Euro Prospects 2004-05

[NWTHabsFan]

I taped the December 30th game featuring Marcel Hossa and his Mora team against Djurgardens in the SEL. This was to be the last SEL game for Djurgardens before Theo joined the club. The game featured some nice NHL skill guys like Hossa, Nagy, Horcoff, Cleary on Mora, and a few guys on Djurgardens, so it was a good calibre game in which to assess Marcel's performance.

I have to say that I was impressed by this one game. Marcel plays on one of Mora's top two lines alongside Oilers' Horcoff and Cleary. As a result, he gets loads of ice time, as does the other top line, with Nagy, Marian Hossa and Pavlikovsky. Marcel was on for the first puck drop and had a great shift off the bat. He crashed the net at one end, and back checked and tied up a breaking forward right in front of his own net, saving a goal, all on the same shift. He uses his size to cycle well down low, and is really good at puck possession in the offensive zone. He goes to the net, works along the boards, and cycles with puck possession well, so he is using his size to develop a more rounded offensive game. In fact, he drew two penalties with his strong cycling play. He made some excellent passes, one breaking Horcoff free to score his goal, and others that set up chances. His goal was a scramble in front of the net where he rushed in and pounced on a free puck, once he saw a chance to score.

He ended up with 2 points, 1g and 1a, and was only slightly overshadowed by his brother who ended up with 4 points on the night. I personally thought he was the second best player after his brother...and it was close. The Sportsnet guys were full of praise for his game and commented that Bob Gainey and the Habs had made a good choice to let him come to the SEL and get the quality ice time that seems to have improved his game. From this one game, he definitely looked NHL ready to me.

[Bob]

Tomas Linhart is playing for Pardubice HC (the same team as Jan Bulis). He is listed at 6'3 and 216 lbs (on eurohockey.net) and is the youngest player on the team (according to hockeydb.com)

It might be a little early to write him off as a prospect. He outplayed some of his high profile teammates at last year's WJC and is currently playing wih Pardubice despite the presence of several NHL players.

[Rimmer]

Andrei Markov and his team played in the 2005 IIHF Continental Cup Super Final over this weekend in Szekesfehervar, Hungary. they won two games (Alba Volan 8:0 and Milano Vipers 5:3) but lost one to Zvolen (2:1) in the deciding game. Andrei scored a goal and had an assist against Milano Vipers but was held pointless in the other two games.

Nicklas Sundstrom played for Milano but was held pointless and was -6 in 3 games.

R.

[NWTHabsFan]

22 year old Finnish goalie prospect Joni Puurula moved from HPK in the top Finnish league this season to the Russian Super League to play for Ufa Salavat Yulayev. Joni has been getting a fair number of the starts of late and he was in net for their most recent game, and win, on January 7th. It looks like he has had 9 starts for his new team since the move. His numbers the past two seasons in the sm-liiga were very good for a young goalie, with a GAA of just under 2.20 and a save percentage around .920.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

NWTHabsFan said:

I taped the December 30th game featuring Marcel Hossa and his Mora team against Djurgardens in the SEL. This was to be the last SEL game for Djurgardens before Theo joined the club. The game featured some nice NHL skill guys like Hossa, Nagy, Horcoff, Cleary on Mora, and a few guys on Djurgardens, so it was a good calibre game in which to assess Marcel's performance.

I have to say that I was impressed by this one game. Marcel plays on one of Mora's top two lines alongside Oilers' Horcoff and Cleary. As a result, he gets loads of ice time, as does the other top line, with Nagy, Marian Hossa and Pavlikovsky. Marcel was on for the first puck drop and had a great shift off the bat. He crashed the net at one end, and back checked and tied up a breaking forward right in front of his own net, saving a goal, all on the same shift. He uses his size to cycle well down low, and is really good at puck possession in the offensive zone. He goes to the net, works along the boards, and cycles with puck possession well, so he is using his size to develop a more rounded offensive game. In fact, he drew two penalties with his strong cycling play. He made some excellent passes, one breaking Horcoff free to score his goal, and others that set up chances. His goal was a scramble in front of the net where he rushed in and pounced on a free puck, once he saw a chance to score.

He ended up with 2 points, 1g and 1a, and was only slightly overshadowed by his brother who ended up with 4 points on the night. I personally thought he was the second best player after his brother...and it was close. The Sportsnet guys were full of praise for his game and commented that Bob Gainey and the Habs had made a good choice to let him come to the SEL and get the quality ice time that seems to have improved his game. From this one game, he definitely looked NHL ready to me.

Ever since I was five years old playing street hockey on Mountain Sights Ave. in Snowdon, I dreamed of the day I would suit up for Djurgardens and go out and crush Mora. Half the kids on the block wore Mora gold and blue whild the other half worde the tricolore of Djurgardens. I wore the #22 of the Swedish Chef, Ulf Ulfstromholmson. Nobody in Snowdon knew anything about the Habs of Leafs. NOT!

It's hard to get excited about a goal or two scored 7,000 miles away by a prospect who may one day suit up for the Hab's if one day there will again be Hab's hockey.

Read in the LA Times:
When USC played Oklahoma, they thought they would be playing the football team, not the cast of the musical.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Bob said:

Tomas Linhart is playing for Pardubice HC (the same team as Jan Bulis). He is listed at 6'3 and 216 lbs (on eurohockey.net) and is the youngest player on the team (according to hockeydb.com)

It might be a little early to write him off as a prospect. He outplayed some of his high profile teammates at last year's WJC and is currently playing wih Pardubice despite the presence of several NHL players.

Linhart is a big strong athletic stay at home defenseman. He is a powerful physical speciman and still growing. 216 lbs. with 0.00% body fat. He is well coached and will be a great addition when he is ready, no rush. My only knock against him is when we took him in the second round, his countryman Jiri Hudler was still available. Hudler is half the size with ten times the talent and offensive flair. IMHO Hudler was the better choice and will be great, but Linhart will be good too.

[NWTHabsFan]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

Ever since I was five years old playing street hockey on Mountain Sights Ave. in Snowdon, I dreamed of the day I would suit up for Djurgardens and go out and crush Mora. Half the kids on the block wore Mora gold and blue whild the other half worde the tricolore of Djurgardens. I wore the #22 of the Swedish Chef, Ulf Ulfstromholmson. Nobody in Snowdon knew anything about the Habs of Leafs. NOT!

It's hard to get excited about a goal or two scored 7,000 miles away by a prospect who may one day suit up for the Hab's if one day there will again be Hab's hockey.

With respect to the younger Hossa, I guess I am the eternal optimist that he will eventually cast off that enigmatic label and come to the next Habs' camp showing some of that flair that he demonstrated against a Theo-less Djurgardens team. To see his success in the SEL is a good thing, but Hossa has looked good at times in the past. Will he resort to his previous inconsistent self or is this finally the turning point in getting his career on pace with his potential? That is why I spent a few hours watching a game from way off in the Scandanavian hinterland. I am not too secretly cheering for him...so I guess he is my Hudler and Locke.

[NWTHabsFan]

Bob said:

Tomas Linhart is playing for Pardubice HC (the same team as Jan Bulis). He is listed at 6'3 and 216 lbs (on eurohockey.net) and is the youngest player on the team (according to hockeydb.com)

It might be a little early to write him off as a prospect. He outplayed some of his high profile teammates at last year's WJC and is currently playing wih Pardubice despite the presence of several NHL players.

He is still only 20 years old (he turns 21 in February), so he is still younger than any defenseman currently playing in Hamilton. All of the Habs' other 84 born Dmen are scattered all over the place, so there is a good core of young prospects all learning their trade away from the AHL.

Linhart (in Czech top mens league), Korpikari (in sm-liiga in Finland - their top league), O'Byrne and Gleed (at Cornell in NCAA in a good defensive program), Korneev (with the star studded Ak Bars Kazan in the RSL), and Flood (leading the defensive corps in Peterborough of the OHL) are all learning and developing their trade in impressive surroundings. The three Europeans, including Linhart, are all doing so in their top mens' leagues, all of which have been topped up with the influx of NHL'ers. Linhart has been able to play in 26 of his team's 38 games this season, a far cry from the 6 senior league games he managed last season. If he has also been getting bigger and stronger (as per yours and HFLA's comments), that is really positive for his continued development.

Defensive depth and talent seems to be a problem right now in Hamilton, but there is a good core of recruits being developed above that might be ready to take over some of the reigns in a few years. There is also a bit of a mix between big, tough defensive guys (Linhart, Korpikari, and O'Byrne), and undersized skilled guys (Flood and Korneev), with Gleed perhaps falling in between the two extremes. O'Byrne may also end up being a nice two-way guy down the road. No sure fire NHL blue-chippers, but still nobody you can count out yet either.

[montreal]

NWTHabsFan said:

Defensive depth and talent seems to be a problem right now in Hamilton, but there is a good core of recruits being developed above that might be ready to take over some of the reigns in a few years. There is also a bit of a mix between big, tough defensive guys (Linhart, Korpikari, and O'Byrne), and undersized skilled guys (Flood and Korneev), with Gleed perhaps falling in between the two extremes. O'Byrne may also end up being a nice two-way guy down the road. No sure fire NHL blue-chippers, but still nobody you can count out yet either.

With Linhart, Korpikari, O'Byrne, you also have Archer, Cote and I'd put Gleed with this group since he's got decent size and will take the body for sure. He sort of reminds me a bit of Ryan Glenn but with less offensive abilities and more physical. I know Cote and Archer are older then the '84's, but aside from birthdate they all have some of the same qualities. The young '86's of Emelin and Dulac will be interesting to see what we get from the '87's, as they could be lumped in with them in that they could be a year behind in development, since Emelin has played 7 games this year plus 2 tournaments- 5 nations and wjc's. This could set him back a years with such a lack of playing time. And Dulac just seems like he'll need an extra year as he needs to work on several areas of his game.

With Korneev and Flood you also Sanford and Shasby. While Shasby isn't on the small side like the others, he's skinny and not strong at all. All four are more offensively gifted, so after Hainsey we don't have much in the way of offensive defenesmen. Shasby I can't see ever playing in the NHL, but he could turn out to be a solid AHLer. Flood isn't short either and he looks like he's bulked up a bit from last year, which he sorely needs to do.

While the Habs need to draft the BPA, I hope they stock up on a few offensive defensemen. Marc Gragnani of PEI seems to have some impressive offensive skills, although I don't know if he would last till the 3rd round, but if he did, I'd be all for getting him or Luc Bourdon of Val D Or.

[NWTHabsFan]

montreal said:

While the Habs need to draft the BPA, I hope they stock up on a few offensive defensemen. Marc Gragnani of PEI seems to have some impressive offensive skills, although I don't know if he would last till the 3rd round, but if he did, I'd be all for getting him or Luc Bourdon of Val D Or.

I would think that a BPA in the first round could get us a pretty gifted PF, which is another area that can't hurt the Habs...again, so much depends on when we draft. There just aren't loads of top end Dmen in the projected first round. After the first round, I would expect to see some defencemen targetted to complement the 86 born Emelin and Dulac-Lemelin as you indicated. An offensive defenceman with size would complement all those big stay-at-homers that we seem to be stockpiling. Bourdon might be a good pickup if he drops to our spot in the 2nd round. I am sure the scouting team has seen a fair bit of Gragnani by now in scouting our other Rockets, so they should have a good read on his play.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

NWTHabsFan said:

With respect to the younger Hossa, I guess I am the eternal optimist that he will eventually cast off that enigmatic label and come to the next Habs' camp showing some of that flair that he demonstrated against a Theo-less Djurgardens team. To see his success in the SEL is a good thing, but Hossa has looked good at times in the past. Will he resort to his previous inconsistent self or is this finally the turning point in getting his career on pace with his potential? That is why I spent a few hours watching a game from way off in the Scandanavian hinterland. I am not too secretly cheering for him...so I guess he is my Hudler and Locke.

Hossa seems to be nourished by success. When he first joined the big team he scored immediately and played well. I think he can do well if he gets off to a good start. As Yogi said, "hockey is 90% mental and 50% physical!" We need Hossa to work on the mental side.
The hab's have had a lot of poor relatives.
Dionne, Hossa, Bure, Turcotte, Chouinard. I really thought Dionne would be a star and was way off on that one. I like Hossa's physical assets and skills and think if he solves the mental side he will be a good'un.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Avangard Omsk advance to title match

Canadian Press

1/15/2005

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - Former NHL forward Maxim Sushinsky scored three goals and Montreal Canadiens prospect Alexander Perezhogin added a pair to help Russian champion Avangard Omsk thrash Sweden's HV 71 9-0 and secure a place in the European Champions Cup title match on Saturday.

- www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=111350

*

European Champions Cup

Dukla Trencin
(Slovakia)

Frankfurt Lions
(Germany)

HV 71
(Sweden)

Kärpät Oulu
(Finland)

Avangard Omsk
(Russia)

The European Champions Cup is the premiere European club team competition, featuring the national club champions from the top six hockey nations in Europe. The ECC will play its inaugural tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, January 13-16, 2005. The six top European nations, according to the 2004 IIHF World Ranking, participating in the tournament will represent the Czech Republic (HC Hame Zlin), Finland (Kärpät Oulu), Germany (Frankfurt Lions), Russia (Avangard Omsk), Slovakia (Dukla Trencin) and Sweden (HV71 Jönköping).

Group A will have Hame Zlin, Kärpät Oulu and Frankfurt while Group B will be made up of Avangard Omsk, Dukla Trencin and HV71.

Schedule:
January 13
B1 D. Trencin - Avangard 16:00
A1 Zlin - Frankfurt 19:30
January 14
A2 Kärpät - Zlin 16:00
B2 HV 71 - D. Trencin 19:30
January 15
B3 Avangard - HV 71 16:00
A3 Frankfurt - Kärpät 19:30
January 16
Group winners in final 16:00

- www.iihf.com/hockey/ECC/ECC_Startup.htm

Oskari Korpikari plays for the Finnish entry.

[NWTHabsFan]

Round 45 of the RSL had games on the 23rd and 24th.

Perezhogin scored his 5th goal, which ended up being the game winner in a 3-2 game against CSKA Moscow. He was also named first star of the game.

Grabovski suffered a facial laceration from a stick to the face in a game against Andre Markov's Dynamo Moscow.

www.russianprospects.com/public/news_content.php?id=1990&anchor=Main

[NWTHabsFan]

Perezhogin scores for his second game in a row in a 4-1 Avangard win on the 25th. He now has 6g 13a 19pts in 30 games.

[IamCanadiens]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

Ever since I was five years old playing street hockey on Mountain Sights Ave. in Snowdon,

mmmmmmmm, Snowdon deli

[NWTHabsFan]

Perezhogin and Grabovski have big games tonight as Alex had two goals in his game and Grabovski had 1g 1a in his game. Alex now has 8g 14a for 22pts in 32 games, not bad for 4th and 3rd line ice time. Grabovski now has 11g 16a for 27pts in 47 games and the team scoring lead.

Marcel Hossa has three goals in three SEL games last week heading into action this weekend. He is now playing on the top line with his brother Marian on RW and fellow Slovak Ratislav Pavlikovsky at centre.

[NWTHabsFan]

Alex Perezhogin's turn for a big game, as he pots one and gets two helpers tonight (earlier today in Russia) to get up to 25 pts in 34 games. Grabovski also twinged the twine to bring his team leading point total up to 28 pts in 48 games.

[NWTHabsFan]

Grabovski now tied for 18th in scoring in the RSL, which is great considering he just turned 21 this past week and he is up against lots to top Russian and NHL players. Perezhogin is 31st and has played fewer games due to those games he missed at the start of the season due to the legal issues back in Hamilton. Pretty good for two young guys just getting 3rd and 4th line ice time IMO.

[seventeen]

Amazing, actually. And boding very well for the big team, once things get back to normal. Especially that hatchet man, Perezhogin. I bet he's getting a lot more space in the RSL, with his reputation preceding him.

[NWTHabsFan]

While I am handing out kudos to our Euro prospects I should give honourable mention to Marcel Hossa who is now tied for 6th in the SEL in goals scored with 17. He is just 8 behind league leading Mike Knuble with 25.

[NWTHabsFan]

RSL is back in action. Perezhogin gets his 10th goal and 26th point of the season, Grabovski gets a goal, Emelin gets an assist for his first RSL point in his 9th game, Korneev played but was held pointless, and both Puurula and Tarasov won their games.

[NWTHabsFan]

Grabovski gets two more assists today and now has 31 pts, good for a tie for 15th in RSL scoring (he just turned 21!!). Perezhogin missed the last two games with a concussion, so hope Sasha returns soon. Emelin gets another start, hot off his first point of the season (an assist) in his last game. He now has played in 10 games this season.

[NWTHabsFan]

Perezhogin knots another goal in a 4-4 tie, so it looks like he is coming back strong from his minor concussion.

Emelin didn't get any points in his game, but he left a mark. He ended up with 16 minutes of penalties in his team's win, all at the 19:49 mark of the 3rd period with the game result already determined. He was assessed penalties of 2 min, 4 min, and 10 min all from the same incident. He isn't backing down from the big boys.

[NWTHabsFan]

Hossa finishes off the SEL regular season on a positive note with a two point game (1g 1a). His team's offense has dried up a fair bit since the departure of his brother back to Slovakia. Marcel ends up with 24 pts (18g 6a) in 48 SEL games. His team is in 9th, so they avoid the relegation round where the bottom two teams play off against the top 4 teams from the Tier II.

The first round to determine those four Tier II teams who get a chance to compete with the bottom two SEL teams this year for the two SEL spots next year is called the SuperAllsvenskan. Michael Ryder's team won one of the spots in the relegation/promotion round, and Michael ended up top scorer in the 14 game double round robin tourney. He ended up with 22 points in the 14 games. The next closest scorer had 15 points, so he was dominating. The Cube also racked up lots of points on Ryder's team. Chris Heino-Lindberg's team had a rough go of it, and he did get lots of ice time. Good experience but not as good as his regular season Allsvenskan performances where he put up good numbers.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Ryder's line for the tourney:
14 games, 13-9-22, +9, 8 PIM

His overall all stats:
32 games, 27-21-48, 32 PIM

Francis Bouillon's numbers for the tourney:
13 games, 3-8-11, 24 PIM

The Cube's overall stats:
21 games, 6-12-18, 34 PIM

[blaise]

I infer it wasn't difficult to score in this tourney.

[montreal]

NWTHabsFan said:

Hossa finishes off the SEL regular season on a positive note with a two point game (1g 1a). His team's offense has dried up a fair bit since the departure of his brother back to Slovakia. Marcel ends up with 24 pts (18g 6a) in 48 SEL games. His team is in 9th, so they avoid the relegation round where the bottom two teams play off against the top 4 teams from the Tier II.

The first round to determine those four Tier II teams who get a chance to compete with the bottom two SEL teams this year for the two SEL spots next year is called the SuperAllsvenskan. Michael Ryder's team won one of the spots in the relegation/promotion round, and Michael ended up top scorer in the 14 game double round robin tourney. He ended up with 22 points in the 14 games. The next closest scorer had 15 points, so he was dominating. The Cube also racked up lots of points on Ryder's team. Chris Heino-Lindberg's team had a rough go of it, and he did get lots of ice time. Good experience but not as good as his regular season Allsvenskan performances where he put up good numbers.

Both guys from Hammarby had a tuff time. Eneqvist was 2nd on the team in scoring this year, but during SuperAllsvenskan he had only 3 pts, I believe that was only 1 more point then Heino-Lindberg had in the tournament and he missed the first 3 games due to his injury from the wjc's. Heino-Lindberg had the best numbers in the league this year, but his numbers were much lower in SuperAllsvenskan. They won only one game I beleive. This is about the same thing that happened last year to Hammarby. They were one of the top teams in the league both years, but fell apart in SuperAllsvenskan as both years they did very poorly.

[NWTHabsFan]

Our top Russian prospects keep impressing. Grabovski and Perezhogin both have a two point game earlier today with 1g 1a each. Korneev played but did not get any points. Grabovski now sits tied for 12th in RSL scoring (with a few guys including some guy named Jagr, albeit who has played a number less games) with 57gp 14g 20a 34pts. Alex is now tied for 24th just four points behind Grabovski with 40gp 13g 17a 30pts.

For "non-prospects", Bulis scored a hat trick in his Czech Extraliga playoff game yesterday (Tomas Linhart is playing with his team - so good for that young defenceman), Souray had one goal and two assists in his team's win today over powerful Modo (they lead Modo 2-1) to go along with his two assists in the previous two games, and Theo won the battle of the top goalies against Calgary's Kipper as his team took a 2-1 games lead as well in his SEL quarterfinal game today.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

M. said:

Ryder's line for the tourney:
14 games, 13-9-22, +9, 8 PIM

His overall all stats:
32 games, 27-21-48, 32 PIM

Francis Bouillon's numbers for the tourney:
13 games, 3-8-11, 24 PIM

The Cube's overall stats:
21 games, 6-12-18, 34 PIM

Ryder continues to impress me. Two years ago I saw him as a scrappy Newfie with desire and effort that exceeds his talent. Now he is a supremely competent performer who is always improving. There is no glass ceiling on his upside potential.

Bouillon shines on bigger rinks where speed amd mobility are more important than clearing powerforwards from the slot.

Perezhoegin would excell in box lacross.

Hossa plays best in no-checking leagues. If he was in Fear Factor, he'd be gone first.

Hainsey would be voted off the island first in Survivor playing against Rucinsky, Yashin, Hitler, Osama and Kim Jung Il.

Pleckanic is learning his ABC's (a back check?). He would clean up bluffing in celebrity poker. I guess I do skate fast. Hey, I can shoot afterall and when I work, I score.

Locke reminds me of Stan Makita, the Blackhawk who twice quietly beat out his teamate, Bobby Hull for the NHL scoring championship; once while leading the league in penalties and the next year while picking up the Lady Bing.

[NWTHabsFan]

Well, looks like the third last RSL league game was played earlier today and both Perezhogin and Grabovski start to dry up with only one goal games each.

Grabs in 12th place and Sasha in 23rd in RSL scoring. Rather impressive. Both of their teams seem to be playoff bound as part of the top 8 teams, so their season is just heating up.