Pokecheque wrote:
I don't recall the last time a highly-touted draft bust was retained by a team and ended up being a useful, albeit disappointing player. And I don't think it's going to work here either. Erik Johnson's NHL career didn't really begin until he was free of St. Louis and the pressure of being a former first-overall pick. Isles should've gotten rid of MDC when they had the chance.
I think he'll be a third liner most of his career. Not great, not terrible. If he'd been a 2nd rounder or lower, that would be great. I don't put a lot of stock into what round a guy was taken. Some years are deeper than others.
But funny enough, his draft mate just demanded a trade. Josh Ho-Sang, who passed through waivers the other day, wants out. Lou even said so publicly, which is astounding, as he usually doesn't say anything publicly. Ho-Sang cleared waivers but has refused to report to Bridgeport. He had a really good camp and showed he'd been working on his defensive game. I can't blame him for being frustrated, especially when it's clear the Isles need offense and they have won with him in the lineup. As I said above, they were 9-1 with him last year, but someone on an Isles blog said the Isles are something like 35-7-2 with him in the lineup. That's from memory so I'm probably off, but it was a really good ratio in favor of him. Sure, that could be due to a lot of other things, but it was quite lopsided in his favor. And I know he'd have to stay in the NHL if a team claimed him off waivers and now that he's passed he could be sent to anther org's AHL team, but if he's demanding a trade because he truly feels he belongs in the NHL now, why would they trade for him? They'd be bringing in a guy known to be a problem, who went public with a trade request. They could have gotten him for free the other day...
Anyway. On to the regular season thread!