tape.
In other words: Read predictions with caution.
“The public perception of how the draft’s going to go and what the NHL teams are thinking can be completely different sometimes,” McCagg said. “That’s part of the fun of it because it’s so unpredictable.”


Is the whole half dozen scouts think of Levshunov as the 5th/6th best dman in the class also just people blowing smoke up you know where? To get him to fall?

Think it’ll be Celebrini and Yakemchuk.
- TommyHawk

San Jose is setting themselves up for one heck of a draft.

The only thing that would make sense here is a package centered on Jones. That said, I'm not sure I'd like to be around paulr for too long if this actually happened.
- Chunk

Bedard would have a 50 goal season and a defensively elite player on his wing. Certainly solves problems in one regard.

A gaping hole at RHD unless they add another veteran there would not be super desirable either though.

Interesting article in the tribune:

For weeks, the Chicago Blackhawks’ options with the No. 2 pick in Friday’s NHL draft have appeared to be an either-or proposition: Russian junior league forward Ivan Demidov or Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov.
But is it?
One draft pundit and former NHL scout contends the two aren’t as closely matched as consensus opinion would have us believe.
Grant McCagg, founder of scouting site Recrutes.ca and a former scout for the Montreal Canadiens, called Demidov “a can’t-miss.”
“There’s things I don’t like about Levshunov’s game — and I’m not alone,” McCagg said. “These public lists that have him top-three, none of the NHL scouts that I talked to — none, and I mean there’s probably a half-dozen that I talked to pretty regularly — none of them like him top-five.”
Several recent mock drafts pegged Levshunov as the No. 2 pick by the Hawks. NHL Central Scouting ranks him second among North American skaters behind Boston University forward Macklin Celebrini, calling Levshunov “a smooth-skating defenseman with high-end puck skills.”
“(He) uses his size, strength and reach as assets to effectively defend in the defensive zone and has a good grasp of positioning and coverage,” the Central Scouting report says. “Good shot control with a hard and accurate shot that makes him a legit scoring threat from the blue line. Good two-way game.”
Dan Marr, vice president of Central Scouting, told the Tribune in May, “I’d say he’s a complete (player), more of an all-around,” but acknowledged that for his staff, ”it was hard for us to sort out the defensemen.”
To that point, McCagg said, “Out of the six defensemen that are highly ranked, I think all of (the scouts he talked to), except maybe one, have him tagged as like the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in this draft class. So why would you take the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in the draft class second overall?”

After posting nine goals and 26 assists for the Spartans last season, Levshunov was named a second-team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association and earned Big Ten honors as defensive player and freshman of the year.
But McCagg believes a good system at Michigan State masked some of Levshunov’s warts.
“When he played against higher competition and was pressured in his own zone particularly, he was prone to turnovers,” McCagg said. “He jumps into the play at inopportune times.”
McCagg noted one play in which Levshunov’s defensive partner was swarmed by opposing skaters and Levshunov was “up at the friggin’ red line, and the other team scored and tied the game.”
“There were examples of that throughout the year where he thinks offense first — and he’s a defenseman,” McCagg said. “It’s often hard to break them of that habit because it can take years sometimes.
“I’ve still got him in my top 12 (overall), so it’s not like I completely hate him. He’s going to play in your top four and be a longtime NHL defenseman. But you have a chance to take what I think could be the next Pavel Bure instead (in Demidov). There’s no comparison for me.”
McCagg doubled down.
“I don’t see how Chicago can pass on Demidov,” he said. “I think he’s their dynamic duo (along with Connor Bedard) that they had with (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane. Bedard and Demidov are the next incarnation.”

Curiously, Demidov’s draft stock appeared to be slipping in recent days.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on his “32 Thoughts” podcast that he heard one team has been spreading rumors to drag down Demidov’s stock to have a shot at drafting him.
First, the 18-year-old was called a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, and another knock was that he played most of the season in the Kontinental Hockey League’s junior league, the MHL.
Asked whether he was worried the latter fact might depress Demidov’s stock, Dan Milstein, the agent for both Demidov and Levshunov, told the Tribune, “No, absolutely not.”
Added McCagg: “And then when (Demidov) shows up at the combine (that Milstein held in Florida last week) and he’s not 5-11 — he’s actually 6 foot and a half-inch and close to 200 pounds — the knock that he’s a little undersized was incorrect.”

McCagg said SKA St. Petersburg coach Roman Rotenberg’s reluctance to play 17- or 18-year-olds in the senior league shouldn’t be held against Demidov.
“I thought he may have been SKA’s best player in the exhibition season,” he said. “I don’t really see a lot of knocks on Demidov. … He’s a very competitive player. He cares away from the puck. He works hard. I think (Hawks coach) Luke (Richardson) is going to like him from Day 1.”
Demidov’s defense impresses just as much, if not more.
“He’s just so strong on his skates,” McCagg said. “He was on the ice for 0.28 goals-against per game. … I’ve never seen a mark that low. Ever.”
In Recrutes’ rankings, McCagg has Demidov second behind Celebrini with Levshunov at No. 11. In fact, he regards the University of Denver’s Zeev Buium as the top defenseman (and fifth overall).
“Buium was a lot better than (Levshunov) last year as a freshman in college hockey,” said McCagg, who said he wouldn’t be shocked if Levshunov slightly tumbled down the board.
Prospects often are highly rated early in the draft process before teams take a closer look at the tape.
In other words: Read predictions with caution.
“The public perception of how the draft’s going to go and what the NHL teams are thinking can be completely different sometimes,” McCagg said. “That’s part of the fun of it because it’s so unpredictable.”


Is the whole half dozen scouts think of Levshunov as the 5th/6th best dman in the class also just people blowing smoke up you know where? To get him to fall?
- captainserious

Or to trade down as some proposed.

According to chgo twitter

Kyle Davidson on yesterday’s trade. “It made sense to pursue it to strengthen the middle of the lineup and add an NHL player who can take the next step.”

Davidson says he’s confident he will sign Sam Lafferty.

Hey Sam, would you like a 1 year,7 million dollar contract?

Also
@CHGO_Blackhawks
Davidson says the debate over the second pick internally has been significant. He says who was taken last year has no effect on who is taken this year.

Pretty much guarantees a Levshunov pick at 2

Saad, TVR, Teuvo
- ObeseOprah

Saad would not be bad Hall insurance.

Could do without TVR but if the haul from the off season is Mikheyev, Saad, TT, RHD to be named later - it's ok improvement.

Not anything to blow your skirt up but definitely makes them more defensively competent and adds some goals. Probably helps out the younger guys on the blue line in terms of options to pass to.

Hall Bedard Kurashev (I don't like the player but well go with it for arguments sake) Saad Nazar TT
Mikheyev D1ckinson Foligno
AA Reichel guy

Thats not a great top 9 but it would be less painful to watch. Makes room for someone to push Foligno to the 4th line where he probably should be.

Saad would not be bad Hall insurance.

Could do without TVR but if the haul from the off season is Mikheyev, Saad, TT, RHD to be named later - it's ok improvement.

Not anything to blow your skirt up but definitely makes them more defensively competent and adds some goals. Probably helps out the younger guys on the blue line in terms of options to pass to.

Hall Bedard Kurashev (I don't like the player but well go with it for arguments sake) Saad Nazar TT
Mikheyev D1ckinson Foligno
AA Reichel guy

Thats not a great top 9 but it would be less painful to watch. Makes room for someone to push Foligno to the 4th line where he probably should be.
- fattybeef

Really can't see them going with Bedard and Nazer as 1C and 2C without those lines getting outscored at 5v5 consistently and being beaten soundly on the road. We really need a solid veteran C for the top 6. Bedard/Nazar 2-way game, faceoffs and all those little things will continue to be a work in progress.

Really can't see them going with Bedard and Nazer as 1C and 2C without those lines getting outscored at 5v5 consistently and being beaten soundly on the road. We really need a solid veteran C for the top 6. Bedard/Nazar 2-way game, faceoffs and all those little things will continue to be a work in progress.
- breadbag

Is Nazar definitely penciled in to start the season with the Hawks? or is he going to get some time in the A first?

Is Nazar definitely penciled in to start the season with the Hawks? or is he going to get some time in the A first?
- LAHawk

Well that's a good question for sure. I don't think he is a lock, I mean training camp will be important to decide these things. I look at the Hawks forward group, and if Jason D gets injured, we will have very few good options to take draws or matchup up defensively. I really hope we get a solid 2 way C to take the second line, and if Nazar or anyone else earns that spot, good for them. Have an extra C who plays wing most the time for a while until they get experience.

According to chgo twitter

Kyle Davidson on yesterday’s trade. “It made sense to pursue it to strengthen the middle of the lineup and add an NHL player who can take the next step.”

Davidson says he’s confident he will sign Sam Lafferty.

Hey Sam, would you like a 1 year,7 million dollar contract?

Also
@CHGO_Blackhawks
Davidson says the debate over the second pick internally has been significant. He says who was taken last year has no effect on who is taken this year.

Pretty much guarantees a Levshunov pick at 2
- captainserious

I don't see it that way?

I don't see it that way?
- rpeters01

Cam Robinson has a short video oit on twitter saying the draft basically starts at #3 because Macklin is going 1 and from everything he hears Levshunov is going #2.

On another note
Lazerus just tweeted this:
Kyle Davidson left the door open for more forward signings and trades, but seemed to be trying to temper expectations heading into free agency. Sounds like he's comfortable with a healthy Taylor Hall and Andreas Athanasiou being the big upgrades.

Might as well call them the Chicago Sabres. Let's draft our way out of this crap hole,that'll work.
The salary cap is ruthless If I hear one more thing about the stupid salary cap,and they don't want to commit etc.. I'm gonna puke

https://x.com/BenPopeCST/...amp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

https://x.com/BenPopeCST/...amp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

https://x.com/BenPopeCST/...amp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Cam Robinson has a short video oit on twitter saying the draft basically starts at #3 because Macklin is going 1 and from everything he hears Levshunov is going #2.

On another note
Lazerus just tweeted this:
Kyle Davidson left the door open for more forward signings and trades, but seemed to be trying to temper expectations heading into free agency. Sounds like he's comfortable with a healthy Taylor Hall and Andreas Athanasiou being the big upgrades.

Might as well call them the Chicago Sabres. Let's draft our way out of this crap hole,that'll work.
The salary cap is ruthless If I hear one more thing about the stupid salary cap,and they don't want to commit etc.. I'm gonna puke
- captainserious

I haven’t heard anything directly attributed to KD, yet there are lots of insiders all reporting conflicting stories.

I haven’t heard anything directly attributed to KD, yet there are lots of insiders all reporting conflicting stories.
- paulr

The only thing Kyle has said is that they know who they are picking. Ben Pope and CHGO have some tweets with his comments etc..

Interesting article in the tribune:

For weeks, the Chicago Blackhawks’ options with the No. 2 pick in Friday’s NHL draft have appeared to be an either-or proposition: Russian junior league forward Ivan Demidov or Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov.
But is it?
One draft pundit and former NHL scout contends the two aren’t as closely matched as consensus opinion would have us believe.
Grant McCagg, founder of scouting site Recrutes.ca and a former scout for the Montreal Canadiens, called Demidov “a can’t-miss.”
“There’s things I don’t like about Levshunov’s game — and I’m not alone,” McCagg said. “These public lists that have him top-three, none of the NHL scouts that I talked to — none, and I mean there’s probably a half-dozen that I talked to pretty regularly — none of them like him top-five.”
Several recent mock drafts pegged Levshunov as the No. 2 pick by the Hawks. NHL Central Scouting ranks him second among North American skaters behind Boston University forward Macklin Celebrini, calling Levshunov “a smooth-skating defenseman with high-end puck skills.”
“(He) uses his size, strength and reach as assets to effectively defend in the defensive zone and has a good grasp of positioning and coverage,” the Central Scouting report says. “Good shot control with a hard and accurate shot that makes him a legit scoring threat from the blue line. Good two-way game.”
Dan Marr, vice president of Central Scouting, told the Tribune in May, “I’d say he’s a complete (player), more of an all-around,” but acknowledged that for his staff, ”it was hard for us to sort out the defensemen.”
To that point, McCagg said, “Out of the six defensemen that are highly ranked, I think all of (the scouts he talked to), except maybe one, have him tagged as like the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in this draft class. So why would you take the fifth- or sixth-best defenseman in the draft class second overall?”

After posting nine goals and 26 assists for the Spartans last season, Levshunov was named a second-team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association and earned Big Ten honors as defensive player and freshman of the year.
But McCagg believes a good system at Michigan State masked some of Levshunov’s warts.
“When he played against higher competition and was pressured in his own zone particularly, he was prone to turnovers,” McCagg said. “He jumps into the play at inopportune times.”
McCagg noted one play in which Levshunov’s defensive partner was swarmed by opposing skaters and Levshunov was “up at the friggin’ red line, and the other team scored and tied the game.”
“There were examples of that throughout the year where he thinks offense first — and he’s a defenseman,” McCagg said. “It’s often hard to break them of that habit because it can take years sometimes.
“I’ve still got him in my top 12 (overall), so it’s not like I completely hate him. He’s going to play in your top four and be a longtime NHL defenseman. But you have a chance to take what I think could be the next Pavel Bure instead (in Demidov). There’s no comparison for me.”
McCagg doubled down.
“I don’t see how Chicago can pass on Demidov,” he said. “I think he’s their dynamic duo (along with Connor Bedard) that they had with (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane. Bedard and Demidov are the next incarnation.”

Curiously, Demidov’s draft stock appeared to be slipping in recent days.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on his “32 Thoughts” podcast that he heard one team has been spreading rumors to drag down Demidov’s stock to have a shot at drafting him.
First, the 18-year-old was called a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, and another knock was that he played most of the season in the Kontinental Hockey League’s junior league, the MHL.
Asked whether he was worried the latter fact might depress Demidov’s stock, Dan Milstein, the agent for both Demidov and Levshunov, told the Tribune, “No, absolutely not.”
Added McCagg: “And then when (Demidov) shows up at the combine (that Milstein held in Florida last week) and he’s not 5-11 — he’s actually 6 foot and a half-inch and close to 200 pounds — the knock that he’s a little undersized was incorrect.”

McCagg said SKA St. Petersburg coach Roman Rotenberg’s reluctance to play 17- or 18-year-olds in the senior league shouldn’t be held against Demidov.
“I thought he may have been SKA’s best player in the exhibition season,” he said. “I don’t really see a lot of knocks on Demidov. … He’s a very competitive player. He cares away from the puck. He works hard. I think (Hawks coach) Luke (Richardson) is going to like him from Day 1.”
Demidov’s defense impresses just as much, if not more.
“He’s just so strong on his skates,” McCagg said. “He was on the ice for 0.28 goals-against per game. … I’ve never seen a mark that low. Ever.”
In Recrutes’ rankings, McCagg has Demidov second behind Celebrini with Levshunov at No. 11. In fact, he regards the University of Denver’s Zeev Buium as the top defenseman (and fifth overall).
“Buium was a lot better than (Levshunov) last year as a freshman in college hockey,” said McCagg, who said he wouldn’t be shocked if Levshunov slightly tumbled down the board.
Prospects often are highly rated early in the draft process before teams take a closer look at the tape.
In other words: Read predictions with caution.
“The public perception of how the draft’s going to go and what the NHL teams are thinking can be completely different sometimes,” McCagg said. “That’s part of the fun of it because it’s so unpredictable.”


Is the whole half dozen scouts think of Levshunov as the 5th/6th best dman in the class also just people blowing smoke up you know where? To get him to fall?
- captainserious

So who past Davidson would have the most influence, and which ones would advocate for one over the other? Soupy for Lev? Others?