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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Jul 6, 2016 13:55:30 GMT -5
At 25 he's out of hockey and is planning to return to Harvard ... there was a lot of hype surrounding him at the draft, at least as far as Montreal was concerned ... good luck to him ... link ... Cheers. |
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Post by Gogie on Jul 6, 2016 14:30:30 GMT -5
To me this was a case of unrealistic expectations being heaped on the kid. He probably should never have been a 1st round pick but his French heritage and the Habs' desperation to have a French star led to his ultimate demise as a hockey player. I can't say he would ever have been a solid NHL player for any period of time but he probably would have had a much better chance if his name was Lewis White and he was drafted in the 3rd round by the Minnesota Wild.
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Post by blny on Jul 6, 2016 14:40:11 GMT -5
Shame. 5 goals in 50 NHL games. 48 goals in less than 200 AHL games. Played for three teams last season. Best of luck to him.
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Post by jkr on Jul 6, 2016 17:47:14 GMT -5
If the Habs had a do over - Chris Kreider went right after Leblanc. I wonder if that pick would have helped Price stay healthy.  I had a look at the 2nd round. IMO the best player there was Ryan O'Reilly. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jul 6, 2016 17:47:43 GMT -5
Had the draft not been in Montreal that year, would TT have picked Kreider or someone else? Who knows. Some guys just stop their development path at some point.
Good luck to him.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Jul 6, 2016 17:48:24 GMT -5
If the Habs had a do over - Chris Kreider went right after Leblanc. I wonder if that pick would have helped Price stay healthy. I had a look at the 2nd round. IMO the best player there was Ryan O'Reilly. It was not a great draft class by any stretch. |
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Post by GNick99 on Jul 7, 2016 5:10:20 GMT -5
At 25 he's out of hockey and is planning to return to Harvard ... there was a lot of hype surrounding him at the draft, at least as far as Montreal was concerned ... good luck to him ... link ... Cheers. He was my pick in 2009. I think he never had the passion for the game |
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Post by Anardil1 on Jul 9, 2016 11:30:37 GMT -5
To me this was a case of unrealistic expectations being heaped on the kid. He probably should never have been a 1st round pick but his French heritage and the Habs' desperation to have a French star led to his ultimate demise as a hockey player. I can't say he would ever have been a solid NHL player for any period of time but he probably would have had a much better chance if his name was Lewis White and he was drafted in the 3rd round by the Minnesota Wild. This belief that the Habs reached to pick Leblanc because he was Francophone has to stop. He was picked right around where he was ranked by almost all draft rankings. Being 'francophone' was a bonus. Also, I'm not even so sure that he is a true francophone, using the quebecois definition. If you listen closely, he speaks French with a slight anglo accent, and he's from Kirkland, in Montreal's West Island, one of the last Anglo strongholds. Being Francophone was NOT the main reason why the Habs picked Leblanc. |
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Jul 9, 2016 11:55:35 GMT -5
Being Francophone was NOT the main reason why the Habs picked Leblanc. I remember the pundits saying that Leblanc was ranked where he should have been for that year ... at the time the Habs actually made a safe selection when they selected him at #18 ... language didn't come into it at all, no ... Cheers. |
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Post by BadCompany on Jul 9, 2016 12:17:14 GMT -5
Here are Bob McKenzie's rankings that year: www2.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=11043They had him 17th, we took him 18th. I think the biggest problem with Leblanc was that they moved him around too much. He played for Harvard, then in the Q, then AHL, then Montreal, all in the span of three seasons. Throw in Team Canada and he played for five different teams in three years. They should have just left him at Harvard (three of his teammates on that team subsequently made the NHL). |
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Post by PTH on Jul 9, 2016 14:31:50 GMT -5
Here are Bob McKenzie's rankings that year: www2.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=11043They had him 17th, we took him 18th. I think the biggest problem with Leblanc was that they moved him around too much. He played for Harvard, then in the Q, then AHL, then Montreal, all in the span of three seasons. Throw in Team Canada and he played for five different teams in three years. They should have just left him at Harvard (three of his teammates on that team subsequently made the NHL). What I find a shame is that the other two quebeckers rated in the 1st turned out better - Després is a useful D and Caron is at least still in the NHL. As to what went wrong with Leblanc, I suspect he just deep down didn't want it enough. His ankle injury cost him a lot of development time and I think he just lost his focus.... if he was thinking he was likely an AHLer he figured might as well go and get a diploma. This is where a guy with no talent other than hockey is a better asset: you can be sure he'll toil away in the minors in the hope of maybe making it at 30. Louis had other options. |
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Post by seventeen on Jul 9, 2016 17:30:12 GMT -5
Simplest answer is that he just wasn't good enough. He had the smarts, but he wasn't big nor especially fast. The physical aspects weren't there. The francophone aspect was irrelevant. That was not the case this year. Berg would have loved, justifiably, to pick Dubois. If Dubois falls to Edmonton I could see Berg making some kind of deal. Columbus threw cold water on that deal and Edmonton comes up smelling like roses (before exchanging the roses for carnations).
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Post by PTH on Jul 10, 2016 15:35:04 GMT -5
Well, I just think that Habs scouts should have a particular eye on local talent, and ideally should at least be able to pick the best of the bunch. If no one from that group is worth a pick where we have one, so be it, but it's clearly something a competent management group should give particular attention to, in my opinion.
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