Hickey question

[backofthenet]

Eligibility question - Inside the Kings

If Hickey does not make the team, he goes back to Juniors where he has nothing left to prove.

I realize that he may not be NHL ready, but what is worse for the player?

Is it worde to rush him in and hope he is mature enough to cope? Or is it worse to send him back to a place where he may grow bored and not grow?

I really have no idea...opinions?

[Len-Det64]

I seriously doubt that Hickey makes the team this year. As for having nothing left to prove in Jr.'s, he still can help carry his team to the playoffs and win a championship.

[The Natural]

For those that are curious, the Kings' prospects that are eligible to play in Manchester this season are:

G, Jonathan Bernier
G, Jonathan Quick
G, Danny Taylor
G, Jeff Zatkoff

D, Peter Harrold
D, Joe Piskula
D, Alec Martinez
D, Davis Drewiske
D, Drew Bagnall
D, Josh Kidd
D, Andrew Campbell
D, Josh Meyers
D, Martin Nolet
D, Niclas Andersen (I believe Kings let him go)

F, Ted Purcell
F, Trevor Lewis
F, Brian Boyle
F, Matt Moulson
F, David Meckler
F, Scott Parse
F, Marc-Andre Cliche
F, Bud Holloway
F, Justin Azevedo
F, Constantin Braun (I believe Kings let him go)
F, Vladimir Dravecky
F, Gabe Gauthier
F, Brady Murray
F, Kevin Westgarth
F, John Zeiler
F, Richard Clune
F, Matt Fillier
F, Garrett Roe
F, Joshua Turnbull

Note: A few of these are obvious as they've already spent time in the AHL but I thought it'd be good to have a master list.

Manchester should be stacked the next few years.

[Kopitar11Fan]

^Can't Voinov play since he is a European player?

[Cid_MCDP]

Originally Posted by backofthenet

Eligibility question - Inside the Kings

If Hickey does not make the team, he goes back to Juniors where he has nothing left to prove.

I realize that he may not be NHL ready, but what is worse for the player?

Is it worde to rush him in and hope he is mature enough to cope? Or is it worse to send him back to a place where he may grow bored and not grow?

I really have no idea...opinions?

Huh. That's really interesting. I've never heard of all this eligibility hoo ha before. Weird.

Well, I don't know. Seems like it'd actually retard his development to leave him down in the WHL if he's really dominating to that degree. He was 91st overall in scoring (no good way to just look at defenseman scoring on the WHL site and I'm too lazy to figure it out) in a 22 team league. On the surface, that seems pretty solid.

I read all about prospects who get ruined and everything by being shoved into the league too early, but honestly, I'm kind of starting to wonder what would happen if we threw a kid like Hickey into the mix on the big club. On one hand, we ruin him. On the other, who knows? Maybe he and Jack and Anze and Dustin and Brian and Drew and hopefully O' Sullivan all bond during the experience of taking a collective 82 game ass-kicking and come out that much stronger, pissed-off, and looking for revenge the season after.

[VegasHockey]

If he were eligable, Manchester would be Hickey's best option. Too bad he's kinda stuck in a hockey league purgatory at the moment.

[borinka99]

I ****ing hate the AHL/CHL agreement!!!

[petey]

Originally Posted by Kopitar11Fan

^Can't Voinov play since he is a European player?

Yes, he can. So can Loktionov.

[Bogey]

Originally Posted by petey

Yes, he can. So can Loktionov.

They'll both be in juniors though, it appears.

http://www.chl.ca/importDraft_en.php

Voinov in Moncton and Loktionov in Owen Sound.

[petey]

Originally Posted by borinka99

I ****ing hate the AHL/CHL agreement!!!

Yeah, it does. However the 4 year rule is a good one I think. For instance, if Doughty is sent back to juniors this year, he will be eligible to play in the AHL next season as a 19 year old cause he would have completed 4 full years of junior. Same with Tavares this season. He'll be drafted after this season and then will be eligible to play in the AHL right away cause of the 4 year rule. So it is good in some instances.

[borinka99]

Originally Posted by petey

Yeah, it does. However the 4 year rule is a good one I think. For instance, if Doughty is sent back to juniors this year, he will be eligible to play in the AHL next season as a 19 year old cause he would have completed 4 full years of junior. Same with Tavares this season. He'll be drafted after this season and then will be eligible to play in the AHL right away cause of the 4 year rule. So it is good in some instances.

Yea, sometimes it works out, but sometimes it can stunt a player's development. Someone like Hickey would probably benefit a lot more from playing in the AHL next season than the CHL.

[Bubbadel2]

What about him playing in the ECHL with Ontario?

[ryan]

Originally Posted by backofthenet

If Hickey does not make the team, he goes back to Juniors where he has nothing left to prove.

I realize that he may not be NHL ready, but what is worse for the player?

Is it worde to rush him in and hope he is mature enough to cope? Or is it worse to send him back to a place where he may grow bored and not grow?

I really have no idea...opinions?

Lombardi mentioned in an interview that throughout his career he's seen plenty of players ruined by being unprepared and rushed into a situation they're not ready for, but that he has not encountered a case where a player is hurt by being developed too much. And I agree with that to an extent.

There's always some part of his game that Hickey could be working on in Juniors, especially if he's mastered the difficulty level of the WHL. For a young player, I don't think the NHL is a level that you want to be trying to figure things out as that tends to be what a developmental league is for (read: Juniors or AHL). So whether he's doing that in the WHL or AHL shouldn't make too much of a difference, although I'll grant that the AHL is a notch or two more difficult/competitive since it's comprised of guys who have broken through the Juniors/College/European ranks.

The only downside I could see is that if the level of competition or ease of the game at the WHL is too lax he might pick up lazy habits -- like not playing defense and hanging around at the blueline to wait for a turnover, if he was a forward, for example. To be honest though, if something like that was a real concern with Hickey then I'd say he really wasn't ready for the NHL since that would be a big maturity issue, indicating he wasn't ready to turn pro.

[Captain Brown]

Ok ok, I know a lot of you might not agree with me, but I've watched hickey for quite some time, and during the two world Junior Tournaments where Team Canada won Gold, if Doughty hadn't won Top Defenseman of the tournament, Hickey or Schenn would've for sure..

Another thing, I k now most of you in USA didn't get to watch the 8 game Canada vs Russia series last Summer, where we beat them 7 outta the 8 games, and tied the last one. Hickey was amazing in that tournament, and there's a reason why we took him at #4 in the draft ahead of other higher ranked players.

I love drew Doughty, and I love Thomas hickey, but just wait till training camp is over, and then make the remarks on Hickey, until then, lets just see how he does first fellas.


Hickey isn't as offensive as Doughty, but has can still QB a PP, he QB'ed the PP for Canada at the world junors from time to time, and had a very slick one time pass to Kyle Turris for a goal top shelf.

Both players are great, and in the long run, Doughty will be better.

But Thomas Hickey has a much better all around game than Doughty, Doughty's skills level is much better, but HICKEY can QB a PP, and his passing is unbelievable, it's always accurate and right on the tape, and hes one player you can count on to get the puck outta the zone in key situations, especially on the PK. Him and Luke Schenn demolished every top line the the opposition put out against them for two straight World Junior Hockey Tournaments, and they were one of the key reason's Canada even beat Sweden in the the GOLD!

I honestly think Hickey could make this team easily, if he brings his game at camp and is completely over his foot injury........... just look at our defense, the only reason he wont make it is because our defense is so weak, and Lombardi doesn't want a bunch of rookies on his blue line, and can't take that chance. But if he goes out and somehow gets a good veteran Defenseman, Hickey will make the team, Trust me, Hickey would be much better than Denis Gauthier. Gauthier is old, slow and lays the occasional big hit, but he does a lot of talking,and walks away from fights.

Another thing, Dl is smart, and thinks ahead big time, just think how good Luke Scheen and Hickey were together on the PK....DL realises this, and in a year or two, it will be Coltten Tebuert and Hickey shutting down all the top lines, and killing off penalties. (again, I'm talking in a couple of years, say 2010 - or 2011.

The only thing that bothers me, is Jonathan Bernier, because our defense is not very experienced, we have basically Rookies and a washed up Veteran in Gauthier, and Matt Greene(unless he explodes and becomes an all star d man, which will never happen) ..... we could be in trouble...Pressing, and Harrold , while Harrold is questionable and still his not experienced to the NHL Game yet and our stud Jack Johnson. Again another dman that is very young, only his 2Nd year.

This unexperienced Defense man Corp makes me wonder about Bernier, can he handle facing 40 shots a night for another season? We really don't want to hurt his confidence and ruin him for the future. Sure if we had a defense like Detroit, or Anaheim, Bernier could possibly led us to the cup, because our team scores a lot of goals, weren't we like in the top 7 in goals last year, and I think this year we will score even more.


I'm sure DL sees this, and I hope he has a future plan in mind, or he just isn't cut out to rebuild this team. In my opinion every team in our division got better aside from us and Anaheim.....well they pretty much stayed the same.

But one thing is for sure, in 2010 and 2011, LA and and our rivals and the team I hate the most PHX will be Contenders...I hate them so much because my best friend is a long time Winnipeg Jets fan and now a die Hard PHOENIX COYOTES FAN, and I he thinks Phx will make the playoffs this year, and I'll never hear the end of it, in the long run, we will demolish them, even if we had a good goalie this year, we still could challenge for a playoff spot, but our defense is too young and inexperienced...So its better to be bad for one more year, and get another star draft pick, and then go by locking up our star players to long term deals, then signing a few key UFA"s, and by that time Bernier should be ready, but in the mean time, if we don't get a veteran goalie, lets just hope Ernsberg is the answer!!



NOW, Just Take a look at Phoenix's Lineup as of now,




FORWARD LINES :



1st LINE: SHANE DOAN OLI JOKINEN KYLE TURRIS
2nd LINE: MIKKEL BOEDKER PETER MUELLER DANIEL CARCILLO (KID LINE)
3rd LINE: MARTIIN HANZAL STEVE REINPRECT ENVER LISIN
4th LINE: BRIAN MCGRATTON DANIEL WINNIK TODD FEDOREK (GOON LINE)




DEFENSE PAIRINGS:



PAIR #1 DEREK MORRIS ED JOVANIVSKI

PAIR #2 ZBYNAK MICHALEK KEITH YANDLE

PAIR #3 KURT SAUER MATT JONES



GOALIES



#1: ILYA BRYZGALOV

#2 AL MONTOYA

#3 MIKAEL TELIQVIST



PHX is also loaded with some top Forward prospects just as our Kings are..



KEVIN PORTER (NCAA Hobby Baker Award Winner. Named to the ALL-CCHA 1ST PLAYER TEAM, and also Named the CCHA PLAYER OF THE YEAR. Scored 22 goals and 22 assists for 42 pts, which is excellent scoring marks for NCAA Hockey, this kid is a bright future.)

BRETT MACLEAN (62GP 61G 58A 119PTS with Oshawa in the OHL. Outscored his teammate John Tavares. Has been a scoring machine at every level he has ever played.

VIKTOR TIKHONOV, (Drafted in 1st Round 28th Overall in 2008 Draft. Was Team Russia's Leading Scorer at this years World Junior Championships and was named Tournament Most Valuable Player.)

ALEX BORRETT Drafted in 1st Round - 16th Overall in 2005. Amazing Stats as a RW in the QMJHL, basically a scoring machine, and excelled at all levels. He played with the Shawingan Cataractes in his last year of Junior Hockey in the QMJHL and his statistics were : 67GP 44G 70A 114Pts 133PIM. Phoenix Coyotes GM - Don Maloney loves the young right winger and has high hopes for him. He just hopes he can live and play up to his potential. If Borrett can stay healthy and continue to play his well rounded game, Expect to see him in the mix with the Coyotes sooner rather than later.)



Here are some of their Defense Prospects as welll...


NICK ROSS (Candidate to make Team Canada's WJ Hockey Team this year, Drafted -1st Round 30 Overall in 07)

CHRIS SUMMERS (Drafted 1st Round - 26 Overall in 07 Draft, Was Assistant Captain for Team USA at last years World Juniors. Phoenix wants him bad, and he is ready to make the jump and they are tying to get him to leave University where he plays NCAAA Hockey with the Michigan Wolverines.)




I only did this write up on Phoenix basically to compare our team to theirs. They definitely have the edge in goal tending and our forwards I would say are fairly equal, but Phoenix definitely has more Leadership and Veteran's upfront. We kill them with our defensive prospects, and once Bernier Matures and our defense get more experienced, we'll be so much better than them. Again this year, I see Phoenix possibly making the playoffs, and well finish ahead of us. We both have similar teams, but the key is to build from the back end out, and that is totally what DL is doing, in 3 years, look out for our defense, and that's not to say what UFA"s we will b ring in. LA is a more attractive place than PHX, and we have a young team with loads of potential.

Overall, in the long run, we have a much better future than phoenix I think, Jovanovski's days are coming to an end, just as Blake's days did in LA. Bryzgalov is not a goalie that can win you a cup, especially with Phoenix D, and they don't have any potential star D-Prospects on their blue line, we have, Jack Johnson, Colten Teubert, Thomas Hickey, Drew Doughty, and Voinov( who will really excel has game playing on a strong Moncton team in QMJHL. Our Prospects at the forward level are fairly even, but that's only because we drafted from the goalie out, we did it the right way.

[Cid_MCDP]

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