–Jarrod Maidens talked about recovering from his concussion and the comment that stood out to me was this:
I’m blessed to be part of the Ottawa organization and their doctors. Being a new draft pick, I was amazed at how great they were to me.
The article doesn’t add specifics to this, so I’m not sure if the organisation was great in being supportive, providing better medical treatment, or both, but either way it’s a compliment.
–Nichols describes Corey Pronman‘s Sens prospect list without (sadly) providing any commentary save this (so one over Travis Yost who offered none):
Given the attrition rate and the volatility that so frequently accompanies goaltending prospects, it should be noted that Pronman has been rather hard on goaltending prospects in the past (see his 2012 Lehner assessment). So it is more than a little encouraging to see a third-party evaluator like Pronman, give Lehner his due.
I have two thoughts related to this: 1) Pronman’s views on goaltending are well outside the norm for scouts (as mentioned here with his rationale here), but 2) welcome to Corey to finally see what every other scout has seen for years. If Pronman wasn’t able to acknowledge Lehner as a solid prospect at this point he’d be suffering from serious blindness. It’s interesting to me that the stats-savvy Pronman hasn’t found a way to deal with the difficulty in assessing goaltenders–presumably he thinks his position (essentially ignoring them) is founded in good math and that the scouting community is simply too old fashion at this point to join his kind of thinking.
–Varada writes a superb article about Eugene Melnyk’s tenure with Ottawa along with some asides with how the NHL goes about looking for ownership. It’s hard to pick out only one piece to illustrate what is a fantastic piece, but here’s one:
For every Ed Snider [Philadelphia owner since 1967] and Mike Ilitch [Detroit owner since 1982], there’s a “Boots” Del Biaggio [Nashville suitor in 2008], or Oren Koules and Len Barrie [joint owners of Tampa Bay 2007-10]. For every stable fortune, there’s a fortune balancing precariously on a bubble. And so goes the future of each franchise–all of their eggs in one basket, praying the real estate market doesn’t collapse, or the tech surge fade. In some cases, this arrangement ensures years of futility and wasted potential, such as with the Islanders, who are one of the league’s most storied franchises and whose fate is tied perpetually to owner Charles Wang like a drowning man to an anchor.
-Thanks to Amelia L for linking the site–it’s always appreciated.
-Try as I might I can’t ignore the Olympic roster speculation even though it’s completely meaningless at this stage. Travis Yost worries about the potential inclusion of Chris Kunitz (the Rob Zamuner of his generation–yes kids, great minds thought the 1998 team needed Zamuner‘s penalty killing skills) and lifelong dud Jay Bouwmeester. Let me put your minds at ease folks, there’s a regular season to be played and players like this are going to be dropped like lead balloons when the real roster gets put together.
-A little Elmira Jackals news: the team re-signed forward Jordan Pietrus, and (apparently) have signed blueliner and offensive dynamo Zach McCullough (his last three years playing in the CIS he produced 1 assist per season). I’m suspicious that this is simply a tryout contract.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 