Future may be brighter than expected
Posted 9:51 AM ET | Comments 1
Hello everyone. My name is François Simard and I will be blogging on Habs and hockey activities. I am new at this, but I will be looking for feedbacks and comments.
In the recent years, the Habs pool of offensive prospects has been almost dry. No one came up the ladder and put some decent numbers (apart from Latendresse). The offensive leaders in Hamilton (Maxwell, Desharnais, Trotter, White, etc) have yet to prove to be top 6 material (or even NHL material) and they’re not bringing any enthousiasm to Habs fan.
Louis Leblanc, Lars Eller, Alexander Avstin and Danny Kristo are four prospects that bring a lot of excitement for upcoming years. They all have great credentials: Louis Leblanc was the leading scorer of his Harvard team and was names IVY league rookie of the years. He also just had a great summer camp with Team Canada and his chances to make the Junior squad in December are quite good. Lars Eller was the leading scorer of St-Louis farm team last year. Alexander Avstin have burned the Russian 3 League two years ago with 110 pts and made the main squad of the Moscow Dynamo at 18 years old. Danny Kristo was named WCHA rookie of the year and was part of the US gold medal team at the last Junior Championship.
Except for Kristo who is probably one year away from AHL (he could join the Bulldogs late in the upcoming season after college season is over), they will be close to Montreal this year and we will be able to follow closely their develpment has Leblanc is set to play with Montreal Juniors in the LHJMQ, Avstin is probably Hamilton bound and Ellers may win a spot on the NHL roster. All three will be newcomer in the upcoming training camp and all four are top 6 potential material.
Last year, Jacques Martin had few options to stimulate AK 46 and Benoit Pouliot. No one else could prove top 6 regular and follow Plecks, Gomez, Cam and Gionta. On the powerplay, JM used from time to time Glen Metropolit with relative succes. This year, he will be able to throw Ellers to PP duties and use him on the wing when AK and/or BP will go to idle.
It will be fun to watch them at the training camp alongside proven NHLers and see where they are in their develpment.
Here the profile from The Hockey News:
Lars Eller:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?6418
Alexander Avstin:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?7667
Louis Leblanc:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?7442
Danny Kristo:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?6771
In the recent years, the Habs pool of offensive prospects has been almost dry. No one came up the ladder and put some decent numbers (apart from Latendresse). The offensive leaders in Hamilton (Maxwell, Desharnais, Trotter, White, etc) have yet to prove to be top 6 material (or even NHL material) and they’re not bringing any enthousiasm to Habs fan.
Louis Leblanc, Lars Eller, Alexander Avstin and Danny Kristo are four prospects that bring a lot of excitement for upcoming years. They all have great credentials: Louis Leblanc was the leading scorer of his Harvard team and was names IVY league rookie of the years. He also just had a great summer camp with Team Canada and his chances to make the Junior squad in December are quite good. Lars Eller was the leading scorer of St-Louis farm team last year. Alexander Avstin have burned the Russian 3 League two years ago with 110 pts and made the main squad of the Moscow Dynamo at 18 years old. Danny Kristo was named WCHA rookie of the year and was part of the US gold medal team at the last Junior Championship.
Except for Kristo who is probably one year away from AHL (he could join the Bulldogs late in the upcoming season after college season is over), they will be close to Montreal this year and we will be able to follow closely their develpment has Leblanc is set to play with Montreal Juniors in the LHJMQ, Avstin is probably Hamilton bound and Ellers may win a spot on the NHL roster. All three will be newcomer in the upcoming training camp and all four are top 6 potential material.
Last year, Jacques Martin had few options to stimulate AK 46 and Benoit Pouliot. No one else could prove top 6 regular and follow Plecks, Gomez, Cam and Gionta. On the powerplay, JM used from time to time Glen Metropolit with relative succes. This year, he will be able to throw Ellers to PP duties and use him on the wing when AK and/or BP will go to idle.
It will be fun to watch them at the training camp alongside proven NHLers and see where they are in their develpment.
Here the profile from The Hockey News:
Lars Eller:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?6418
Alexander Avstin:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?7667
Louis Leblanc:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?7442
Danny Kristo:
http://forecaster.thehock...ws/hockey/player.cgi?6771
Welcome to the blogging community Frank!! Great article by the way. Optimistic, yet realistic.